I have very conflicting feelings on this game but the TL;DR is I'm still having fun. Disclaimer I was gifted this game, and haven't tried the online yet, so I can't comment on that past that I've been told it's rollback netcode and that's pretty dope.
This game was advertised as the most accessible plat fighter, did it live up to it's promise? Probably not, but it's still interesting.
Royalty Free For All has a roster of 14 characters at launch, each equipped with at least 2 weak, strong, and special moves, as well as a grab at minimum. The limited amount of moves leaves the designs for each character a mixed bag. Some feel like they're just missing something, while others make good use of what they have to where they never feel lacking. Some characters have extra moves; Sakura, the smiling lady, has weak aerials that can fire in 4 directions; Piglet has the Villager dash attack. Where these extra moves are handed out seem arbitrary although they're always welcome.
There are attacks that feel great while others feel barely functional. I really enjoy Piglet's pigskin weak aerial and how it interacts with momentum. Piglet is a prime example of a character that feels like it has absolutely everything it needs and everything on him makes sense. On the ground the weak button makes use of the honey pot, where it lives on the weak button can be used for a multihit jab, the previous mentioned dash attack, and is part of his grab. For strong attack he cycles through various items like a plank and hits you with them. These read as weak and strong. His specials have him bouncy off a spring which can be a nice finishing move or a quick high job that can lead to aerial pressure, or summoning a balloon to help recovery. He has fun movement, and fun moves and clear finishers. Good design
Not all characters have move that convey that clear flow chart and intuitive button presses well. Some lack finishers, some have moves that feel like they're on the wrong button classification, some have moves that seem to have no solid relationship. Some designs have clear concepts and some seem like references tossed together. Personally, I hope for mediums, and more clear cut specials.
The characters and stages are based on well royalty free characters and stories in which I only know a few. I enjoy the choices, even if not always the execution. I love unique interpretations of guys like Big Foot, I think it's cool to see the Mushnick's Florist as a stage. There's a lot of fun references peppered into Dorothy, Toto, Big Bad Wolf, and more. Seeing Big Foot's wavedash look like the infamous photo is a fun little easter egg I think people will appreciate. I hope to see Dante even if the kickstarter wasn't met, and would like to see what else they can cook up. The stages, while cool ideas can be a burden to navigate, and I hope for larger blast zones, and far less walls in the future.
This game brings in legacy plat fighter tech. It makes a point to let you know it has dash dancing, moonwalking, and the infamous wavedashing in which can be mapped to a dedicated button which i believe is long overdue for the medium. For anyone curious, shield dropping exists in the game as well. One technique I've seen here and nowhere else is "jumpscaring" where you can jump during an aerial which leads to some very cool interactions.
The utility of these are hit and miss depending on character. Dash dancing feels great on fast characters, wavedashing feels good on Piglet and basically no one else, I suck at moonwalking so I'm not gonna say who gets the most out of it, and any character that has multihit aerials will enjoy jumpscaring drag....ups(?) I had fun comboing it into itself with Colonel Bleep.
To sum up my thoughts on gameplay: I think looser constrictions would do these techs and moves well. If you are gonna have a wavedashing button let it really shine! Right now it just feels more like a: 'hey look at this" rather than an actual feature. Moves could use bigger hitboxes that better match or even exceed the visuals in certain areas like Quick Brown Fox's ground strong, and Lancelot's ground special. There are moves that can use better hit pause and sound effects. It feels like it's a couple tweaks from feeling truly good. I still hope for more moves on each character, and I do wonder how the characters are meant to advance in a match as sometimes it doesn't feel like anything more than throwing out moves.
Moving on from that, the artwork and animations are hand-drawn with a lot of care. So many of the animations look far more fluid than they have any right to be. I personally am obsessed with Big Foot's weak ground and air attack's fluidity, and the latter's call to the squish and stretch principle. My point is, for those who appreciate these methods, this is a very pretty game. I can't imagine the expressions of Colonel Bleep reading well in anything other than hand drawn animation. It's a treat to look at.
The menu looks gorgeous as well and is very easy and quick to navigate. There's little features like choosing a character where you can portal to the other side which might go unnoticed by many but is appreciated by me. Load screens feature tips and humor disguised as tips, I don't think Plato ever said squish me, I won't look it up, but I also don't know how it helps.
The music is very, very good. Somehow guys like David Wise and Grant Kirkhope are involved in this, refining old music to the modern day. It's whimsical and high quality, not much more to say. The music gets high marks.
As I alluded to earlier, the sound effects are hit and miss. Attacks often lack the oopmh needed to truly feel satifying. Sword slashes sound like credit card swipes, and wet tail slaps sound like random punch effects. It can use some improvement.
The arcade and extra modes are good enough. I never really play those modes so it's not something I get excited about. I think seeing board the platforms back is a nice plus after like 30 years. Both modes are quietly useful tutorials for precision attacking and movement and I think it's only a good thing they're in the game (although I probably still won't use them).
I think the only thing I haven't commented on yet was the customization? There's a lot of skins, lots of control options like the previously mentioned dedicated wavedash button. The settings have plenty of ways to tweak your experience, and help your game run more efficiently although I will say the game seems perfectly optimized for me, and I have an outdated nitro 5. My computer has never run hot while playing this game, and it runs hot running Chrome.
To close this out, this game is fun. It's good, but it needs improvements to be great. I can imagine Nessie having a quicker bigger ground strong, with a higher jump height and more generous spike on it's air strong to lead to some fun pillar combos, or the QBF getting a wavedash buff that will allow the shine to actually have some good followups. The game could use a few more options to play with, but as it is, it's still a good time, and a visual treat. It's worth the price that I didn't have to pay.
