Freedom Planet

For how popular this game once seemed, the wider world only really cared about it as a cudgel against the sonic series of the time- the reception to the sequel is the clearest sign of that. It's a real shame! This game's so much more than a sonic clone- it has a rich lineage of all the greats of the 16-bit era, from Treasure's titles to Ristar to Rocket Knight. Even a little bit of SEGA Technical Institute's works feel present here. It's all threaded beautifully into a modern classic that sets itself apart with its vivid east Asian fantasy setting and delicate balance between player freedom and cool setpieces. The narrative and characters also set it apart- revisiting this game, I was surprised to see how well constructed of a narrative it has compared to other games of its ilk. It's dripping in old internet anime furry webcomic-isms, but that could very well be considered a point of charm in the modern day. I personally enjoy it, at least. I mean, it's fundamentally a story about how you should never succumb to apathy no matter how uncool or foolish it seems to care about things. Doesn't the fact that it's caked in such "cringe" elevate that idea? The voice acting is something I will not begrudge anyone for disliking. The quality of performance is directly correlated to how easy a voice it is to do well- Brevon and Serpetine's VA (pardon me for not remembering their name off the top of my head) kills it with the archetypal evil overlord and underling, Sean Chiplock is serviceable as ever with his average anime coolguys, and Carol and Milla's VAs (again, don't know them off the top pf my head) fail to muster enough energy for the energetic young girls (though, to their credit, they were easily given the worst scripts out of the main cast). A notable exception is found with Dawn Bennet as Lilac, who very clearly gave it her all and greatly endeared me to the bleeding heart Ms. Heropants even if her work here is still a little amateurish. (Unfortunate that she doesn't want to associate with the character anymore, but I'll never blame someone for needing to uproot themself from the neurotic sonic fanbase) It's an important part of the game's identity, and its inconsistency really does noticeably hurt the game. If you care about the narrative of a platformer, that is. You can also just play on classic mode and ignore all of that. Visuals are another complicated matter. Sometimes it's hard to draw the line between an authentic 32X-esque look and genuine amateurishness- some sprites almost look pillowshaded, others make weird use of dithering. The most important characters- the main girls and the main villains- all look as fantastic as they need to, but a lot of the side characters falter both in design and spritework. I have to give special attention to Torque here, whose undisguised form is genuinely atrocious to look at. It's a big problem when the guy is a main character in every regard besides the fact that he got cut from the playable cast. My condolences to whichever unfortunate artist has to salvage him for FP3... which I estimate will happen roughly 10 to 100 years from now. Let me cope, alright? Oh, yeah, I couldn't find a good place to put this, but Brevon is a near perfect villain and a non-insignificant factor in why I like this game so much. He is horrible in ways that are just un-cartoonish enough to feel tangible yet exaggerated and thematically resonant enough to not be dull, is far cooler than any of his immediate inspirations, and maintains an impactful presence despite appearing very often. I really do love Lilac and her wife and daughter- i mean her besties, but I can't deny who the real star of the show is. Everything I didn't mention, from the overall size of the game to the soundtrack to the specificities of the gameplay, are self-evidently amazing and discussed at length by others. What I've been trying to convey here today, 12 years after release and 4 years after the sequel failed to find enough success to keep the series going, is that this game is still something special even in the current indie environment, and I urge anyone who hasn't played it yet to do so.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ writing that completely misses the chance to actually have the characters sound real, instead it feels like it's written by a 6yo. Levels themselves are ok but the bosses are awful, they still can't grasp that some attack patterns back to back are impossible to dodge. Camera needs to be pulled back as projectiles and attacks charging up offscreen suddenly materialize onscreen instantly with you needing to react that an attack was going to be coming, instead of reacting to one coming. Hitboxes are awful, level design is nothing, and the story felt like "ok now they're here" without a real explanation as to where they're going or why they're there, just "lol now we're in the facility"

The Brevon fight made me quit the game. All the other bosses, fine. They were a bit of challenge. But I overcame them. But Brevon? The brevon fight broke me. Brevon is more like a Dark Souls boss than a freedom planet boss. Deleting the game from my Library and I will not be buying Fredom Planet 2. I regret buying this game.

Эта планета свободы просит!

It's like Sonic, but cooler combat. There is an element of exploration to each level and collectables encourage that. I assume the endgame is to know each level like the back of your own hand, and these collecting these collectables is basically the tutorial to understand each level. Fun little story. I enjoyed unlocking and playing Milla. Her block combat is strangely satisfying. Played this over a decade ago and came back to it and it's surprisingly fun!

Played this back in the day, replaying it now. Quite the fun game! Love how it builds a whole different style of playing on top of what was a sonic game engine. Plus, the art is pretty good, and the music is phenomenal.

I never got into sonic but I now understand why people got into sonic. THIS ISN'T SONIC, THIS IS A TOTALLY ORIGINAL CHARACTER! People should really get their facts straight. The gameplay is great, the voice acting is great, the art is great and there's a story as well!