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

[Phil]

Link us to it, Evan!

[Evan_B]

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.

[ClexYoshi]

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?

[ClexYoshi]

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

[Evan_B]

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.

[ClexYoshi]

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.

[ThePerm]

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. 

[Lemonade]

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.

[sudoshuff]

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.

[Soren]

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.

[ShyGuy]

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!

[Lemonade]

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

[sudoshuff]

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.

[Phil]

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.

[Soren]

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.

[Mop it up]

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.

[ClexYoshi]

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.

[Evan_B]

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.

[ClexYoshi]

and now I have a forum signatre. 

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.

[Evan_B]

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

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

[ClexYoshi]

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.

[Evan_B]

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

[ClexYoshi]

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.

[Mop it up]

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...!

[ClexYoshi]

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.