Author Topic: Freedom Planet thread (Hopefully not stumbling out of the gate a second time!)  (Read 38619 times)

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Offline ClexYoshi

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SO! this is a game that I am excited about and I hope I can get some of you excited about as well!

If it weren't for Shovel Knight, I think Freedom Planet would have been the big 2014 indie game that folks would have been heralding as the properly done retro game. outside of maybe sonic purist goofballs who maybe don't like a couple of the physics quirks or those who can't appreciate the sort of homage the story is going for, This game is pretty great, with extremely solid level design and outstanding spritework that's very expressive. I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention Woofle's soundtrack, which is probably the greatest stuff she's done since her contributions to the CD version of Sonic 1 Megamix.

If you're one of those crotchety old folks who only liked their sonic on the genisis and constantly herald Treasure and Konami's efforts on the platform, you owe it to yourself to play Freedom Planet and give it a home on your Wii U when it comes. By then, maybe the free DLC will be out for PC and included in the Wii U build?
« Last Edit: October 01, 2015, 12:40:54 AM by ClexYoshi »

Offline Dasmos

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Re: All aboard the Freedom Planet hype train!
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2015, 09:39:38 PM »
I think there's a reason not too many games ape the old Sonic games, they're not very good. From what I've seen of Freedom Planet, it doesn't seem to mess with the formula enough to get me interested. Plus I've always hated the super-cute character designs from Sonic games, and FP seems to take the cute and turn it up to 11.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: All aboard the Freedom Planet hype train!
« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2015, 02:15:01 AM »
I think there's a reason not too many games ape the old Sonic games, they're not very good. From what I've seen of Freedom Planet, it doesn't seem to mess with the formula enough to get me interested. Plus I've always hated the super-cute character designs from Sonic games, and FP seems to take the cute and turn it up to 11.

well, I probably cannot sell you on a copy of Freedom planet. : P I actually does a few things better than sonic like enemies not dealing contact damage, things being life bar based instead of the whole ring thing, the physics allowing for mid-air control that feels a little closer to SMB3 than Sonic (particularly for Carol the Wildcat, who's gameplay is a little slower but she can Mega Man X her way up walls, Or Milla the hound who has a Yoshi style flutter jump.), and the levels have a lot of exploration to them that makes blazing through them ASAP not the only goal one might have while playing the game.

Offline ClexYoshi

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This guy needs a bump, because this game should be hitting in North america for real this time!

Really, guys. Play this game. it is crazy good. I've seen so many people who have never heard of it, stumble upon it, and then just marvel at how awesome it is. To quote that which is probably already quoted to death... Freedom Planet is so much more than a love letter to the genre or platform it is trying to invoke - It is the sort of game that people love to write love letters about. Really, give it a try~!

Offline Evan_B

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HUGE fan of S3&K, Rush, etc. here, Clex, and I'm definitely going to be picking it up tomorrow if the price isn't too high. From what I've heard, the story isn't so good and the voice acting is Saturday Morning Delicious, but if the core gameplay is satisfying enough, I'll end up loving it. Also heard some of that soundtrack, it's as incredible as you said.

Do think the enemies not dealing damage on contact is cool but I worry that makes the game a breeze, hope the level design forces you to engage enemies in an non-killroom setting. Anyway, I will definitely post impressions here once I pick it up!
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Offline sudoshuff

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I'll revisit the demo and think about getting it.  In many ways, it was my favorite E3 nindie demo. I thought it would be exactly like Sonic, which confused me when I first played.  I remember having a tough time memorizing the controls and moves...but mostly because I was expecting them to be very simplistic. 

Offline ejamer

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I'm not a big Sonic fan - it always seemed to have a disconnect between the main selling point (speed) and level design (exploration, sudden death traps if moving too fast). 


But (judging from the Wii U demo) I think that Freedom Planet seems really cool and avoided some of those problems while keeping the most interesting parts of Sonic gameplay. Not sure I'll be buying right away, but it's definitely on my wanted list for the future.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Evan_B: $15 is the asking price if you're not including your Nindies @ home discount.

and this game defenatley finds ways to engage you with enemies. later stages often throws enemies at you that shoots spreads of bullets that explode all over the place and the screen ends up filled with explosions that make the game in screenshots resemble Gunstar Heroes more than anything. The game really only locks rooms down for mini-boss type encounters more than anything.

I think there's a charm to the plot and they build a world that seems far bigger than the happenings of the game world it takes place in, but it is REALLY kinda disjointed. you can end up getting cutscenes of up to 10-15 minutes between stages if you don't throw on that 'classic' mode to filter out the long stuff and keep it to basic S3&K style character interactions.

I actually think some of the voices can be good. I was especially won over by Brevon in the PC version.

Sudoshuff - Wait until you get your hands on some of the other characters~! Milla in particular has a surprisingly robust moveset between her ability to heft stuff up SMB2 style, her multi-directional shield, and the ability to combine the two. often times in the heat of combat against certain bosses (the battle glacier act 2 boss comes to mind), Milla will be using her flutter jump, forming a block in her hands, then using the shield-burst at an upwards diagonal behind her head.

Milla is defenatley a sort of hard mode because of how wildly different she is gameplay wise than even Carol.


EJamer- there are 3 stages I can think of where bottomless pit is ever employed; The Edges of the ships in Sky Batallion, the portions of Final Dreadnaught that makes sense where Brevon very loudly announces over the PA that he's setting that specific thing up as a trap, and I think the boss of Final Dreadnaught 2 has gaps on the sides of the arena. there also tends to not be things in the way of them just putting a wall of spikes or an enemy that can hit you int eh path of a place that the game gives you a stretch of road to run on.

What the game DOES have is a very purposeful system of combo-itis. Lilac and the gang get ZERO post-hit invincibility, and there are enemies and bosses that WILL take advantage of this and kinda just stun-lock you into a combo... it never feels cheap though. it's combos by design, and they'll give you a bit of invincibility against say... a spikey headed enemy or something that's not meant to just juggle you with gunfire, but usually it's just enough with the slight knockback they give to try and get away and not be caught by them again.

Offline Evan_B

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I see what the combo-by-design mechanics you speak of are, and I'm not really a fan of it.

The levels are really really big, and while it shames me to get a 20 min completion time on some of them, I find some of their gimmicks a bit too overcomplex for their own good (like unlocking the doors in the ruins stage, something that's done way better in a later stage, or destroying the four ships in Sky Battalion). I know there's secrets to subverting some of these with certain characters (keep in mind, I've only played as Lilac as of right now), but I'm not really seeing a lot of branching paths, which I'm hoping are as cleverly hidden as those in S3&K.

The freedom of the levels and how quickly they pass by is directly countered by the slow, methodical and often precise nature of the bosses, which is a little weird. They also seem to directly counter the movesets of Lilac on a lot of occasions. Also, the physics are laughable in this game, with not really all that much momentum going on and very sticky characters. The level themes are a bit wonky (as in, their aesthetics), I'm not that much of a fan of some of the overcomplex mixtures of concepts like Asian/Casino Night, but most of them aren't too weird. I will say that the grunt unit found later in the game that takes a number of hits to kill and fires numerous shots is an annoying enemy that soaks up a lot of life points- which is one last thing I'm not sure I'm completely sold on.

If there's anything I can say, it's that Freedom Planet takes some pretty direct queues from Sonic, but it definitely feels like it's own game, and I really appreciate that.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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a couple of the levels are sadly devoid of path branches, particularly some of the more interoir based zones later on.

a lot of fighting bosses with lilac is figuring out when it's best to Dragon boost, given that she has I-frames during the wind-up and use of that attack in particular. she actually has the most DPS on her jumping regular attack in most situations given that it's very hard to hit a foe with all the hits of a dragon boost or such. she also probably puts out the most pain of the current bunch (although it looks like Torque and Spade will probably change that when they come out, as Torque in particular reduces the bosses to jokes).

the Brevon soldiers take a stupid ammount of punishment and are an enemy that's meant to be feared. I think the spot they introduce them is very clearly meant to show you how stupidly durable and damaging they are, and that they are a fight best avoided entirely, because you really do not want to be caught with 3 of those guys gunning for you at once.

I also love the sticky physics. they're not quite to the Sonic 4 extreme of stickiness, but they honestly lend the game a bit more of a tightness, I found. also, it's hilarious dragon boosting at a uside-down sloped ceiling and somehow clinging to it. Honestly, the physics start making a lot more sense when you play as Carol in particular, who's moveset partially wouldn't work without that bit of unrealistic wonk in there.

I... got nothing for your gripes about objectives in stages or preference on athstetics. I actually really love Fortune Night because of the stupid ammount of attention to detail (going in and out of bathrooms, sitting on benches, the characters having a dance idle animation if you stop next to a disco ball, the stupid giant pianos straight out of the Tom Hanks classic "Big"...)

Offline Evan_B

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Not trying to be too down on the game. I beat it with lilac last night and I can honesty say a few of the bosses in particular are absolute bullshit, especially the first an last forms of Brevon. That gecko bug robot is insane (Brevon himself, even moreso) and I dread trying to beat any boss with Carol, who I played the first stage with last night. What I don't understand is why you would have such an awesome gimmick like her Motorcycle roped off- she's ridiculously clunky and not really that effective without it- and that double jump she has is just sad. If course, I know the answer- reward players who are skilled- but it doesn't feel fun to play her at any other time.

Hoping Milla is the right balance between the two. I'm also not too pleased with the energy meter, as it can really screw you in boss fights as well as when you don't utilize it correctly during stages. For a game as free and hectic as Freedom Planet aims to be, I'd appreciate if the skills necessary to not die weren't roped behind an energy meter.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Not trying to be too down on the game. I beat it with lilac last night and I can honesty say a few of the bosses in particular are absolute bullshit, especially the first an last forms of Brevon. That gecko bug robot is insane (Brevon himself, even moreso) and I dread trying to beat any boss with Carol, who I played the first stage with last night. What I don't understand is why you would have such an awesome gimmick like her Motorcycle roped off- she's ridiculously clunky and not really that effective without it- and that double jump she has is just sad. If course, I know the answer- reward players who are skilled- but it doesn't feel fun to play her at any other time.

Hoping Milla is the right balance between the two. I'm also not too pleased with the energy meter, as it can really screw you in boss fights as well as when you don't utilize it correctly during stages. For a game as free and hectic as Freedom Planet aims to be, I'd appreciate if the skills necessary to not die weren't roped behind an energy meter.

Gee, You'll be happy to know milla doens't have the energy meter, but she's easily the worst of the trio at combat.

I think a lot of Cariol's fun is that she has a proper sonic curl, and 'dat Mega Man X wall jump. she's also completley invincible while doing her chun li kick.

Though yeah, Brevon's final form gives me a lot of Mega Man X Sigma vibes, and he is REALLY meant to kinda stuff lilac and carol's offensive options in particular.



Gotta be honest, though. there are some bosses that REALLY frustrate me, and the Brevon mech thing that you fight in battle glacier and as part of the final battle is kinda nuts...

Unanimously though, i can safely say I'm in love with the game. Heck, I've been advocating for it here for some time now. I double dipped for it because I got it for pretty much free the first time and wanted to give the devs some support.

Don't think though that I'm discounting your opinion out of blatant fanboying though, Evan. I'm glad you've made your opinions of the game clear here.

Offline Evan_B

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Hilarious.

But I beat the game and I don't mess with Easy of Casual modes. I'll play through with the other two characters but I really think the energy system is a bit too strict. I was unaware of Carol's i-frames but I'm sure I would have learned as time went on. I just don't feel that i-frames are a good mechanic to base boss fights on.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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yeah, I hear you. usually the bosses don't require them, it's just tough as nails to kinda memorize patterns and cycles without having that get out of jail free card.

at least it's not leike arlier builds where Lilac's meter would fill based on her current running speed and Carols filling per enemy kill.

Offline Evan_B

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That's rough, but I distinctly remember several encounters late game requiring i-frames.

Played a bit more with Carol today, starting to get used to her, but that double jump... Also, those jump pads are a bit lazy. I feel as though they developed these levels with Lilac in mind first.
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Offline Phil

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I am really enjoying Freedom Planet. Came across a freezing issue in a cutscene in one with Lord Brevan after Fortune Night. Didn't hard lock the system, though, like the pre-release glitch in the review copy, thankfully.


I'm liking all aspects of Freedom Planet except how long the levels are. If they were split up like acts in Sonic, that would be much better, imo.
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Offline Evan_B

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I hear that. However, one of my favorite parts of the Rush games for DS was blazing through the levels to nab an S Rank. Since there's an unlock for speed running the levels I'm going to at least give it a good shot.
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Offline Phil

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I like that unlike the Rush games, which I did enjoy, there aren't many instances of bottomless pits to worry about. Freedom Planet keeps its level design challenging without the need for bottomless pits. Not saying no game can do bottomless pits right, but with something with as much speed as Freedom Planet, it's nice to not have to worry about it.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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I like that unlike the Rush games, which I did enjoy, there aren't many instances of bottomless pits to worry about. Freedom Planet keeps its level design challenging without the need for bottomless pits. Not saying no game can do bottomless pits right, but with something with as much speed as Freedom Planet, it's nice to not have to worry about it.

Sonic Rush is REALLY level memorization centric, as it's important to know when you're gonna need to boost and where you're best off pulling combo tricks and when you have to end the combo and such. it's a VERY flow based game, and then DiMPS often kills that flow with kill rooms, pits/spikes, or that really inexplicable raft ride in BOTH acts of Mirage Road for no reason.

while there are some freedom planet levels that are really based on keeping things flowing, I feel like they do a good job of having ones that dont' that are more about a platforming challenge or mini-bosses. in that way, I feel it compares better to sonic 1, which broke it's 6 zones up into alternating between flow-based stages like Green Hill, Spring Yard, and Starlight, and the platforming challenge stages like Marble, Labyrinth, and Scrap Brain. if it wasn't for the hill-y stuff in Marble Zone, you could almost excuse me for thinking that the zones in Sonic 1 came from two seperate platformers and got shuffled together.

Freedom planet makes this work MUCH better. yeah, Relic maze is about a lot of button pushing and a bit of backtracking, but the stage still flows pretty good. Even the keycard-centric thermal base isn't too jarring in my mind from the leap to say... Labyrinth zone to Starlight zone.

Offline Evan_B

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I thought Thermal Base was fabulous. Good stuff in that level. But not so much in Relic Maze. I appreciated the design of the airship level although it was, in my opinion, one ship too many. I just got there now with Coral and I feel as though that's when the difficulty starts to amp up, so more on that in a bit.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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I really wish I knew how to do youtube embeds on these forums... oh well. here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QmED9MJTN0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFoUKJQkTBk

These are from the PC version and are very early, since they were incomplete and bundled into a patch the game got, but here's the basic framework of how Spade and Torque will play.




Offline TOPHATANT123

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[youtube] http.blah, but get rid of the s in https [/youtuube] but spelt correctly.


Offline Evan_B

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Soooooo when are we gonna get Torque and Spade? Because they look incredible.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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http://puu.sh/kCxqm/a294f6bbff.png  and https://www.reddit.com/r/freedomplanet/comments/2stf42/galaxytrail_spade_and_torque_are_complete_and/  This are about all my research turned up. apparantly spade and torque were playable at some of the places Galaxytrail has been going to like PAX and RTX, but there's nobody who bothered to actually get any capture of this. :I I imagine that Spade in particular is going to probably have exclusive stages due to him not traveling with the protagonists for most of the game.

Offline Evan_B

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I ended up reviewing this and Shovel Knight together for my blog. I ended up being quite favorable about it. Despite not liking the i-frame traps and tricks in boss fights, I'll admit I have never seen anything like it in a Sonic title and it really does make the game feel like it's own unique thing, which I really do appreciate.
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Offline Phil

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Link us to it, Evan! :)
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Offline Evan_B

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Oh, it's located here, and the article is a bit longer than my usual reviews because of the dual nature of it. Anyway, the more I looked back on the game the more I liked it, it's still lacking a certain something in the level design but I think it's a very well-realized game.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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well worded and duly noted! if the cards all play out correctly, PAL folks should be getting their Wii U versions of Freedom Planet sometime towards the beginning of November, although Galaxytrail hasn't nailed anything down exactly.

They did, however post https://soundcloud.com/kaosu-1/extra-track-invincible-freedom to their twitter.

another thing to note is that the Sonic Hacking Contest 2015 is going on now. SHC is a sister contest to the Sonic Ameteur Games Expo, which the 2012 competition featured the first public playable version of Freedom Planet with Lilac the Hedgehog and a much different Dragon Valley zone.

SHC2015 has an entry this year that appears to be very early so far that's essentially Sash Lilac in sonic 1. while they went with simple sprite ports for the contest as a proof of concept, they plan on fully implimenting Sash Lilac, Carol Tea, and Milla the Hound's full movesets into Sonic 1 engine and level design.

which I really don't know how I feel about given the fundamental level design, physics, and attack method differences between sonic and our three heroines... but in the coming years, it'll be an interesting experiment?

Offline ClexYoshi

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sorry for the double post, but [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npjM5xsfMgM[/youtube]

Offline Evan_B

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So Freedom Planet 2 was announced yesterday, and despite my mixed impressions on the original, I'm strangely hyped for it. The reveal trailer is just cinematic and nonsensical, but they have mentioned a few things-

-The art style is being overhauled and the characters will have very different proportions.
-There's a sort of in-game difficulty adjusting powerup you can get. It's implementation is strange.
-The life system will now allow a player to recover after dying with a little health to finish out a boss battle or sequence instead of restarting at a previous checkpoint. This is an insanely welcome addition.
-No more I-frame abuse, the next title will have a dedicated shield button.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Sorry about dredging this one up, but the beta builds for torque are out there and I thought I'd share some gameplay people are posting.



It seems Torque's gameplay is based less on being gunstar heroes and more that you choose a loadout of weapons  at the start of the level and then picking up the elemntal orbs gives you ammo for any gun you brought that has that ammo type. so the water upwards shot shoots a rapid fire bubble atack, while the lightning elemental one is more like silver tomahawk from Mega Man 6. that means in addition to torque's unlimited fire normal blaster, torque has 15 weapons to choose from.

there's also a half-complete stage that shows that Torque is getting an exclusive level much like how Milla does.

Offline ThePerm

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I got this game with the humble bundle. The first thing it did was remind me of old sonic games, which unlike others here I do enjoy. 
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Offline Lemonade

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I really liked this game when I played through it last year. I didnt finish it through, the last boss was too hard.

I forgot there was a sequel being made. I will probably buy that too.

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I also didn't finish it but not because it got too hard.  I probably just got distracted with something else that came out.  This is a good reminder to go finish it.

Offline Soren

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Let it be known that this forum (and Clex Yoshi) can encourage you to play new games (the Humble Bundle helped, too).

Just finished Freedom Planet this week. The game was pretty good. It looked beautiful and the animations were very nice overall. The writing was alright and the voice acting was ok, but I got more used to it as the game passed.

But as someone else mentioned I thought the boss fights were a drag. They required a level of precision and timing that the rest of the levels didn't really ask you to do. That and the invincibility frames were far too short. Once you got stuck on specific enemies or environments you could lose way too much health.

Overall I enjoyed it, but I figure this specific kind of game isn't really for me. I don't see myself picking up the sequel unless they make some specific changes.
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Offline ShyGuy

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Funny, I have been playing Freedom Planet myself. I think I am on level 4. Very fun game, but the between level cut scenes are too long!

Offline Lemonade

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I hope Freedom Planet 2 comes to Switch. I would much rather that than Sonic Mania

Offline sudoshuff

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Funny, I have been playing Freedom Planet myself. I think I am on level 4. Very fun game, but the between level cut scenes are too long!


I think you can turn those off.

Offline Phil

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Funny, I have been playing Freedom Planet myself. I think I am on level 4. Very fun game, but the between level cut scenes are too long!

I thought the levels themselves were too long. Needed to be split up in two for each.
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Offline Soren

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Levels were alright, but then again I wasn't interested in searching every little spot. The cutscenes were too long, specially at the start of the game when all you want to do is play. I tuned them out after a while.
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Offline Mop it up

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But as someone else mentioned I thought the boss fights were a drag. They required a level of precision and timing that the rest of the levels didn't really ask you to do. That and the invincibility frames were far too short. Once you got stuck on specific enemies or environments you could lose way too much health.
Yeah, I felt the same way. They feel more like bosses designed for run 'n gun shooters. I also feel like a lot of the normal enemies take too many hits for this kind of speedy gameplay.

I didn't really like this game, it felt sloppy to me. I'm glad I didn't pay money for it.

Offline ClexYoshi

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The bosses certainly come from a Gunstar Heroes school of design a bit in how much craziness they can cause. it can especially be tough to deal with some bosses as Milla who's designed for a slower style of play. sure, she reflects projectiles back with her shields, but she also  doens't push a lot of damage herself and is stationary while she defends with her shield. I'm happy to report that Milla will be getting the most work to her gameplay in Freedom Planet 2, if the trailers for that are anything to judge by.

Speaking of that, the Backer Beta on steam for Freedom Planet just got the complete Milla Adventure mode added in to play first before the public gets to. they also seem to have removed the torque time trial feature, so... I'm honestly getting worried about Torque Mode and Spade Mode with how much work they seem to have already put into Freedom Planet 2 and the Wii U's incoming death.

Still, I'm glad that I've accomplished my mission to get people to check this game out. I feel it's special and a sort of encapsulation of Sega Genesis/Saturn platformers in the same way that Shovel Knight is an encapsulation of NES stuff. I will say that my opinion may be colored a bit by the fact that this game's roots are steeped in online communities I frequent that aren't this place. there's so many little small things I like about this game, like enemies not doing contact damage unless they have spikes on them, and just... dumb attention to detail things like the dumb disco ball easter egg or being able to invade the bathroom stalls, or cutscenes where a character breaks a box and it has a powerup in it that they collect by moving around in the cutscene or the fact that there's button combos you can hold  to change a cutscene into a funny outtake where Lilac flubs a line and starts lauging her ass off and they actually animated scenes to contextualize bloopers.


Freedom Planet has a sort of video game-y heart and soul that doesn't pretend like it's got some sort of holier-than-thou meta commentary the game has to make it desirable beyond it's solid gameplay. I'm deeply just... thrilled I got people talking about this game here, especially since it's a game that could EAASILY get a PSN or XBLA port, and yet... here it is as a Steam, GOG, and Wii U release, and far too good of one to just get cast aside.


Offline Evan_B

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Here comes the apologist, Clex...

Joking aside, I see a lot of potential in Freedom Planet. But where only one character feels familiar and seems to gel with the level design of the game, Milla and Carol feel totally out of place and their mechanics aren't supported by the game design very well. After seeing Milla's gameplay in Freedom Planet 2, it looks like they have actually addressed the idea of balancing and improving her unique abilities in order to fit with the pacing. I have no hope for Carol.

I like the idea of Freedom Planet, but as said before in the thread, the really distinct styles of play present in the levels in comparison with the boss fights is its greatest flaw and ultimately doesn't allow the experience to feel well-rounded. I respect the idea of i-frame abuse a whole lot, but I'd rather see that implemented across the board in the level design, rather than these super long, essentially pretty easy levels. The boss fights are challenging, and if the game were simply centered around them, I could see making the characters' unique mechanics allowing the bosses to evolve in much more interesting ways. But ultimately, I think Freedom Planet doesn't want to embrace any of its unique aspects aside from its art style, which is a a shame because that's the most gaudy and annoying aspect of the game.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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and now I have a forum signatre.  :D

Also, I think the whole shuriken they added to carol's gameplay for FP2 lends to what they made ehr for, which is an emphasis on being able to explore the vertical limits of levels to collect things like each level's trading cards. characters like Carol and Milla also start making sense when you watch someone play as them who's really good.

Offline Evan_B

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Well, what are you waiting for, Clex? Entertain me!

Final new character revealed for FP2. What do you think?
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Offline ClexYoshi

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I think Neera has some potential to be awesome, especially if folks figure out a way to use her ability to ice enemies for Wall Zips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kCTHcMpNkM

not gonna do an embed code, but uh... here's a SDGQ run for Milla. she's actually faster and shreds bosses way more efficiently than Lilac or carol.

Offline Evan_B

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Huh. I'll be honest, I thought the block blasts were new with FP2. Shows how well the game explains itself.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2017, 01:17:25 PM by Evan_B »
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Huh. I'll be honest, I thought the block blasts were new with FP2. Shows how well the game explains itself.

Yeah, there's actually a LOT of moves the different characters get. Carol has quite a few things, like being able to dismount the bike, or the fact that her scratch attack does more damage if you use it after a pounce (jump in mid air) or a roll (while moving, crouch like Sonic does when he rolls into foes).

I chose to share the SDGQ Milla run because they got Strife on a skype call to discuss his philosophy of how he chose to design some things for Speed runners as long as it doesn't negatively effect casual players.

Offline Mop it up

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The presentation was certainly the best thing about this game. It's just too bad that the gameplay didn't receive the same level of care...!

Offline ClexYoshi

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the funny thing is I have the most issues with the game's presentation being incredibly inconsistent, and that seems to be something that has been a huge focus to fix in Freedom Planet 2.

For one thing, the promotional art for this series is... ALL over the place. I realize this is partially due to where most of the talent hails from fandom stuff, and a lot of time fandom artists are moreso about developing their own style and celebrating that rather than getting into direct style emulation. It's easy to tell that a different person designed Lilac, Carol, and Milla than say... Some of the other avalicians like Neera Li, General Gong, Mayor Xiao, etc.

Artwork used for the kickstarter promotional stuff, art for in-game assets, and various promotional images all come from different artists who make no effort to put in cohesion. that piece of 'cover art' used for the Wii U Splash Screen at the OST when you buy that off of bandcamp is done by a japanese artist by the name of Gashi-Gashi and looks WAY different from the stuff you see in the game. I suppose this is something similar to the effect of say... the Assface sonic phenominon where Sonic had a different design in western cultures than he did in japan, but i still find it jarring.

The voice acting is also REALLY inconsistent... I'm not just talking about quality of performance either, but rather folks like Amanda Lott's (Carol Tea) lines sounding like they were recorded on a headset microphone rather than a proper studio microphone. This also exists on the soundtrack, if you listen to how many tracks got reworked through development. I'd also say that you can tell which stages got worked on earlier (Dragon Valley, the first part of Relic Maze) Vs. content that came after they got kickstarter funding and could hire more sprite artists to make level design assets.


That being said, seeing freedom planet in motion is amazing and I really do respect how this game plays and feels. I really do urge you folks to watch some speedruns, or maybe just the Super Best Friends playthrouugh or... other things. there's so much charm and heart put into this game, and I respect little things like the devs keeping in exploits like Wall zips because it's fun for speed runners and doesn't hinder a normal playthrough.


That being said, I feel like the Shang-tu academy bonus stage that you can play in the time attack mode should have been a mandatory tutorial bit to better acclimate people to how each character controls in a controlled environment.

Offline Mop it up

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You'll note I didn't say the presentation was perfect, it certainly has issues. Just less issues than everything else...!

Offline Evan_B

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I can appreciate depth in a control scheme and mechanics. I still am not entirely sold on the level design of Freedom Planet, however, especially when there's such a variety in inputs in regards to combat. After understanding what the hell you're actually supposed to do with Milla, it throws the question of what this game is really supposed to be into even greater disarray. Some combat moves serve no purpose to enhance momentum. Some momentum-based moves are gimmicky and more of a pain to execute properly than they're worth seeing the result of.

The more I read and hear of the game, the more I understand just how niche its player base has to be in order to fully appreciate it, because the more I learn about the game, the less satisfying I find the prospect of replaying it. A lot of the mentality used in developing the mechanics seems to have been focused around making sure they fit into Sonic-esque level design but are also viable and deep enough to function similarly to inputs performed in a character action game. Except not really, because speed runners would rather have a reliable cycle of enemy attacks so that they can predict exactly how the boss fights are going to go in order to optimize speedruns. I mean, Platinum Games rarely executes combining movement options with combat viability in their games, and they're professionals!

In order to appreciate Freedom Planet, I have to be a Genesis-era cheese factor fan in terms of aesthetics and sound design, a speedrunning fan, a sort of Sonic fan, and also a fan of character action inputs? Lordy, the whole reason I can keep talking about this game is because it has so many angles, and there's very few I actually like...! I'm gonna call it a day on the franchise, especially after having seen gameplay of the sequel. I still respect Freedom Planet for what it is, even if I don't think it executes on it all that well, but from a basic play through, I didn't particularly enjoy myself, and with all that I know now, I can't see myself enjoying it any more. While I'm not really a fan of the meta-commentary on "level design teaching game mechanics organically" folks have lauded in games like Shovel Knight, I think Freedom Planet is a series that desperately needs that sort of thought put into it, especially if it wants to appeal to a broader audience.
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Offline Mop it up

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Evan_B is pretty much saying what I would say, which is allowing me to sit back and be lazy. Thanks, Evan_B!

Offline pokepal148

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At the same time, unlike the Genesis Sonic games I actually finished iy.

Offline ClexYoshi

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you got me there, Evan. I can personally see where the level design and the mechanics and the character design all mutated from, and I can appreciate this game quite a bit. I'm going to chart it, not nessesarily defend it.


Naturally, starting as a sonic fangame, level design was something Strife wanted to nail first; having that multi-tiered level design that both had the hits of exploration the likes of Sonic CD, S3&K, and Sonic advance 3 had going on was something he wanted, but he wanted to take out things that constantly break the flow of that. that's why there's almost NO instant death pits or enemies or asshole spike locations that actively grind the game to a halt.

Somewhere along the line, the idea of Dr. Eggman Bossfights came up, and usually those tend to be... piss easy to outright bad and non-engaging. This is where some of the Treasure inspired ideas for mini-boosses, mid-stage bosses, and end bosses come in. some of these are pretty overt such as the 7 Force inspiration with the boss fight with syntax at the end of Final Fortress 1 or the Serpentine mech from Fortune Street 2 being a direct riff on a Mischief Makers boss.

Sonic Romhacks and fan games were finding ways to impliment all sorts of moves into the sonic games in the same way that Sonic Advance trilogy and Sonic rush did, trying to give Sonic a spin dash, the super peel-out, Insta-shield, a double jump, and a homing attack  all on the same 3 button genesis controller control schemes. usually, players of these titles would have an easy enough time exploring the controls and figuring out what's what among the community that frequent things like Sonicretro.org or the Sonic Ameteur Game Expo competitions, which Freedom Planet was entered into the 2012 SAGE competition. In this bubble, Lilac's Sparkster style boost and (at the time) normal spin-dash along with her kick attacks were well recieved.

However, the devs then decided they wanted to take it away from where they'd actually be infringing on Sega or be tagged as a fangame, and so further things were tweaked and in their core group of QA testers, things seemed to be going swimmingly. the levels stuck to the core ideas of being clearable by all the characters, who felt distinct yet comparable besides the stages later in development made specifically to highlight abilities exclusive to a character. More of the Treasure style batshit insanity was put into stages like Battle Glacier and the final dreadnaught stages, but designed in JUST such a way that because the enemies don't do contact damage and have windup before they spray bullets everywhere that you can mostly speed by the most threatening enemies, and things kept shaping up for their small but dedicated QA team, which probably consisted of people who were part of the target demographic for this game anyhow.

I mean, not that getting the Sonic Adventure style furry drama there wasn't a priority either, because it totally was... not to mention getting sprite artists who could properly realize things. if you look at that old SAGE2012 demo of Dragon Valley, it's looking a heck of a lot more... flat than it does in the final product when they hired more sprite folks.

I don't think Strife expected Freedom Planet to do as well as it's done... not to mention it was pretty much Galaxytrail's first game as a company. I'm surprised they immediatley were like "YEAH FREEDOM PLANET 2!" instead of goingg to a different project, but... yeah.

Offline ShyGuy

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The bosses in Freedom Planet get a little ridiculous...

Offline Evan_B

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Again, I understand that evolution, but enemies like the Brevon soldiers, while not an issue for the speed running community, clash with the level design philosophy and flow of the game entirely. The problem with altering a vision halfway through development is that it loses its identity. Freedom Planet's only identity comes from its pseudo-oriental, Sonic-esque art. The level design, though justified, is muddled, the combat is muddled, and its exploitable enough to be embraced by speed runners.

I can pretty clearly see why they're moving forward with Freedom Planet 2. They created a mixed game that they want to polish. They want to create a proverbial Mega Man 2 to solidify the formula. It's just not a formula I necessarily think is a step in the right direction. Once again, I can appreciate the little bits of design that comprise the final product, but the final product still just feels like a mish-mash of little bits. Not cohesive.
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Offline Lemonade

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The bosses in Freedom Planet get a little ridiculous...

Yes, I had a lot of trouble with the second last boss. I could never beat the final one