Freedom Planet - (Also discussion of the sequel is allowed)

[Lucky Wildcard]

I figured since the sequel will come out next year, Freedom Planet and it's sequel should get a thread. Here's a gameplay trailer of Lilac from the sequel, with Carol and Milla to come out in the following weeks. A demo of the game will be released on January.

 

[A Random]

Ugh, this looks bad. Not in that the whole thing is awful, but things like the thumbnail face or that face during the chest scene are... whoever is drawing this needs to either be paid more so they put actual work, or get fired so they put in a different person.

Not that I have many high expectations myself. There's enough controversy involved I can barely keep my head down about, anyway.

 

[Unitary]

What's this about controversy?

 

[A Random]

What's this about controversy?

Okay so long story short.

Freedom Planet 1, the game, went through significant cuts [down to two extra playable characters being either demoted to new projects or otherwise removed] due to criticisms about how there was 'too much plot' or it being a 'Saturday Morning Cartoon' plot. Or people cringing about how the protagonist getting tortured MGS-style clearly means the devs have it against women.

That might be just dumb on its own, but there's a few extra issues. The thing is that Freedom Planet was a Kickstarter project that offered the usual amount of rewards, and rather than actually complete the release and consider the whole project done, we're getting Freedom Planet 2 done first. One might say 'hey, there's no point to giving a dumb furry game a webcomic', but my issue is primarily that it paints a bad impression on the devs if they take the money for stretch goals and don't do them. Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero isn't a great game, but at least they haven't actually gone and said 'oh we're NOT doing the stretch goals we promised and earned the money for, sorry!'.

And then we have the community. Ban-happy mods who ban you for following the rules and contacting the admins if you have a problem with them. Mods who ban you for being a meninist. Mods who treat the people who complain about the issues above as pure haters and have no problem painting them as liars and the people who ruin the fanbase. And if you go on Discord, well, you'll only really be directed to the official chat where trying to talk about the game gets you ignored or banned unless you talk about it the right way.

It's to the point where now if you want news about the game, you go to Sonic Retro. Despite the creators claiming that they wanted to move away from Sonic influences to make Freedom Planet more of its own identity. Because people in Sonic Retro have to be vetted to post anything there and can get kicked if they are wrong.

DISCLAIMER: I didn't even know of Freedom Planet until last year so I didn't back it, so this isn't really the complaint of an angry backer if it sounds like it.

 

[Unitary]

Christ. well is the game worth it in terms of pure gameplay?

 

[A Random]

I enjoyed it as well as one can, though it's so fidgety and prone to slowdown on laptops without dedicated video cards [or something]. That said, you kinda have to play on Hard if you want to actually enjoy it, because otherwise everything's too easy even on Normal [Hard mode is actually the Normal difficulty gameplay as it was, with Normal and below being altered to make things extra easy].

To be clear, what I'm saying is that a lot of people complain about the difficulty but go about it the wrong way. The bosses in particular offer rather fair challenges that someone with a decent knowledge of platforming can understand, with the key being that instead of abusing the double jump or super dash moves for attacks, you benefit more from using the characters' actual attack buttons. [You even get rewarded for doing so.] Instead there's a lot of complaining about a boss being 'too cheap' because it moves around and attacks you from off-screen.

 

[Lucky Wildcard]

I remember there were issues with the current engine which is why Torque and Spade were put on hold. At least they were willing to admit they fucked up and were offering refunds to the backers.

Yeah, we know we made a mistake. When the Kickstarter was started, Strife didn't know he would encounter the issues he has in trying to make it. A lot of the issue have to do with the choice of engine, something we already learned from somewhat when FP2 was decided to be made in Unity with a custom built engine this time around. It allows for far more customization and easier building, so that's one of the reasons making the DLC as standalones in Unity is an attractive option to us. It severely lifts the cap off limitations that MMF2 creates over time.

 

[A Random]

Here's video 2:

My complaints this time are mostly that I think I preferred the old pounce animation, due to the facial expressions and voices involved, and the way the projectile works is rather off-putting thanks to an excess of i-frames.

 

[Lucky Wildcard]

Here's the thread about the DLC delay.

 

[Lucky Wildcard]

This new video finally involves Milla. It's even better than I imagined.

 

[HeirenPlaya]

I don't know anything about controversies, dunno if it's SJWs, Weeaboos, or whatever, but the game looks pretty sic, at least as a fan of old retro platforming nostalgia.

 

[Fulda's Gap]

I don't know anything about controversies, dunno if it's SJWs, Weeaboos, or whatever, but the game looks pretty sic, at least as a fan of old retro platforming nostalgia.

Video game communities are inherently bad and often "controversies" are manufactured by someone getting butthurt about something.

The first game was awesome. It's sort of a Greatest Hits of 16 bit and 32 bit side scrolling.

 

[RoboticRichardSimmons]

The game and it's premise was awesome, I loved that it felt like a Sonic game that could have been on the Saturn. Once I got to the 4th level and realized I had spent 20 minutes on one stage, the novelty wore off very fast.

I hope the sequel has more levels that are not as drawn out and lengthy as the first game. Spending that much time was grueling and broke up the pacing.

 

[Lucky Wildcard]

The levels didn't feel that long to me, especially after you learn how to get through them (Thank you speedrun challenges!). First time around I can understand, but after a bit of playing around they didn't feel as long and drawn out. Only Battle Glacier felt like a long time due to the amount of shit it throws at you.

 

[A Random]

Depending on how you're using the characters, as well, you may make things unpleasant for yourself without realizing it.

For instance, Lilac's uppercut and air kick attack deal more damage than her double jump, and while Dragon Boost is strong and gets you running fast, you can't fully control the bounce.

Ironically, a big problem on my perspective is that enemies don't offer enough of a challenge to justify certain aspects [like the long health bar] until you hit the bosses. [So long as you're on Hard.] It's a game that would've benefited from heart containers a lot, personal opinion.

 

[LucasSomething]

Really liked this game, controls are super tight and plataforming/combat is more interactive and fun than any sonic game i played. Green cat riding walls with bike > others.

This game has some weird as hell mood swings tho. It starts with the villain blasting the king's head off on screen and then cuts to funny friendship moments, then later the protag gets

Spoiler: early spoiler

tortured on screen and mutilated (you can see her bleeding antenas on the background)

but after a bath she is fine and nobody mentions it again. It's really awkward/dramatic and inconsistent writing, it goes from 0 to 100 to 0 all the time.

 

[A Random]

At least you didn't try arguing that the writer was a misogynist over that scene.

 

[A Random]

So funny enough, right in this in-between two things happened.

First, the last playable character was revealed.

Second, the demo is out. I could post a link but, eh, files.

 

[Lucky Wildcard]

The sample version is fun. This glitch someone found before they fixed it cracks me up everytime I see it.

 

[Lucky Wildcard]

The sequel made it onto Steam Greenlight in 4 days.