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Sonic frontiers breath of the wild6/26/2023 You’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise with its sweeping forest plains, sandy desert landscapes and lush mountains, it certainly evokes the feeling of freedom and exploration that Breath of the Wild brought. But it provides the perfect stepping stone for me to finally get on board with what open world means these days, and while we should always root for games pushing in fresh directions, I’m glad Sonic Frontiers has helped bridge the gap.Sonic Frontiers is not The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. On a technical and artistic level, Sonic Frontiers is not as good as Breath of the Wild or Elden Ring. In that sense, Sonic Frontiers is a regression more than a revolution, but the stripped back appeal of the gameplay and the world means it hardly matters whether we’re moving forwards or backwards - we’re having fun. Go and cause some carnage for a bit then come back and follow the damn train, CJ. The open world genre as we know it was popularised by GTA 3, and that’s what all GTA games are about. It gives you a sense that you can go anywhere, do anything, but also reminds you that when you’re done having fun, here’s where you need to go next. It takes the most reliable parts of the original way of creating an open world game, while introducing the freedom that came with BOTW and ER. There are markers if you open the menu and look for them, but while you’re roaming you’re free to go wherever the conveniently placed sky rails take you. Sonic Frontiers, much like Breath of the Wild, drops you into a map and lets you go anywhere. Cheers for waiting at the door for the last four paragraphs pal. As I wrote about in the wake of Elden Ring, it had me fearing that the next generation of open world games wasn’t going to be for me. The fact is the open world genre badly needed to change, and I didn’t like the first two games that changed it. Again, maybe it was the nihilistic world, maybe it was the arcane lore and reliance on knowledge of earlier Souls mechanics, maybe it was just too hard. Much like BOTW, I can respect what it brings to the table and how it challenges the status quo, but ‘I don’t like it’ is a fairly high obstacle to overcome. The first game to look at what Breath of the Wild did and build upon it with some degree of reverence and individuality was Elden Ring, another game that gripped so many of you by the throats, and another game I hated. Even games that had the time and space to learn from BOTW’s formula saw it as too risky - Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon Forbidden West are both pretty standard open world games, even if they’re pretty good at it. Individual mechanics were cribbed by the likes of Immortals Fenyx Rising and Genshin Impact, but the revolution was on hold. Video games take a long time to make, so nothing for a couple of years after BOTW could possibly have been inspired by it in any meaningful way. In any case, Breath of the Wild was a much needed revolution for the open world genre, but it was never quite for me.įor a few years after Breath of the Wild, things stayed the same. Maybe I need a little bit of direction in life, maybe the softly saturated colour tones of Zelda weren’t for me, or maybe it was because even when you found a questline to follow, it would often immediately ask you to go explore the far side of the map to find some potion or creature needed to progress. There’s a reckless freedom to Breath of the Wild, and I saw the value in that in the 20 hours I sunk into it, but ultimately it just wasn't for me. Related: Sonic Frontiers Is 2022’s Most Interesting Game, And We Need More Like It It didn’t sit and decide what the necessary parts were and try to trim everything back, it removed all of them completely. The genre had become increasingly reliant on map markers, hand holding, and a compass constantly telling you where to go, and Breath of the Wild removed all of it. Regardless of your feelings on Breath of the Wild as a game, it must be respected as a hugely risky endeavour. Breath of the Wild was the first game to look at the overstuffed open world genre and decide to try something new. For many of you, the door to this brave new world has already been opened.
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