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From the very first trailer for Sonic Frontiers, gamers were quick to make comparisons to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. To just about anyone who’s played Breath of the Wild, Sonic Frontiers does seem to share some of Zelda’s DNA, but that’s definitely not how SEGA feels.

In an interview with Shacknews, Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka was very quick to shoot down comparisons to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Iizuka went so far as to say Sonic Frontiers “isn’t similar at all,” and went on to explain why that is.

“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”.

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.”

[Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka]

I’m certainly excited for Sonic Frontiers and I think it looks like an interesting take on the Sonic franchise, but that said, I certainly see the similarities to Breath of the Wild. I’m also not sure about Iizuka’s claim that Sonic Frontiers is using a format that’s never been done before. I’ll just have to agree to disagree with Iizuka on this one, but where do you stand?

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Comments (4)

kuribo

1+ y ago

It “looks” similar to me, but I’d have to play it to compare it gameplay wise.
It’s not a bad thing to take inspiration from a good thing.


martynstuff

1+ y ago

An game with open fields where the main character has to retrace his memories? Hmmm...and the open world had soothing music and ambient noise too.

And Sonic has a weird thing going on with his arm....just like Link does in Tears of the Kingdom.

Hmmm...

Edited 2 times

fylo

1+ y ago

I suppose more than outright admit it, they're being cautious as to not ellicit the notion they play alike, because that would disappoint uninformed people.


the_crimson_lure

1+ y ago

He really shouldn't be afraid to admit where they drew inspiration from.

BotW was a game-changer (pun pun), and has inspired countless developers since it's release. There's nothing to be embarrassed about admitting it was an influence.

What's weird is they copy BotW approach down to the marketing by branding it with any other word for open-world (BotW was "open-air"), but aren't comfortable openly admitting their influences.