Sonic Frontiers isn't even out yet but it already has some of the strangest DLC of the year, with the undisputed crown jewel being an audio pack that replaces a range of sound effects with noises provided by vtuber Inugami Korone.
As you may have deduced, there's a lot to unpack here. Let's start with the latest Sonic Station stream, which showed off Korone's unique – extremely unique – sound pack and DLC (around 30 minutes in).
That's right. Through the perilously unchecked power of virtual YouTubers, you can now play through Sonic Frontiers with an anime dog girl providing the sound effects for the Blue Blur's every jump, climb, rail grind, and more. It's onomatopoeia taken to an illogical extreme, and it's not even the end of the game's Korone DLC, which also adds collectibles styled after the mascot stand-in for the vtuber's viewers.
You may understandably be wondering why Sega has partnered with a vtuber to such an extent, and there are actually several reasons for that. Firstly, Korone's really popular; with nearly 1.9 million YouTube subscribers at the time of writing, she's in the upper echelons of the Hololive vtuber agency. Hololive's extensive list of talents also includes Gawr Gura, an English streamer and the most-subscribed vtuber in the world.
Hololive is so big, in fact, that it's spawned plenty of fan games, including the shockingly good Vampire Survivors riff HoloCure. Korone, in particular, has a remarkably large presence in the gaming community. She was briefly given an Easter egg in Doom Eternal (per Polygon), and even Banjo-Kazooie composer Grant Kirkhope has caught wind of her antics. So as bizarre as it is, you can start to see why Sega appointed Korone as an official Sonic ambassador to spearhead marketing for Frontiers.
Alas, this Korone DLC is apparently a Japan-exclusive bonus. Of course, that's never stopped determined fans before, and vtuber fans and Sonic enthusiasts are nothing if not determined.
Here's hoping Korone can liven up what our Sonic Frontiers review calls a tour of abysmal platforming.
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