Although fans have known about the game for a few months now, Sonic Frontiers is largely a mystery. Interviews with the developers of this upcoming Sonic game have shed a bit of light on the game’s changes to combat and exploration, but Sonic Team hasn’t revealed any gameplay yet, meaning there’s a lot of questions about the game on the whole. While major Sonic Frontiers reveals may take some time to happen, an apparent plot synopsis of the game at least gives fans a sense of what to expect. Players will be traveling to the Starfall Islands, investigating its mysterious technology, and working to save Sonic’s friends from Dr. Eggman’s hubris.
The Sonic series is no stranger to the mysteries of the past, and Sonic Frontiers may let players interact with them directly. Time travel seems like a solid device to incorporate into the game, if Sonic Frontiers’ story about the Starfall Islands really is so focused on the past. Traveling to the Starfall Islands’ early days would be a great way to expand Sonic the Hedgehog lore and introduce new characters for Sonic to help or hinder. Sonic is no stranger to time travel on the whole, so it would hardly be out of place in Sonic Frontiers.
Sonic Frontiers Could Capitalize on Time Travel
Time travel elements would hardly seem out of place in the plot of Sonic Frontiers. If Sonic is up against mysterious technology that not even the accomplished roboticist Dr. Eggman can control, then he may need to go back to that technology’s roots in order to find out how to stop it. There may be some piece of tech in the Starfall Islands that’s at least cooperative enough to send Sonic back and forth between the past and the present. Along the way, Sonic Team can show how the Starfall Islands has changed over the years through different versions of its open zones, giving more personality to the setting of Sonic Frontiers.
Sonic Frontiers could also introduce a lot of interesting characters through a time travel narrative. If Sonic goes into the past to learn more about the archipelago’s technology, then he could team up with ancient engineers who are eager to keep their machines out of villainous hands. Sonic Frontiers could also get an antagonist out of time travel. If someone from the past sees that the Starfall Islands will become barren in the future, someone might battle with Sonic and try to change history, regardless of the consequences. The more creatively Sonic Team thinks about the Starfall Islands’ history, the better.
Precedent for Sonic Time Travel
Time travel in Sonic Frontiers seems plausible because Sonic has a strong connection to the concept already. 2006’s Sonic the Hedgehog famously involved time travel; it introduced Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat, who both come from a post-apocalyptic future. Sonic Generations used time travel to let Sonic team up with his younger self, and Sonic Boom’s ancient antagonist Lyric can only be stopped with the help of time travel. Sonic Frontiers would merely be tapping into a franchise tradition by making use of time travel.
The Starfall Islands sound like a compelling new setting, and it’d be great to get to know that setting from as many angles as possible. Filling the current Starfall Islands with compelling characters and imposing enemies will characterize the setting of Sonic Frontiers well, but interacting with its past as well could greatly enhance that experience. For now, players will just have to wait and see. Sonic Frontiers will seemingly release in late 2022, so it shouldn’t be too long before Sonic Team and Sega release new details about the game’s narrative and its other elements. Hopefully time travel components will be among those details.
Sonic Frontiers releases in 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
