There have been praises and criticisms about Sonic Frontiers from the moment it arrived on multiple platforms. One thing that a majority of players liked was the gigantic scale boss fights that the blue blur would have to do. These giants would roam around the game’s setting of the Starfall Islands, and Sonic had to be at the top of his game to beat them. He even has to go Super Sonic to take them down! Given that and the game development process, it’s reasonable to understand that making these fights would take time. But what if we told you that one of them took five years?
The reveal came from an interview you can see below. In it, the Sonic team was asked about various parts of the game and the process of making those elements. One of them was the big boss fights, and the team said that Giganto took five years to make. The reason was they were working on these bosses very early in the game’s production. That meant the game evolved and changed over the years, and that meant a lot of tweaking.
A great example of one tweak was the flow and beats of the battle. In the first fight with Giganto, Sonic did everything on his own. But that wasn’t intended. At first, Amy was supposed to show up and help Sonic by giving him some rings to dodge his foe’s attacks. While that would be in line with what occurs in the franchise, the team felt differently. They said they scrapped it because it “ruined the flow” of the fight.
Here’s where another key revelation comes in. The team admitted due to their focus on the beginning of the game and having numerous new elements within it. They didn’t have enough time to vet and refine all the mechanics and beats of the game’s back half.
That would explain much, as many gamers and critics noted that while Sonic Frontiers was fun, it was buggy, glitchy, had refinement issues, and some game beats felt like Sonic Team, “through things at the wall to see if they would stick.
Easily the biggest instance of that feeling is the infamous pinball game that is a required level to beat before passing on in the campaign. Fans hated it, and it doesn’t feel like it belongs in the title. Perhaps if they didn’t spend five years on Giganto they could’ve seen that error in judgment.
Source: YouTube