Freedom Planet

Review time! So small review section says hey this is a great alternative to Sonic games that has more of a focus on character skills and elements of combat than your typical 2D sonic game, the music and sprites are great, you get three playable characters all of who play differently and the game has a great amount of difficulties that even allowed my autistic sister who was interested in playing herself to enjoy it, (yay steam family share lol) with some great unique stages and enemy types this is a great time of a game dood! Okay bigger review, another tired one here but I'll do my best! So Freedom Planet is what I'll coin as a hog-like! Just kidding! But it is very much done in a sonic the hedgehog visual style and in some aspects gameplay too, the story being you are two gals who were delivering something? But Lilac sees someone in danger and decides to help! Quite the goody two-shoes protag we have here but Carol is having none of it and so depending on who you choose to start with it goes from there dood! I will focus on Lilac for a basic idea of how to play but each character does have their unique traits and gameplay style, Lilac is what I'd call a balanced type, you can jump. double jump float/glide using the X/A button, attack using the square/X button, which can be changed somewhat based on a directional input and if you are in the air or not, test it out a little if ya wanna discover it and how each girl plays and finally the B/circle button is for specials of which Lilacs is a dash which damages enemies and grants temp invincibility, some nice variety there and that's just one character dood! stages have a lot of fun obstacles, thankfully not spikes that suddenly stop you or a copious amount of instant death pits, (bless you Freedom planet devs) although the game is not devoid of that but they don't abuse it and I frankly give big points to games like that, especially if they have a lives system as it seems...honestly cheap at that point difficulty wise, there's even unique gimmicks and areas that only certain characters can go, heck there's two entirely unique stages depending on who you go which is always nice dood. The game has items strewn around, some only one character can get, others are things like shields or gems/jewels that boost your meter if it's empty, I neglected to mention it but meter allows you to use your specials which recharge slowly over time otherwise, there's even collectables which unlock gallery pieces such as music, art and voice clips dood! The games designed in an interesting way to me too, you can either take it slow, take out enemies and search for collectables in rather sizeable stages or do a mad dash to the end, do well with Carol and it's a blast running through for a certain reason, I'll let ya'all find out on that front, it makes it feel like two different games in a weird ways, also there are 4 difficulties, casual you regenerate health (sis was loving it lol) easy I wager you take less damage, there's normal and then hard, the game can be quite difficult even on hard if you don't use skills well but when ya do it's a crazy good time against bosses and enemies dood. The only thing's left to talk about are how there's three mode, story which has all the talking with the worlds characters, (fully voiced and pretty good at that if you ask me) Arcade for those like my sister who don't care or understand so all into the action! And finally time attack mode which I guess is just freeplay? It's like arcade but shows your times essentially which is good if like me you went for the speed run achievements for fun dood. XD That's the gist of it! The game was a real fun time, some of the achievements feel more annoying to pull off like time wasters than fun (seeing as you essentially get one chance on some per level run) but luckily I don't really do those so I just had fun times all around, it's a direction I'd like to see these styles of games take more, particularly the abuse of instant death stuff like Sonic 2D games in particular have and with the accessibility to all kinds of players it's something I respect a lot, I'll be getting onto their second game tomorrow! But tonight was review of the first one, very important dood. ^-^ Thank you for reading and hope ya'all enjoy as much as I did if you buy dood!

Freedom Planet is a great example of taking other ideas and making them your own. Another indie game that wears its inspiration on its sleeve and delivers an excellent experience. There are two characters to choose from, with more that are unlocked as the player explores the game. Four characters are available, each with their own abilities. Milla can dig up items and fly short distances, as well as reflect lasers and create blocks to throw at enemies. I found her the least interesting to use. Some bosses were more annoying to fight with her, others were unusually easy when using the reflection ability properly. Carol can climb walls and flail wildly with her claws, which is pretty fun if you like getting close to enemies. Taking a note from Devil May Cry, she can also ride a motorcycle up walls and fight enemies with it. Moving through levels with the motorcycle was also a lot less clumsy than I expected, especially when jumping across platforms or holding on to bars on a ceiling. Lilac was the most fun to use, and I was under the impression that she was the intended character for most of the game. She has an extra boss to fight at the end that Milla does not, and her primary ability is taken from Rocket Knight. It can be used for speed, breaking barriers, killing enemies, and it recharges automatically. There are strange red metal platforms that Carol can use to jump around in some areas, but Milla and Lilac only receive crystals from jumping on them. The level design is inspired heavily by Sonic games, and the level of detail is astounding. Assets are not reused, and every level has unique enemies as well as a unique environment. It would go beyond the scope of this review to speak too much about the level design, but will say that places like Dragon Valley and Pangu Lagoon were among my favorite levels in the game. Each level also has unique hazards or environmental interactions for the player to discover. Freedom Planet has different shields with their own properties, just like Sonic 3. Yellow shields attract crystals to the player, blue shields let the player breath under water, and red shields will hurt enemies. Shields do not vanish after a single point of contact, but instead allow several hits. The player is also not restricted to collecting crystals to stay alive, but instead has an HP meter indicated by flower petals. Flowers can be found at many points throughout a level to restore HP, and sometimes they are dropped by enemies or bosses. The game is generous with giving extra lives, and there is seldom contact damage from touching enemies. Instead, the player is hurt by specific parts of the enemy (such as a spiked head), or by offensive movements they make. I feel this adds to the refinements this game is showing from its influences, and allows the player to continue exploring or moving through a level with a lot less hassle. Collecting several hundred crystals will grant the player an extra life, and crystals are abundant in most levels. Many of the Steam achievements for this game are centered on speed running levels, or finding cards hidden throughout each level. Some of the story was difficult to piece together, and I was left wondering where some characters were important. Spade showed up out of nowhere and seemed to have a rivalry with the girls, but there was no context given for his situation. Everything else felt like the kind of scenarios one would see in an episode of the old Bucky O'Hare cartoon. Mechanically speaking, Freedom Planet is Sonic meets Rocket Knight. Everything beyond that feels like a Saturday morning cartoon from the nineties in a way I found both nostalgic and fun. Being able to change the difficulty setting to suit older and younger audiences was a great touch. This is a wonderful game.