Warning: This review contains major spoilers for the story of Freedom Planet 2. If you do not want to be spoiled, please avoid this review until you finish the game.

Howdy! Player of the original Freedom Planet here. Cracking good game, that. And after getting the sequel, I can conclusively say it's a drastic improvement in a lot of ways.

+Characters got a lot more moves and rebalanced mechanics
+Soundtrack SLAPS
+Story has a better time balancing the tone
+Voice acting is better. My man Alejandro Saab still shines!
+The art is gorgeous. Which art? Pretty much all of it. Sprites, backgrounds, you name it
+There are a lot of levels.
+Lot more stuff to do, such as the Battlesphere and purchasing items.

And a downgrade in others. Allow me to elaborate:
-A lot of the game makes callbacks to the first game, Freedom Planet 1. It's not detrimental to gameplay at all, but noticeable from even a casual glance during cutscenes and dialogue.
-Difficulty spikes, the level where you first encounter Serpentine in this game being a particularly bad offender. The enemies take ludicrous amounts of damage on Normal. The game is practically screaming at you to use the new parry/dodge system when this isn't normally the kind of game that has that and its predecessor didn't.
-The levels are longer. That's subjective, but some levels were simply wayyyyy too long. Cripes, one took me upwards of 20 minutes because I just kept getting lost!
-The items you can buy are uninteresting for the most part. Playing as Milla, the life-steal item is practically useless because her hardest hitting attacks are ranged or non-physical.
-The characters are fun, but often are written pretty wonkily. There's also a distinct disconnect between how some characters are described (*cough*Astal*cough*) and how they actually act. The character dialogue is fun but can sometimes fall flat. Milla's dialogue is the biggest offender. I get she's a young girl, but she is older now. She doesn't have to speak like a five-year old all the time now. And now you're saying she's some kind of science genius? Please. I approve her character growth but this dialogue is just way too childish.
-There's a hub now and that's great, but 99% of the NPCs don't offer much of value other than odd chatter. One may call it world building, but there should be some mechanics built in somewhere. Such as side quests or something. There's shops yeah, but you put a "quick shop" option up there to skip walking to the shopkeeper. Also kind of hard to tell who the shopkeepers even are.

-Distinct lack of character growth over the course of this game.

-The Story itself and how the characters act. Wow. Ok, that's really subjective, but let me explain. This game does a lot good in terms of story. Heck it doesn't even commit the cardinal sin of "gameplay and story are segregated". Seriously I absolutely LOVE how Freedom Planet 2 merges story and gameplay. Other characters helping you out in cutscenes? There's a good chance they show up in levels and some boss fights. All the playable characters have aged several years and are a lot tougher, represented by expanded move pools compared to the first game. All that is awesome.

This is the biggest critique I have of the game--plot holes and the characters sometimes act or talk like complete morons, and the general disconnect between the background fluff and what happens in game. Massive spoilers ahead.

One of the earliest examples is Askal's betrayal. First impressions are key, and this guy acts aloof and kind of a jerk to the player character when you first meet him. You can spar with him and optionally talk to him inside the tavern for some more fluff and it's still more aloof small talk. Askal joins you for one mission and a boss fight (where he doesn't really help, go figure) and then *gasp* he betrays the party! Oh no he was working for the villain this whole time! It's a shocking act of treachery.

Except....not really. Not been given much of a reason to care about Askal. Going by purely story-required material, he acts dismissive of the player character and distant and that's it. Neera Li speaks of Askal like he was everyone's FRIEND and a trusted ally but we're never shown that that was ever the case. We worked with him very sporadically and somehow he's our friend? Sorry, not buying it. When encountered as a boss later at the volcano and defeated, Askal accuses the playable character as being the "bad guys". Mind you, we are at the volcano TO STOP IT FROM ERUPTING AND DESTROYING A MAJOR CITY AND SAVE THE PEOPLE INSIDE IT. Very not bad-guy thing to do. Naturally, the person you are playing as never points this out. Milla sure didn't.

That Askal is ok with blowing the moon up with Bakugawa until we beat the snot out of him makes it worse. To me, Askal was never a good guy or a good man torn between what he thinks is right and what is right. Waste of a character. And as for Corazon.....

And that's just one of the complaints I have about how the game is written. Don't even get me started on the whole Earth Dragon vs. Water Dragon thing. Make no mistake, I'm genuinely hype for the sequel hook.

Sorry that got lengthy but felt it had to be said. Overall this game is great and a definite must for anyone who played the first game or wants to play a hearty side-scrolling platformer action game. And at its current price? A steal. An absolute steal. Bless GalaxyTrail for being so generous. I mean it.

8/10

Edit: Spelled Askal's name wrong and removed unnecessary ranting.

Warning: This review contains major spoilers for the story of Freedom Planet 2. If you do not want to be spoiled, please avoid this review until you finish the game. Howdy! Player of the original Freedom Planet here. Cracking good game, that. And after getting the sequel, I can conclusively say it's a drastic improvement in a lot of ways. +Characters got a lot more moves and rebalanced mechanics +Soundtrack SLAPS +Story has a better time balancing the tone +Voice acting is better. My man Alejandro Saab still shines! +The art is gorgeous. Which art? Pretty much all of it. Sprites, backgrounds, you name it +There are a lot of levels. +Lot more stuff to do, such as the Battlesphere and purchasing items. And a downgrade in others. Allow me to elaborate: -A lot of the game makes callbacks to the first game, Freedom Planet 1. It's not detrimental to gameplay at all, but noticeable from even a casual glance during cutscenes and dialogue. -Difficulty spikes, the level where you [spoiler]first encounter Serpentine in this game[/spoiler] being a particularly bad offender. The enemies take ludicrous amounts of damage on Normal. The game is practically screaming at you to use the new parry/dodge system when this isn't normally the kind of game that has that and its predecessor didn't. -The levels are longer. That's subjective, but some levels were simply wayyyyy too long. Cripes, one took me upwards of 20 minutes because I just kept getting lost! -The items you can buy are uninteresting for the most part. Playing as Milla, the life-steal item is practically useless because her hardest hitting attacks are ranged or non-physical. -The characters are fun, but often are written pretty wonkily. There's also a distinct disconnect between how some characters are described (*cough*Astal*cough*) and how they actually act. The character dialogue is fun but can sometimes fall flat. Milla's dialogue is the biggest offender. I get she's a young girl, but she is older now. She doesn't have to speak like a five-year old all the time now. And now you're saying she's some kind of science genius? Please. I approve her character growth but this dialogue is just way too childish. -There's a hub now and that's great, but 99% of the NPCs don't offer much of value other than odd chatter. One may call it world building, but there should be some mechanics built in somewhere. Such as side quests or something. There's shops yeah, but you put a "quick shop" option up there to skip walking to the shopkeeper. Also kind of hard to tell who the shopkeepers even are. -Distinct lack of character growth over the course of this game. -The Story itself and how the characters act. Wow. Ok, that's really subjective, but let me explain. This game does a lot good in terms of story. Heck it doesn't even commit the cardinal sin of "gameplay and story are segregated". Seriously I absolutely LOVE how Freedom Planet 2 merges story and gameplay. Other characters helping you out in cutscenes? There's a good chance they show up in levels [spoiler] and some boss fights.[/spoiler] All the playable characters have aged several years and are a lot tougher, represented by expanded move pools compared to the first game. All that is awesome. This is the biggest critique I have of the game--plot holes and the characters sometimes act or talk like complete morons, and the general disconnect between the background fluff and what happens in game. Massive spoilers ahead. [spoiler] One of the earliest examples is Askal's betrayal. First impressions are key, and this guy acts aloof and kind of a jerk to the player character when you first meet him. You can spar with him and optionally talk to him inside the tavern for some more fluff and it's still more aloof small talk. Askal joins you for one mission and a boss fight (where he doesn't really help, go figure) and then *gasp* he betrays the party! Oh no he was working for the villain this whole time! It's a shocking act of treachery. Except....not really. Not been given much of a reason to care about Askal. Going by purely story-required material, he acts dismissive of the player character and distant and that's it. Neera Li speaks of Askal like he was everyone's FRIEND and a trusted ally but we're never shown that that was ever the case. We worked with him very sporadically and somehow he's our friend? Sorry, not buying it. When encountered as a boss later at the volcano and defeated, Askal accuses the playable character as being the "bad guys". Mind you, we are at the volcano TO STOP IT FROM ERUPTING AND DESTROYING A MAJOR CITY AND SAVE THE PEOPLE INSIDE IT. Very not bad-guy thing to do. Naturally, the person you are playing as never points this out. Milla sure didn't. That Askal is ok with blowing the moon up with Bakugawa until we beat the snot out of him makes it worse. To me, Askal was never a good guy or a good man torn between what he thinks is right and what is right. Waste of a character. And as for Corazon..... And that's just one of the complaints I have about how the game is written. Don't even get me started on the whole Earth Dragon vs. Water Dragon thing. Make no mistake, I'm genuinely hype for the sequel hook.[/spoiler] Sorry that got lengthy but felt it had to be said. Overall this game is great and a definite must for anyone who played the first game or wants to play a hearty side-scrolling platformer action game. And at its current price? A steal. An absolute steal. Bless GalaxyTrail for being so generous. I mean it. 8/10 Edit: Spelled Askal's name wrong and removed unnecessary ranting.