It’s time to take a look at the big sequel to the original Freedom Planet. It’s cool to see all of the characters again and they do a good job of keeping the story really hype and exciting. There’s full voice acting here and a fun story which goes a long way. I’ll definitely be up for another game to wrap up the trilogy at some point. There’s definitely more you can do with the world building here but if not I can still be content with the big adventure here.

The game kicks off with a new threat emerging into the world. Her name is Merga and she is a water dragon like Lilac. No longer is the heroine the last of her kind but Merga explains that there was no accident or anything like that. Their people were wiped out by the Earth Dragons and she intends to have her revenge on the planet. Lilac knows that she has to save the world but defeating Merga would ensure that she is the last of her kind once more. Is there any way to prevent this from being the case?

I tend to give platformers a lot of grief for not having much of a story but I can safely say that it isn’t a concern this time around. This game has quite a lot of story within it and full voice acting like I mentioned earlier. This goes a looooong way to making the game extra memorable. You’re really eager to see what is going on with the case and how they will handle this. The story has twists and turns, it has drama and action. It’s a complete narrative that really pushes the characters.

Lilac is a great heroine as always and this game really let us see her leadership qualities. While the rest of the characters would be fighting and getting in each other’s way, she wasn’t getting distracted. Ultimately you can count on Lilac to make the right calls as needed. Meanwhile Carol is fun as always. Her big focus on being a free spirit does often put the characters in a bad spot but she is a loyal friend through it all. Milla has improved a great deal from the first game. She is still one of the weaker characters for me but there is a lot of potential with her banter with Serpentine.

Neera is a whole lot of fun on the hero side as well. She’s all on business which makes for a lot of arguments. Neera wants to protect the world at any cost and that absolutely makes for a great for a great contrast. The Magister that she serves is far less impressive though. He could definitely stand to be a more likable character. He strikes me as that shady guy who makes a ton of mistakes and doesn’t always pay for them. I mainly found him annoying here.

One character who gets the shaft this time is Spade. He basically shows up to get wrecked and doesn’t contribute much. I can get why Lilac is still mad at the guy because he is the opposite of reliable. Always ready to make a quick escape and look out for himself instead of helping the rest of the heroes out. The guy isn’t even a hero to be honest. I’d consider Serpentine to be more dependable at this point.

Serpentine is a great character all the way though. He has the best theme in the game and is an unpredictable wild card. You want to talk about a guy with aura and great one liners? He is the absolute best character in the game and I always looked forward to his theme song playing. You knew that fun things were in store. A true scene stealer all the way.

As for the villains, the roster was pretty strong here. The best villain was Merga which makes sense. She had some strong ideals and made for a very compelling character. Obviously she is evil and the game doesn’t try to make you think anything else but I can always go for a villain who is at least fighting for something they believe in as opposed to just being totally random. Then you have Askal who is a strong fighter and gets a good role here. I may not have liked how it ended but he was another powerful villain who helped to even things out here.

Aaa is the only villain that I didn’t care for. He panics a lot and is super weak so I didn’t think that we actually needed him here. He doesn’t add anything to the dynamic which is my main problem. Captain Kalaw was fun though. He could maybe be a bit over the top but I tend to like this character type. Finally you have Cory, whose role is much smaller than you would expect but she is still really solid. Definitely another fighter you can’t underestimate although she definitely had less personal stakes for helping the villains out.

I didn’t really talk about the gameplay much yet but it’s basically a 2D platformer like Sonic. I think that’s probably oversimplifying it a little bit though. You can also use an aerial spin move that’s like a boost which makes you temporarily invincible. It’s a huge part of how the gameplay here works so you need to use it a lot. You can also use martial arts with your attack button. There are way more boss fights than the average 2D platformer so get ready for that combat.

The game can be reasonably difficult as well so make sure you buy some good items. I personally liked the water damage upgrade a lot since the damage sticks with the enemy even after you have finished landing your hits. It’s extremely useful without a doubt. The final boss has like 10+ forms also so I hope that you have managed to save up a lot of gems. You’re definitely going to need them for this part. I’m not always a huge fan of the speed based 2D titles but the level designs here were pretty good. I may have gotten lost once or twice since they can be rather large but it worked out well enough.

Then of course you have the soundtrack which is definitely top tier. A lot of great tunes around every corner in this game. We also can’t forget the graphics which are well above average. The game looks very well polished. They didn’t skimp out on any of the technical aspects here. I guess in a way I focused mostly on the story because I was so impressed but the whole game was on point here. There isn’t a ton of replay value to be honest though so I guess the only issue could be that there isn’t a ton of content here. Still, it’s not like the game goes for $60 or anything like that though so it evens out well enough.

Overall, Freedom Planet 2 was definitely a great game. It really went a long way to maximizing the hype and enjoyment that you would expect after the first game. The story was excellent and I had a good time with the gameplay. This is definitely a game that you should pick up as soon as possible. You definitely will not regret it, I can tell you that! Gotta see what the next Switch game to get with the Eshop gift cards will be. Always lots of fun options out there.

Overall 8/10