With all the fuzz that this game got for supposedly being an amazing experience for Sonic fans, I admit that I was expecting much more from Freedom Planet.

The game is a decent platformer which takes some ideas from Sonic the Hedgehog while mixing it up with ideas of its own. However, in the end, it felt just too bland for me.

You play as one of three characters through long levels where you're supposed to go fast while avoiding enemies and obstacles. As in Sonic, there are also puzzles and boss battles. The boss battles felt kind of unfair, with some attacks being pretty difficult to dodge. The game is easy enough that it doesn't matter, however, since there are infinite continues and ample checkpoints.

Still, I didn't find it satisfying to go through the levels and boss fights. The level design felt bland; it's similar to Kirby where you can ignore most of the stuff and just go quickly, but it doesn't have the same level of relaxing fun as Kirby does. There were a couple parts that felt innovative, but it was unfortunately not enough. The bosses were more annoying that fun or exciting.

The music is good but the game has terrible voice acting and not even in a funny way. The story is also kind of a mess and was difficult to follow. Overall I didn't care about it.

I left the game feeling really disappointed. The only takeaway I got from it is the great soundtrack.

I really wish I could feel the hype that some people put on this game, but it's just not all there for me. I'll start with the good, though.

The visuals and music were a treat. Stage environments were surprisingly detailed and vibrant, and I enjoyed some of the theming of said levels. The music I didn't find too crazy, but there were some solid and enjoyable tracks sprinkled in for sure!

The rest is where the cracks start to show, unfortunately. Boss design is cheesy and unengaging, with many moves and patterns feeling like they're designed for you to use I-frames and tank hits rather than confronting the boss in any interesting fashion. The levels are better, but not by much. Stage design blends together at times, with few memorable or fulfilling set pieces that make you go "oh man, that's good". None of the level design feels structurally interesting enough to warrant the long stage run-times, either.

Combat does little for me here as well. There doesn't feel like there's much of a reason to fight enemies, especially when the game spams them to the point where it feels almost as if it's encouraged to outright ignore them. Additionally it can really break the pace of some stages when you constantly have to stop-and-go with enemies spawning in odd places, ready to attack the moment they appear.

The story is... fine! I didn't particularly enjoy it, but I didn't dislike it either. What did get me though was some of the pacing. Some scenes reach near classic JRPG length with little to no gameplay to break it up. Conversely, some plot points felt like they were resolved far too quickly with little to no payoff.

Needless to say, I really hope Freedom Planet 2 brings some much-needed improvements to the table, because as of right now I'm really not feeling this formula.

Freedom Planet is a game that I'm weirdly passionate about. There is a lot of things that undeniably suck, like the absurdly long cutscenes between the levels (I personally think the story itself is overhated, its the amount of the time you spend in these cutscenes that makes it worse), the complete lack of iframes making laser attacks remove half of your health, the obnoxious enemy spam starting from Battle Glacier and playing as Milla in general. However this game just boats such wonderful vibes with very memorable levels like Fortune Night or Jade Creek that I replay constantly. Mastery of Lilac's movement and levels just feels so stupidly good and don't get me started on the soundtrack, might be my favourite in an indie platformer period.
FP1 is definitely not a game that is gonna click with everyone as it takes getting used to, but damn it I like it.

Existe um bom jogo aqui, mas que não deixa suas qualidades florescerem como poderiam
Acho que a mescla de suas influências consegue ser bem utilizada pegando parte boas delas e fazendo uma boa cara própria e ter um charme e carisma próprios excelentes
Mas as fases acabam estendendo demais, o que não seria um problema se o seu "spin dash" não fosse uma barra que precisa ser preenchida, o que faz a sua experiência nas fases não ser rápida como poderia
Além de suas escolhas frustrantes de dificuldade, como a maioria dos bosses serem bastante injustos e irritantes de enfrentar, consigo dizer bem poucos bosses que me divertiram, e na reta final o jogo passa a simplesmente encher a tela de inimigos sem nenhum critério ou dedo por trás disso.
No fim, é um jogo legal.

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).

It's a sonic-like platformer where you actually forget your playing one. A lot of whats different about this game compared to sonic are very strong and make it different enough to stand on its own two feet. Each character is absolutely adorable and have their own fun playstyle. Very good stage designs too!

Story is you-love-it-or-hate-it territory. It's very campy, quip-y, and has a weirdly noticeable amount of drama. It seems like it was trying to reach for Sonic SATAM vibes in terms of story but idk it falls kinda flat. I didn't mind it much when I was younger, but now I can't take it seriously lol That said, there's a "game mode" where it skips all of the story and just puts you in the game so you have that if you don't want to deal with the story.

Music is great! It stands out in a good way and fits the appropriate themes. Noticeably good ones are the "Jade Creek" levels and "Fortune Night" levels

My main con would be that some bosses feel straight up unfinished. Most noticeable being the battleship boss only having two/three noticeable yet hard to dodge attack patterns. They even *SPOILER** Reused the battleship boss as phase 1 of the final boss lol *SPOILER*

But overall I think this is a great platformer! Give it a try if you like fast 2D platformer games!

I was really enjoying the game up until level 6 or so, after that it has turned into such a fucking mess!
Level design went from decent to asinine, placement and sheer quantity of enemies have gone batshit crazy.

And the bosses…. I’d say the bosses in this game are among if not THE worst I’ve ever fought in any video game in my life.
OST is great and visuals are nice, but it certainly does not save this from being a shitshow.

Controls aren’t too great either, do not think you’re getting into sonic-like momentum based platforming, there’s no momentum whatsoever.

I very rarely care about plot in video games and I’d say it is pretty cringe and cutscenes are way too fucking long.

Overall, the game is not good and its only redeeming qualities are OST, visuals and an enjoyable first 6 levels or so.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY ON THIS

This game is worth a try but imo it's absolute trash. Very bad level design, unnecessarily long levels, spammy bosses, cringy dialogues, very bland story.

The physics are a joke, worse than quality fan games out there. Couldn't stand to play this garbage after Stage 6.

Go buy Sonic Mania instead of this.

I have a lot to say about Freedom Planet, the experience I had with this game was wonderful! everything in the game is unique, the captivating characters, it has a solid and very unique story and a really cruel and diabolical villain! The game is a 2D platform very inspired by Ristar and Sonic the Hedgehog and other action games but it manages to be unique in the world and lore of the game EVERYTHING! It's unique, I really feel like I'm on a distant planet and full of unique areas to explore, the phases are never repeated, there are a total of 12 phases divided into areas and a positive point is that they are long but in the right measure. I could spend hours talking about the game but my recommendation is to play the game and feel how fun and unique it is to explore and get to know this game.

Fun, well sprited, cute. It wears its Sonic inspiration on its sleeve, but gameplay is very different from it. However, this leads to combat feeling a bit… off? I feel like I took a lot of hits that felt cheap and undeserved. And when the lives system doesn’t matter, it begs the question of why it even exists. Game is fun, though. Doesn’t have much in the way of story; it takes itself very seriously for something so bare bones. It’s fun and charming, but yeah. That’s about all I feel. The Sonic comparisons generally do end outside of visuals and character design. I don’t think it’s a fair assessment of either game.