Sonic Frontiers Producer and Art Director Share Details About the Game’s Character Design Process

In an interview by the PlayStation Blog, Sonic Frontiers Producer Sachiko Kawamura and Art Director Yoshitaka Miura answered some questions about the new characters and enemies we’ve seen so far, shedding light on the design process that goes into introducing new friends and foes to Sonic’s universe.

You can read the full interview by clicking here, but we’ve included the questions bellow that sparked the most interest to us, regarding how the game’s enemies were designed this time around

How does the open-zone nature of the game impact character design?

Sonic Team: In past games, where Sonic races through a timed, linear stage from start to finish, players would often attack the enemies head-on, so we would prioritize how they look from the front. With the new enemies you see in Sonic Frontiers, we paid close attention to how each enemy, and their silhouettes, looked from various directions as the player can choose which direction they approach the enemy from and see them from any angle. 

In addition, with the new combat system, there are now many enemies you can’t defeat with just one homing attack. Given that it takes more effort to fight foes, we had to revise the enemy designs many times to make each battle visually appealing but functional.

Can you dive deeper into new character design/mythology details on a single character? 

Sonic Team: We can’t say much about the new character, Sage, as she is central to the mysterious story and setting. However, we did a lot of trial and error with the design of her as a young girl that was both mystical and mysterious, while adjusting her proportions to make sure she fit in to the world of Sonic. We paid attention to how she would be perceived from her design and in cutscenes, as she is on the opposing side, trying not to give her too much of a mythical or religious meaning.

Stay tuned for more Sonic Frontiers news!