Sonic Frontiers is wrapped in a lot of mystery right now, but it turns out that's totally by design. According to Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka, we won't actually know what's going on when we're playing the game either, as Frontiers is set to be one of the most mysterious games in the series yet.
This comes as details about Frontiers continue to be drip-fed out, mostly focussing on its gameplay. These new comments suggest however that we won't hear much more about the story until we get our hands on the game later this year, and most of the reveals will continue to focus on gameplay.
Speaking to VentureBeat, Iizuka shed a bit of light on what we can expect from Sonic Frontiers' story.
"The storytelling techniques we’re using for Frontiers are a little bit different", Iizuka says. "We wanted to have you experience things as Sonic would experience them, in a very mysterious format. You show up on the island, but why are you here on the island? What even are these islands? That’s the mystery we wanted to set up, and have you figure that out as you explore the islands."
Iizuka continues, explaining how the team is "advancing" Sonic storytelling: "You’re going around and figuring out more of the mysteries. You’re learning more about what’s going on in the story. Because you’re going out and experiencing it while playing as Sonic."
With the open zone format seemingly allowing us to play through stages in a non-linear fashion, it seems that we won't have the usual clearly defined objectives from previous Sonic games. Which would make sense - Sonic is in a completely different location (the Starfall Islands), and has to figure out how to get to Tails and Amy, who have fallen into a wormhole.
These comments from Iizuka also support a fan theory we reported on recently. Some fans believe that Sonic will actually be playing through his memories in Frontiers, explaining why we have returning stages in the Starfall Islands.
Whatever the case may be, we'll find out for sure when Sonic Frontiers launches later this year. It will be available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC.