Reviewing again after a fresh playthrough.

Wow, this game is pretty much as good as I remembered it. Brutal in the final stages, especially on hard mode! Final boss was also brutal as well; very fast, high risk/reward ratio, frantic, just like a final boss in a story of this caliber should be.

Say what you want about the voice acting, I think it did a great job at conveying the story's emotion. And yeah, the story, while (arguably) basic at its fundamental level, works incredibly well.

Music absolutely rocks. Incredibly inspirational work. Stellar, even.

I'll come back to this game to play Carol and Milla's parts eventually. Still can't wait to play FP2 (waiting for a good sale lol).

(beat as Lilac; not super inclined to go back and play as the other two characters)

This is a decent 2D action-platformer, pretty heavily influenced by games like Sonic and Rocket Knight Adventures, among others. I was encouraged to give this game a try by various people, so I went ahead and gave it a shot. (I should note that I'm not a huge Sonic fan, personally, though I think some of the 2D Sonics are okay)

With that in mind, I had an okay time playing through this. Lilac has a neat moveset, with various melee attacks and means of movement to traverse obstacles (particularly her rocket attack, which is literally what Sparkster uses - the fact the recharge time for it is so slow is a drag, though). I did feel like the level design felt a bit meandering, however - I kinda wish the levels felt more focused and trimmed-down. These stages can last an incredibly long time (15-20 minutes each, generally), which feels very long to me. I also feel like the game's difficulty curve is a bit weird - the game is generally very easy, but then at a couple specific points, it suddenly becomes absurdly difficult, with little effort made to ramp things up ahead of time. At any rate, the lives system is basically pointless, so you can figure out how to proceed if you just keep trying over and over. Whether that's a good thing or not will depend on what you look for from a 2D action-platformer; I can say that I have no interest in going back to try and 1CC this game, personally.

There's also a story, which is... interesting? I get a very 2000s-era fanfic vibe from it. I was never in the Sonic fandom myself, but having been involved with various other fandoms in the 2000s, and being pretty geeky and passionate about other series' lore - I can see this game's writing and presentation really clicking with a specific kind of person. I am not that person, however.

(also, that one scene in Lilac's story (you know the one) is hilarious in a way that really does not feel intentional, lmao)

So, all in all, I appreciate Freedom Planet for what it is, even if it's pretty clearly not targeted at me. I think it's cool that something as fan-driven as this is able to exist. It could very well be worth checking out, but I think your enjoyment may hinge on how much you really enjoy Sonic.

Originalmente um fangame de Sonic, Freedom Planet traz misturas de ideias o suficiente pra se justificar e se destacar como um jogo original, mas isso não significa que elas são bem executadas.
Isso também não significa que as raizes sônicas também são. Imagine um Sonic onde o Spin Dash depende de uma barra a ser carregada, e que é descarregada toda vez que você pula girando, e onde você não aumenta a velocidade ao correr, em fases de 15 minutos.
Uma coisa que ele melhora nessa fórmula é a variedade de gameplay entre os personagens, que mudam bastante. Aliás, me arrependo de ter jogado a campanha com a protagonista, pois a gata parece muito melhor pelo o que eu joguei.
Das ideias originais, eu diria que botar cenas de 15 minutos entre cada fase acelerada não foi uma boa. A história é até legalzinha, mas os personagens estereotipados não interessam muito. Só o vilão e os governantes deixam algum impacto.
O jogo é desafiador, mas os chefes são injustos de doer até a alma, causando muita frustração e pouca catarse ao os derrotar. Pelo menos as cenas de início são puladas automaticamente nas tentativas repetidas, e todo jogo deveria fazer isso.

O fator replay não me chamou tanta atenção, e as músicas que variam de qualidade não me prenderam. Esse foi um jogo curto e legalzinho que valeu a experiência e mostrou capacitação e talento dos desenvolvedores, que não conseguiram alcançar suas ambições. 2024 começou. Ainda quero conferir o 2!

I can't play it, just like I can play classic Sonic games

However from what I can tell it seems more fun than Sonic, both in terms of story and gameplay

Don't take my word for it though, because I'm not a target for this game

Eu genuinamente achei melhor que uma boa quantidade das influencias que ele puxa, e foi meticuloso no uso dos ingredientes pq n tentou só sintetizar tudo de mais principal de outras franquias, mas balanceando e pegando o que combinava mais pra cada determinado design. Tem bastante carisma mesmo que seu ponto baixo seja a história em si: Ela tem um pé politico interessante mesmo que seja previsivelmente raso, mas me faz pensar em Sonic SatAM e como eu achava aquilo o meio ideal de uma história que não é forçada mas tbm n se compromete com o próprio mundo que perfeitamente encaixava com a franquia.

As vezes só acho que extrapola nos bosses e o jogo meio que se extende até demais em seus ultimos segmentos, e por mais que o level design seja sólido na maior parte do tempo, ele consegue se viciar de uma maneira que compromete a dificuldade de um jeito q n parece tão justo, certos níveis só spammam uma quantidade impossível de inimigos que tomam mt tempo para eliminar e quebram o pacing da fase, ainda mais quando as vezes parece q seus golpes n registram onde deviam.

Talvez seja skill issue meu essa ultima parte, mas enfim, eu ainda posso dizer que me surpreendeu.

OH MY GOSH WHAT A GAME!!

I can say with considerable confidence that this was the best Sonic the Hedgehog game I've ever played, and it's not even a Sonic game! It was fast, it was frantic, it had satisfying combat, the progression was great, and there were some absolutely brutal bosses.

The plot may not be the most memorable, but the gameplay more than makes up for it. Art direction is gorgeous too. Fantastic game.

Freedom Planet is a mostly excellent platformer. I loved the giant, sprawling levels and how richly the game rewards exploring them. The visuals are wonderful, with great character designs and tons of fun details in the colorful art.

Freedom Planet's roots as a Sonic fan game are on display, but that's not a bad thing as it's got a very strong personality of its own. In particular, the story and characters are very strong and memorable. The story gets a bit heavier than I expected given the early tone, but it sets the stakes well.

Lastly, the soundtrack is an all-time great. I picked it up on Bandcamp and listen to it regularly, just a joyful assortment of catchy tunes and fun instrumentation. Each paired stage featuring the same theme but remixed was a great choice.

The boss fights are the weakest aspect of the game, as I found they contributed to very uneven pacing. Most were simply not very fun to fight and ground the game to a halt. If the game excluded most of them I'd have enjoyed it more. I hope this aspect is improved in the sequel.

Played through the as Lilac campaign. Worth noting, every character has some unique levels, so there's more to find on a replay.

A really awesome retro-type game that brings back memories of the great classic Sonic games. The only problem I have is that character backstories appear to be very hashed together quickly, but the game is really enjoyable and the story is quite interesting too...if they went into more information on it.

There are unlimited continues so even when I got frustrated, it brought me back so I can re-try those really difficult bosses. Especially the last who has 3 different phases and even though you get healed between each phase, he's still incredibly dangerous and lives up to the horror that the character is in the story.

it's competent, I love the graphics and music, and the characters are charming enough, but everything else is... rough, though it does show some promise that could be fleshed out properly in a sequel.
my main problem is with the combat, which often forces you to deal with swarm of enemies you can't see coming and force you to take unnecessary damage. plus the bosses are very frustrating, and I found myself constantly dying in the later parts of the game because I could not discern a boss' attack pattern.
the level design is serviceable, apart from some cool themes, it's mostly unremarkable filler that doesn't really stick out in any way, good or bad.
the gameplay is just a worse version of classic Sonic, sorry not sorry lol. the physics clearly try to emulate a Sonic feeling but it makes movement feel very off, like it's not right just ever so slightly, mostly in the momentum and jump. it's hard to explain why but it just doesn't feel very good to play.
the story is uninteresting and honestly kind of annoying, with the voice acting straight out of late 2000s Newgrounds, which I have no nostalgia for, so it comes off as very amateurish.
overall yeah not the worst time you could have, and while nothing special, I am interested in what improvements a sequel could bring.