No one has rated this review as helpful yet
Recommended
15.9 hrs last two weeks / 15.9 hrs on record
Posted: 16 Jan @ 3:34am
Updated: 16 Jan @ 3:39am

If Freedom Planet was like a better 16-bit version of classic Genesis titles like Sonic, Rocket Knight, and Ristar then Freedom Planet 2 is like an even better version of the 32-bit Saturn games they never had.

The three main playable characters from the first game return along with a fourth protagonist playable for the first time. Lilac having hair whip attacks a long ranged dodge move and a special attack that can either launch her forward or forward and up or down while bouncing off any surface she comes into contact with. Carol has fast attacks, can wall jump, has the Sonic styles rolling attack, a throwable disk weapon that she can teleport to, and the ability to find her motorcycle that she can either ride or store to access later. Milla has slower physical attacks but has a shield that can deflect enemy projectiles that also allow for a ranged attack, a jump you can hold that has her slowly gaining more height, and can call in blocks that follow her that can be shot for a powerful piercing ranged attack or fired quickly behind or below her for some added speed or height on a jump. Neera has a slower but longer ranged spear attack that can also fire ranged strikes when stationary, a dodge that also activates a focus mode that makes her attack faster, her spear thrusts can add to her forward momentum and launch her forward in mid air, and her special ability gives her various ice powered moves like freezing a hit target or making a whirlpool around her to hit near or aerial targets. Despite their differences in playstyle, each of the four playable characters can build up a fast speed that remains controllable thanks to the combination of view space, tight controls, the dodge move that gives brief invulnerability frames, and a lack of instant kill traps and death pits that you would constantly find in the Sonic games. You have to choose a character at the start of the game and play through entirely as them, you can make 10 different save files but this was still disappointing as you would need to acquire any items or side content again for each playthrough. Each character does get some unique cutscenes or lines when they run into some stage bosses and conversations inside of a stage might change as well depending on who you are controlling.

The stages themselves offer a lot of variety with many having their own kind of unique elements to them being the enemy types, unique objects to interact with, or even moments where you briefly control a giant robot or where the game becomes a shoot em up as you take control of a ship. Before going into a level you can equip up to two items and create a potion bottle by filling it five times with the same or different potion types to increase different passive effects, many of these will make you stronger in different ways while equipping nothing or items with penalties can improve your score. The items bring a bit more possible variety on top of what the different characters already add to the game.

The graphics have been improved and the character animations and stage backgrounds have a lot of detail and personality, even for more minor animations like hitting a bumper at a fast speed and having a short period where your character might be running backwards with a unique animation before turning around or Carol still managing to climb on ropes while on her motorcycle but now clearly straining from the effort.

On the normal difficult I found the game to be pretty easy, I never lost all my life stock in a stage forcing me to restart it. When you die you can use one of your lives to either start at your last checkpoint or to respawn in the same spot with only one of your seven life points intact. I played on normal, setting it to hard or equipping no items or items with penalties to get a higher stage ranking would make the game more difficult for people looking for a challenge, and for people looking for even less of a challenge there is an easy mode and a variety of assist options that can be turned on.

With the large number and wide variety of stages with both good level design and detailed environments, responsive controls, a decent story, and variety with the four playable characters and equipable items and potions this is easily one of the better action platformers I've played and the best that has a focus on speed and/or perfecting stage speed runs. The first game was good enough that no one should have cared about getting a new 2D Sonic game with Freedom Planet out and this sequel improves on the first in every way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn0eMMu4vEw
Screenshots: https://bsky.app/profile/kennanw.bsky.social/post/3lfu6ipbnus23
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award