Earlier in June, Sega briefly teased an animated short for Sonic Frontiers that would serve as a prologue to the events of the game. The teaser showed nothing more than a single shot of Knuckles the Echidna keeping guard of the Master Emerald on Angel Island’s altar, setting up a potentially interesting mystery explaining his appearance in Sonic Frontiers. Well now, just a week before the game’s release, we can finally gain some insight into this mystery, as Sega uploaded this short on the official Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube channel this morning.
This short goes by the name “Divergence,” and it starts with Knuckles wondering why he was chosen to protect the Master Emerald as he stands in front of it, in a manner not dissimilar to the opening of his campaign in Sonic Adventure. He explores Sky Sanctuary for a bit until he stumbles upon a Portal Gear, one of the collectible items in Sonic Frontiers.
Going out fighting
After inserting the Gear into some mysterious old ruins, he ends up transported onto the Starfall Islands, where he immediately comes face to face with a group of robotic foes. Knuckles easily dispatches them all. But soon after a Titan controlled by Sage appears and he finds himself trapped in a red orb-shaped prison, forced to wait until someone arrives to save him.
According to the credits, Powerhouse Animation Studio created this Sonic Frontiers prologue short under the direction of Tyson Hesse, who has made a name for himself in recent years with his high-quality animations for the Sonic series. The new short continues this tradition and then some with its impressive backgrounds and fluid character animation, particularly in the fight scene near the end. No matter how Sonic Frontiers turns out, fans can always return to and appreciate this animation at the very least.
