Sonic Frontiers

Sonic Frontiers
Developer: Sonic Team Publisher: Sega Platforms: Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch Released internationally: November 8, 2022 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused cinematics. This game has unused sounds. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prerelease article

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This game is receiving new content, by way of Expansion Packs and/or Downloadable Content. Be aware that any unused content you find may become used in the future. If this does happen, please specify as such!

Sonic Frontiers is the first "open-zone" Sonic game, where Sonic and his friends end up in the distorted, yet realistic Starfall Islands, filled with a few shocking truths about their world's history.

Also notable for being the first game involved with SEGA's "Sonic × Inugami Korone" project, with several (currently Japan-exclusive) DLC packs featuring things such as Korone-themed gloves and shoes for Sonic, changing many of the sound effects to her making cute noises, and replacing the Koco with Listener-sans (one of Korone's mascots, a 2D drawn head representing her viewers, the Koronesuki).

To do: Everything.

Sub-Pages

Prerelease Info

Revisional Differences

Sonic Forces Leftovers

Present in raw/ui/rpl_texture are several UI leftovers from Sonic Forces, which isn't too surprising given it was the previous 3D title.

Sonic's Idle Dialogue

Sonic has loads of fully-voiced dialogue in the game, a lot of which see him comment on his surroundings. Some of them also feature callbacks to characters and locales from past Sonic games and even comic books. While most of them are technically used, it is wildly unlikely that the player will ever hear them in-game, as they will only play if Sonic is left idle for upwards of ten minutes.

Unused Subtitles

Knuckles' Alternate Backstory

Some scenes include unused subtitles describing an alternate version of Knuckles' backstory in the game; in this version of the story, Knuckles simply travelled to the Starfall Islands alongside Sonic, Tails, and Amy rather than being warped to the islands through cyberspace (as depicted in Sonic Frontiers: Divergence). This set of subtitles would have had Knuckles present on the Tornado in the intro cutscene and would have cut his Divergence exposition on Ares Island, alongside some of Sonic's references to his friends (prior to Ares Island) also including Knuckles.

Unused Cinematics

To do: Format this better

The Nintendo Switch version of the game contains a bevy of unused cinematics, including early versions of existing cutscenes, unused quick-time events, and even some totally unique cutscenes. Most of them have broken sound effects, or none at all. These cinematics are listed in order of the videos.

test_bo2115

An early version of Wyvern spitting out its red path. The path itself doesn't move at all, and Wyvern's "whiskers" clip into its body.

test_sonic_walk

A test cutscene of Sonic walking and making various mouth poses. It also features the Chaos Emeralds, which rotate around Sonic as he walks and fly away at the end.

test_qe1080_result

An early version of Sonic's dance upon getting a Chaos Emerald. Appears to be identical to the final, but this cutscene never plays at this location in the final game.

test_qe2130_result

The same as above, but with no Chaos Emerald.

qe1310

Perhaps the most interesting unused cutscene, this depicts Tails handing Sonic a Chaos Emerald. This never happens in the final game.

test_CutTiming_Sync_cam_SN

Sonic in a T-pose with a seemingly randomly panning camera.

test_ev3060

An early version of the flashback cutscene from Chaos Island. Sonic and Tails use very basic movements, with not much easing and no lip-syncing. The cyber space effect does not appear, and instead of the hand-drawn art seen in the final game, this version simply sits on an in-game shot of the island.

test_qte_sample

A test quick-time event using Sonic's parry animation. If you fail the input, Sonic snaps to a "dead" pose where he'll lie on the ground.

test_sage_move

A test cutscene featuring Sage turning around from various angles and camera distances. Oddly, she uses her standard red color scheme, but with a blue eye. This never happens in the final game; she's always one color scheme or the other.

test_SN_exposure

Sonic T-posing in the void while the camera pans around him. Given the filename, this may have been used to test simulated camera exposure.

bo2020

A rather amusing cutscene found in Wyvern's files. It depicts a Caterpillar revving up and slamming into another caterpillar, knocking it over. The only other time a cutscene features Guardians is in Chaos Island during the Knight chase, so perhaps it was meant to happen more often. The Caterpillars use otherwise-unused animations for revving up, spinning, and being flipped over with its legs twitching.

ga3220

An unfinished version of the pinball table introduction.

Unused Supreme Events

Found within Supreme's data are several unused QTE events and other cutscene events. According to director Morio Kishimoto on Twitter, these were being worked on up to the final deadline, but simply weren't finished in time. Both QTE's lack polish, are not timed correctly, and end very abruptly.

The first of the 2 rifle QTE events is an unused extended version of the final game's QTE with the file labeled "Zev_Rfl_Shoot02", where Supreme fires several more shots. In the final, only the very first shot and the very last cut are used.

The second rifle QTE is an entirely unique sequence with the labeled "Zev_rfl_Shoot01", where Supreme moves around the arena and fires his gun at different angles before making one big leap in an attempt to air snipe Super Sonic. In this QTE Supreme's bullets are a different color in this one compared to the previous one. Seemingly reflecting the Light and Dark Shots from the hacking Mini Game in Ouranos Island and the base game "The End" Space Shooter fight.

• Zev_Rfl_Sp00 is a cutscene that depicts an unfinished version of Super Sonic's default Grand Slam, reused from Giganto's fight. Perhaps there was a chance it would have had a unique Grand Slam animation if development went on as planned. The location of this cutscene oddly takes outside Ouranos Island.

• Zev_Rfl_Sp01 is a slightly modified version of Giganto's Clap and Bite Counter. This variant is unfinished, lacks sound effects, and the bite struggle has Supreme entering a default T-Pose state, and Super Sonic does not perish when failing the bite struggle. This cutscene and the previously mentioned one take place outside the island. Which is actually the location of Giganto's battle arena in the released version of the game.

• Zev_Rfl_Sp02 is a modified version of Giganto's mouth laser attack where Super Sonic can be seen briefly preparing to deflect the animation. Also unfinished. It also includes a fail animation oddly enough that can only be seen when the player actively presses any other button that isn't the shown button in the QTE prompt. This cutscene also loads up the coordinates of where Giganto is fought in the release version of the game.

• Zev_Rfl_Bitlaser01 and Bitlaser02 are events triggered after the player parries Supreme's spin attack while his Bit Drones are active or Supreme is staggered after receiving enough damage. These events have Supreme firing lasers from the 2 larger turrets that constantly watch Super Sonic throughout the fight. Takes place in the Supreme Battle arena.

The video below in the "More Unused Content" section depicts that an extended version was originally planned to where Supreme would actively summon the turrets to aim at Sonic before firing. Bitlaser01 depicts Super Sonic flying straight forward with a surprised look and looking around with his eyes for a chance to escape. This would indicate his first encounter with the attack. While BitLaser02, the default cutscene triggered by the game, depicts Super Sonic actively moving around only to realize these large turrets have auto aim and Sonic has no choice but to take the attack head-on. Perhaps this could have been another QTE where the player could have had a chance to avoid being shot by the lasers.

More Unused Supreme Content

Numerous other attack patterns and cutscene events are as follows in the video displayed on this section. This 9-and-a-half-minute video details certain attacks and scenes that went unused that range from counterattack animations to an extended version of Supreme's BitLaser Attack in 2 variations, to attacks recycled from the Giganto titan. This includes the previously mentioned Zev_rfl_Shoot01 and Zev_rfl_Shoot02 events.

Unused Attacks include the following names in Supreme's text file under the "BossRifleBattleParam_ActionType" text.

• AT_Counter_Blow (Giganto's swipe these have different animations from Counter01 to Counter04 that are all recycled from Giganto.)
• AT_HomingLaser_Normal (Supreme remains stationary in Phase 1 or floats if he's in Phase 2 and shoots laser projectiles out of his backpack.)
• AT_HomingLaser_Fly (Same as HomingLaser_Normal, except Supreme's on a flight-path shooting projectiles out of his backpack in a slightly faster attack speed.)
• AT_Laser (Supreme spams homing laser projectiles from his mouth. Similar to the attack scene when Supreme retaliates after destroying his drones.)
• AT_Sp01 (Giganto's Clap and Bite Counter)
• AT_Sp02 (Gitanto's Laser Counter)

There are also parameters that are labeled AT_Shot1, AT_Shot2, AT_Shot3, and AT_Shot4. These correspond to Supreme's QTE events as there are also 4 interactable QTEs. As it currently stands in the game, AT_Shot3 and AT_Shot4 correspond to the unused Zev_Rfl_Shoot1 QTE with the dark shots. Triggering this attack through the battleparam alone soft locks the game. See the video to learn more.

AT_Shot1 and Shot2 reflect the original rifle QTE seen in the game.

Under the "smallBitLaserParam" section of text in a different rfl text file, Supreme's drones could do the following actions:

• bulletType(Homing): Spawns dark missile projectiles and follow Sonic. They cannot be parried.
• bulletType(Laser): The drones shoot a laser beam. Or at least they were intended to shoot a laser beam, the visual effect of the laser is not shown despite there being collision and Super Sonic does get staggered from it.

Early Kronos Island Layout

To do: Get a render of the prototype Kronos Island and do some comparisons. Document the object layout differences. Look into the PS4 version, which has more leftovers from Early Kronos Island.

During development, Kronos Island, Rhea Island, and Ouranos Island were all originally the same landmass. This can be seen as late as the announcement trailer in December 2021, where it showcases areas of the final game's Rhea and Ouranos Island, making this a fairly late change. This was cut because playtesters thought that the island was "too big" and "boring". In the final game, Ouranos Island is a completely separate area.

Kronos and Rhea Island are a strange case: in-game they are treated as different areas, but both use the same map model. This means you can see areas of Kronos Island while playing on Rhea Island, and vice versa. However, the story still seems to be treating it as one single area; the cutscene upon entering Rhea Island clearly show areas only accessible on Kronos Island, and the minimap is the exact same for both islands, but cropped differently:

Kronos Island	Rhea Island

This Kronos Island split can even be seen in-game: Going high enough in Kronos or Rhea Island reveals that the water outline of Ouranos Island is still present, and vice versa.

Kronos/Rhea Island	Ouranos Island

(Screenshots: Storm107)

The Nintendo Switch version includes a full, complete model of Kronos Island before the island was split up. This model is internally named "w1r02", and the final is "w1r03".

Early Height Map (w1r02)	Final Height Map (w1r03)

(Source: RobowilOFFICIAL)

The original full Kronos island

The combined Kronos Island lacks many of the rail and platform objects in the final game, making the overworld feel emptier. It also includes several early object layouts, including more of the rail-creating puzzle that is only seen once in the final game.

In Egg Memo #7, Dr. Eggman refers to the Starfall Islands as "three piddly islands" rather than five. Presumably this was written before Kronos Island was split into parts, and wasn't rewritten or rerecorded to account for the change (the Japanese script simply does not specify a number).

Internal Name

Sonic Frontiers is named "Sonic Rangers" internally, according to the name of the game's .acf sound archive file. This title also appeared in the metadata of the game's first teaser, and in a SEGA press release on May 27th, 2021.