The full extent of Sonic Frontiers is a mystery, but for the moment, it already sounds exciting thanks to its open-zone model. Fans of Sonic the Hedgehog can look forward to running around a partially open world in the Starfall Islands, and based on glimpses at the Starfall Islands' various environments, the open zones will be highly diverse. Each environment is bound to come with different enemies to battle and landmarks to explore. If the open zones of Sonic Frontiers are anything like the divided but enchanting world map found in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, it could be a major step forward for the Sonic series.
General structure isn't all that Sonic Frontiers should borrow from Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Sonic Team would be wise to tap into Arceus' rules of exploration. Much of the game is only accessible once players unlock certain ride Pokemon, and as a result, players are well incentivized to return to familiar places as they get farther into the game. Sonic Frontiers needs a similar mechanic for its own exploration. In order to make its various open zones feel meaningful and achieve Pokemon Legends: Arceus' sense of scale, Sonic Frontiers needs to give players ways to discover new things by revisiting old zones.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus' Exploration and Ride Pokemon
In Pokemon Legends: Arceus as players visit the five sections of the Hisui region, they encounter various Pokemon that help the player explore the world in various ways. Players can ride a Basculegion to crosso bodies of water, use a Sneasler to climb cliffs, and so on. Many of the most flexible Pokemon only get unlocked late in the game, long after players have already encounters high mountains, wide rivers, and other natural obstacles that they can't get past. As Pokemon Legends: Arceus players unlock these ride Pokemon, they gain the power to access isolated areas that feature rare or stronger Pokemon, remarkable locations in Pokemon lore, and so on.
The sense of discovery that Pokemon Legends: Arceus creates by locking some early areas behind terrain would be very useful to Sonic Frontiers. The Starfall Islands look even more geographically diverse than the early Sinnoh region, meaning Sonic Team can create all kinds of obstacles that Sonic can't get through with speed alone. Whether there are fields of mud too sticky to run across, magma rivers that can't be run across, or magically sealed doorways, Sonic Frontiers has lots of options. As long as Sonic Team comes up with interesting gadgets or helpful characters that let Sonic come through these areas later, it'll have the potential to encourage players to explore old places in new ways.
Possible Exploration in Sonic Frontiers
There's certainly a temptation to let Sonic get through just about any obstacle in Sonic Frontiers thanks to clever uses of speed. Sonic has a history of running on water, for instance, meaning Sonic Team might write off water bodies as an obstacle. Sonic Team needs to resist that temptation, though. The open zones of Sonic Frontiers will be more compelling as individual overworlds if players have reason to revisit them, rather than wrapping them up with a single visit. Sonic Frontiers' world will feel less like a partially open world and more like a general 3D platformer if players can complete each zone with a single visit.
It'll be interesting to see how Sonic Frontiers rewards players for returning to familiar places later in the game. Pokemon Legends: Arceus focuses so heavily on Pokemon rewards that it doesn't offer a ton of comparable Sonic rewards, and Sonic Team hasn't explained exactly how focused on action-adventure Sonic Frontiers is yet. Maybe Sonic Frontiers' combat will feature weapons or armor that he can collect by exploring the farthest reaches of the Starfall Islands. First, though, Sonic Frontiers needs to put mechanics in place that bring fans back to trodden ground and look at a familiar area differently.
Sonic Frontiers releases in 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.