Season 3 Episode 9 - Sonic Frontiers

Season 3 Episode 9 - Sonic Frontiers

Author: Franchise Festival October 1, 2023 Duration: 1:26:29
Hamilton and Chris explore Sonic the Hedgehog's first "open zone" adventure, Sonic Frontiers (2022). Along the way, they discuss the game's development, its peculiar minigames, and how well it succeeds at shifting the franchise away from linear stage design. Noteworthy sources include interviews with Sonic Team Creative Officer Takashi Iizuka by IGN and Eurogamer.

Franchise Festival digs into the stories behind the video game series that shaped a medium. Each season is a deep, chronological exploration of a single franchise, tracing its creative and technical evolution from often-humble 1980s origins through to its latest installments. You’ll hear about the design breakthroughs, the business decisions that changed course, and the cultural moments that turned pixels into lasting legends. This isn’t just a review show; it’s about understanding how these interconnected worlds were built, year by year and sometimes crisis by crisis. The podcast favors depth over breadth, spending multiple episodes to fully unpack the development history of noteworthy series like Castlevania, SimCity, or Mega Man. The narrative focuses on the people and processes behind the games-the how and why, not just the what. It’s for anyone who’s ever wondered about the connective tissue between their favorite sequels or the forgotten prototypes that paved the way. Tune in for a thoughtfully researched and structured audio documentary experience, one franchise at a time.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 85

Franchise Festival
Podcast Episodes
Season 1 Episode 22 - Age of Calamity [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:32:17
The Franchise Festival crew explores the development, gameplay, and plot of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (2020). Chris, Jasmine, and Spencer discuss their favorite characters and speculate on why this game falls shor…
Season 1 Episode 21 - Breath of the Wild (Part 2) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:58:55
The Franchise Festival crew discusses the story, sidequests, and cut content of Breath of the Wild in the second of two episodes on Nintendo’s legendary 2017 release. Chris and Jasmine share their love of Kass while Hami…
Season 1 Episode 20 - Breath of the Wild (Part 1) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:47:29
The Franchise Festival crew discusses the development, gameplay, and enemies of Breath of the Wild in the first of two episodes on Nintendo’s legendary 2017 release. Chris, Jasmine, Spencer, and Hamilton discover that th…
Season 1 Episode 19 - Hyrule Warriors [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:58:11
The Franchise Festival crew discusses 2014 beat-’em-up Hyrule Warriors. Chris dives into the history of the Dynasty Warriors / Musou series more generally, along with the serendipity of Hyrule Warriors‘ creation, while H…
Season 1 Episode 18A - A Link Between Worlds Outtakes (Bonus) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:07
This bonus feature covers content cut from our A Link Between Worlds/Triforce Heroes episode. In these clips, Spencer, Hamilton, Jasmine, and Chris discuss the history of Nintendo EAD, minigames, comparisons with A Link…
Season 1 Episode 18 - A Link Between Worlds and Triforce Heroes [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:50:12
Christian, Hamilton, Jasmine, and Spencer explore the development, gameplay, plot, and localization of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Triforce Heroes. Then they debate the relative merits of building on a…
Season 1 Episode 17 - Skyward Sword (Part 2) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:16:15
Christian, Jasmine, and Spencer explore the story, dungeons, and bosses of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Nintendo’s crisis of confidence in the late 2000s and Skyward Sword‘s connections to From Software level desi…
Season 1 Episode 16A - 2020 Game of the Year Discussion [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:28:57
Christian, Hamilton, Jasmine, and Spencer discuss the three best games they played in 2020 before looking ahead to 2021 and what it might bring. Be aware that this conversation has more adult language than typical episod…
Season 1 Episode 16 - Skyward Sword (Part 1) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:39:22
Christian, Jasmine, and Spencer cover the development history, gameplay mechanics, minigames, localization, and cut content of Skyward Sword (2011). This game's unique status as the intersection between portable and home…
Season 1 Episode 15A - Spirit Tracks Outtakes (Bonus) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:09
This bonus feature covers content cut from our Spirit Tracks episode. In these clips, Hamilton, Jasmine, and Christian discuss the Tower of Spirits' development process, anti-piracy measures, localization quirks and more…