Daily Debate: Were We Wrong to Compare Sonic Frontiers to Breath of the Wild?
Posted on January 05 2023 by Heather Beard
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild set a new precent for open world games. Since the game’s release in 2017 many titles since have fallen prey to comparison to Breath of the Wild. Some of those games actually do take a lot of pages from Breath of the Wild’s book, and others can only be compared in trailer alone. Last year when the trailer for Sonic Frontiers released it was not long until the “this is another Breath of the Wild copycat” was swirling around the internet. Honestly, having picked up the game myself and binge playing for a few hours, I think that we were wrong to compare Sonic Frontiers to Breath of the Wild.
I’m going to keep this Daily Debate spoiler free so if you’re interested in Sonic Frontiers don’t feel like you need to stop reading here.
After having about six hours of play time in Sonic Frontiers I feel like any comparison made to Breath of the Wild is reaching. The only thing I could see being compared is this little bit of trailer footage that resembles the in-game title reveal from Breath of the Wild once Link steps out from the Shrine of Resurrection. Other than that, I haven’t seen a thing. They are two totally different styles of games. Sonic Frontiers is an open-zone, action adventure game whereas Breath of the Wild fits more an RPG. Sonic Frontiers has a lot of easy to complex over-world puzzles to solve, things to gather to progress side stories, and various enemies and mini bosses to fight. Completing the map also takes the form of various puzzles unlike Breath of the Wild where the map is filled in via Shiekah Tower activation and maybe a little bit of combat. The stories are differ in the ways they can be played Sonic Frontiers is linear in nature where there is only one path to take and Breath of the Wild can be played many different ways.
Honestly, I wish that Breath of the Wild had a few of the things that Sonic Frontiers has. I feel like Sonic Frontiers took the over-world and filled it to the brim with things to do. I’ve already jumped to a new map and it’s more of the same, but with some story progression. I have not been bored yet. Sonic Frontiers does not have a plethora of shrine quests or side quests, but it does keep you busy. Breath of the Wild does too, but at times Breath of the Wild left me wanting in a few areas that just felt barren aside from a korok or two. Playing Sonic Frontiers is leaving me with some more hope for Tears of the Kingdom though. I really hope that Tears of the Kingdom has more things to do on its map, more overworked puzzles, and some bigger bosses to fight.
Those are just a few of my thoughts though. What do you think? Have you played Sonic Frontiers? Do you thing the game is anything like Breath of the Wild? Let me know in the comments below.
Hi I’m Heather! I’m Senior Editor and Art Director at Zelda Dungeon and I’ve been a member of the ZD team since 2019. I am a graphic designer, artist, and nerdy mom to an awesome little boy. When my nose isn’t in a book, working on my novel or watching anime you can find me curled up with my cats Mandy-Lynn and Daisy Mae.
