Freedom Planet: I got this a while back on Humble Bundle and wanted something that was likely short and simple after FF15, and given I knew this game took inspiration from old Sonic games, seemed like an ideal pick.
Overall, it's decent and fun, but hit by a few flaws. I think what this game needs, of all things, is a sequel, mostly because you could tell this was a first attempt, and feels like the designers understand enough that a 2nd game would bang out a lot of the kinks.
What it does right:
-Stage design in general. Stages are varied and well thought out, and generally the game does a good job using it's mechanics in creative ways.
-The intro Stage. I feel like this should be highlighted alone because the game has no tutorial whatsoever, instead, stage 1-1 is essentially a "learn the game yourself" style scenario where it's just involved enough to make you want to test out all your options, but also ridiculously easy and simple that you can't realistically die. You definitely get a good sense of what you can do, your limitations, etc.
-Not feeling entirely like a Sonic clone. They really could have gotten away with just "Sonic but you're playing a a girl Dragon" and tweaked a few things to not be a blatant rip off, but they clearly went the extra step and gave the game it's own identity. There's plenty of "WE WANT TO BE SONIC!" moments like loops, running on the background, speed moments, etc., but also plenty of moments where it just plays like an Action Platformer in ways you wouldn't do. It's similar to Shovel Knight in that regard.
-Plot. The game actually takes itself seriously, and it generally it's plot simple with "Aliens invade, Lilac decides to beat them up" and throws a bit of a loop with "there's 3 nations that don't like each other...and one has basically been taken over by the aliens, get the other two to STOP FIGHTING and join against a common cause." I'm not going to rave about it, but I am going to give credit that the game early on feels like it's going to try and be bigger than it is, but recognizes to not go TOO far.
-Aesthetics. Looks like a Genesis game, and not in a cheap way, but rather in a "We really want to capture that 2D SOnic Vibe!" and they do. It's not just generic 16 Bit, but rather, it looks like something from Genesis specifically, just with a more varied color palette (so...maybe 32x would be a more apt comparison <.<?)
-Boss Fights. Outside of one or two, the game does a great job at making varied and interesting bosses that you slowly learn through trial and error. Flaws with the fights are generally flaws I'll cover later on, and not the fights themselves, if that makes sense.
-Leniency in terms of lives, check points and continues. Honestly, the Life and Continues in this game feel more like a formality and a pride thing to keep track of how good/bad you're doing more than anything else. Check Points are generally well placed and common, and a continue offers no penalty compared to just dying near as I can tell, meaning the whole idea existing is weird.
Flaws:
-The Humor. Ok, the game takes itself seriously...except when it doesn't. See, there's definitely times where it tries it's hardest to be a satire or a comedy, but falls on it's face. The sad part is...the jokes themselves could be really funny, but the delivery just isn't there. Like when Lilac and Carol first meet Milla, she's like "hey, let's go back to my house and hang out!" and then scene shift and they're all laying around the house doing nothing, because well...there is nothing to do! That's a hilarious idea, but the way the game delivers it just doesn't quite get the timing or right tone down. The other issue is that a scene could be completely serious and then throws a joke and it takes a moment for you to realize "oh, that's a joke, isn't it?" The jokes never get juvenile or painful just...well...it's the complete opposite of Ghostbusters really, a movie where on paper, shouldn't be that funny, but the delivery of every line is so spot on, they're hilarious. This game is the otherway around: on paper, it should be really funny, but in practice, it's just kind of "eh..." This is why the game taking itself seriously more often than not is to it's advantage, despite the colorful, cartoonish style; the people who made this just don't quite have a grasp that humor is more than the written joke.
-Physics. So as I said, this game wants to be a Sonic clone, but they forgot to implement any kind of Momentum Based Physics. THis leads to some really awkward speed moments where in Lilac is expected to run fast, but she stops really quick because there's no Momentum. The most obvious is spring-based speed; you bounce of the spring and you have to IMMEDIATELY adapt and press the button in the right direction, which can get awkward when you're running upside down and such and aren't sure which way to push. Sonic games, as you know, if you get a spring based speed, you can actively let go of the button and he'll keep running and the momentum carries him, you really just have to press the jump button or spin or whatever. To the game's credit, it does let you WALK UP STRAIGHT INCLINES!!! Still, there needed to be some aspect of momentum in Lilac's movements.
-Being unable to super dash unless you have full energy. Given how many moments require this and how easy it is to NOT be at full because you double jump/glided, it's annoying. I feel they should have just gone with "you can super dash until your gauge runs out" so the advantage of a full gauge is more room for error and longer dashes. Now the challenge is not just waiting for your gauge to fill, so you can complete a puzzle but also being able to gauge "is this enough to get through?" Alternatively, have an upgrade or something that gives you multiple gauges, to allow multiple attempts.
-Hit Stun and Hit Indication. ok, first off, Hit Detection is completely fine, so let me get that out there. I never felt like I was hit by something I shouldn't have been, or enemies were avoiding hits they shouldn't. That said, it's so easy to take a lot of damage in this game because of the combination of these two aspects. Hit Stun...you have almost none, and as a result, you have almost no Invulnerability Frames. This means you can take a lot of damage from rapid fire attacks and there's nothing you can do about it. I would have preferred if they just made those individual hits do more damage but gave you typical platformer I-Frames everytime you're hit, to avoid that. There was a boss where-in I was winning pretty clearly, but got caught in his rapid fire move and oops, there goes a 1/3rd of my health and I die. It definitely felt like some attacks were doing more damage than the creators intended. The other problem is Hit Indication, in that because the Hit stun is so low, you sometimes take hits without realizing you're taking hits. When standing still, Lilac will make a flinch and have an "ow" or some such...that's fun. When you're attacking constantly or moving, thoguh, and there's a lot of stuff going on screen, you sometimes are being hit by stray lasers or something and don't realize it. This is most obvious when fighting foot-soldiers with lasers who you're meleeing but they're shooting you, and you don't realize they're shooting you since you're standing in range where their beams spawn, but you don't realize there are beams.
As in, yes, if they had Mega Man style hit stun where every move does a set damage (and attacks do variable damage), and being hit makes you flinch and get a bit of I-frames indicated by a flashing sprite, that'd have completely solved my complaint above.
-Instant Death Pits. This one may sound weird, considering I play Mega Man all the time and am fully use to it, but the way the game is structured, Instant Death pits are bizarre. First off, none appear until Stage 4, so you naturally jump down and OH CRAP, I'M DEAD!? It's unprecedented and there's nothing suggesting this before. Considering how long the stages are (a standard stage takes 20 minutes total), you've had plenty of experience by Stage 4, so when there's suddenly a bottomless pit, the game is throwing a curve ball you're not prepared for. Then it doesn't have any more pits until Stage 9, where-in they appear again. This time, though, they're somewhat worse because you have to jump down to continue in some areas and there's no indicators of "GOING FURTHER WILL GET YOU KILLED!" Leaps of Faith are not good! This really reminded me of a video highlighting a lot of the fundamental flaws Mighty No. 9 had, and this was a good example. A game having a way to tell you "THIS IS THE EXTENT OF HOW FAR YOU CAN GO!" isn't compromising difficulty, but rather, it's removing FAKE Difficulty. Death as a result of the player having no idea what's in front of him is not something under their control, it's just cheap. All the game needed was when you reach a certain depth, have a one of those yellow caution signs, just to go "DO NOT DROP DOWN ANY FURTHER!" The situation itself is hazardous enough that you can die by accident by failing the platforming...which is fair, that's what Bottomless Pits are SUPPOSE to do, but when there are some cases where you are expected to descend to continue, and in some cases, descending gets you killed, it's not a fair set up.
There is one other instance of instant death, which is a stage having crush deaths, but that felt properly handled, since it's obvious "you don't want to be crushed by this"; it's not obvious that it's instant death, but you should be attempting avoid it regardless.
That last point, to be clear isn't as bad as it could be since the game is extremely lenient on lives, continues and checkpoints, as I said, such that it's more just annoying.
-Sound design in voice acting. Ok, the sound itself? Fine. Music? Fine. Voice Acting quality? Not bad for an indie game. Voice Acting DESIGN? Awful. The voices are way too low to hear them in many cases, like Sonic Adventure 2 level at times (...with better voices...and less quotable lines...) This is relatively minor granted, but still something that stood out.
Is this a must play or an amazing game? No, not really. It's no Shovel Knight, for example, but it's certainly competent and worth looking into if you like Sonic-style games, yet still has it's own identity. I do not regret my time playing it and was definitely worth nabbing from Humble Bundle.
