Why Does Sonic Frontiers Look Like Zelda BOTW?
Channel: Video Game Story Time
Date: 2021-12-10

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After a bit of a false start (Takashi Iizuka himself said it was revealed too soon earlier this year), Sonic Forces got a proper trailer at The Game Awards, and it's hard to deny the similarities between this upcoming game and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Not only does Sonic Frontier's open world look suspiciously like Hyrule from BOTW, but at some points, the game trailer even shows shots which look almost identical to similar shots from Breath of the Wild's trailer.

Some Zelda fans may have been hoping that Breath of the Wild 2 was going to get a trailer at The Game Awards, but what we got instead was the next best thing.

So here's the big question: why does Sonic keep copying Zelda? Because this happens a lot. Either Sonic is swinging a sword, or turning into a wolf, or literally dressing up like Link and collecting Rupees on Hyrule Field. It almost seems as if Sonic Team's been trying to make a Zelda game all along - and that's not even taking into account the grandiose time-travel fantasy plot in Sonic '06.

The truth is, Sega really has had an internal strategy that's been described by Sonic co-creator as "Beat Nintendo" - and it hasn't always gone well. Because Sonic games are often emulating Nintendo, they often feel eclectic and are often a bit late to the party - but, they also lack the necessary bug fixing and quality control that Nintendo applies in the final months of game development.

All of this is not to say that we think Sonic games are inferior - we are most definitely a Sega household.

It's just worth bearing in mind why Sonic Team has been trying to emulate Zelda or Mario titles in the past, and why Sonic Frontiers looks so familiar.

Lots of love,
BretonStripes (http://twitter.com/bretonstriped) and Kotor (http://twitter.com/kotorcomics)

Sources:
https://www.gameinformer.com/interview/2021/06/13/sonic-team-head-talks-sonic-origins-next-mainline-game-and-30th-anniversary

https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/06/20/sonic-team-says-2021-is-the-next-big-year-for-sonic

http://shmuplations.com/miyamotoxnaka/

https://www.sonicnotes.info/2014/03/takashi-iizuka-interview-sonic-lost-world-dlc-4gamer-net.html?m=1

https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2013/06/12/video-interview-sonic-lost-world-39-s-galactic-inspirations.aspx