During the Gamescom Opening Night Live event, a new story trailer for Sonic Frontiers finally gave us a confirmed release date. Alongside the announcement, the trailer also gave us a more substantial look at the game’s villain, a few more details about the story’s premise, and some flashy gameplay sequences.
The release date had been leaked to the western audience in the form of an official Japanese ad earlier today, which was later deleted. Now confirmed worldwide, Sonic Frontiers will release on November 8th, 2022.
One of the most interesting things you’ll have undoubtedly noticed was the appearance of the hammer-wielding pink hedgehog, Amy. Prior to this, all of the game’s shown footage featured Sonic traversing these large areas on his own, the isolation matching the tone of wandering around in a vast foreign world. This confirms prior reporting that the game will focus on Sonic collecting Chaos Emeralds in order to defeat the enemy Titans and save his friends. Other characters that were previously confirmed to appear were Tails and Big the Cat.
The trailer also gives us a better look at Sage, a mysterious child-like entity that is somehow connected to this strange world Sonic will find himself in. Not much is known about this character, but it’s clear from this trailer that her relationship with Sonic will be quite antagonistic, even if she purports herself to have nobler intentions. She is seen throughout giving Sonic warnings on how he needs to submit, or how he needs to leave the islands since his actions could cause danger to the world. Their wishes seemingly clash with Sonic’s goals to save his friends.
The gameplay sequences were only short snippets, so it’s difficult to gauge much from it. They definitely looked more polished than the extended gameplay demos revealed before, which garnered much criticism for their visible bugs, pop-in issues, and stiff animations. Many fans are hoping all of these issues, seen only two months ago, will be completely dealt with by the time Sonic Frontiers releases.
Sonic Frontiers launches on November 8th, 2022, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch.
