When Sonic Frontiers was first revealed, social media became awash with Breath of the Wild comparisons. Following the success of Nintendo’s own shot at an open-world game, the natural conclusion upon seeing Sonic march into a wide-open field was that Sonic Team had decided to follow suit. However, it would now appear that Sonic Team has grown frustrated with these comparisons.
In an interview with Shacknews, Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka said that the game the team is working on “isn’t similar at all” to Breath of the Wild (via TheGamer). “From the development team’s perspective, they’re going out and making an action game. They see Breath of the Wild as a role-playing game, it’s not similar at all to the action game they’re making” Iizuka shared.
“You know, there's the same element of freedom that has been applied to Breath of the Wild as a role-playing game, but they're taking the linear high-speed action Sonic game and implementing freedom into there. But when we think about, 'is it an open-world game? Is it similar to Breath of the Wild?'... A lot of people on the team love the Zelda series, they love Breath of the Wild, but to them, they don't see a similarity between the games” he continued.
Iizuka once again re-affirmed that Sonic Frontiers is an “open zone” game, not an open world game. “This open zone format has never been done before. We're trying to look out there at other titles in the marketplace and we couldn't find anything that had that linear platform action gameplay but in an open environment” Iizuka said.
The interviewer also made a comparison to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess which the Sonic Team head was quick to shut down. It’s clear Iizuka and Sonic Team want people to approach Sonic Frontiers with a fresh perspective, rather than expecting a typical open-world game set in the Sonic universe.
We'll find out the extent of Sonic Frontiers very soon as the game launches on November 8 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC.