I've put more time into Neera since making this video, and I've come to like her. Her weaker options force you to play in a more "vanilla" style a lot of the time, rather than all the crazy maneuvers everyone else can do. Puts more emphasis on skillful platforming and maintaining your momentum. And combat-wise you need to be a lot more careful, since she lacks any invincible moves. And be more thoughtful about what moves best suit the situation. She's fun.
I actually chose Neera for my first playthrough since she was a new playable character, and while it was definitely a harder experience, it was one that helped me learn to be more careful, and as you said, forced me to engage with the enemies and hazards more.
@@lauraikokoWho would be a stronger? The military commander of one of the most powerful nations in the world, heart and soul devoted to country, and trained accordingly… Or two random kids from a gang and their pet dog?
8:02 this entire sequence of rushing through enemies and hazards while barely slowing down feels SO MUCH like what Sonic should feel like. Its like if the Sonic Unleashed opening cinematic was playable... That sense of the opposing forces trying everything in their power to stop you, but to no avail.
I’d argue that the advance games and the rush games IS sonic team evolving the 2d sonic formula. Better sprites, new moves for you to play with(like rail grinding and boosting, just to name a few),and actual cutscenes. Now, the advance trilogy and rush duology aren’t perfect, but I think we can all agree that at the very least an attempt was made. But now for some reason sega thinks that the only way for Sonic to exist in a fully 2d game is for him to be stuck in is classic form with little to no new moves and mechanics. Which I find very irritating
Erm ACKSHUALLY those games weren't developed by Sonic Team!!🤓 ....but it still sucks that Sonic Advance 3 is the most mechanically complex sonic game whilst being simpler than these games. Also, boosting and rail grinding? Those are the last things I would've brought up as evolutions in Dimps' games.
I can give CD and Generations credit for having dynamic cameras that extend in front of you when you pick up speed, and I'm not crazy about how jittery the artwork seems to be in Freedom Planet 2 when it pulls things back that far. But overall, goddamn, it sure would be novel to play a 2D Sonic game where it was less about intuiting the off-screen challenges and worked more like this. Feel like that could open up limitless potential for complex and diverse gameplay, like more exploratorey Knuckles levels, or Tails levels truly built around creative flying challenges. Incidentally why is this video hidden?! I had no idea it existed till now!
Sonic Superstars having 3D graphics was a perfect occasion to zoom the camera out but instead they decided to zoom it in even more :/ (and the video is hidden because Pariah is waiting for the Sonic X Shadow Generations hype to die down a bit, this video would probably do bad numbers if it went public when it was finished)
@@KC.086 From what I've heard, it's not actually zoomed in in Superstars, it's apparently exactly the same as the Genesis titles. It just might feel that way because 3D or something, the 3D perspective of things can make the left and right ends be a bit more cut off or something than flat 2D. But the zoom on the characters is the same I'm fairly sure.
He left the video on Kofi for people have access before Shadow Gens hype dies a little. Most videos are available there 1 day earlier, this is an exception haha
Personally, I don't like zoomed out cameras. The level art and character animations especially while running, are part of the appeal for me and it overloads with too much going on, on screen at once. I'm glad 2D sonic games don't do this. Otherwise you might as well play lemmings or something. I can kind of understand a need for zooming in games like the freedom planet games but it's only because those games seem to give you too much to think about while playing. Another thing I prefer in Sonic is the one button move sets. It's genius.
dude! you've convinced me to try out freedom planet 2 with this videos and holy shi... I've found my favourite game ever! thank you SO much for this! you have my endless gratitude!
YESSSS!!!!! Finally an overly long review video on the Freedom Planet games!! I've been wanting you to do this for ages these games are amazing and more people need to know about them!!!!!!
I beat Freedom Planet 1 for the first time as Lilac recently, and I gotta say, most of my time was spent being frustrated by the bullshit parts in the game rather than having fun with it. This video made me want to give it another shot though. Maybe I just need to get used to the games mechanics or try playing as another character or something. I'm DEFINITELY gonna buy freedom planet 2 though, I wasn't even aware of the game before you made it known to me.
I don’t think so. My main issue was enemy attacks coming from offscreen where I can’t see them. It feels like they took megaman enemies and put them in a fast paced sonic game with close quarters combat. The screen zoom in FP2 definitely helps though.
Both Freedom Planet games get exponentially better once you memorize boss patterns. If you completed it once, your next run is going to be much more fun.
I'm more hyped than ever to try these out now. See you at the Spark trilogy review! BTW, I kind of prefer the first game's "cartoon" look over the second game's 90s'/2000s' kemono look.
I'm glad both games have become some of your favorite 2D Platformers. As someone who speedruns FP2 , I have spent so many hours experimenting with every character's moveset, and it almost feels endless the sort of stuff you can perform by mixing moves with physics. Lilac has some cancel tech with Cyclone and Dive Kick, Carol can mix both the Pounce and Kick attack for really high-speeds, Milla can get so much air mobility and recoil out of her Super Shield Burst, and Neera's Glide combined with Focus and her Down Attack, gives her some of the best Horizontal Mobility and Damage Output in the game. Also the ablity to absorb energy from enemies. The levels, while they feel long at first, really complements the speedrun appeal in most High-Speed Platformers and become really satisfying when you rush through a 7-15 minute level on your first attempt into 3-6 minutes once mastered. And these levels rarely throws any slow-paced gimmicks, constantly letting you keep the fast pace throughout as long as you can maintain it with your mastery of the character. Legit some of the best games in this group of Sonic-like platformers (I prefer calling them High-Speed Platformers).
I'm so glad you finally covered this series, hopefully it will get more eyes on it because it's a really underrated pair of games. I discovered it last Christmas, and I instantly fell in love with it. Freedom Planet 2 specifically is one of my top 3 games of all time. All the levels flow well, and it's just a blast to play the whole way through. For the story tho, I do have my own take on it. From a writing standpoint, yea its pretty amateurish. But it does have a heart. Like it's not afraid to to be itself whatsoever, and its really endearing for that. Though you can find a lot of enjoyment from the story of both games if you turn off the adult part of your brain and judge through the lens of "Would 10 year old me have lost their shit over this?" Freedom Planet 1 specifically has this sort of whimsical rawness that makes me feel oddly nostalgic. I'm so mad I didn't pick this game up when it came out because I would've loved it as a kid.
One thing I know about Taoism is the 5 elements which are water, fire, earth, metal, and wood. The creators of Freedom Planet seems to know about the 5 elements too considering the 5 elemental shields.
19:00 I can really understand the reasoning that levels are too long if they are 12-13 min plus but I think you maybe are overestimating how long the levels in FP1 are. The longest lvl is definitely battle glacier at around 12min for sure which definitely helps your point, but pretty much every other stage is reasonably around the 5-9 minute mark with decent optimization which I don’t feel too bad especially when you consider boss fights take up a bit of that time as well.
@ I can get that maybe to me I just enjoy the gameplay that much that I’m willing to invest just a bit more but I understand why many would feel it’s too long even still.
What the hell, why is this so cool? Genuinely seems really well designed. Especially the combat. Still counting the day until you cover castlevania though ngl. Some of those games are great 2d action combat platforming games.
Did you know that in Freedom Planet 1 on steam if you go to properties and select betas and select "Beta - For testing new builds" you can actually play a version of the game where Torque is playable in Time Attack? There's also a PAX Demo floating around where Spade is also playable. Apparently, both Spade and Torque were going to have their own campaigns but reasons as to why they were cut is a mystery.
The removal of touch damage alone elevates Freedom Planet over most 2D Sonic games for me, and over most 2D platformers tbh. Getting hurt because you made contact with an enemy who was simply existing is bullshit and shouldn't be a thing in ANY platformer IMO, 2D or 3D. You want something to hurt me when I touch it? Make it obvious, make it spikey, don't blindside me with it off-screen. Perfect timing with this upload too, since FP2 is on sale on PSN and Nintendo Eshop rn. I've been wanting to play it since launch but the price was just a bit too high for what I expected of it, but this seems like the perfect time to get it :D
I mean, FP compensates in spades with all of the off-screen damage and poorly telegraphed attacks. Spark is the only one truly commiting to the no bullshit rule.
@guynah7871 It would irritate me less lol An idle state and an attacking state just feel more fair, more real. When you get hurt by an enemy who can only hurt you during its attack animation, which is triggered by your presence, that hit is 100% your fault and not the result of cheap enemy placement
@@aortaplatinumHonestly. It feels really lazy. I don’t know if frontiers had this though but it would be cool if like EGG BOTS shot lazers that forced sonic to mantain a certain level of speed or something.
Not only are these games great Sonic-likes BUT more importantly (for a Treasure fanatic like me) GREAT homages to Treasure action games, in the gameplay, boss battles and the music! Even have Melon Bread as cameo boss battles (who they call Lemon Bread ☺️)
According to the _Freedom Planet_ Series Producer, Sabrina DiDuro, the name was just something that she came up on the fly, and its resemblance to the setting of the _Sonic_ OVA was just a coincidence.
I remember being a little kid and finding out about Freedom Planet 2's announcement. I got in high school, ended high school, got a job, got fired, all of that before the bloody sequel came out.
I personally fell in love with the franchise from the first moment I had contact with it. Every step of the way I was filled with the same sense of accomplishment and joy that I had when I was a little kid beating Sonic 1 on the Master System for the first time, only this time the feeling was elevated tenfold. Freedom Planet is magical for me, and it's a shame that not enough people can appreciate it for what it truly is, a goddamn masterpiece. Even though I compare them to the Sonic games, I don't do it out of spite or because I think A is better than B, I just believe both complement each other perfectly well, and I can't imagine having one without the other anymore.
2:42 In fact, this character has a couple of mechanics taken from the Yoshi games (Mario's dinosaur friend).For example, the flight system is exactly the same, and Yoshi's egg throwing may have inspired the cubes the character throws.
6:34 this kind of thing killed my enjoyment of the gameplay of sonic adventure 2 for YEARS. probably the better part of a decade at least. i never knew how to finesse the controls and taking risks to learn always felt so, so not worth it. it took a decent amount of modding to get it to FINALLY feel good to play, and even now it’s still incredibly punishing. final rush especially is Very Very Bad when you don’t have enough of a grip on the physics and you’re burning through lives until you have to restart every five times you miss a jump for bullshit reasons and die instantly and lose all your score essentially nullifying the A rank
Our only hope of getting an expanded moveset in a 2D Sonic is if classic Sonic dies and Sega starts making new 2D Modern Sonic games with a brand new formula.
I suspect that the reason why many bosses in Freedom Planet feel unfair is because they go offscreen way too often. Most boss fights in Treasure games (and perhaps most 2D action games from the Mega Drive era) take place in a single-screen arena with little or no scrolling, which helps the player keep track of the boss's attacks and movement patterns, and FP1 breaks that rule over and over again. Freedom Planet 2 does the same, but being able to zoom out the screen alleviates this issue immensely.
@@Bestmotion2389I would try and defend the sonic games but I think this is rage bait because he’s reviewed pennys big breakaway and the 2d Mario games so…
@@technicallyinept2120 I can't provide a link here, but Sabrina's reaction was broadcasted on her Twitch channel - Spacey Batotelli. It was Part 58 of her _Chrono Gear_ development livestreams, and it was hosted back on November 8th.
43:33 Other than the exact same game with new stages and new characters (which I'd be completely open too), only other way I feel they could go is to translate their gameplay to 3d and see if they outshine Sonic in that department as well.
In defense of Sonic games' zoomed in cameras, I've played some Sonic fangames at SAGE that really zoom out the camera and as someone with bad eyesight, I have a hard time trying to see what my character is even doing and feel like I have to squint while playing them. It also makes the games look like cheap flash games if you zoom out too much IMO. Although if FP2 has it as an optional toggle, that's perfect. I still need to get this game, I loved FP1.
I had the same thoughts when I first played FP1 and FP2. It just felt like a step forward for the Sonic formula. I can't even think of anything said in the video that I'd disagree with - this man's spitting truth!
I'm glad you finally played Freedom Planet 2. Better late than never. It is also better late than the day of release as Freedom Planet got many updates. The latest one added Boss Rush. Freedom Planet 2 story may not be the greatest and may not be as great as Sonic Adventure 2, but at least the FP2 story doesn't have blatant plot holes that SA2 does. And I dare say that FP2 and even FP1 stories are better than all American-written Sonic games from 2010 and onwards. (Shadow Generations is an exception) Though to be honest there are a whole lot of stories better than American-written Sonic games. It is also worth noting how the lives/stock system works in Freedom Planet 2. You always start with 2 on any level (more or less with potions and items) you can get an extra stock if you collect enough crystals and if your character gets knocked out, you have a choice of revive with low health or start from the latest checkpoint with the most amount of health. And if you run out of stock, you have a choice to spend the crystal (if you have enough) to continue from the latest checkpoint or start the level from the very beginning. Also how the ranking system works is very simple. The percentage of the crystal bonus determines your rank. C rank: Less than 75% B rank: 75%-99% A Rank: 100%-124% S Rank: 125% and more (Will involve Brave Stone) There is also Rainbow S Rank which will require you to have a 200% crystal bonus which is +50% from deathless run, +125% modifier which will involve One Hit Ko Brave Stone, and +25% from hitless run. You can use shield potions for more shield points and you will keep a No Hit bonus even if you take shield hits. However, it will involve another brave stone to keep a 125% modifier and it hinges on reaching the shield crystal and some levels (usually the boss levels) will not have any shield crystals. What else? What else? Oh yeah, throughout the entire run of the game, there is no such thing as repeat boss battles. Ok, you fight Serpentine's Titan Armor but one time you fight it with a mech of your own and another time without your own mech. You also fight Merga twice but the first time is when you weren't meant to win and in the second encounter she get's new attack. Two Corazon battles are different enough. And yes, you could spar with Askal in Shang Tu where you fight the weaker version of Askal which is completely optional. Yeah, Freedom Planet 2 is awesome.
You can REALLY feel the inspirations from Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles used for these characters... The dragon rush and spin attack thing Lilac has feels like they could very easily be given to Sonic (like a dash and spin kick respectively) and it would feel right at home. Milla being able to fly is obviously Tails inspired, but also the cube thing feels like it could have been Tails' blaster thingy if they had gone with their original plan of making a Sonic fangame. And of course Carol... I could easily see Knuckles riding a motorcycle, and it wouldn't even feel out of character for some reason.
@@HarmonyBunny I have no clue tbh. Either way, she's from the second game. The first game was the one that was originally intended to be a Sonic fan game, so I'm sure they got even more creative with the sequel.
Freedom Planet 2 is on ironically my favorite Sonic game it sounds weird to say but it is my favorite 2D platformer of all time it is so good and it is criminally underrated
Hey so uhh i just bought the games on steam cause of the sale and for some reason FP 1 isn't starting like at all. all it shows black screen with a white rectangle taking up a fourth of of it. FP 2 runs fine on the other hand so i'm not entirely sure what the issue is. i did some casual searching but couldn't find anything. (i'm asking this here cause i ain't making a reddit account)
As much as I really enjoyed Freedom Planet when I played it, the one thing that really kept me from loving it was just how freaking long the stages were. I wanted to love the game so badly but after each 8 minute bout through a level, I just felt exhausted.
Similar criticism I have with FP1 (didn't play 2 yet) Love the stages mostly but I hardly replay them because they are too long. First time is definitely the most fun experience with them imo
@@Robotta Me personally I don't have much a problem with the long levels since it makes it more fun for me to find ways to cut the time down to about 4-5 minutes for each stage, but I can definitely say that Fp2 has shorter levels EXCEPT for one stage near the end of the game which will last about 15 minutes An fp2 stage on average would be around 2-6 minutes
Tbh after two or so playthroughs my playtime for each level shortened from 8-12 minutes to 3-5 minutes. Even Ancestral Forge which took me 23 minutes to complete first time now takes me 9 minutes. I am not blaming you for taking long, just saying that you can be way faster
In Sonic Adventure you no longer need to mash the button for Tails to fly tho, I don’t know why they didn’t change it for the newer 2D games It’s more elegant I agree with you
9:35 So basically, Sonic 4's bad slope physics were actually an IMPROVEMENT over the Genesis titles. Wasn't a take I expected from Pariah but sure lol.
@@hortinusthat is kind of a good thing since it still keeps the punishment of not properly grasping the physics of the game without putting the game to a halt for a simple rookie mistake.
One thing I didn’t like about Freedom Planet 1 was the sort of useless Time Attack mode. It’s like, if there isn’t any target times, you know, literally anything to aim for. Then it’s like what’s the point? Lol. Edit: Nevermind. The game has speed run badges. Game is sick again 👍
@@Pariah6950 You mean like PSN/Xbox style achievements or ones built in to the game? Well, that’s interesting. I’ll look at it again. Thanks. Edit: Yeah, seems like they are built in. I guess I didn’t notice since I didn’t try time attacking anything in particular since it wasn’t clear. Cool. Game is sick, again. Lol
@@Izak_Klark The game has speedrun badges, so that takes care of that. Otherwise, it feels empty because there is no goal. Self improvement does little for me if the game doesn’t bother to acknowledge it.
While I could never get into Freedom Planet (don't like the aesthetic or character designs), I do see what you mean by taking the classic games and actually evolving the formula. Not only do characters have unique moves but they all actually play fluidly into the actual gameplay. Whereas with Classic Sonic, the only playable character who isn't Sonic and has an ability that doesn't kill your momentum is Ray's glide from Mania Plus. That's one bigger issue with the Sonic franchise that plagues both the official and unofficial games. Everyone's very rigid in how Sonic should play. I.e. Classic Sonic is always about just recreating the classic gameplay and stopping at there. There's no desire adding more or even change some things. Like something as simple as a Classic game where you can now uncurl or recurl into ball form at will, with stages designed around that mechanic, would go a large way. But that seems to be only specific to 3D fangames because that's the "Sonic Adventure" thing. Furthermore why do Sonic's friends' abilities have to always be the same as they were in 3&K? Why can't Tails cancel out of his flight or expend stamina for flying faster? Why can't Knuckles have a faster, more in depth climbing system? Or hotter take, does he need to glide? Couldn't burrowing, climbing, and breaking into otherwise inaccessible routes be his thing? Why is Sonic the only one who can use elemental shields powers? Why can't other characters have access to those powers but in different ways? With how much Sonic games are constantly changing the identity of characters and their gameplay, it's weird how scared people are of straying from the norm in terms of what defines a Sonic game. As good as Mania is it very much suffers from this issue. Most of the other playable characters have pace killing abilities that's only useful at a beginner level. Knuckles has his dedicated sections that are just slow as shit climbing minigames. The vast majority of unlockable things are relegated to level select codes instead of just.... letting you select everything from a menu on an actual save file. You still can't pare up whatever two characters you want without going to an alternate game mode that does it at random anyway. The Tails tornado mode in Mirage Saloon. So many elements of the game that doesn't hold up because it HAS to be like the Classics. We HAVE to have tedious boss fights every act because Sonic 3 & Knuckles did it. I wonder if more developers tried to push the momentum system forward instead of making it accurate to the classics, more fans would be in favor of it being the definitie playstyle for Sonic. Cause there's SO much more you can do with it.
One of my favorite Sonic fan games is Sonic Dimensions, a 2D Rush inspired boost game. And it's not because of the general gameplay design, but the additional stuff added to Sonic and Shadow. Despite it being a boost game, not only can you spindash and roll and uncurl to maintain speed better, but if once you reach top speed without boosting your jump and rolling will have boost properties. Meaning you can send enemies flying in a satisfying way by rolling or badnik bouncing, and also break through objects you wouldn't normally get through without boost. This then makes the game a BLAST to play if you don't use boost, because you're constantly maintaining speed to keep your amped abilities, rolling down slopes whenever you can, using the returning trick system from Advance/Rush to give yourself a burst midair. There's just a ton of depth that comes from non-boost runs in the game, on top of the reactionary-style level design you run through. It creates this interesting mesh between slope physics and reactive boost design, making for incredibly satisfying gameplay when you master it and blow through a level without coming to a stop. Whereas if you play with boost, it ends up going back to the run of the mill boost adventure. It's a shame because it's not being worked on anymore. There's a lot of potential in the concept of "reaching higher speeds makes you much more stronger" being attached to momentum gameplay, but even in the game that introduces the idea it's drowned out by boost gameplay. Cause, well it's modern Sonic and that's what modern Sonic does.
I would say that hit point system for Sonic games are interesting idea, it's just need to be implemented with the ring system. I think maybe something like 30-40 rings will give you hit point, or something. It will encourage people to actually looking for them and discover different path, and maybe even automation sections can be kinda rework here. Like make them much more tucked away from main path and be field with rings and be implemented as reward for finding them. It's could work, while still preserving series indendity. Zoomed out camera another topic i want to tackle, because as much as i think Freedom Planet 2 benefited by this in gameplay, they did nothing to make it actually look good. It messes with spritework, as you said, but also it's just tamper with the look of the level. I believe that it's much more comfortable to play, but personally i just hate looking at these blocky platforms and tiles, that DEFINITELY weren't made with this zoom in mind. Yeah i know, function over aesthetic, but for me aesthetic still important aspect (the reason why i still didn't play Superstar, despite owning it's on Steam). I think if Sonic will adopt this method, or Freedom Planet 3 will actually happen, they really should make levels, tilesets and overall look with this zoomed out camera in mind, at very least. What should REALLY go away, it's the contact damage, here i agree with you 100%. Not only it would make bosses much more active and eliminate a lot of waiting, it's just generally would be good change. Like, we already have spikes and even some enemy with spikes, why we even need a contact damage at this point?
18:22 With this point about the lengths, I completely agree. In my opinion, if you’re going to have long levels anyways in Sonic type games, just have specific checkpoints that save your score and time up to that point. And restarting could just become restarting that segment of the level. In general, if a Sonic like game is going to encourage time attacking, you should make the levels shorter or include measures that reduce the amount of the level you are forced to replay for a perfect run. Around 5-6 minutes is my limit for how long a level can be without me wanting my idea implemented. (Which yeah, Freedom Planet does encourage you to time attack, as there’s a time attack mode and in game achievements you get for beating a level under a specific time. There’s even achievements that require you to beat a story under a specific amount of time)
It’s interesting that you mention how you like the variety in Freedom Planet 2 since you play the game casually. It’s kinda like how I imagine many Sonic fans treat the gameplay in Sonic games, plays Sonic casually and enjoys the other stuff casually as well. Have you tried playing Sonic games like that yourself? That you enjoy the game well enough on a casual end that you just play through it, especially ones with gimmicks? I personally like playing Sonic games (mainly Classic ones) like that myself and tend to enjoy many of them as I do when taking them seriously.
Spark the Electric Jester also lacks collision damage with the exception of spiked enemies. Sonic Unleashed and Frontiers also lacked that, but every other Sonic game doesn't.
I would say Neera has fjne moveset, her focus state comes really useful because you can damage bosses greatly and if you time it correctly (which is not that hard), you can still use her frost arts before the focus runs out, she can deal a lot of damage to bosses but her problem is she doesn't have any good iFrames outside of her guarding
@beaplayer3364 I think the issue is more that she's a fighting game character in a high speed platformer moreso. A high tier one at that with an install, only balanced by the fact that she lacks the aerial capabilities of the other characters and has to use her ice powers on things that happen to be there to gain it.
I’m going to be honest. I don’t think I gave Freedom Planet 2 a fair shot. What I think happened is that I got too overwhelmed by how big the game is and it put me off from wanting to play it. Don’t get me wrong, I played all the way through Carol’s story, I enjoyed it, but it also kinda felt like a marathon. The stages are so big that I would only want to play a few at a time before wanting to put the game down. Plus the cutscenes, while good, didn’t help either. On top of that, knowing that there were 3 other campaigns to get through just made me not want to continue. I do want to go back and give this game another shot, but it also seems daunting. Especially since there are other games I want to play more.
I honestly wish they'd make another sonic game like the advance and rush games Those actually tried to evolve the formula and gave the characters more things to do. We don't need another 2D sonic game that's just, sonic 3&K again
While the Freedom Planet games are excellent, I do believe that the things they do to differentiate themselves from Sonic aren't things Sonic should directly take from. Like as some examples, momentum getting you through levels or at least to alternate pathways should remain the way they are in Sonic games to encourage skillful platforming. They could perhaps refine the level design to where it feels like you won't get stuck if you can't gain enough speed though. The health system should remain as the Rings, but to alter it a bit to make taking hits actually worth a damn, make Rings fly farther and farther the more hits you take. Or, they fly farther the fewer you have, which makes collecting more than 1 Ring at a time actually mean something. I also kinda like the punishment of flying back when you get hit, but I guess it just depends on the situation. I do think expansion of character movesets that not only help with platforming but also have combat utility is something that should be in Sonic, though. The closest we got to that were the Advance games, but didn't quite feel that good to pull off.
@gmaster2647 Funnily enough in some of the 3D Sonic games they made it so that you only lose 10 rings every time you get hit. Therefore acting closer to a health system and encouraging you to collect more. Unfortunately those games were Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic 06.
I think a neat way to make the ring system less forgiving would be to make you always lose half of your rings rounded up, with a smaller fraction of that half being dropped to the ground It makes stalling with a single ring impossible (you always lose the one and can't pick it back up), makes higher amounts of rings matter (you get a tangible amount of "HP" to use with higher amounts), and makes it so that you aren't effectively immortal once you have enough (the more rings you have, the more you need to collect to get an extra point of "HP")
I kinda feel understood by this because before I ever even touched Sonic I played freedomplanet on the Wii U and yk it became one of my favourites from that console. So I was really excited when Sonic mania came and everyone was convinced this is the best type of Sonic type game to ever come out. But Idk it just never felt all that fun to me, i didnt think it was bad but just not really as fun as I hoped it would be. It felt sluggisch and I realized that all the things I liked about freedom planet where not really something it got from sonic, it was the algemation of a bunch of Ideas wich yes Sonic was a part of, that made it so much fun for me, more like a fast past kirby game tbh. and wy look at that I do love kirby so yeah.
If you like 2D platformers with really cool movesets you'd LOVE to play Gravity Circuit which is a Mega Man X/Zero inspired 2-D platformer and one of my favorite 2D platformers alongside Spark 1 and FP2
I mean, it applies well to what you're talking about here, but it just rubs me the wrong way hearing you talk about all those "inherent" improvements, there's a value in limitations. Wide aspect ratios work well for "sonic likes" like freedom planet, but they may not work so well for some other action game, there can be a purpose for a more tighter field of view and play area.
@@dm.3145 I meant what we can view "in focus", I personally feel like I'm better able to appreciate in its totality more condensed compositions, and i feel that's why a lot of silent films look really well composed to me. But I should drop this pseudo science crap, i don't really know what I'm talking about, but what I do know, is that tighter aspect ratios are more comfortable to compose in.
If you're looking for another good Sonic spiritual successor, you should try Spark the Electric Jester. Spark 1 is a great 2D game with Kirby-like form changes, and 2 and 3 are more reminiscent of 3D Sonic. Spark 3 is genuinely one of the best 3D platformers I've ever played, it has an incredible sense of speed and the levels are expansive with plenty of shortcuts and alternate paths.
Pariah there's a Sonic game that does what you want, it's a fan game called Sonic Momentum, it's a like Sonic Advance but with so much more going on and is 2D and does what you want Sonic games to do.
Instead of if just walking on slopes what if sonic team allowed sonic to spin dash on walls? He can charge spin dash mid air and if he lands on any path way including wall running sections he can just burst off them. I think that would be pretty cool
You might like the new Biophage demo from SAGE this year. Maaaybe the Ori games, but they're Metroidvanias and not exactly level-to-level. And nothing really fancy or physics-based, but they have excellent flow once they open up
Maybe I'm to much of a purist cuz Freedom Planet didn't grip me and I can't get myself to go back and finish the game (same goes for Sonic Advance games).
I wanted to do this comment since i first saw this video, (but i didn't, for some reason) but i'm noticing that in the " - Everything I Could Ever Want" part of the title, every single letter is capitalized, could this be the name of a new series?
@@superiornas8883 Yeah, possibly. still i don't wanna fully discart that possibilty. Considering he's planning on making a Spark video alongside this one, makes me think that he's making at least a couple of videos showing how other games take from Sonic but improve upon it, though you are probably right and i'm just looking way too deep into this stuff. But who knows?
19:20 yeag this is why arcadey inspired games like these, especially when the levels are long they really should be taking notes from shmup's practice modes where you can modify a lot of things about it but especially it providing atleast checkpoints midstage They already have a lot of transition screens during the stages in this game and the next, literally just provide an option to skip to those level transitions/sections as part of a practice mode so you can practice each section of a stage individually before tackling the time attacks or an arcade 1cc if you're interested in that
Hot take, but I'm actually fine with the way 2d sonic gameplay is, since the series has a similar appeal as the classic angry birds games, with them being more about physics, skills and replayability. They just gotta get rid of the "game over" penalty and make really good physics mechanic. Same with 3d.
One thing Galaxy Trail could do for Freedom Planet 3 is just going 3D-Gameplay, but have the graphic style make 3D models look like hand drawn 2D sprites like in Guilty Gear Strive or Darkest Dungeon 2, something among those lines.
@ I mean gameplay and mechanical spoilers more so (cause I thought pariah probably wouldn’t say that much about story) That and I want to form my own opinion.
Spark’s dash is basically a more elegant spindash anyway. It gives you a quick burst of speed if you’re not yet moving quickly, but it also doesn’t interrupt the pacing by forcing you to come to a stand still and it doesn’t limit your movement after using it.
@callinater6133 I should correct myself, I'm more referring to the mechanic of rolling rather then the spindash move. It just feels so good and I feel like it's missing from a lot of momentum platformers.
What I always found bizarre with Sonic Team, was that given their obsession with ripping off other franchises and media, they have never tried to learn lessons and take inspirations from their fan games and "sonicvanias" (I think it's a cool name). I get that it's not very "glorious" to do so as it would pretty much be an acknowledgement their fans make Sonic games better than them, but at this point, they have nothing to lose. I'm surprised they haven't done it at all after all those years.
Morio Kishimoto, whom you may recognize as the director of _Sonic Frontiers,_ actually confirmed that he played _Spark the Electric Jester 3,_ and enjoyed it to the point where he might take inspiration from that game for future _Sonic_ games. It kind of does make me hope that the same can happen with _Freedom Planet,_ where someone from Sonic Team can sit down and enjoy that game, and take lessons from its game design.
They said they’re doing that more now Which makes sense considering sonic likes only took of within like the last 5 years Which a lot of it was spent making frontiers (I mean take off in the sense of people talking about it)
10 minutes in and i still have no idea what actually makes freedom planet good, just things that it does differently from sonic that allegedly make it better
I had a lot of fun with it, i remember beating lilacs campaign with 0 lifes just about to get my first game over but i was able to clutch it it felt so awesome I actually didn't complete a walkthrough with the other two but i feel like i should before trying 2
I really like freedom planet. I like it so much but I'm afraid to admit that I enjoy it more than classic sonic because classic sonic is just that, a classic. To imply another game in its style can be better than classic sonic is to some people, borderline sacrilege.
Maybe I'm not looking at the right places but as liked as they are the classics don't feel like they are completely untouchable to that many people Sonic 1 is infamous for parts like labyrinth zone and overall emphasizing platforming much more compared to the sequels, CD is a coin toss between being a gem or the weakest out of the original games, some believe the last stretch of 2 isn't very good and gets the can't see shit in front of me criticism the most Even 3 as beloved as it is has zones that are considered weak like sandopolis Freedom planet 1, haven't touched 2 yet, feels more like a cool alternative rather than a straight upgrade to me but I can see where the appeal lies
Most anticipated video ever. Watching with my coffee. I love these games, the original is a classic and the sequel is phenomenal. Milla is my main in both games, love her design and in FP2, she is a super dog.
I played freedom planet 1 for the first time on steam back in 2015. I loved it, especially when all three characters act different (Talking about all three charactes different movesets) , how the enemies act and the music. Later I managed to get myself a limited run Freedom planet physical copy on switch just to have a physical copy of the game. I still love the game, though I have never played the second game just yet.
I've put more time into Neera since making this video, and I've come to like her. Her weaker options force you to play in a more "vanilla" style a lot of the time, rather than all the crazy maneuvers everyone else can do. Puts more emphasis on skillful platforming and maintaining your momentum. And combat-wise you need to be a lot more careful, since she lacks any invincible moves. And be more thoughtful about what moves best suit the situation. She's fun.
So basicaly she's a more grounded character
I actually chose Neera for my first playthrough since she was a new playable character, and while it was definitely a harder experience, it was one that helped me learn to be more careful, and as you said, forced me to engage with the enemies and hazards more.
@@outoffr4meshe's basically the amy equivalent for freedom planet
@@lauraikokoWho would be a stronger? The military commander of one of the most powerful nations in the world, heart and soul devoted to country, and trained accordingly…
Or two random kids from a gang and their pet dog?
the kids had their fun already, now it's real men's turn
No that's Spark, Freedom Planet is for the lesbians
So true!
8:02 this entire sequence of rushing through enemies and hazards while barely slowing down feels SO MUCH like what Sonic should feel like. Its like if the Sonic Unleashed opening cinematic was playable... That sense of the opposing forces trying everything in their power to stop you, but to no avail.
I mean, Megaraph/Hyperath Fleet from the Spark the Eletric Jester games are pretty good candidates as well!
I like freedom planet's incentive to keep moving being "stay idle for a moment, I dare you"
IDK, calling this "barely slowing down" feels like a stretch
@@Neonlight3934 To be fair I watch most of my videos at 1.5x speed so maybe it wasn't as obvious as it would have been otherwise.
I’d argue that the advance games and the rush games IS sonic team evolving the 2d sonic formula. Better sprites, new moves for you to play with(like rail grinding and boosting, just to name a few),and actual cutscenes. Now, the advance trilogy and rush duology aren’t perfect, but I think we can all agree that at the very least an attempt was made. But now for some reason sega thinks that the only way for Sonic to exist in a fully 2d game is for him to be stuck in is classic form with little to no new moves and mechanics. Which I find very irritating
I think Sonic Rush would be more of a deviation
I played Sonic Rush first. Going back to play the classics was tough.
Rush is a vast improvement over the Genesis games, and I will die on that hill.
Pariah pretty much says this in the Sonic Advance videos.
Plus, Blaze was like the original Lilac in gameplay.
Erm ACKSHUALLY those games weren't developed by Sonic Team!!🤓 ....but it still sucks that Sonic Advance 3 is the most mechanically complex sonic game whilst being simpler than these games.
Also, boosting and rail grinding? Those are the last things I would've brought up as evolutions in Dimps' games.
I can give CD and Generations credit for having dynamic cameras that extend in front of you when you pick up speed, and I'm not crazy about how jittery the artwork seems to be in Freedom Planet 2 when it pulls things back that far. But overall, goddamn, it sure would be novel to play a 2D Sonic game where it was less about intuiting the off-screen challenges and worked more like this. Feel like that could open up limitless potential for complex and diverse gameplay, like more exploratorey Knuckles levels, or Tails levels truly built around creative flying challenges.
Incidentally why is this video hidden?! I had no idea it existed till now!
Sonic Superstars having 3D graphics was a perfect occasion to zoom the camera out but instead they decided to zoom it in even more :/
(and the video is hidden because Pariah is waiting for the Sonic X Shadow Generations hype to die down a bit, this video would probably do bad numbers if it went public when it was finished)
@@KC.086 From what I've heard, it's not actually zoomed in in Superstars, it's apparently exactly the same as the Genesis titles. It just might feel that way because 3D or something, the 3D perspective of things can make the left and right ends be a bit more cut off or something than flat 2D. But the zoom on the characters is the same I'm fairly sure.
He left the video on Kofi for people have access before Shadow Gens hype dies a little. Most videos are available there 1 day earlier, this is an exception haha
Personally, I don't like zoomed out cameras. The level art and character animations especially while running, are part of the appeal for me and it overloads with too much going on, on screen at once. I'm glad 2D sonic games don't do this. Otherwise you might as well play lemmings or something. I can kind of understand a need for zooming in games like the freedom planet games but it's only because those games seem to give you too much to think about while playing. Another thing I prefer in Sonic is the one button move sets. It's genius.
dude! you've convinced me to try out freedom planet 2 with this videos and holy shi... I've found my favourite game ever! thank you SO much for this! you have my endless gratitude!
YESSSS!!!!! Finally an overly long review video on the Freedom Planet games!! I've been wanting you to do this for ages these games are amazing and more people need to know about them!!!!!!
If only Pariah called this video “Sonic if it wasn’t afraid to be good” like He did on Ko-Fi 😔…
Eh, this was the better choice as it doesn't use the negatives of one series to promote the other.
@ I was joking, of course. I know The consuquences of calling your video something like that.
@@themissingbits6375 Ah, I understand now.
Ok Good cuz I was gonna say that’s wayy to antagonistic
I beat Freedom Planet 1 for the first time as Lilac recently, and I gotta say, most of my time was spent being frustrated by the bullshit parts in the game rather than having fun with it. This video made me want to give it another shot though. Maybe I just need to get used to the games mechanics or try playing as another character or something. I'm DEFINITELY gonna buy freedom planet 2 though, I wasn't even aware of the game before you made it known to me.
Were you playing on hard mode by any chance? My first playthrough was on hard and I remember feeling the same.
I don’t think so. My main issue was enemy attacks coming from offscreen where I can’t see them. It feels like they took megaman enemies and put them in a fast paced sonic game with close quarters combat. The screen zoom in FP2 definitely helps though.
@@theove3503 Oh, for sure it's a godsend.
A lot of people weren't aware of Freedom Planet 2, the marketing for that game was really bad.
Both Freedom Planet games get exponentially better once you memorize boss patterns. If you completed it once, your next run is going to be much more fun.
I'm more hyped than ever to try these out now. See you at the Spark trilogy review!
BTW, I kind of prefer the first game's "cartoon" look over the second game's 90s'/2000s' kemono look.
Waiting for that.
I'm glad both games have become some of your favorite 2D Platformers. As someone who speedruns FP2 , I have spent so many hours experimenting with every character's moveset, and it almost feels endless the sort of stuff you can perform by mixing moves with physics. Lilac has some cancel tech with Cyclone and Dive Kick, Carol can mix both the Pounce and Kick attack for really high-speeds, Milla can get so much air mobility and recoil out of her Super Shield Burst, and Neera's Glide combined with Focus and her Down Attack, gives her some of the best Horizontal Mobility and Damage Output in the game. Also the ablity to absorb energy from enemies.
The levels, while they feel long at first, really complements the speedrun appeal in most High-Speed Platformers and become really satisfying when you rush through a 7-15 minute level on your first attempt into 3-6 minutes once mastered. And these levels rarely throws any slow-paced gimmicks, constantly letting you keep the fast pace throughout as long as you can maintain it with your mastery of the character.
Legit some of the best games in this group of Sonic-like platformers (I prefer calling them High-Speed Platformers).
9:59
I wish this game’s DLC came out. So we could get to see what Torque and Spade’s stories were like.
I'm so glad you finally covered this series, hopefully it will get more eyes on it because it's a really underrated pair of games. I discovered it last Christmas, and I instantly fell in love with it. Freedom Planet 2 specifically is one of my top 3 games of all time. All the levels flow well, and it's just a blast to play the whole way through.
For the story tho, I do have my own take on it. From a writing standpoint, yea its pretty amateurish. But it does have a heart. Like it's not afraid to to be itself whatsoever, and its really endearing for that. Though you can find a lot of enjoyment from the story of both games if you turn off the adult part of your brain and judge through the lens of "Would 10 year old me have lost their shit over this?" Freedom Planet 1 specifically has this sort of whimsical rawness that makes me feel oddly nostalgic. I'm so mad I didn't pick this game up when it came out because I would've loved it as a kid.
They really need attention, there is currently no plans for a FP3 because they haven't met the goals they wanted in sales or notoriety
One thing I know about Taoism is the 5 elements which are water, fire, earth, metal, and wood. The creators of Freedom Planet seems to know about the 5 elements too considering the 5 elemental shields.
19:00 I can really understand the reasoning that levels are too long if they are 12-13 min plus but I think you maybe are overestimating how long the levels in FP1 are. The longest lvl is definitely battle glacier at around 12min for sure which definitely helps your point, but pretty much every other stage is reasonably around the 5-9 minute mark with decent optimization which I don’t feel too bad especially when you consider boss fights take up a bit of that time as well.
Personally, 5 minutes is the upper limit of what I think feels good for these kinds of games. So even the shorter levels here are pushing it to me.
@ I can get that maybe to me I just enjoy the gameplay that much that I’m willing to invest just a bit more but I understand why many would feel it’s too long even still.
What the hell, why is this so cool? Genuinely seems really well designed. Especially the combat.
Still counting the day until you cover castlevania though ngl. Some of those games are great 2d action combat platforming games.
Did you know that in Freedom Planet 1 on steam if you go to properties and select betas and select "Beta - For testing new builds" you can actually play a version of the game where Torque is playable in Time Attack? There's also a PAX Demo floating around where Spade is also playable. Apparently, both Spade and Torque were going to have their own campaigns but reasons as to why they were cut is a mystery.
I would have preferred torque over nira into. I don't really care for Neera that much
mannn how relaxing it is to hear you yap about games idgaf about
The removal of touch damage alone elevates Freedom Planet over most 2D Sonic games for me, and over most 2D platformers tbh. Getting hurt because you made contact with an enemy who was simply existing is bullshit and shouldn't be a thing in ANY platformer IMO, 2D or 3D. You want something to hurt me when I touch it? Make it obvious, make it spikey, don't blindside me with it off-screen.
Perfect timing with this upload too, since FP2 is on sale on PSN and Nintendo Eshop rn. I've been wanting to play it since launch but the price was just a bit too high for what I expected of it, but this seems like the perfect time to get it :D
I mean, FP compensates in spades with all of the off-screen damage and poorly telegraphed attacks. Spark is the only one truly commiting to the no bullshit rule.
so if every enemy in a game with contact damage was spiky it'd be fine?
Dude you just suck lol
@guynah7871 It would irritate me less lol
An idle state and an attacking state just feel more fair, more real. When you get hurt by an enemy who can only hurt you during its attack animation, which is triggered by your presence, that hit is 100% your fault and not the result of cheap enemy placement
@@aortaplatinumHonestly. It feels really lazy. I don’t know if frontiers had this though but it would be cool if like EGG BOTS shot lazers that forced sonic to mantain a certain level of speed or something.
I’ve been eagerly waiting for this video, checking patreon every day after it was teased in the jump king stream. Did NOT disappoint
Same
Not only are these games great Sonic-likes BUT more importantly (for a Treasure fanatic like me) GREAT homages to Treasure action games, in the gameplay, boss battles and the music! Even have Melon Bread as cameo boss battles (who they call Lemon Bread ☺️)
Has anyone noticed that Freedom Planet’s name is an OVA reference to something very obvious
According to the _Freedom Planet_ Series Producer, Sabrina DiDuro, the name was just something that she came up on the fly, and its resemblance to the setting of the _Sonic_ OVA was just a coincidence.
@ “Strange, isn’t it?”
I started caring about freedom planet right when FP2 released.knowing that the second game took seven years to develop was mind-blowing.
I remember being a little kid and finding out about Freedom Planet 2's announcement. I got in high school, ended high school, got a job, got fired, all of that before the bloody sequel came out.
I personally fell in love with the franchise from the first moment I had contact with it. Every step of the way I was filled with the same sense of accomplishment and joy that I had when I was a little kid beating Sonic 1 on the Master System for the first time, only this time the feeling was elevated tenfold.
Freedom Planet is magical for me, and it's a shame that not enough people can appreciate it for what it truly is, a goddamn masterpiece.
Even though I compare them to the Sonic games, I don't do it out of spite or because I think A is better than B, I just believe both complement each other perfectly well, and I can't imagine having one without the other anymore.
2:42 In fact, this character has a couple of mechanics taken from the Yoshi games (Mario's dinosaur friend).For example, the flight system is exactly the same, and Yoshi's egg throwing may have inspired the cubes the character throws.
let's goooo, i've been waiting for this video for a long time. freedom planet is so dope, man
6:34 this kind of thing killed my enjoyment of the gameplay of sonic adventure 2 for YEARS. probably the better part of a decade at least. i never knew how to finesse the controls and taking risks to learn always felt so, so not worth it. it took a decent amount of modding to get it to FINALLY feel good to play, and even now it’s still incredibly punishing. final rush especially is Very Very Bad when you don’t have enough of a grip on the physics and you’re burning through lives until you have to restart every five times you miss a jump for bullshit reasons and die instantly and lose all your score essentially nullifying the A rank
Our only hope of getting an expanded moveset in a 2D Sonic is if classic Sonic dies and Sega starts making new 2D Modern Sonic games with a brand new formula.
using mods you can upscale the resolution, making the camera zoom mess up the sprites less
magma starscape is flame core
Tidal gate is wave ocean
bakunawa rush is final rush and chase
I suspect that the reason why many bosses in Freedom Planet feel unfair is because they go offscreen way too often.
Most boss fights in Treasure games (and perhaps most 2D action games from the Mega Drive era) take place in a single-screen arena with little or no scrolling, which helps the player keep track of the boss's attacks and movement patterns, and FP1 breaks that rule over and over again.
Freedom Planet 2 does the same, but being able to zoom out the screen alleviates this issue immensely.
Finally, he’s reviewing a good game
I can already feel the angry replies coming
@@Bestmotion2389I would try and defend the sonic games but I think this is rage bait because he’s reviewed pennys big breakaway and the 2d Mario games so…
Sonic x shadow generations anyone?
@@Roty24-f6s it’s good but it is still far from perfect but still good which is why I think this is rage bait
@@Roty24-f6s It's good, but look at what we had to deal with to get there.
Sabrina DiDuro herself actually saw your video! I just hope the Twitch VOD of her reaction can survive in some form.
Link?
Like seriously. I would love to see that specifically, but I have no idea where to look.
@@technicallyinept2120
I can't provide a link here, but Sabrina's reaction was broadcasted on her Twitch channel - Spacey Batotelli. It was Part 58 of her _Chrono Gear_ development livestreams, and it was hosted back on November 8th.
@@lance2580hehe…
If not it’s fine. But if you could help me narrow down where in that video it is, that would help. It’s four hours long!
@@lance2580Nevermind. I found it.
43:33 Other than the exact same game with new stages and new characters (which I'd be completely open too), only other way I feel they could go is to translate their gameplay to 3d and see if they outshine Sonic in that department as well.
In defense of Sonic games' zoomed in cameras, I've played some Sonic fangames at SAGE that really zoom out the camera and as someone with bad eyesight, I have a hard time trying to see what my character is even doing and feel like I have to squint while playing them. It also makes the games look like cheap flash games if you zoom out too much IMO. Although if FP2 has it as an optional toggle, that's perfect. I still need to get this game, I loved FP1.
I had the same thoughts when I first played FP1 and FP2. It just felt like a step forward for the Sonic formula. I can't even think of anything said in the video that I'd disagree with - this man's spitting truth!
I'm glad you finally played Freedom Planet 2. Better late than never. It is also better late than the day of release as Freedom Planet got many updates. The latest one added Boss Rush.
Freedom Planet 2 story may not be the greatest and may not be as great as Sonic Adventure 2, but at least the FP2 story doesn't have blatant plot holes that SA2 does. And I dare say that FP2 and even FP1 stories are better than all American-written Sonic games from 2010 and onwards. (Shadow Generations is an exception) Though to be honest there are a whole lot of stories better than American-written Sonic games.
It is also worth noting how the lives/stock system works in Freedom Planet 2. You always start with 2 on any level (more or less with potions and items) you can get an extra stock if you collect enough crystals and if your character gets knocked out, you have a choice of revive with low health or start from the latest checkpoint with the most amount of health. And if you run out of stock, you have a choice to spend the crystal (if you have enough) to continue from the latest checkpoint or start the level from the very beginning.
Also how the ranking system works is very simple. The percentage of the crystal bonus determines your rank.
C rank: Less than 75%
B rank: 75%-99%
A Rank: 100%-124%
S Rank: 125% and more (Will involve Brave Stone)
There is also Rainbow S Rank which will require you to have a 200% crystal bonus which is +50% from deathless run, +125% modifier which will involve One Hit Ko Brave Stone, and +25% from hitless run. You can use shield potions for more shield points and you will keep a No Hit bonus even if you take shield hits. However, it will involve another brave stone to keep a 125% modifier and it hinges on reaching the shield crystal and some levels (usually the boss levels) will not have any shield crystals.
What else? What else? Oh yeah, throughout the entire run of the game, there is no such thing as repeat boss battles. Ok, you fight Serpentine's Titan Armor but one time you fight it with a mech of your own and another time without your own mech. You also fight Merga twice but the first time is when you weren't meant to win and in the second encounter she get's new attack. Two Corazon battles are different enough. And yes, you could spar with Askal in Shang Tu where you fight the weaker version of Askal which is completely optional.
Yeah, Freedom Planet 2 is awesome.
You can REALLY feel the inspirations from Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles used for these characters... The dragon rush and spin attack thing Lilac has feels like they could very easily be given to Sonic (like a dash and spin kick respectively) and it would feel right at home.
Milla being able to fly is obviously Tails inspired, but also the cube thing feels like it could have been Tails' blaster thingy if they had gone with their original plan of making a Sonic fangame.
And of course Carol... I could easily see Knuckles riding a motorcycle, and it wouldn't even feel out of character for some reason.
What about Neera? Was she inspired by Shadow?
@@HarmonyBunny I have no clue tbh. Either way, she's from the second game. The first game was the one that was originally intended to be a Sonic fan game, so I'm sure they got even more creative with the sequel.
Milla is not Tails, Milla is Yoshi from Yoshi's Island.
Freedom Planet 2 is on ironically my favorite Sonic game it sounds weird to say but it is my favorite 2D platformer of all time it is so good and it is criminally underrated
Freedom Planet Was Always Good
Pariah, have you ever played Sonic Momentum?
A lot of people (including me) liked it, wonder how you feel about it
Hey so uhh i just bought the games on steam cause of the sale and for some reason FP 1 isn't starting like at all. all it shows black screen with a white rectangle taking up a fourth of of it. FP 2 runs fine on the other hand so i'm not entirely sure what the issue is. i did some casual searching but couldn't find anything. (i'm asking this here cause i ain't making a reddit account)
Classic Sonic + Rocket Knight = Freedom Planet
As much as I really enjoyed Freedom Planet when I played it, the one thing that really kept me from loving it was just how freaking long the stages were.
I wanted to love the game so badly but after each 8 minute bout through a level, I just felt exhausted.
Similar criticism I have with FP1 (didn't play 2 yet)
Love the stages mostly but I hardly replay them because they are too long. First time is definitely the most fun experience with them imo
@@Robotta Me personally I don't have much a problem with the long levels since it makes it more fun for me to find ways to cut the time down to about 4-5 minutes for each stage, but I can definitely say that Fp2 has shorter levels EXCEPT for one stage near the end of the game which will last about 15 minutes
An fp2 stage on average would be around 2-6 minutes
Tbh after two or so playthroughs my playtime for each level shortened from 8-12 minutes to 3-5 minutes. Even Ancestral Forge which took me 23 minutes to complete first time now takes me 9 minutes. I am not blaming you for taking long, just saying that you can be way faster
In Sonic Adventure you no longer need to mash the button for Tails to fly tho, I don’t know why they didn’t change it for the newer 2D games
It’s more elegant I agree with you
9:35 So basically, Sonic 4's bad slope physics were actually an IMPROVEMENT over the Genesis titles. Wasn't a take I expected from Pariah but sure lol.
Not exactly because Sonic is extremely slow walking on those slopes 😂
@@hortinusthat is kind of a good thing since it still keeps the punishment of not properly grasping the physics of the game without putting the game to a halt for a simple rookie mistake.
So, in short, all we needed out of a Sonic Rush 3 was...
One thing I didn’t like about Freedom Planet 1 was the sort of useless Time Attack mode. It’s like, if there isn’t any target times, you know, literally anything to aim for. Then it’s like what’s the point? Lol.
Edit: Nevermind. The game has speed run badges. Game is sick again 👍
Your own improvement
There are achievements for each level under a certain time.
@@Pariah6950 You mean like PSN/Xbox style achievements or ones built in to the game? Well, that’s interesting. I’ll look at it again. Thanks.
Edit: Yeah, seems like they are built in. I guess I didn’t notice since I didn’t try time attacking anything in particular since it wasn’t clear. Cool. Game is sick, again. Lol
@@Izak_Klark The game has speedrun badges, so that takes care of that.
Otherwise, it feels empty because there is no goal. Self improvement does little for me if the game doesn’t bother to acknowledge it.
While I could never get into Freedom Planet (don't like the aesthetic or character designs), I do see what you mean by taking the classic games and actually evolving the formula. Not only do characters have unique moves but they all actually play fluidly into the actual gameplay. Whereas with Classic Sonic, the only playable character who isn't Sonic and has an ability that doesn't kill your momentum is Ray's glide from Mania Plus. That's one bigger issue with the Sonic franchise that plagues both the official and unofficial games.
Everyone's very rigid in how Sonic should play. I.e. Classic Sonic is always about just recreating the classic gameplay and stopping at there. There's no desire adding more or even change some things. Like something as simple as a Classic game where you can now uncurl or recurl into ball form at will, with stages designed around that mechanic, would go a large way. But that seems to be only specific to 3D fangames because that's the "Sonic Adventure" thing. Furthermore why do Sonic's friends' abilities have to always be the same as they were in 3&K? Why can't Tails cancel out of his flight or expend stamina for flying faster? Why can't Knuckles have a faster, more in depth climbing system? Or hotter take, does he need to glide? Couldn't burrowing, climbing, and breaking into otherwise inaccessible routes be his thing? Why is Sonic the only one who can use elemental shields powers? Why can't other characters have access to those powers but in different ways? With how much Sonic games are constantly changing the identity of characters and their gameplay, it's weird how scared people are of straying from the norm in terms of what defines a Sonic game.
As good as Mania is it very much suffers from this issue. Most of the other playable characters have pace killing abilities that's only useful at a beginner level. Knuckles has his dedicated sections that are just slow as shit climbing minigames. The vast majority of unlockable things are relegated to level select codes instead of just.... letting you select everything from a menu on an actual save file. You still can't pare up whatever two characters you want without going to an alternate game mode that does it at random anyway. The Tails tornado mode in Mirage Saloon. So many elements of the game that doesn't hold up because it HAS to be like the Classics. We HAVE to have tedious boss fights every act because Sonic 3 & Knuckles did it.
I wonder if more developers tried to push the momentum system forward instead of making it accurate to the classics, more fans would be in favor of it being the definitie playstyle for Sonic. Cause there's SO much more you can do with it.
One of my favorite Sonic fan games is Sonic Dimensions, a 2D Rush inspired boost game. And it's not because of the general gameplay design, but the additional stuff added to Sonic and Shadow. Despite it being a boost game, not only can you spindash and roll and uncurl to maintain speed better, but if once you reach top speed without boosting your jump and rolling will have boost properties. Meaning you can send enemies flying in a satisfying way by rolling or badnik bouncing, and also break through objects you wouldn't normally get through without boost.
This then makes the game a BLAST to play if you don't use boost, because you're constantly maintaining speed to keep your amped abilities, rolling down slopes whenever you can, using the returning trick system from Advance/Rush to give yourself a burst midair. There's just a ton of depth that comes from non-boost runs in the game, on top of the reactionary-style level design you run through. It creates this interesting mesh between slope physics and reactive boost design, making for incredibly satisfying gameplay when you master it and blow through a level without coming to a stop. Whereas if you play with boost, it ends up going back to the run of the mill boost adventure.
It's a shame because it's not being worked on anymore. There's a lot of potential in the concept of "reaching higher speeds makes you much more stronger" being attached to momentum gameplay, but even in the game that introduces the idea it's drowned out by boost gameplay. Cause, well it's modern Sonic and that's what modern Sonic does.
I would say that hit point system for Sonic games are interesting idea, it's just need to be implemented with the ring system. I think maybe something like 30-40 rings will give you hit point, or something. It will encourage people to actually looking for them and discover different path, and maybe even automation sections can be kinda rework here. Like make them much more tucked away from main path and be field with rings and be implemented as reward for finding them. It's could work, while still preserving series indendity.
Zoomed out camera another topic i want to tackle, because as much as i think Freedom Planet 2 benefited by this in gameplay, they did nothing to make it actually look good. It messes with spritework, as you said, but also it's just tamper with the look of the level. I believe that it's much more comfortable to play, but personally i just hate looking at these blocky platforms and tiles, that DEFINITELY weren't made with this zoom in mind. Yeah i know, function over aesthetic, but for me aesthetic still important aspect (the reason why i still didn't play Superstar, despite owning it's on Steam). I think if Sonic will adopt this method, or Freedom Planet 3 will actually happen, they really should make levels, tilesets and overall look with this zoomed out camera in mind, at very least.
What should REALLY go away, it's the contact damage, here i agree with you 100%. Not only it would make bosses much more active and eliminate a lot of waiting, it's just generally would be good change. Like, we already have spikes and even some enemy with spikes, why we even need a contact damage at this point?
Hard agree
I remember playing the demo a while back and wasn't impressed but this video makes me want to give it another chance.
18:22
With this point about the lengths, I completely agree. In my opinion, if you’re going to have long levels anyways in Sonic type games, just have specific checkpoints that save your score and time up to that point. And restarting could just become restarting that segment of the level.
In general, if a Sonic like game is going to encourage time attacking, you should make the levels shorter or include measures that reduce the amount of the level you are forced to replay for a perfect run. Around 5-6 minutes is my limit for how long a level can be without me wanting my idea implemented.
(Which yeah, Freedom Planet does encourage you to time attack, as there’s a time attack mode and in game achievements you get for beating a level under a specific time. There’s even achievements that require you to beat a story under a specific amount of time)
It’s interesting that you mention how you like the variety in Freedom Planet 2 since you play the game casually. It’s kinda like how I imagine many Sonic fans treat the gameplay in Sonic games, plays Sonic casually and enjoys the other stuff casually as well.
Have you tried playing Sonic games like that yourself? That you enjoy the game well enough on a casual end that you just play through it, especially ones with gimmicks?
I personally like playing Sonic games (mainly Classic ones) like that myself and tend to enjoy many of them as I do when taking them seriously.
Understood, let's put Seven Forces in the next Sonic game.
Freedom Planet 1 really couldn't have come at a better time. i don't think it would have had as much impact if it had released after Sonic Mania.
Spark the Electric Jester also lacks collision damage with the exception of spiked enemies. Sonic Unleashed and Frontiers also lacked that, but every other Sonic game doesn't.
These games are awesome! Hope for a third game!
I looooove these games, especially the 2nd one. Milla in FP2 is my favorite character to play as in a highspeed platformer ever.
I am really curious about your opinion about the Freedom Planet Story. I've only seen bas things about it. I would love a real take
I've been working on a project for a bit and I'm taking some inspiration from freedom planet
As someone who has played Sonic games since childhood, I personally believe the Freedom Planet games are better in every way
Really liked these games though they never reached the mainstream popularity of other indie darlings, for the better most likely.
Please review the Spark Series next, it is my favorite indie game series of all time, they are such incredible games!
That's probably gonna be the next video he does.
I would say Neera has fjne moveset, her focus state comes really useful because you can damage bosses greatly and if you time it correctly (which is not that hard), you can still use her frost arts before the focus runs out, she can deal a lot of damage to bosses but her problem is she doesn't have any good iFrames outside of her guarding
@beaplayer3364 I think the issue is more that she's a fighting game character in a high speed platformer moreso. A high tier one at that with an install, only balanced by the fact that she lacks the aerial capabilities of the other characters and has to use her ice powers on things that happen to be there to gain it.
@Aperson-62 Nah, for me it's only issue of low iFrames
I’m going to be honest. I don’t think I gave Freedom Planet 2 a fair shot. What I think happened is that I got too overwhelmed by how big the game is and it put me off from wanting to play it.
Don’t get me wrong, I played all the way through Carol’s story, I enjoyed it, but it also kinda felt like a marathon. The stages are so big that I would only want to play a few at a time before wanting to put the game down. Plus the cutscenes, while good, didn’t help either. On top of that, knowing that there were 3 other campaigns to get through just made me not want to continue.
I do want to go back and give this game another shot, but it also seems daunting. Especially since there are other games I want to play more.
I’ve been skipping all the cutscenes, because I don’t care about the story. I think that helps with the pacing.
Ive been wanting to get these games for a while because they look amazing
I love games with a bunch of cool mechanics and moves
I honestly wish they'd make another sonic game like the advance and rush games
Those actually tried to evolve the formula and gave the characters more things to do.
We don't need another 2D sonic game that's just, sonic 3&K again
While the Freedom Planet games are excellent, I do believe that the things they do to differentiate themselves from Sonic aren't things Sonic should directly take from. Like as some examples, momentum getting you through levels or at least to alternate pathways should remain the way they are in Sonic games to encourage skillful platforming. They could perhaps refine the level design to where it feels like you won't get stuck if you can't gain enough speed though.
The health system should remain as the Rings, but to alter it a bit to make taking hits actually worth a damn, make Rings fly farther and farther the more hits you take. Or, they fly farther the fewer you have, which makes collecting more than 1 Ring at a time actually mean something. I also kinda like the punishment of flying back when you get hit, but I guess it just depends on the situation.
I do think expansion of character movesets that not only help with platforming but also have combat utility is something that should be in Sonic, though. The closest we got to that were the Advance games, but didn't quite feel that good to pull off.
@gmaster2647 Funnily enough in some of the 3D Sonic games they made it so that you only lose 10 rings every time you get hit. Therefore acting closer to a health system and encouraging you to collect more.
Unfortunately those games were Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic 06.
@@Aperson-62 and frontiers and shadow generations, they're in those too
I think a neat way to make the ring system less forgiving would be to make you always lose half of your rings rounded up, with a smaller fraction of that half being dropped to the ground
It makes stalling with a single ring impossible (you always lose the one and can't pick it back up), makes higher amounts of rings matter (you get a tangible amount of "HP" to use with higher amounts), and makes it so that you aren't effectively immortal once you have enough (the more rings you have, the more you need to collect to get an extra point of "HP")
I kinda feel understood by this because before I ever even touched Sonic I played freedomplanet on the Wii U and yk it became one of my favourites from that console.
So I was really excited when Sonic mania came and everyone was convinced this is the best type of Sonic type game to ever come out.
But Idk it just never felt all that fun to me, i didnt think it was bad but just not really as fun as I hoped it would be. It felt sluggisch and I realized that all the things I liked about freedom planet where not really something it got from sonic, it was the algemation of a bunch of Ideas wich yes Sonic was a part of, that made it so much fun for me, more like a fast past kirby game tbh.
and wy look at that I do love kirby so yeah.
If you like 2D platformers with really cool movesets you'd LOVE to play Gravity Circuit which is a Mega Man X/Zero inspired 2-D platformer and one of my favorite 2D platformers alongside Spark 1 and FP2
I mean, it applies well to what you're talking about here, but it just rubs me the wrong way hearing you talk about all those "inherent" improvements, there's a value in limitations. Wide aspect ratios work well for "sonic likes" like freedom planet, but they may not work so well for some other action game, there can be a purpose for a more tighter field of view and play area.
Plus shorter aspect ratios feel more natural for our human field of view, and as an artist, they are pretty comfortable to compose in.
Tf you mean? Humans have a 210 degree field of view, except for VR games, all other games have a lesser field of view
@@AoiHeartStranger
@@dm.3145 I meant what we can view "in focus", I personally feel like I'm better able to appreciate in its totality more condensed compositions, and i feel that's why a lot of silent films look really well composed to me. But I should drop this pseudo science crap, i don't really know what I'm talking about, but what I do know, is that tighter aspect ratios are more comfortable to compose in.
If you're looking for another good Sonic spiritual successor, you should try Spark the Electric Jester. Spark 1 is a great 2D game with Kirby-like form changes, and 2 and 3 are more reminiscent of 3D Sonic. Spark 3 is genuinely one of the best 3D platformers I've ever played, it has an incredible sense of speed and the levels are expansive with plenty of shortcuts and alternate paths.
He's played spark all of them. He streamed spark 3
Pariah there's a Sonic game that does what you want, it's a fan game called Sonic Momentum, it's a like Sonic Advance but with so much more going on and is 2D and does what you want Sonic games to do.
Is there any blue hedgehog in this game?
No, there’s better.
I mean, _Freedom Planet 2_ straight-up has two NPCs called Sunny and Amelia, both of whom are hedgehogs with the blatantly obvious reference.
It's interesting how many things Freedom Planet and Spark did alike, considering (iirc) they were being developed at the same time.
Instead of if just walking on slopes what if sonic team allowed sonic to spin dash on walls?
He can charge spin dash mid air and if he lands on any path way including wall running sections he can just burst off them. I think that would be pretty cool
Basically the drop dash also works on walls
Yes exactly that’s what I was thinking
Pariah reviewing FP? Brother I prayed for times like these 😭
You might like the new Biophage demo from SAGE this year.
Maaaybe the Ori games, but they're Metroidvanias and not exactly level-to-level. And nothing really fancy or physics-based, but they have excellent flow once they open up
Maybe I'm to much of a purist cuz Freedom Planet didn't grip me and I can't get myself to go back and finish the game (same goes for Sonic Advance games).
Bros pumpin out this content 💯🔥
I wanted to do this comment since i first saw this video, (but i didn't, for some reason) but i'm noticing that in the " - Everything I Could Ever Want" part of the title, every single letter is capitalized, could this be the name of a new series?
Nah he does that for other games he reviews that aren't sonic. For example the title for his balan review is "- How Bad Could It Be?"
@@superiornas8883 Yeah, possibly. still i don't wanna fully discart that possibilty. Considering he's planning on making a Spark video alongside this one, makes me think that he's making at least a couple of videos showing how other games take from Sonic but improve upon it, though you are probably right and i'm just looking way too deep into this stuff.
But who knows?
19:20
yeag this is why arcadey inspired games like these, especially when the levels are long
they really should be taking notes from shmup's practice modes where you can modify a lot of things about it but especially it providing atleast checkpoints midstage
They already have a lot of transition screens during the stages in this game and the next, literally just provide an option to skip to those level transitions/sections as part of a practice mode so you can practice each section of a stage individually before tackling the time attacks or an arcade 1cc if you're interested in that
you started talking about how good the bosses are and put a video of the second worst boss in the entire game
Hot take, but I'm actually fine with the way 2d sonic gameplay is, since the series has a similar appeal as the classic angry birds games, with them being more about physics, skills and replayability. They just gotta get rid of the "game over" penalty and make really good physics mechanic. Same with 3d.
What about the Tony Hawk-ish/JetSetRadio games, some people were thinking of applying that style to Sonic, it would be great
The Patreon title of this vid is wild
One thing Galaxy Trail could do for Freedom Planet 3 is just going 3D-Gameplay, but have the graphic style make 3D models look like hand drawn 2D sprites like in Guilty Gear Strive or Darkest Dungeon 2, something among those lines.
Unfortunately I won’t be watching this cause I want to remain spoiler free for whenever I play these games.
Just adding a comment for algorithm :)
He doesn’t really talk about the story very much, honestly.
@ I mean gameplay and mechanical spoilers more so (cause I thought pariah probably wouldn’t say that much about story)
That and I want to form my own opinion.
at this point they will prob upgrade the classic system if we ask enough
As good as freedom planet is, I always feel like the lack of a spindash just kills it for me. Same with the jester game
Spark’s dash is basically a more elegant spindash anyway. It gives you a quick burst of speed if you’re not yet moving quickly, but it also doesn’t interrupt the pacing by forcing you to come to a stand still and it doesn’t limit your movement after using it.
@callinater6133 I should correct myself, I'm more referring to the mechanic of rolling rather then the spindash move. It just feels so good and I feel like it's missing from a lot of momentum platformers.
What I always found bizarre with Sonic Team, was that given their obsession with ripping off other franchises and media, they have never tried to learn lessons and take inspirations from their fan games and "sonicvanias" (I think it's a cool name). I get that it's not very "glorious" to do so as it would pretty much be an acknowledgement their fans make Sonic games better than them, but at this point, they have nothing to lose. I'm surprised they haven't done it at all after all those years.
Morio Kishimoto, whom you may recognize as the director of _Sonic Frontiers,_ actually confirmed that he played _Spark the Electric Jester 3,_ and enjoyed it to the point where he might take inspiration from that game for future _Sonic_ games.
It kind of does make me hope that the same can happen with _Freedom Planet,_ where someone from Sonic Team can sit down and enjoy that game, and take lessons from its game design.
They said they’re doing that more now
Which makes sense considering sonic likes only took of within like the last 5 years
Which a lot of it was spent making frontiers
(I mean take off in the sense of people talking about it)
10 minutes in and i still have no idea what actually makes freedom planet good, just things that it does differently from sonic that allegedly make it better
Do you know what thing you *do* enjoy about Sonic? Because it does have those things
Imagine if they made a 3rd game, which I hope they do. Freedom planet is amazing. Also what if the 3rd game, was 3D!? JUST PICTURE IT!
Galaxy Trail would need to hire more people, expand their team, 3D as an indie dev takes more work and resources.
@@millabasset1710 that is true, BUT IMAGINE HOW COOL IT WOULD BE!
Freedom Planet sounds like a lot of fun, but I've got a hard time getting used to the art style
I had a lot of fun with it, i remember beating lilacs campaign with 0 lifes just about to get my first game over but i was able to clutch it it felt so awesome
I actually didn't complete a walkthrough with the other two but i feel like i should before trying 2
I really like freedom planet. I like it so much but I'm afraid to admit that I enjoy it more than classic sonic because classic sonic is just that, a classic. To imply another game in its style can be better than classic sonic is to some people, borderline sacrilege.
Maybe I'm not looking at the right places but as liked as they are the classics don't feel like they are completely untouchable to that many people
Sonic 1 is infamous for parts like labyrinth zone and overall emphasizing platforming much more compared to the sequels, CD is a coin toss between being a gem or the weakest out of the original games, some believe the last stretch of 2 isn't very good and gets the can't see shit in front of me criticism the most
Even 3 as beloved as it is has zones that are considered weak like sandopolis
Freedom planet 1, haven't touched 2 yet, feels more like a cool alternative rather than a straight upgrade to me but I can see where the appeal lies
True
Most anticipated video ever.
Watching with my coffee. I love these games, the original is a classic and the sequel is phenomenal.
Milla is my main in both games, love her design and in FP2, she is a super dog.
I played freedom planet 1 for the first time on steam back in 2015. I loved it, especially when all three characters act different (Talking about all three charactes different movesets) , how the enemies act and the music.
Later I managed to get myself a limited run Freedom planet physical copy on switch just to have a physical copy of the game. I still love the game, though I have never played the second game just yet.
i agreed, these games kick ass