Sonic Frontierswas a surprise hit with fans and critics alike, and was even the highest-rated game in the series onSteam.Until The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog overtook it, of course. But it looks like Sonic Team had its sights set even higher, especially in the visual department.

In an alleged leak fromSega, footage from an older build of Sonic Frontiers gives us a look at the Starfall Islands in even better detail than we got on current-gen hardware. While we don’t see a whole lot, the footage shows an unused enemy design, as well as extra texture details we didn’t get in the final product.

Related:The Murder Of Sonic The Hedgehog Is Everything The Series Should Be

This all comes fromthe same leak that suggests a remake of Persona 3 is currently in development, and pretty far along at that. As per the leak, Sega allegedly compiled a montage of some of the games it and its studios had in development in 2021, which of course, included Sonic Frontiers.

This definitely lines up with what we would expect a tech demo of Sonic Frontiers to look like in 2021. Improved graphics certainly aren’t surprising, as this was likely before the team had to scale back certain aspects of the game to get it ready to ship in the best state possible in November 2022. This was no small feat, as it had to run on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and perhaps most challengingly, Nintendo Switch. It seems that extra foliage and details in the background had to be sacrificed in order to make this possible.

Perhaps most impressive is the reduced pop-in. Of course, it’s a bit unfair to compare the final game to a demo that was apparently used in an internal Sega meeting, but it’s great to see so many trees in the background, rather than have them burst into the frame when Sonic runs by them, as can happen in the released version of Frontiers.

In any case, today is a pretty great day for Sega fans. We just poured over an ungodly amount of early Frontiers footage, and couldn’t find anything that matched up with what was “leaked” today. That, and the fact that the apparent leak also shows off the previously rumoured new Jet Set Radio instalment, seems to add credibility to the news. Who knows? Maybe 2023 will give us the Persona 3 remake and a Jet Set Radio sequel. Maybe even a big Sonic Frontiers graphical update? Sega is keeping quiet for now, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

TheGamer has contacted Sega for comment.

Next:It Has Come To My Attention That Some Of You Don’t Like Sudowoodo