An Alternate Sonic?: Freedom Planet (PC/PS4/Wii U/Switch, 2014) Review

 *LAST TIME (ON MY SONIC RETROSPECTIVE)*

“Or if you’ve played Sonic Mania, I’d also probably recommend Sonic Advance over this game. Or various Sonic fan games and ROM hacks like Sonic Before and After the Sequel. Or hell, some indie games that are inspired by classic Sonic gameplay like Spark the Electric Jester, and that one game with a purple dragon and green cat that has a story involving aliens taking over the world and has a sequel in development and may be coming out within the next year. What is that game called, again?”

The time has come.

To sort of coincide with my Sonic retrospective, I wanted to do a review of a game I often see compared to the classic Sonic games, which happens to be one of my favorite games, Freedom Planet.

Freedom Planet was originally released in 2014 by an indie studio called “GalaxyTrail”, founded by the game’s lead designer and programmer, Sabrina DiDuro. The game was originally conceived all the way back in 2011 starting off as a Sonic fangame, but creative decisions led to the game being spun off into it’s own IP entirely while keeping a more Sonic-y influence on top of inspiration from other 16-bit titles. The main characters of the game - Sash Lilac, Carol Tea, and Milla Basset - were designed by Ziyo Ling and were discovered by Sabrina of DeviantART while looking for inspiration, and Ziyo Ling herself would be credited as the game’s lead character designer.

The game’s first demo was released in August 2012 alongside a Kickstarter to help fund the creation of the game. It proceeded to be completed and released less than two years later on July 21, 2014, and received overall good reviews from critics and gamers alike - especially among fans of the Sonic series, in which it’s influence and inspiration were definitely noted.

The game ended up being such a success that, on Christmas Day of the following year, a teaser trailer for the game’s sequel, (appropriately titled) Freedom Planet 2, was uploaded to Youtube.

I will say though that I didn’t know about the game until about a year after it’s release. I didn’t really keep up that much with gaming news unless it was just what Nintendo was doing, and especially since this was an indie game that didn’t really have as much fanfare compared to more major releases throughout the year, Freedom Planet would just kind of slip past me at first.

And I was originally introduced to the game through a good friend of mine, one I met on a forum site for a horse-related show and one I’m still good friends with to this day. She had bought the game during the Steam sale and was singing its praises and recommending that I play it - often referring to it as an even better spiritual successor to the classic Sonic games - who to this day also considers it one of her favorite games. I’m not going to say who she was, since I do want to respect her privacy, but she’s probably reading this and knows I’m talking about her. And if she is reading this… well, you’re a great friend and thank you for introducing me to this fantastic game <3

But anyway, since I was, of course, a very big Sonic fan, I figured I had to try it out at some point. Which I did towards the end of that summer - I initially missed out on the game during the Steam sale but I figured I would just bite the bullet and buy the game at it’s $15 price tag since I did have money left over from chores, birthdays and shit.

And the game was, from the start, a really positive experience. I did have a bit of trouble with it in the first couple levels in terms of understanding the controls and mechanics (and honestly it did kick my ass throughout the entirety of my first playthrough), but ultimately it was a fun, well-designed, in-depth and very challenging platformer. And especially since that was not long after Sonic Boom released and the series had sort of fallen into “laughing stock” status all over again, this game did give me a good, new experience that was similar to Sonic but still managed to feel fresh on it’s own.

In fact, this is actually one of those games I reviewed on MLPForums in 2015, where I declared it to be my second favorite game of all time. And while I’m not sure I’d rank it at *that* position these days (mostly as a result of how many new games that have come out and others I’ve played for the first time), I still do consider it to be at least among my Top 10 favorite games of all time, and it is one of those perennial games I try to return to at least every year. 

But of course, considering that it has been a few years since then and my writing style in general has gotten more fleshed out with experience, I have wanted to revisit this game and why I still think so highly of it.

So that’s what I did. And after playing through the stories of all three characters, plus Torque’s Time Attack stages via the PC version’s “beta” tab, I am now ready to take another look at this game.

In the world known as Avalice, there exists a relic known as the Kingdom Stone, which provides energy to the three kingdoms, Shuigang, Shang Mu and Shang Tu. However, the stone is losing energy, causing tension between the different kingdoms, topped off by warlord named Brevon wanting to take the stone for himself - which he does so by taking over the kingdom of Shuigang, killing the king and brainwashing the king’s son, Prince Dail, into doing his bidding. An alien named Torque is aware of all this, and in the process of trying to save the stone, is met by two of the game’s main characters - Sash Lilac and Carol Tea, who, along with Milla Basset (who they meet after she rescues Carol from a cave) try to help on behalf of Shang Tu and Shang Mu to retrieve the stone and bring the kingdoms back together.

Freedom Planet’s story admittedly isn’t anything too particularly special - it definitely harkens back to those retro-style game plots, and while there is a lot more nuance to the story and the events that take place, it does largely fall back on those sorts of tropes and doesn’t particularly stand out too much.

At the same time though, there is definitely a lot to enjoy. I feel like the game does a good job with balancing it’s tone - being serious when it needs to but occasionally falling down and just giving us funny moments between the characters and that sort of thing. I really like hearing the lore of Avalice and Brevon’s backstory, plus the worldbuilding between the three kingdoms.

The voice acting I think is pretty good, especially for an indie project. The voices fit their characters really well and when playing this game, they do a good enough job of making the characters feel like actual people in some respect. I will say I did notice the sound mixing was off in some cutscenes - sometimes it felt like the music was a tad loud and the voices too soft - but otherwise, I felt the voice actors generally did a good job.

But I think for me the characters are definitely the best part of the story. The three ‘main’ characters - Lilac, Carol and Milla - are all just really likable and have their own distinct personalities. I like Lilac’s confidence, I like Carol’s snarkiness, and let’s just say Milla is a cinnamon roll. I’d say ultimately my favorite character is Sash Lilac, both in terms of personality and gameplay, but let’s save the latter for later. 

I also like Torque’s character, being a bit more down to earth than the others while still having some of his own snarky moments here and there, although I do wish we had more on his backstory. Brevon’s definitely an effective villain - being a heartless ass you just want to defeat (especially after he hurts Milla). I also gotta say that Mayor Zao is my favorite of the leaders because… I mean, come on, who didn’t laugh at “5% off.”

In my MLPForums review of this game, I mentioned one of my biggest problems with the plot was the pacing. But playing it now I actually didn’t have quite as much of an issue with it. And it’s not necessarily just because I’ve played this game multiple times and have gotten used to it, but the creators apparently did take note of this issue and did cut out a lot of the filler-y dialogue.

I mostly didn’t notice or remember everything that was cut out, although I do remember there was a line of dialogue in the scene with Mayor Zao treating Team Lilac to dinner where after Carol and Milla remark how they “love sushi”, Lilac makes a joke about them both liking something, followed by them all laughing. I remember seeing this joke in my first playthrough of the game, but in the last few times I’ve played through it, it seems that they cut that bit of dialogue out and it just cuts to them laughing after Carol and Milla’s lines. Which is a bit awkwardly out of place, although I’m not really sure the original gag made much sense anyway.

There is also a line of dialogue where in the scene with Team Lilac in their treehouse, Carol makes a remark about Torque being afraid of cooties (as a reason for not hanging out with them), which as you may guess from context so far, seemed to have been cut out… in Lilac and Carol’s stories. That said, I did see that dialogue remaining intact when I played through Milla’s story.

Other than those though, I didn’t really notice a lot of dialogue being cut out, which I guess makes sense if the dialogue wasn’t really that important, and ultimately it does make the story feel better paced by trimming a lot of the fat that came with it.

On a presentation level, I really like this game’s visuals. I know the 8/16-bit pixel style is fairly overused at this point, especially in indie games, but there is a good reason why it’s overused and this game handles it fairly well. The visuals are colorful, yet have a cohesive theme to them, and the environments all look pretty good, with each level having it’s own unique, memorable theme to it.

The soundtrack is also really damn good - maybe not my favorite ever, but some tracks are definitely really catchy, memorable and fit the context of the game really well. My favorite level themes are definitely the ones for Fortune Night, but I also really like the themes for Relic Maze, Trap Hideout, Aqua Tunnel, and Dragon Valley which all sound really nice. I also particularly like the game’s main theme as well as Prince Dail’s boss theme. I think it just does an overall good job of setting the “mood” of the game and each level. It admittedly isn’t one I return to very often, but I’d still say the soundtrack is overall really good.

But let’s turn our attention to the gameplay. Now, I have been mentioning Sonic a lot here, and when it comes to this game, a lot of people do view it as being somewhat of a “Sonic clone” or, what I heard a lot around the game’s release, the “best Sonic game in years.” And putting all my jokes aside, I do have to admit that I don’t quite like the notion of it being a Sonic clone.

I mean, don’t get me wrong here, it definitely has a lot of inspiration - which can especially be seen in the level and character design, and of course the fact that this project did start out as a Sonic fan game - but I feel like the notion of it being a Sonic clone sort of negates it’s own identity.

Freedom Planet doesn’t quite play as much like a Sonic game as people would think. Yes, the levels do feature a lot of curvature and ramps, plus multiple pathways, and the player can utilize these design elements to build speed, but at the same time, I’d also say the game does have it’s share of its own gameplay elements that makes it stand out.

In particular, I’d say combat has a lot more of a focus here than in any Sonic game. Enemies and boss fights don’t just go down by the player jumping into them - each of the characters have their own moveset, which can not only be used to traverse each level but also take down enemies in some way. Usually, you have two main “attacks” when it comes to combat in this game - a “regular” attack, and a “special”, the latter of which generally deals more damage but uses up the “gauge” on the upper left hand side of the screen. 

These attacks, of course, vary based upon the character you are playing as. With Lilac, you have a “Hair Whip” attack, and your special allows you to essentially “boost” in any direction, allowing you to both run straight through certain areas and damage any enemies or bosses in the way. Milla’s attack can summon a cube which you can throw at enemies or bosses, or combine with your “special” (which on it’s own is a shield burst) for more power.

Carol Tea is a bit interesting when it comes to movesets though, as she essentially has two different movesets, so to speak. On her own, she has a claw attack along with a “pounce” and “wild claw”, but if you run over a gas tank, she can equip her motorcycle, and her special becomes a boost, which can also be used for an even more powerful claw attack.

I feel like this combat element ultimately becomes what separates Freedom Planet from just being a “Sonic clone,” per se. If anything, I sort of view Freedom Planet as more of a tribute to the 16-bit era as a whole, and while Sonic is definitely an inspiration, it’s pretty clear that it also contains influence from games like Mega Man X and Gunstar Heroes, and blending these elements among others to create it’s own identity and unique experience. I sort of see it in a similar light to how I see Overwatch to Team Fortress 2 - a game that definitely takes inspiration (which in both cases the creators discuss), but also contains a lot of it’s own design philosophy and gameplay elements that make it stand out.

I mean, the characters themselves don’t even really play quite like any Sonic characters. The closest is Lilac, which sort of helps considering she is considered the game’s “speed-based” character, but even then she doesn’t feel quite the same as Sonic, with the more expanded moveset she has. Carol and Milla definitely don’t play like any Sonic characters I’ve played, nor does Torque in the game’s future beta build. I mean, I guess Carol’s Pounce attack is… somewhat similar to Knuckles’ glide and she can… sort of climb on walls, albeit by jumping on them for height instead of actually climbing them? But even that’s really not the same thing.

On that note, I’ve sort of talked about the characters’ personalities and movesets, and how do I feel about them overall gameplay-wise? I think they are definitely unique and bring some variety while not straying completely away from the core gameplay. As I mentioned, I played through all of their stories before I started writing this review - some on lower difficulties than others. And ultimately I did really feel like each of them added to the gameplay in unique ways and I really liked the touch of them interacting with each other, not just through their stories and cutscenes, but in portions of gameplay. For example, seeing the rest of your team (Lilac, Carol, Milla, Torque) all “helping” you fight the boss in Fortune Night, or in Final Dreadnought Act 2, Milla supplying you with health and oxygen shields if you’re playing as any of the others.

I haven’t touched upon Torque yet either. Unfortunately, he isn’t actually in the official game, but if you own Freedom Planet on Steam, you can opt into one of the “betas” that’ll allow you to test “new” builds of the game, and from there, you’re able to play as Torque in the Time Attack mode for most of the game’s main stages. He’s definitely the most unique out of the bunch - this time all of his attacks are ranged weaponry, and you can select four weapons from sixteen overall. He can’t take advantage of the energy gauge, and his life span is lower than Lilac and Carol’s, but you have weapons you can use of varying degrees of power each with their own amount of ammo, and I did like playing as him quite a bit. It would’ve been interesting to see if he was added to the main game, what his story would’ve been like and what the gameplay would’ve been like on his end.

Supposedly, Spade was also planned as a main character, and you can apparently play as him using some hacky methods, but the legality of that is questionable and ultimately I decided against doing so for the time being.

But ultimately, playing as different characters was pretty fun, especially on the aspect of seeing their movesets and trying to take advantage of them in the boss fights or just against enemies, although at the same time, it did kind of make me see probably my only major issue with Freedom Planet’s gameplay. I don’t know if it’s just because I’ve played as Lilac more than any other character, but I feel like the game was designed around her primarily. It’s not so noticeable for the first half of the game or so, but I feel like the more the game goes on, a lot of the enemies and bosses can get really frustrating as playing as any character other than Lilac.

Don’t get me wrong here, this game’s challenging as it is regardless, but a lot of the time when I use a character other than Lilac, I kind of felt that some of the bosses… really didn’t feel quite as good to play against when playing as Carol, Milla or Torque.

I felt like this was most noticeable in the fights against Spade - whose movements and attacks feel unpredictable and hard to dodge in some cases - as well as both the bosses in Battle Glacier - Brevon’s ship and the last fight against Prince Dail. Both bosses having attacks and hitpoints in the air which are… simple enough to dodge with Lilac if you know her attacks, but harder when playing as any of the other characters. The game does sort of compensate for their lack of air movesets by placing bounce springs and, in Carol’s case, Warp Pads (which to an extent just kind of get in the way of fighting bosses), but it sort of feels like a band-aid upon the issue of their lack of movement options.

I especially have a hard time with Milla when it comes to fighting bosses. Her shield burst is quick but doesn’t deal much damage, and her main attack - her ‘block’ - is stronger, especially combined with the shield burst, but also takes a few seconds to charge, and when there’s hordes of enemies or boss attacks making you think fast, it’s sort of hard to time it right. On top of that you also have to aim your shield burst right but often I find myself too distracted by what’s going on to know where I have my shield angled.

And to be fair, this could just be me. Maybe I’ve played as Lilac so many times that I just, well, suck at the other characters. But I do sort of remember having a harder time with Carol alone on my first playthrough of her compared to my first playthrough of Lilac because of her lack of viable movement and combat options. And after playing the demo to Freedom Planet 2 with each character of that, I definitely feel like they are improving on the front of integrating multiple characters within the game’s design.

From there… I don’t have a lot to complain about. I definitely feel that the game’s levels are well designed - if there’s anything that shows the influence of Sonic with this game, it’s definitely in it’s levels. As mentioned, levels are generally designed utilizing curvature and ramps and whatnot, on top of just being big and open, allowing for exploration and experimenting with your paths. I believe I have made it clear that I really dig this kind of design in Sonic games - levels that offer replay value through alternate paths and areas, and allowing the player to take advantage of the characters’ speed and abilities for traversal - and Freedom Planet does offer a lot of that.

You can also find little goodies like extra lives and the game’s different colored shields which each have their own abilities, as well as collectibles like Star Cards, which give you access to soundtracks, concept art, and sound clips in the game’s gallery, as well as Tao Stones that give you access to a bonus stage, where the player can roll a die for shields or extra lives, with more rolls given depending on how many keystones - which can be found in treasure chests throughout the stage - the player has. It really adds an exploration aspect to the game and it’s level design, rewarding the player for navigating throughout each level and utilizing each characters’ abilities to do so.

Top that off with some really good level themes that are also integrated well with unique mechanics in each level. For example - Jade Creek being a bamboo forest with dandelion fluff that you can hang off of or Sky Battalion being split up between three different airships. I also like some of the minor details like Lilac, Carol or Milla dancing when you get near a disco ball in Fortune Night.

I’d say my favorite levels were Fortune Night - a really nice, colorful level that feels like a modernization of something like Casino Night and Stardust Speedway and Jade Creek - which sports a really beautiful color palette and really nice scenery with the bamboo stalks in the background and foreground. But I feel like every level this game was to some extent well designed and had really nice theming that made each level stand out from each other. 

The only portions of levels I didn’t really care for were the first part of Battle Glacier where you’re either fighting on a dragon with Lilac or using tanks as Carol or Milla - this just felt kind of lame and out of place compared to the rest of the game - and also parts of Final Dreadnought where hordes of Brevon’s soldiers would come at you (which take fucking forever to kill) but at the same time I was able to just not bother with most of them so that wasn’t much of an issue either.

To top that off, the controls are really snappy and fluid, making replaying these levels and taking advantage of the characters’ movements and abilities, as well as fighting the different bosses, all the more satisfying. Pulling off movements - especially with Lilac’s boost and Carol’s motorcycle - feels really nice and the game is designed in a way that really lets you take advantage of them for various purposes, whether to fight enemies or traverse the level design in different ways. The game allows for a lot of “tech” which the developers left in for speedrunners or players in general to take advantage of when playing the game and mastering the controls, and I think that is pretty cool.

The bosses are also really well designed despite my issues playing against them as the other characters. They do go for a lot of that classic era philosophy of having patterns to look out for and memorize even if they are technically open to attacks at any time - making the player really try to nail those patterns and find opportunities to attack.

The game also provides a good amount of challenge. I will warn you, it will probably kick your ass if you’re not familiar with retro game design, but as someone who’s done a lot of retro gaming and whatnot in my life, it was the retro game design that really appeals to me about this game - and the challenge it gives you really helps make the game feel all the more satisfying to go back to as you continue to understand the game and improve your own skills, on top of exploring and going through alternate areas of the levels. But it doesn’t feel particularly bullshit-y or overly difficult at least enough so that I didn’t just give up on the game. You also have the option to change the difficulty settings if it gets too hard for you.

Conclusion

What else can I say? Freedom Planet still holds up really well after I first played it over 6 years ago, and is still one game I really enjoy playing and going back to. Playing it this last time, with all the characters, really helped me to see what I really appreciated about it, and I’m definitely looking forward to the game’s sequel releasing sometime soon.

Granted, if you asked me whether I prefer this or the Sonic games, that… sort of depends. When it comes to judging Freedom Planet vs my favorite Sonic games, Generations and Mania, I admittedly feel like it’s kind of hard to top those two for me.

But that’s probably just a result of Freedom Planet not necessarily being a spiritual Sonic successor to me. Personally, I see Freedom Planet to the 16 bit era as Shovel Knight was to the 8 bit era - a tribute to that time period that builds off and blends a lot of elements from games of that era to make a unique experience. Freedom Planet doesn’t necessarily offer anything new on it’s own, but it’s how it improves upon gameplay elements that worked well and just makes a game that’s just a fun experience that pays tribute to that era.

And for me, I think it did a great job - the game is just a really nice one to keep going back to, and definitely among my favorites of all time with it’s snappy controls, great level design and lovable cast. I would definitely recommend giving it a shot if you haven’t, especially if you’re a fan of Sonic or 16-bit games in general, while suggesting you to keep in mind that Freedom Planet isn’t necessarily the same thing as Sonic. It’s a great experience on it’s own, and definitely worth the $15.

Now to just wait for Freedom Planet 2.