In a new interview with Good Vibes Gaming, Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka expressed interest in creating a Sonic the Hedgehog RPG before he retires from the industry. The only RPG in the franchise, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, was released in 2008 for the Nintendo DS and was developed externally by Bioware.
“Personally, I like role-playing games,” Iizuka said during the interview. “The RPG game format is a lot of fun and I’ve even thought to myself, ‘you know, for the past 30 years we haven’t done a Sonic RPG’, and I’m questioning myself, ‘why haven’t we done a Sonic RPG in all this time? How have we gotten to 30 years with no RPGs?’
So I’d like to hopefully work on a Sonic RPG at some point before I retire from Sega. But, you know, that’s just a dream right now, there are no concrete plans at this point.”
The next game in the Sonic universe, Sonic X Shadow Generations, will be released on October 25 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. The game will include a brand-new story campaign starring Shadow as the playable character and is a modern update of the 2011 title Sonic Generations.
“Whereas Sonic is always going to be a hero doing that heroic thing, Shadow is a little bit more complicated and on that edge where he could end up doing something that no longer makes him a hero,” said Iizuka in a June interview with VGC. “It’s that difference that’s a good juxtaposition but also makes him a really cool character.”