One of the annoying blowbacks to a specific game getting extremely popular or influential is that “Guy who has only seen Boss Baby” effect: suddenly any game where you die frequently is Dark Souls, any RPG that’s quirky is Earthbound, and — most persistent these days — any naturalistic open world game is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Sonic Frontiers is the latest in a long string of guys on the internet going, “I’m getting some BOTW vibes from this…” after seeing a character run through some grass in a wide open area, to the point that Sonic Team creative lead Takashi Iizuka has had to state that, you know, actually, the games are quite different.
“From the development (team’s) perspective, they’re going out and making an action game,” he says in an interview with Shacknews. “So when they think about Breath of the Wild, they see Breath of the Wild definitely as a role-playing game, and it’s not similar at all to the action game that they’re making.” While Iizuka acknowledges that both games contain elements of freedom, he stresses that Frontiers isn’t an open world game like BOTW but an “open zone” game where they merge open-ended freedom with Sonic’s history of linear action and platforming. Seems reasonable. And in general, maybe we should be less hair-trigger about comparing X to Y? Just a thought.
Sonic Frontiers releases on November 8th. Make sure to check out the full interview for more tidbits.
Looking to secure a copy? Check out our Sonic Frontiers pre-order guide that includes a list of retailers you can purchase from!
Via: Nintendo Everything
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Written by Amelia Fruzzetti
A writer and Nintendo fan based in Seattle, Washington. When not working for NinWire, she can be found eating pasta, writing stories, and wondering about when Mother 3 is finally going to get an official localization.
