Ahead of Sonic X Shadow Generations, Sonic Team boss Takashi Iizuka has said he’d like to work on a Sonic role-playing game before he leaves Sega.
While the character is primarily known for speedy platformers, Sonic the Hedgehog’s history also includes a wealth of spin-offs, from kart racers to bizarre murder mystery visual novels.
One of the weirder offshoots is Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, a role-playing game developed by Dragon Age creators BioWare, which was released for the Nintendo DS in 2008. While a sequel was initially planned, it was shelved after BioWare were acquired by EA.
It seems the idea of another Sonic role-playing game has long interested Sonic Team boss Takashi Iizuka, who has said that he’d like to try his hand at the genre.
When asked about the possibility of another Sonic role-player Iizuka said: ‘Personally, I really like role-playing games. The RPG game format is a lot of fun, and I’ve even though to myself, ‘you know, for the past 30 years we [as in Sonic Team, not Sega in general] haven’t done a Sonic RPG’.
‘And I’m questioning myself. ‘Why haven’t we done a Sonic RPG in all this time? How have we gotten to 30 years with no RPGs?!,’ he told Good Vibes Gaming.
‘So I’d like to hopefully work on a Sonic RPG at some point before I retire from Sega. But you know, that’s just a dream right now… there are no concrete plans at this point.’
Sonic Team have some history with the role-playing genre, through the Phantasy Star Online series, although the last one they developed was 2008’s Phantasy Star Portable for the PSP. Iizuka himself has never had any involvement with the series.
Any hypothetical Sonic role-playing game will be a long way out though, if it ever does materialise, with all signs pointing towards a sequel to Sonic Frontiers as the next major project from the studio.
The next Sonic title will be Sonic X Shadow Generations, which is a remaster of Sonic Generations bundled with a new campaign starring Shadow The Hedgehog. It’s set to come out on October 25.
This is the first time Shadow has headlined a Sonic game since 2005’s Shadow The Hedgehog for the PlayStation 2, GameCube and original Xbox. It also comes ahead of the character’s appearance in the third Sonic The Hedgehog movie, where he’ll be voiced by Keanu Reeves.
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