The regional differences in Sonic Frontiers continue to stack up, as it's discovered that the blue blur has unique idle animations in Japan. These appear to give Sonic much more personality than we saw in the EU and American versions of the game, and show one of the very few instances of him interacting with the Koco.

This is just another example of the effort Sonic Team put into making Frontiers stand out in Japan, as it was eager to finally appeal to the market in the region. This paid off, with Frontiers becoming the fastest-selling Sonic game in Japan since the release of Adventure 2, ending two decades of disappointing returns and critical reception.

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All of these unique animations have been documented in a YouTube video. It's not totally clear why they weren't included in other regions, but it at least gives us a taste of what interacting with the Kocos could have looked like - if only they were the Chao stand-ins we were begging for. One day we'll get another Chao garden, yeah?

This is far from the only extra bit of attention the Japanese localization was shown. As opposed to previous games, Frontiers was initially written in English by Ian Flynn, and then completely re-written in Japanese to better appeal to the different audience. The dialogue itself received mixed reviews in the region, but bothering to give the Japanese release all of these differences definitely seems to have paid off.

The tonal difference across regions was even noticeable before release, with the key art shown through social media being completely unique. The west seemed to get more of the same optimistic, high-energy Sonic we've come to know and love, whereas Japanese ads and stills were much more muted, focusing on Sonic's solitude and fight to find his friends. It's, therefore, pretty odd to consider that Japan was the region to get the more cutesy idle animation, while we missed out. But it's possible this just came from the localization team having some fun, rather than it being an active decision to remove it from other releases.

This is far from the only oddity discovered in the game this week. As spotted in a beta version of the game's map in the Switch release of Frontiers, Kronos, Rhea, and Ouranos were initially planned to be the same island. This explains why they all look so similar, sharing the same sunny, grassy hills and overall aesthetic. There's also the fact that an audio log in the game mentions there being "three islands" to explore, not five, already leading many to believe that they were all connected at some point. It's not clear when they were split up during development, but it does confirm that, at one stage, there was a functional prototype that combined all three. It's probably only a matter of time before a fan mods this back in.

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