You can replenish your health by collecting red leaves while the stamina replenishes by itself. Players have a health and stamina meters the latter allows the playable characters to use their respective abilities. Each level has players fight enemies and going through obstacles until they reach the end where they must fight the level boss. You take control one of three main characters, each with their own story mode as they traverse the levels. As for the buttons, you have the standard attack and jump buttons along with the ‘Special’ button. Think of it of a mix between Sonic the Hedgehog and Rocket Knight Adventures. The game is a fast-paced action platformer with a bit of fighting. In terms of graphic style, Freedom Planet looks exactly something out of a Sonic the Hedgehog game from the Sega Genesis era. In a side-scrolling game like Freedom Planet, it should have kept to a minimum and straight-to-the-point.
The prime example is after the second stage where the cutscene takes about more than 5 minutes. I usually don’t mind with pacing depending on the game’s story and its setting, but there are some scenes that take far too long. I have no problem with the story, but if there is one major issue, it is the pacing. The entire story actually reminded me a lot of the old cartoon series, Sonic SatAM, due to its atmosphere and the villain himself due to the similarities with SatAM’s incarnation of Robotnik ruthless and extremely intimidating. For one, the game starts with a rather dark tone as we witness the main villain and his army storm into Shuigang palace, slaughtering the guards and the king. Another thing to note is the atmosphere, balancing between light and dark. Not the full motion cutscene like most games nowadays, instead it utilizes the 2D sprites, completed with voice acting and facial expression. What makes the game a bit more refreshing is its presentation through cutscenes. The story is your standard ‘saving the world’ premise so it’s nothing new. Along the way, they are joined by a basset hound named Millia and the duck-like Torque. Enter Lilac and Carol (a half dragon and a wildcat respectively) who are dragged into the conflict as they attempt to stop Lord Brevon from decimating their home planet. The entire planet is thrown into a state of chaos when an intergalactic tyrant, Lord Brevon, started his conquest and intending to take the planet’s precious relic, the Kingdom Stone.
The planet is mostly divided into separate nations: the Shuigang, Shang Mu, and Shang Tu. The story takes place at a fictional planet where the inhabitants are anthropomorphic animals.
It was formerly a Sonic the Hedgehog fangame, but later became its own intellectual property.Īs a fan of the classic side-scrolling genre (games like Sonic the Hedgehog in the Genesis era and the Megaman series), I was intrigued and decided to try it out. Their game is none other than Freedom Planet. Fortunately, there are developers who still make these kinds of games and GalaxyTrail is one of them. Ever since the middle of the year 2000, there has been a decline of side-scrolling games with the rise of numerous 3D video games.