Freedom Planet

This is more than just a would-be Sonic fangame!

A fun, fast platformer with robust speed and combat mechanics, charming and stylish visuals, and a killer soundtrack.

Freedom Planet draws much inspiration from Sonic the Hedgehog. It makes use of multilayered levels, a mix of speed and careful platforming, and visual flair like loop-the-loops.

There are three playable characters which have their own playstyle; Lilac, Carol, and Milla. These are very much like Sonic, Knuckles and Amy since the different styles lead to different difficulties. There are also a few difficulty options independently of this.

Lilac can use her Dragon Boost ability to zip across the environment and deal damage to enemies. This dash is horizontally or diagonally but not vertically. Carol is more combat-oriented and can also climb walls. Milla is more defense-focused with her energy shield.

I didn’t pay too much attention to the story, but there are a few clans, an alien that the group are helping, and fighting against the evil Lord Brevon. There are fairly lengthy cutscenes between the levels, and it can be quite dark in tone, with a beheading scene and a torture scene. It’s a large contrast between the graphical style and delivery of the voice acting.

The voice acting is better than the average Sonic game but yet I think it is meant to be slightly cringey. The tone is often very childish, but then has the dark moments like I explained.

The first 9 acts have 2 levels, then the final has 4. Each level is very large, often consisting of multiple parts, and the second level ends in a boss. Bosses have interesting designs and some of them are huge. I don’t like the slow mo finish to the boss battles. It just seems like the game is lagging like hell.

Control is more rigid than momentum based. The platforming works better than Sonic: It doesn’t pop up enemies out of nowhere or being hit from an enemy off-screen. There are no bottomless pits for cheap deaths. When the game wants you to go fast, you don’t have to deal with springs sending you back where you came from, or a sudden pit/obstacle you’d only know is there by trial and error. I think the game designers were fully aware of the flaws in the Sonic franchise, and eschewed them.

There’s a great sense of exploration without feeling lost. You do generally go left to right, but there’s plenty of branches and it is fairly easy to backtrack. There’s some sections where you need to explore rooms to hit switches, or grab keys.

Enemies can be taken down by melee combat. It’s interesting that you don’t take damage unless they are actively attacking, so sometimes you can just run straight through them instead of fighting. Defeating enemies drop rewards though. You collect gems, and collecting a certain target gives you an extra life.

You have lots of health which can be restored by the red gems. When you have half a point, it regenerates to a full point if you don’t take more damage. There’s a similar power-up to Sonic where you are surrounded by stars as a protective bubble.

I found there was an absolute massive difficulty spike in the final act and because it is a 4-parter; you need to allocate a long time to play it. The game told me I died 49 deaths across the game, but 25 of those were on the final level. Luckily, the lives system is pointless and a game over restores 5 lives and takes you back to the checkpoint.

I think the game takes the good parts from Sonic and throws away the bad parts. There aren't many Sonic games I consider good, but this is better than all of the ones I’ve played. That final level holds it back.