Freedom Planet is a 2014 platform video game developed and published by GalaxyTrail. The player controls one of three anthropomorphic animal protagonists: the dragon girl Lilac, the wildcat Carol, or the Basset Hound Milla. Aided by a duck-like alien named Torque, the girls attempt to defeat the evil Lord Brevon, who plans to steal the Kingdom Stone and conquer the galaxy. While the game focuses on fast-paced platforming, its levels are interspersed with slower action scenes.
Game director Sabrina DiDuro (a.k.a. Strife) first began developing Freedom Planet as a Sonic the Hedgehog fangame using characters created by DeviantArt user Ziyo Ling for its main cast. Early into development, she lost interest in creating a derivative work and reconceived the project as her own intellectual property. Sash Lilac, originally a hedgehog, became a dragon; antagonist Doctor Eggman was replaced by Lord Brevon with his eyebrows resembling Doctor Eggman's mustache; and the Sonic series' ring-based health system was abandoned. Further changes were suggested by fans and incorporated throughout development. Freedom Planet was developed in Denmark and the United States, with its art direction carrying East Asian influences, such as medieval Chinese art inspiring its background visuals.
With development focused on the Windows platform, the game started out as a demo first released in August 2012 and was, after a successful Kickstarter campaign, released in its entirety via Steam in July 2014. Freedom Planet was later released for the Wii U in October 2015, for the PlayStation 4 in 2017, and for the Nintendo Switch in August 2018. The game received largely positive reviews; critics praised its gameplay, visuals, music, aesthetics, sense of humor and balance of Sonic elements with original content, but were mixed on its pacing, voice acting, story and the abundance of long cutscenes.
A sequel, Freedom Planet 2, was released in September 2022 for Windows. Ports for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, followed in April 2024.
Gameplay
Freedom Planet is a 2D platform game. The player directs one of three characters—Lilac, Carol, or Milla—to run and jump through levels and destroy robotic enemies. Levels contain obstacles such as corkscrews, loop-the-loops, hills, ramps, and rock walls. The player fights a miniboss in the middle of each level and a main boss at the end, after which the story is advanced by cutscenes. Because of its aesthetics, level design, and fast-paced gameplay, Freedom Planet has been compared to the Sonic the Hedgehog games released for the Sega Genesis in the early 1990s.
Unlike in Sonic, the player character has a hit point meter instead of a ring-based health system. To refill this meter, the player collects red leaves dropped by enemies and scattered throughout levels. Lilac's and Carol's maximum health are seven leaves, Milla's is four. Being hit by enemies' and bosses' attacks reduces the character's health, and a life is deducted when no health remains. If all lives are lost, a game over screen appears, but the player may freely restart from the last checkpoint. Extra lives can be found within levels, as can shield and invincibility-type power-ups.
Each of the playable characters make use of an "attack" and "special" button. Lilac and Carol both make use of an energy gauge on the heads-up display, which recharges on its own and limits the use of their special moves. The gauge can be recharged quicker by collecting crystals and keystones.
Lilac's basic attacks consist of strong but sluggish hair whips, an uppercut into the air, a crouching kick, and a dive kick from midair. The Dragon Cyclone, used by pressing jump midair, lets Lilac spin like a spinning top and deal touch damage, but also acts as a double jump with reduced gravity. Pressing the special button with a full energy gauge activates the Dragon Boost, an eight-directional air dash that deals heavy touch damage and makes her temporarily invincible.
Carol regularly attacks with a cycle of three fast but weak punches, which is changed into a single strong claw attack while rolling or pouncing. The pounce acts as Carol's double jump, slightly moving her forward. Her special attack is a series of rapid kicks which steadily consume a fifth of the energy gauge and give her invincibility. Collecting a fuel tank mid-stage allows her to change into a "motorcycle mode", where her top speed is increased and her acceleration doubled. During "motorcycle mode", the double jump becomes a rolling attack and gets the same properties as Lilac's cyclone move. Pressing "special" on-ground triggers a nitro boost that consumes energy. For vertical mobility, regular Carol is capable of doing a wall jump, "motorcycle mode" Carol can ride up walls. Another set piece only Carol can interact with properly are jump pads, which are placed in a set order and lead to alternating paths by jumping off of them in succession.
Milla, who does not have an energy gauge, can create a cube of energy by holding down the attack button, which she can then throw at enemies. Holding down the special button lets her pull out her shield that can reflect projectiles. Pressing "special" while holding a cube lets Milla use the Super Shield Burst, a strong mid-range beam which pushes Milla in the opposite direction. Milla can fly for a short time while holding the jump button midair by flapping her ears like wings. Milla is considered to be the hardest to play as, since she only has 6 life petals and even though she could heavily damage an enemy by throwing a cube or reflect projectiles, it would always take some time before she could summon an energy block again.
The player may complete the game in either the "Adventure" mode with all cutscenes or "Classic" mode, which omits them In Adventure mode, upon first starting the game, players are only given the option to select from either Lilac or Carol after a cutscene, in which the two temporarily split up. Milla is unlocked by clearing the second stage, Relic Maze, as either Lilac or Carol. Once a stage been cleared for the first time, it is unlocked in the character's time attack mode, wherein the player tries to finish the level in the fastest possible time. Players earn achievements by accomplishing certain goals, such as completing the game as a character or defeating an end boss with a special move.
Plot
The game begins as Sash Lilac and Carol Tea—an anthropomorphic dragon and wildcat —rescue a duck-billed creature named Torque after his spacecraft crash lands. At Torque's request, the three set out to protect a powerful relic called the Kingdom Stone. This involves them in a conflict between three nations on their planet: Shuigang, a country militarized by its new king, Dail; Shang Mu, led by the wealth-obsessed Mayor Zao ( or ); and Shang Tu, whose Royal Magister is unprepared for war. Lilac and Carol rush to the Kingdom Stone's shrine but are waylaid by the Shang Tu officers General Gong and Neera Li, who doubt that the Stone is threatened. The protagonists arrive just as the Stone is stolen by Spade, a henchman hired by Zao. After the shrine collapses, Carol is separated from Lilac and pinned by rubble, but gets saved by the timid Basset Hound Milla () Basset.
That night, Torque tells Lilac, Carol, and Milla that he is an alien sent to apprehend the intergalactic warlord Arktivus Brevon, whose spacecraft wrecked on the planet. Brevon has invaded Shuigang, murdered its king, and brainwashed prince Dail to be his servant. He intends to steal the Stone to power his ship. The protagonists decide to reclaim the Stone from Zao, but they are accosted en route by Spade and Brevon's general, Serpentine. In a conversation with Spade, it's revealed that he secretly worked for his half-brother Dail all along. Talking to Spade soon falls short as the group is suddenly attacked by Serpentine using one of his mechs. The delays given by the chase give Dail and Brevon's forces time to steal the relic.
Afterward, Zao sends the protagonists as emissaries to Shang Tu to discuss an alliance against Shuigang. Traveling by airship, the team gets ambushed by Shuigang's sky battalion, and they crash into a river leading to Shang Tu. Arriving at the palace, they are detained by the Magister, as Neera accuses them of trying to cover up Zao's crimes. After an unsuccessful attempt of Milla to break out of jail, Torque is acquitted when Lilac falsely pleads guilty. Lilac, Carol, and Milla quickly break out together to reunite with Torque, only to see him captured by Brevon and Serpentine. Carol quarrels with Lilac and storms off. Lilac sends Milla to find her and then goes to save Torque from Brevon's nearby base, but she is captured and tortured by Brevon. Meanwhile, Carol and Milla ally with Spade to storm the base, where they rescue Torque and Lilac. They are all separated in the ensuing conflict. Neera finds Lilac, arrests her, and brings her back to Shang Tu, where the Magister determines that she is innocent and sends her on a mission to recover an artifact containing information about the Kingdom Stone and their history in return of clearing her name.
Afterwards, the Magister reveals that Zao has challenged Shuigang for the Stone. Lilac rejoins her friends and convinces Shang Mu and Shang Tu to unite against Dail and Brevon's army. During the battle, Brevon announces that his ship is repaired, and Lilac, Milla, and Carol board it. The team combats Brevon's minions, including his AI assistant, Syntax, and a mutated Serpentine. Brevon captures Milla and turns her into a grotesque monster that attacks the other protagonists, who are forced to render her unconscious. Enraged, Lilac and Carol attack and defeat Brevon, but the Kingdom Stone is destroyed and he escapes. Shortly after the battle, Milla awakens in a medical tent, and everyone sees the sky lit up by swirling, crystalline energy released from the Kingdom Stone. The realization of the Kingdom Stone persisting in a different form brought an end to the war. Once Milla has fully recovered, Torque says goodbye to the girls and returns to space, with the promise that he will one day meet them again.
Development Freedom Planet was conceived in late 2011 by American game designer and programmer Sabrina DiDuro, who had just founded the independent developer GalaxyTrail Games a few years prior. Using the Multimedia Fusion 2 engine, the game was intended to be a small Flash game to "hone [her] skills as a game designer" but quickly grew to become a full indie game set in an original universe. After struggling to find a fitting name for the game, it was made up of the first two words that came in DiDuro's mind, "freedom" and "planet".
Before becoming its own intellectual property, the game started off as a Sonic fangame; a version of the game only seen in early footage show rings and Doctor Eggman as the game's main antagonist. Early on, DiDuro had decided that the Sonic affiliation would hold back the game. By the time of the first publicly released demo, the rings were replaced with red leaves and the characters' abilities were altered. Charging energy for special moves was dependent on Lilac's movement speed was changed to be generating gradually instead as it proved too difficult to control. The physics and controls were also tweaked to be more responsive and tight; running up walls was made easier and jumps were less floaty to allow player to dodge enemy attacks more easily. While the game retained the "speed platform gameplay", it took it in a different direction by introducing combat mechanics based on one of Strife's earlier Sonic fan projects. According to DiDuro, instead of jumping on robots to destroy them, the players fight them with punches, kicks, and special attacks.