Freedom Planet in-depth analysis

Freedom Planet has been quite the talk lately and though the game has been given much praise, opinions on it have been divided among players as a whole, including the very fanbase. Even the praise has been uneven, some calling it "the true Sonic 4", others calling it "Shovel Knight for the Megadrive", or "Treasure Game with DeviantArt OCs".

Given the game's origins, the bias it face from all sides, both positive and negative, and its connection and comparisons to the Sonic franchise, a franchise with a troubled history that tend to be universally misunderstood and has one of the most infamous fanbases in video gaming (though its reputation is exagerated ; some fanbases have literally killed their franchises or striffled them of all innovation).


Given the recent heated up arguments in the fandom, the uneven and contradicting praise and criticism alike, I felt the need to rise up and make an in-depth analysis of the game in all of is facets, not merely just gameplay and story-wise.


I will divide this analysis into points so that one or more may be skipped if people are not interested. It must be noted that the Sonic franchise will be extensively described here too ; due to the nature of Freedom Planet's criticism, it is a comparison that cannot be avoided and discussing that comparison (and the validity of it or lack thereof) require knowledge of some basic context regarding Sonic.


== GAMEPLAY ==

-- Sonic --

Before I move on to Freedom Planet, it is important to understand its inspiration, Sonic. Sonic is a franchise that is, as stated earlier, greatly misunderstood and with a troubled development history.

I will begin with the gameplay.


The Sonic the Hedgehog game franchise is, at its core, a physics-based platformer series. This means that the challenge come partly from the controls, with inertia and momentum being large factors in whenever the player can clear obstacles, with careful management of these allowing the player to advance (or not).

Despite the franchise's marketting and selling line, speed is not actually a core componement of the series and in fact, in terms of actual game speed, the original trilogy is a lot slower than its contemporary rival series (such as Mario). Much of the franchise's famed speed is also a result of the level design, which is very tightly designed with obstacles being very close to one another, and to setpieces, which actually launch the player at high speeds but remove all input except for maybe holding right (loop-de-loops and many of the corscrews in the franchise are examples of these).

And this ironically lead to the major reason behind the decline of the series ; the original trilogy was not actually Sonic Team's solo creation but the result of two dev teams who worked together. Following the problems Sega suffered during the 32-bits era (Saturn debacle, Sonic XTreme), the other dev team ceased to be involved... leading the series with the following paradox:

Sonic Team suffer from a "drink their own koolaid" problem, actually thinking that their franchise's key componement was speed... when it wasn't.

But I will not elaborate on that further. Rather, I will elaborate on the physics and mechanics that support this.


In terms of controls, Sonic and his friends are actually surprisingly unwieldy. Sonic accelerate slowly, deccelerate slowly, and is at the mercy of inertia and momentum the moment he roll into a ball (whenever it may be by jumping or rolling when on the ground). This cause slopes and other such gimmicks to be obstacles ; the player must control their inertia and momentum, reaching sufficient speeds to clear those obstacles but not too much as to careen straight into pits, spikes, or foes.

For all of the speed born of the setpieces, the gameplay of Sonic is a cautious, deliberate one. This reflect in the levels ; they are very large, with multiple branching paths as the player has to gauge which obstacles would be easier to clear or lead to a potential secret.

Speed, rather than a natural product of the gameplay, is a reward for skillful gameplay and memorization ; as players clear obstacles, they are rewarded with setpieces during which Sonic move quickly and as they master the game and memorize the levels, momentum and inertia may be maintained through carefully planned routes for a seemless journey.

This is the true source of the series's speed. Speed is a mark of skill, a mark of mastery. This makes Sonic's gameplay very visceral ; succeed at a platforming section, immediately get reward with a rollercoaster-like display of speed.


-- Freedom Planet --

Now that this is said... it is time to analyse Freedom Planet and how it relate compared to its inspiration.

Freedom Planet is filled with slopes and has setpieces like Sonic however, when one look at the level structure or even the way the setpieces work, differences become obvious.

Freedom Planet, unlike Sonic, has a bigger emphasis on exploration and combat. Its physics and setpieces are deliberately designed to accomodate this fact.

The most obvious and a point that is mocked by those who do not understand its use is the forgiving slope physics. Freedom Planet allow the player to run up walls and even ceilings with even just minimal speed. This is because unlike Sonic, slopes are tools rather than obstacles ; Freedom Planet has a much more free-flowing level design, with the player allowed to do setpieces in reverse or circumvent them to backtrack. Slopes are made more forgiving to allow the player to run up past them even after running past them once. Likewise, they serve combat purposes ; many of the game's tougher enemies and bosses demand intelligent use of the slopes to evade attacks and navigate past them safely, something that would be impossible with pure Sonic-style physics.

Another decision is the crushing mechanic. Strife (the head developer for the game) chose to have Freedom Planet's challenge lying almost entirely on its enemies and bosses, with stage hazards being comparatively benign compared to Sonic. Thus, the game push the player character up until it is no longer stuck when it is crushed instead of triggering a death. This is supported by the fact that he has corrected any of those instances that would cause a major glitch (which is why the crushers in Sky Battalion trigger an instant death) while keeping many of such cases specifically to please speedrunners (Relic Maze's and Thermal Base's zipping come to mind).

Those physics and level design also reflect themselves in the movesets of the characters. They have more complex movesets, designed to allow for combos to be performed on foes. Most of the characters in the game are actually relatively slow and even in Lilac's case (the official speed-oriented character), most of her moveset is dedicated to combat and mobility over speed ; Dragon Boost's recharge time, vertical mobility uses, and defensive uses means that it's not meant to, and cannot be used, to maintain an optimal speed like Sonic's Spindash can be.

This is reflected in the way character moves too ; the characters reach maximum speed quickly and stop on a dime, with fine air control. The level of precision is far greater in Freedom Planet which fit with the tougher, more complex combat situations, as the player is called to maneuver around projectile-firing foes while delivering counter-attacks quickly and efficiently. In many of the tougher boss fights, a Sonic-style approach (rushing and jumping on the foe) will be outright punished.

The final element is the setpieces, which I touched on briefly previously. Unlike in Sonic, they are seldom one-way-only and often demand constant player input. The boulder chase at the end of stage 1 is a very obvious case ; unlike in Sonic, where an equivalent scene just demand the player to hold right, this scene demand the player take steps to stay ahead of the boulder and just holding right will result in the player character being, more often than, run over.


The end result is in a game flow that is very different.


By extension, this is why some of the characters, such as Carol in particular, do not play at nearly the speed one would expect. The characters are balanced for ease of exploration and combat first, speed second.

This lead to the next section...


== CHARACTER ANALYSIS ==

-- Preface & Sonic --

An interesting point that while Freedom Planet feature a choice of playable characters like the game that would be most commonly be compared to it, namely Sonic 3 & Knuckles, again the game shine not from similarities but from differences.

This section is not exhaustive if only because it was writen before the release of two playable characters (Torque and Spade) but it does contain on the entire cast at the time of this writing.

In Sonic, all characters have similar attributes ; they all run at the same speed, sport common moves (the spin attack jump and the spindash), and have the same collision box. The difference lies in an unique air action (performed by pressing the jump button when already in the air) and, in Knuckles's case, a slightly lower jump height.

This means that the characters all essentially play the same way and perform equally on most of the game's routes. Differences instead arise from character-specific routes which rely on their unique abilities (Sonic's shield use, Tails's ability to fly, and Knuckles's ability to scale walls).

All characters go through the same stages but have different finales, with only Sonic getting access to Doomsday Zone (the first Super Sonic boss fight of the series) while Knuckles get a totally different set of final stages (Hidden Palace Zone and Sky Sanctuary are turned into challengeless power-up zones, breathers before Knuckles's unique final boss fights).

Despite the nearly identical gameplay of the characters, Sonic 3 & Knuckles has been praised for the use of character-exclusive routes (as well as the way to exploit oneself through them using the incorrect characters) to add replay value to what is already one of the longest non-Mario platformers on the market.


-- Freedom Planet --

Freedom Planet's more freeflow-style stage design means that it doesn't feature nearly as many exclusive paths as the Sonic games but this is because instead of relying on exclusive routes, Freedom Planet differenciate characters through unique playstyles and character-exclusive gimmicks within shared routes.

Character-exclusive stages are also at story-relevent points instead of the end of the game ; all characters have at the time of this writing the same set of final stages and final bosses.

More exactly, Lilac's playstyle emphasize ease of reaching high speed and highly-damaging techniques and combos at the cost of safety. Her basic moveset, which consist of a backhand-tendril slash double swipe, an uppercut, an aerial dive kick, and a fast low kick, all have a very high damage output but have plenty of lag and leave her in a helpless state (player cannot make her perform further moves until she return to idle stance).

Meanwhile, her special moves have the same ; Cyclone is a mediocre double jump with a low damage output that however allow Lilac to make incredible boost jumps from slope jumps and when bouncing on springs. Meanwhile, Dragon Boost is an incredibly potent navigation and combat tool, allowing Lilac to reach the third level of running of speed, bouncing off walls to navigate vertical surfaces, and granting her invincibility frames thus acting as a defensive tool.

In terms of attributes, only Lilac can reach and maintain the third stage of running speed, allowing to navigate the stages at a greater level of speed than any other character. Her drawbacks lies in her highly unsafe attacks and lack of defensive ability (Dragon Boost is her only defensive tool and require a full special bar while Cyclone's slow speed and mediocre air time mixed with the fact that it induce helpless state unless cancelled and consume large quantities of special energy make it unreliable as a defensive move and even actively self-destructive and punishable by endgame bosses).

In stages, Lilac is the only who can take advantage of vertical springs at their fullest potential while her dive kick allow her to take advantage of slopes.


Carol, meanwhile, is the combat specialist in the cast. Her playstyle emphasize freeflowing combos trough moves that though weaker than Lilac's in terms of pure damage can be combo-ed seemlessly and, more importantly, safely into one another.

Carol's basic moveset sport a claw attack, a pounce, a roll, and a wall jump. The claw attack do little damage but if an attack connect, each subsequent claw attack in the same combo will have its animation play as twice as fast, allowing Carol to quickly rack up damage if she can keep the combo going. The roll surrender directional control in exchange for Sonic-style momentum. The roll do low damage to any foe she hit as well. The pounce finally allow Carol an explosive burst of speed forward, allowing to reach her maximum speed instantly. Finally, the wall jump is Mega Man-styled, allowing her to cling walls and then jump from them repeatedly to climb vertical surfaces for either navigation or defensive purposes.

Individually, those moves aren't too impressive but this is where she is unique ; Carol has an advanced move, Wild Claw. Wild Claw is performed by pressing the attack button while in a pounce or a roll, cancelling the move and dealing massive damage to the target (it will one-hit kill or several weaken most non-boss foes). Most importantly, the move count as a combo starter while restoring Carol's idle stance, allowing her to either chain up with claw attacks to rack up a large amount of damage very quickly or to resume maneuvering.

Carol's special move is the Wild Kick. It deal low damage and immobilize Carol upon use, each individual kick only dealing as much as a claw attack but its selling point is its low energy cost and the fact that she benefit from invincibility frames when using it.

Finally, Carol is unique in the way that she sport a powered-up form: the motorcycle, which is activated by picking up fuel tanks. When riding the motorcycle, Carol naturally accelerate quickly to the third stage of speed, making her the fastest character in the game. Her entire moveset remain unchanged except for a few additions: the Nitro Boost and a double jump. The bike will also deal damage equivalent to the Roll whenever she run over foes even if she does not attack.

The Nitro Boost allow Carol to boost horizontally, not unlike Lilac's Dragon Boost. It has however a far smaller cooldown and use only a fraction of her special bar, allowing her to maintain maximum speed at all times. Her double jump is far more potent than Lilac's Cyclone, giving her significant airtime and dealing heavy damage to foes making it the best aerial move in the game. Carol also do not need to wall jump when riding the motorbike ; the motorbike cling to all surfaces regarding of the orientation in blatant violation of gravity, making her the most mobile character in the game in the state.

Carol will lose the bike if she is hit thrice when riding it. However, the bike can be repaired by picking further fuel tanks while already riding it. It is also repaired when she go through transitions. The bike will not be destroyed if she is hit during a high-speed boss battle. Players can disembark the bike to safeguard it or if its high speed and altered moveset prove a liability at times.

Carol's advantages lies in her overpowered motorbike, her ability to combo her moves for large damage without exposing herself to counter-attacks (thanks to her ability to seemlessy chain almost all of her moves into the Wild Kick), and in her ability to use jump pads. Her drawback lies in a slower gameplay rythm and the lack of a double jump (without her motorbike).

Regarding stage gimmicks, Carol is the only one who can use horizontal springs to their full potential (thanks to her roll) and jump pads will allow her to make teleporting jumps from pad to pad instead of obtaining crystals from them.


Finally, Milla is a defensive character.

In terms of attribute, her moveset consist of the ability to pick up objects, the ability to create phantom blocks, the ability to raise a psychic shield, and a double jump through flapping her ears to fly.

Phantom blocks do large amounts of damage when thrown and if she approach a mine, flower, or power crystals while summoning one, she will grab the object instead, allowing her to carry for later use or as a projectile. Though slow, the phantom block is a range attack and does large amounts of damage.

Meanwhile, her shield will reflect most projectiles in the game, dealing incredible amounts of damage at whatever is hit by the reflected projectile. The shield also create a short-ranged blast when she let go, allowing her to attack foes who are too close for her to summon a phantom block in time.

Milla's double jump catch the most air time, is fast in execution, and last for a long time making it a very useful evasive and navigation move though lacking the offensive applications of Lilac's and Carol's double jumps.

Milla sport an advanced move in the way of raising a shield while carrying a phantom block. This will cause her to create the Hyper Shield, which function like the basic shield but block projectiles more effectively due to its larger size. Most importantly, releasing the Hyper Shield will create a very long-ranged blast that is the single most powerful attack in all three characters' arsenal, beating out both a perfectly timed Dragon Boost and Wild Claw. The move also create recoil, which can be both dangerous or useful varying on the circumstances and the player's skill.

Milla's advantages lies in her incredible damage potential and defensive abilities. The Hyper Shield, once mastered, speedkill foes faster than any other character can manage with their best combos and her ability reflect projectiles allow her to easily defeat enemies and bosses who are otherwise incredibly dangerous to Lilac and Carol. And of course, once mastered, the recoil from her Hyper Shield can allow her to maintain speed and momentum even better than Lilac.

However, Milla push the "high risk, high reward" philosophy even further than Lilac which leads to her disadvantages: her frailty and lack of a direct attack. Milla, being a regular kid (unlike Lilac and Carol who were raised to be combat specialist and are physically very tough), cannot survive nearly as much abuse as they can. Likewise, her only direct attack, the basic shield, both do less damage and has shorter range than the other characters' meaning that if the player cannot set up her phantom block and Hyper Shield (due to either circumstances or lack of skill), Milla will be helpless to fight back against hazards. Finally, Milla's lack of invincibility frames-sporting moves means that though many attacks that are dangerous to the other characters are not to her, some boss attacks become particularly problematic for her to dodge. Milla also lack a "go fast"-type move ; though the Hyper Shield's recoil can allow Milla to maintain her momentum over a really long time (the whole stage, in the case of extremely skilled speedrunners), it is not nearly as useful as Lilac's Dragon Boost or Carol's pounce in terms of sheer acceleration, especially given the necessary skill and time to set it up.

In terms of gimmicks, Milla has the least access to them except for slopes, which she can manipulate like Lilac through the use of the Hyper Shield but she compensate by having outright edits and significant different routes in many of the game's stages.


The end result is that while Sonic 3 rely on routes, Freedom Planet rely on basic differences in gameplay. Every character feature a radically different moveset, different strengths and weaknesses, different gimmicks to exploit on shared stages, and a different philosophy for tackling stages and bosses.


== STORY ==

-- Preface & Sonic --

Story is one of Freedom Planet's big controversial elements. This is an interesting point to study because of Freedom Planet's timing and situation ; in recent years, there has been a push for minimalism in video game storytelling and a popularization of what I call the "lol plot" player audience, players who have no suspension of disbelief and thus, no patience for story in games (which they see as an obstacle to their enjoyment of gameplay). The game is also created in an era of great hostility against anthromorphic characters and an emphasis on photorealism equaling story quality (backlash against perceived "furry" culture compounded by Sonic's fall from grace and the fall of the video game mascot in general).

Thus, Freedom Planet's position was pretty much destined to be dicey. But before I go on about it, I will first give context through the Sonic series.


Sonic was initially created as a replacement for Alex Kidd, Sega's previous mascot, with the express purpose of creating a character who would be cooler and more mature than Mario, thus giving Sega a hip image that would give them the upper hand in their then rivalry with Nintendo. Sonic underwent a lot of design brainstorming (Eggman's design is actually one of Sonic's scrapped designs. Likewise, Mighty the Armadillo, a fan-favorite obscure-ish character, is another Sonic scrapped design) to try and create the perfect image.

And in the early days, it worked ; it is often forgotten in this day and age, especially in this era of violent FPSs and with the stygma against perceived "furry" characters, that Sonic was once genuinely the coolest video game character and actually was a legitimate challenge to Mario's status as the face of video gaming as a whole.


And there lies a great paradox with Sonic and the rocky relationship he has with storytelling.

A lot of people have forgotten, especially in the light of Sonic Boom, that Sonic initially had a more serious tone to its storytelling. Even the original Megadrive games were extremely distinctive despite their minimalist plot and when the series evolved to 3D, the story was elaborated to go with this, the characters being redesigned to fit their new setting style and world as a whole.

Two elements contributed to Sonic's fall and the general discrediting of him as a serious character.

The first is Sonic Team's lack of talent as writers and for obvious reasons, will not be discussed. The second element is the one that is actually relevent to Freedom Planet.

Sonic is static.


What it means is that by mandate of Sonic Team, Sonic's cast are always forced to exactly fit their official descriptions ; Sonic is not allowed to ever be anything than "cool guy who like justice and adventure", Tails is doomed to forever be in Sonic's shadow, Eggman will always be back to world conquest no matter what, and the setting must remain the same from game to game.

The result is that despite Sonic Team's attempts at serious storytelling and deep plotlines, even attempting to tackle philosophy at times, their attempts are actively hindered by the fact that the characters and setting are static and thus will snap back after the game ends. Lessons are unlearned and thus, repeated adnauseum. Events that should be setting-changing are glossed over or ignored. Continuity between games become arbitrary and meaningless.


This created a dissonance that unfortunately made it impossible to take the characters seriously ; no matter how dark and gritty the setting became, no matter how high the scale, no matter how terrible the tragedies the characters encountered, none of it ever had weight. Even if the reset button isn't hit at the end of the games, ultimately it never amounted to anything.

When none of the events ever amount to anything and characters thus reappear having learnt nothing and repeating the same lessons over and over, it eventually create an effect where the stories, no matter how serious in presentation, became silly.


-- Freedom Planet: context --

And this is where things get interesting. Sonic's fall created a bad precedent for all subsequent series, serving as a warning. But this is where, like how many look at its gameplay the wrong way, many learn the wrong lesson from Sonic's fall.

Many conclude that Sonic's fall is a warning against writing serious stories in a platformer at all, this problem being compounded by Sonic Team's lack of talent (which resulted in unevene stories that could be easily picked apart) and the furry stygma (where every single character that does not fit a photorealistic human standart is automatically saddled with bias).

However, when one look at said fall, one notice the problem lies not in the concept but in the execution (bad writing + static setting removing weight from storytelling).


Freedom Planet was also created in an era of story minimalism and suffer from a nostalgia filter regarding storytelling in old games (one mostly based off more on frustration toward bad writing and pacing than old games truly being as plot-free as many think they were).


The end result is that its story is, I found out, largely criticized not on its failings (of which there are notable ones, if one take only the in-game plot as canon) but rather, largely on the perception of the game.

Given the recent trend of story minimalism and a dearth of story-driven platformers recently as well as the perception of old games meaning plot-free experiences, Freedom Planet's heavy story-driven nature is counter-intuitive and difficult to approach for someone who sport a limited attention span or just plain an unwillingness to invest in a story.


Simply put, Freedom Planet is a shock to many new players. And whether they end up liking its story seems largely dependent on their willingness to invest themselves and on if they have a bias against anthromorphic characters or not. Generally, a player who break into a constant stream of "GOTTA GO FAST LOL!" calls every five seconds will not be moved even if Freedom Planet was to throw Citizen Kane-level writing at him or her.


An important note about Freedom Planet is also cut content ; a lot of character information, setting details, and other misc points necessary to fully understand the story are unfortunately available in profiles, dev commentary, and data not accessed in-game. This means that a lot of players get an incomplete or innaccurate idea of the plot and may judge it on these grounds.

I will take into account this factor when analysing its story.


-- Freedom Planet: Analysis --

And thus we reach the meat of the Story section. Keep in mind that this section will hold unmarked spoilers.

Freedom Planet's story revolve around the conflict opposing the Chasers (the player characters) with Lord Brevon's crew (the game's antagonists) over the Kingdom Stone. The theater of this conflict is Avalice, a fictive alien world inhabited with anthromorphic sapients, sporting a hybrid technological level with a slant more toward the modern, and a generally asian and chinese-inspired cultural background featuring three kingdoms.

Lord Brevon, the main antagonist, is stranded on Avalice due to the actions of Commander Torque and in an effort to obtain the Kingdom Stone, the lone suitable fuel source on the planet for FTL travel, assassinate the king of Shuigang and trigger a world war as to get the opportunity to secure it.

While trying to eliminate Torque, his men end up catching the attention of Lilac and Carol, the primary protagonists. Lilac get the both of them involved, thus getting the story started.


The story is presented from several perspective, with the player selecting a player character at the start of their playthrough who double as their primary perspective on the plot. Different characters experience the events differently and thus it is necessary to play the game with all characters to get the full picture.

Narratively, the story is portrayed in-media-res, with character and background details being revealed gradually as the game progress, the player getting a clearer picture of the conflict and its participants the farther he or she gets. As such, while in-game events are chronological, the actual exposition isn't.


And there lies one of Freedom Planet's flaws and one of the reasons behind why its story is panned by some of the players who otherwise have the attention span to appreciate it: A full third of the dialogue and cutscenes were cut, creating plot holes.

Cut elements include the significance of the Kingdom Stone for the planet before the revelation of its other, more long-term purpose, Lilac's and Carol's initial situation (which is important to give context to their frictions and character development later on), the fact that they're orphans (thus removing context for them relating to Milla), character interactions between Torque and Carol (which would have shown the two getting closer), scenes showing Lilac's flaws (which would have set up her character development far better and most importantly, far more visibly), and most of the finale (Final Dreadnought has a grand total of one intact cutscene and a vital conversation was cut from the ending scene).

Each individual cut is not that big a problem but they add up to cause significant problems, in particular making it easy to overlook much of the story's depth. Serpentine's background, which is also important to understand the main antagonist (Brevon) better, is also present as an official profile outside of the game and is never discussed or brought up anywhere in-game despite its importance.


Before I describe the characters, I will give a synopsis of the story for context. I tried to not make use of the cut dialogue as much as possible but there is a noticeable hole between the in-game final battle and the ending, so I had to include the cut elements on that point.


Lord Brevon's world is under threat which motivated him to start plundering worlds for the necessary technology and energy to save his planet. His rampage led him to come to blows with the Coalition of Planets, which dispatch Torque's squad to stop him. Lord Brevon and Torque's squad fights and mutually annihilate one another above the planet Avalice, with Torque as the sole survivor of his side while Brevon's mothership, the Final Dreadnought, is shot down and crippled, its warp drive damaged and FTL fuel destroyed.

Given that the setting work on realistic distances regarding space travel (without FTL, you are not going anywhere even with space-worthy vessels) and the rarity of FTL fuel sources, Lord Brevon set up a coup in Shuigang, the mightiest nation on Avalice military-wise, and brainwash Prince Dail to act as his puppet ruler, kicking into gear a world war in order to give himself an opportunity to get the Kingdom Stone.

Avalice, meanwhile, is undergoing an energy crisis due to its technological growth outmatching the capacity of the Kingdom Stone, its primary energy source, with said energy crisis causing tensions that finally come to a breaking point due to Brevon's involvement. In desesperation, Mayor Zao, leader of Shang Mu, the second-mightiest nation of the setting, launch a covert attack to steal the Kingdom Stone.

During Zao's preparations, Torque learn about his plans and, suspecting Brevon's involvement, try to stop them but is intercepted by Brevon's forces who proceed to shoot down his ship. Their capture attempt is witnessed by two thieves, Lilac and Carol, who due to the former's desire for heroics, plunge both of them into the conflict.

Lilac meet Serpentine, Brevon's top general, and trick him allowing her and Carol to meet Torque. Learning of the Kingdom Stone's theft operation, the two don't quite believe him but decide to go on with it anyway. This lead them to meeting with General Gong and Neera, who prove uncooperative and slightly hostile, ignoring them. With their warning ignored, Zao's plan come off without a hitch, leading Lilac to drag Carol with her to try and catch up as to steal the Kingdom Stone first.

Lilac's plan ends in failure as Spade, who was hired by Zao to lead the covert attack, reach the Kingdom Stone and steal it first. On the way out, Carol is trapped by a cave-in and saved by Milla, leading to her befriending the duo and forming the main group. Once home, they announce the bad news to Torque.

During the night, Carol surprise Torque without his disguise leading the main trio to find out about his true nature. After giving a brief explanation of who he is and the situation at large, Lilac and her friends join up with Torque ; the Chasers are reborn.

The next day, the trio get their first lead ; turn out that Neera and Gong remember Lilac's attempt at warning them and decide to get them involved in the situation. Though Neera is suspicious, the two decide to enlist their help to get the Kingdom Stone back from Zao, hopefully without bloodshed.

The Chasers head to Shang Mu... only to find out that Brevon's forces had made it there first ; thanks to his advanced technology, Brevon tracked down the Kingdom Stone's whereabouts, allowing him to then dispatch Serpentine alongside with Shuigang's Sky Battalion as support to retrieve it. The Chasers race Serpentine to the Kingdom Stone... but do not manage to make it in time, Serpentine leaving with the artifact.

The group, knowing they cannot catch up to Serpentine on foot, meet up with Zao. Lilac, with Milla's help, manipulate him into lending help to the group in exchange for promises of glory. He agree to lend them a ship, allowing them to pursue Brevon's forces.

However, they find that the ship didn't come with a crew or the necessary equipment to fend off Shuigang's Sky Battalion. With no other choice for fighting back, Lilac come up with a plan to fire themselves at enemy ships and then wreck them on foot, Torque retrieving them once they're done.

The scheme succeed in preventing the ships from blowing up their ship with them onboard but is too slow to allow them to really take care of the Shuigang ships before damage to the ship become such that it crashes.

Disheartened, they head to Shang Tu to announce the bad news and get help in continuing their quest. Things take a turn for the worse as Neera revealed that she did a background check of the protagonists, revealing that Lilac and Carol are criminals. Lilac end up shooting herself in the foot when she ignore her friends' attempt to salvage the situation by taking the situation in her own hands resulting in the Chasers being imprisoned, being suspected of treason by the Magister.

As the group find itself stumped on what to do next, Lilac decide to go around the others' back again and manipulate the Magister into releasing Torque before breaking out of prison with her friends... alienating the last of their possible allies in the process.

The Chasers end up with both Avalice's forces and Brevon's on their tail, the former for treason, the later for their repeated involvement in Brevon's schemes. Things get even further worse as the Chasers escape Shang Tu's police only to walk straight into an ambush headed personally by Brevon, which ends with Torque captured and Lilac almost dying at the hands of Serpentine, having to be rescued by her friends.

With no allies left, no lead on how to stop Brevon, no ressources, and everyone on the planet with a gun wanting them dead or captured, Carol's nerves break. Given she only wanted to spend time with her friend and followed only because Lilac was her friend, the constant stress of almost getting themselves killed, the frustration of failing to put a dent in Brevon's plans, and Lilac's downward spiral as she keeps manipulating allies, lying, and obsessively pursuing a mission that isn't hers to start with finally defeat Carol's resolve. Feeling the odds to be too overwhelming, she propose for the group to just give up before they end up getting themselves killed.

However, Lilac, her desire for heroics having grown into an obsession, dismiss her friend's concerns and even as Carol point out how overwhelming and crazy the situation has become, reach the end of her downward spiral as she outright claim that their lives are unimportant given they are doing the right thing. The tensions become too much and Carol leaves the group. Startled by this, Lilac decide to try and continue alone... but when Milla offer to help, Carol's point prove to have flown over her head and she abandon her despite her begging her not to.

While Lilac attempt to take on Brevon's forces alone at his forward base, Carol calm down from her outburst and decide to go to the Red Scarves for help, deciding to finally stamp on her ego and to let go of her resentment for them. Spade, who found that his involvement with Zao and his obsession with revenge left him no closer to achieving justice for his father's murder, begrudgingly decide to help the two after a brief fight with Carol that is broken by Milla.

Meanwhile, Lilac's harebrained rescue attempt take a turn for the worse as Brevon ambush her personally and defeat her effortlessly. Captured, he decide to interrogate Lilac, intrigued by her resolve and wanting to know more about her. As Lilac reveal her motives to him, he throw them back into her face, making the dragon girl realize that she was going about this the wrong way the entire time and making her realize just how much she let herself be consumed by it.

Carol, now helped by the Red Scarves, manage to infiltrate Brevon's base, Carol rescuing Torque followed by Lilac... only for Brevon to reveal that this was a second ambush. However, before he try to kill them, Brevon end up revealing his true motive: to leave the planet and save his own planet, which Torque indirectly confirm to the group.

Thankfully for the Chasers, Carol convincing Spade and the Red Scarves to throw their lot with her pays off ; Spade's sabotage of the base's systems allow the group to escape from Brevon's ambush and to destroy the base, finally scoring their first real victory of the conflict.

However, the victory did come with a cost ; Lilac was tortured at the hands of Brevon, her body left crippled by the ordeal. She end up separated from the group in the confusion of the base escape, running into Neera. In her weakened state, she is unable to run or resist and resign herself to be captured.

Having realized the folly of her previous path, she decide to apologize to the Magister as he summon her, expecting to be jailed for her crimes... only to reveal that the evidence Torque brought earlier was finally analysed thus convincing the Magister to support the Chasers. However, before doing so, he dispatch Lilac to investigate a series of ancient ruins both as a test to see if she is worthy of his trust and to find out more about the invaders.

Deep within the ruins, Lilac fights off a security drone which then shows her a recording by her ancestors, revealing that they truly looked like her and not like the statues she see all over the place. She learns of how her ancestors were aliens who were stranded on Avalice only for their obsession with getting home to leave them empty and bitter. She learns from the record of how, in the end, her ancestors came at peace with themselves by letting go of their obsession, accepting Avalice as their home, and creating the Kingdom Stone, a suitable faster than light travel fuel source, as a gift to future generations.

Understanding the true worth of the Kingdom Stone, her origins, and her ancestors' message, Lilac finally let go of her obsession with heroics and return to the Magister, determined to save Avalice, no longer for her own selfish need to distance herself from her criminal past, but for her friends and her world.

Meanwhile, Zao, finally learning that Shuigang has the Kingdom Stone, decide to launch an attack to steal it back. The Magister, knowing that such an action would cause the skirmishes between the Three Kingdoms to errupt into a world war, dispatch his own forces to keep Shang Mu's forces at bay. On the way, General Gong run into the Chasers and after bringing them up to speed, decide to have them tag along.

Back at the palace, Lilac having proven herself to him and being shown the same message, the Magister finally give his official support to the Chasers and entrust Lilac with preventing the kingdoms from warring one another. Lilac, having learnt from her mistakes, work with the Magister instead of trying to override or lie to him, coming up with a plan with him.

Back to Zao and General Gong, they end up in an impasse despite the Chasers' best effort and war seems inevitable after all. However, when all seems lost regarding reconciliation, it is then that a huge dragon shows up and manage to convince the factions into uniting against Brevon. The dragon turn out to be a piece of ancient dragon technology wielded by Lilac, finally managing to unite the kingdoms against a common foe.

The Chasers lead the kingdoms as they take on Shuigang's forces, seeking to free the capital from Brevon's control. Despite Prince Dail leading his forces personally into battle, the Chasers manage to thwart him.

Spade stays behind with General Gong and Neera to fight Prince Dail and take back the city, hoping to snap his brother out of his brainwashing and finally bring closure to the tragedy that haunted him since the start of the story. Lilac, realizing how foolish her past actions and treatment of her old allies, even if criminals, was, apologize to him. However, he does not forgive her.

The Chasers split off from the kingdoms' forces, boarding Brevon's ship as it take off in the confusion of the battle. Though Torque almost leaves alone due to his fear of losing his friends again, the group reassure him ; they are taking on Brevon together.

Aboard the ship, Brevon use dirty tricks in increasingly desesperate attempts at fending off the Chasers, all of them failing. Even opening the airlocks and killing part of his own army trying to kill them, even draining his ship of oxygen he needs to leave the planet, even turning the guns of his own ship on his own hull and damaging the very vessel he needs to escape, all of his attempts to kill the Chasers fail. Syntax falls. Then Serpentine. Brevon gradually run out of tricks.

In desperation, Brevon unleashes an extremely dirty trick ; he manages to surprise Milla while the Chasers are separated from one another, infuse her with a mutation serum, and sic her on her friends, seemingly forcing Lilac and Carol to kill their own friend. The attempt fails and only succeed in enraging the remaining Chasers.

The Chasers ultimately corner Brevon and defeat him though not before, in one final act of spite, decide that if his world will be going down, then so will be Lilac's and Carol's and thus destroy the Kingdom Stone. With the Final Dreadnought exploding around the protagonists, they are forced to retreat and evacuate, leaving Brevon to escape to parts elsewhere.

The Final Dreadnought, stripped of its power source, goes into a flat spin and explode, taking down a large part of Brevon's army down with it, crippling his operations and stranding him on Avalice. The threat to Avalice is averted. Though the Kingdom Stone's physical form is defeated, it is discovered that its previous power loss was not a result of running out of energy but rather the stone being in the process changing form, become the Kingdom Vortex, promising free unlimited energy to the entire planet and thus ending the world crisis. It also turn out that Milla, though injured, was not killed and turn out alive in the end.

The story ends on a hopeful note... but everyone know it not to be over ; though stranded and with much of his army destroyed, Brevon and his lieutenants survive to plan their revenge. Likewise, his back-up plan kicks into gear ; the villains that Brevon defeated in his rampage who were pursuing him to reclaim their stolen technology and ressources are now Lilac's problem, with Brevon planning to enact his revenge when those villains do come, stealing back ressources for his homeworld and stealing one of their ships to escape in the ensuing chaos.


Now that context is given through the canon story, an interesting detail is how the story is, despite appearances, surprisingly complex.


Regarding the characters...


Before I detail the other characters, the villains should be defined first. This is because of the main theme of the story (obsession) and how it relate to the way the protagonists and antagonists develop as a whole. Understanding the protagonists demand also understanding the antagonists.

Arktivus Brevon, refered in-game as Lord Brevon or simply Brevon, is the primary antagonist of the story and game. An alien warlord, the circumstances of his arrival and his motives are at first mysterious but what is certain is the brutality of his methods. Later in the game, his true motive is revealed and the circumstances of his arrival are gradually cleared up.

Brevon hail from a world that is threatened by an unknown danger. Obsessed with saving his world, Brevon rampage through the universe getting any technology and energy that may help his world regardless of the consequences. Though he may have been heroic a long time ago, Brevon's obsession has completely consumed him ; he is suffering from terminal moral myopia and dellusions of heroism, thinking that any action he takes, no matter how spiteful or sadistic, is justified while completely blind to how much he indulge in sadism. This is compounded by the fact that he is insane with paranoia, automatically assuming the worst of out of absolutely everyone and being incapable of trusting anyone who he hasn't brainwashing, leading him to strike first at everyone around him, even potential allies.

His madness is reflected in both his actions and the state of his allies. The only character Brevon trust is an artificial intelligence (Syntax) that is incapable of disobeying him and his top general, despite being a mercenary who has total loyalty toward him and serve him practically out of gratitude thanks to a gift to him (Serpentine), is brainwashed. Likewise, Torque point out that Brevon's actions are so monstrous that they have turned him worse than whatever spurned his quest yet Brevon is so blind and deaf to the concept that he may be wrong that he cannot think of anything but snarking him for it.

This gets worse when one notice that a large part of Brevon's actions are self-defeating ; because of his paranoia, Brevon assassinate the king of Shuigang and plunge Avalice into war to steal the Kingdom Stone... when the world knew nothing of his conflict with the Coalition of Planets and all he needed to get the energy he needed was to ask for the locals to share some of their energy with him. In fact, if he had played his cards right, he could have even recruited Avalice to his side with promises of technology. But Brevon is so mad with paranoia that he assumed the worst and struck first instead.


Brevon's madness born of obsession is reflected in Serpentine's background. Serpentine is his general and a mercenary. Thus, as long as he is paid, he would continue to serve Brevon. But the important point is Serpentine's species: as a snake, he doesn't have the benefit of limbs and Brevon thus made him an offer he could not refuse, namely artificial arms. From gratitude alone, Serpentine is fanatically loyal to Brevon... yet because of the later's paranoia, he brainwashed Serpentine with a virus delivered by the arms, turning him into the completely insane character seen in-game.


The theme of obsession is not limited to Brevon and play a role in many of the characters' story arcs, which bring us to the protagonists.


Lilac is the official main protagonist and though it may strange given Torque's background story with Brevon and his mission, it makes sense once you actually analyse her in comparison with Brevon.

Lilac's background is that of an orphan (her parents' status unknown) who was raised and trained by the Red Scarves at Carol's side. She is highly unhappy with her criminal status and cut ties with the group after an unknown incident involving Spade. However, due to being a teenager and thus having never learn the skills to be anything else, Lilac remain a criminal by the time of the game. She try to take a Robin Hood approach to it in an attempt at being heroic but it is obvious that she really wants to fully cut ties with her past as a whole.

During the course of the game, Lilac's obsession with heroics drive her to involve herself more and more in the conflict with Brevon despite how outmatched she is, by virtue of being a petty thief with no ressources. Though Lilac manage to fight off Brevon's forces when attacked, those victories are meaningless and Brevon remain a step ahead of her the entire time, resulting in Lilac taking more and more drastic actions as the situation grow worse.

She begin to manipulate potential allies, her reckless tendency to charge head-first result in her progressively ignoring and even brushing off her friends, and progressively letting her obsession with saving Avalice consume her. Her obsession reach its nadir as the situation reach its bleakest point, with all of Avalice on top of Brevon wanting them captured and with Carol understandbly feeling overwhelmed by the sheer odds. When her friend try to get Lilac to back down, she rant about how it doesn't matter because they do the right thing and even implying that their lives don't matter compared to the goal. And then, when Carol ditch her due to this, Lilac outright try to take on Brevon alone.

The end result of the downward spiral is that Lilac has unknowingly become the same as Brevon, just as callous and uncaring of life, even of those of her own allies, thinking that anything justify her quest to save her world.

This makes the Thermal Base event vital as this is the point of divergence ; this is why the dialogue between her and Brevon is worded as it is. "What makes you so special?" is what Brevon tells her, and it is the line that mark Lilac's change for the better and what makes her, ultimately, different from him.

When Brevon deconstruct Lilac's motives and throw into her face how consumed by obsession she has become, Lilac end up having to face the cold hard reality that she forgot why she begun the quest to begin with. Unlike Brevon, who hunkered down on his "I will do anything to save my world" mentality until it destroyed his sanity, Lilac actually end up realizing that maybe she may have been wrong.

This result in changes in subsequent levels ; once captured by Neera and brought before the Magister, she come clean and apologize. And when he offer her a chance for redemption, she actually accept it (contrast with how she manipulated him and brushed off all attempts at helping her in the pre-Jade Creek cutscenes).

Lilac's journey to Pangu Lagoon is not merely one leading to plot exposition ; Lilac effectively "died" as a character from her torture back in Thermal Base as Brevon broke her physically and mentally. Her journey to Pangu Lagoon is one of redemption not merely in the Magister's eyes but to herself, to rediscover herself, why she fights, and her path in life.

This is also why her ancestors' message is as it is ; pointing out how empty their obsession left them and how it was by embracing Avalice as their new home that they found peace. This lead Lilac to finally let go of her obsession and to grow as a character, becoming a true heroine instead of simply thinking herself one.

The contrast is immediately obvious in the following cutscenes ; she work with the Magister, cooperating with him instead of trying to manipulating him, and manage to pull off a plan that unite the kingdoms against Brevon. Then, she plan with her new allies and friends instead of just dictating what she thinks is the best course of action. She end up talking with Torque about Brevon's motives, wanting to make sure she is walking the right path before committing to it.


Unused lines regarding Lilac would have stressed her character development, showing her even more bossy and reckless in the early game, actually congratulating Milla during the pre-Sky Battlation cutscenes on helping her manipulate Mayor Zao. Most notably, Lilac was meant to have a second confrontation with Brevon post-Final Dreadnought 4 that would have driven home her character home in even further, with Brevon's calm facade breaking due to him losing his opportunity to leave Avalice (and thus save his world) and ranting insanely and angrily at Lilac, asking her what makes her what so special only for her to reply that she is nothing special and just happen to be fighting for a cause and people she feel are special to her.

Likewise, the ending has an unused scene where Lilac would question if she did the right thing ; by stopping Brevon, she essentially traded his world's life for Avalice's, at which point Carol would have comforted her about it.


The parallels between Lilac and Brevon are very effective and only help to show how differently they turn out. This is especially obvious in their role and gimmick within their respective team ; both Lilac and Brevon are the speed-oriented character of their team as well as the most physically intimidating member of their team. Both are the main brains of their team, coming up with all of the plans. This even reflect in their fighting style and moves ; notably with their mobility, emphasis on slashing/cutting attacks, and the two of them sharing the exact same special move: an invincible dash used to achieve super speed.

Notably, Lilac has a blue color scheme with Brevon having a green one, the two colors being used to differenciate ; Brevon's own version of the Dragon Boost is green colored to contrasted with Lilac's blue. Syntax, Brevon's drone, is green, contrasting with Lilac's dragon drone, which looks almost identical but blue. And of course, this reflect in their respective attacks, with Lilac's slashes having a blue hue to them while Brevon's are green.

Given their countless similarities, the way their characters are similar and yet turn out so different in the end thanks to Lilac realizing her mistakes as opposed to Brevon becoming consumed by them, it is very likely at least a few parts of it are deliberate.


Carol's character arc is more subtle and less dramatic than Lilac's. Abandonned by her family, Carol was raised and trained at Lilac's side by the Red Scarves and followed her when she left the organization. However, while Lilac is defined by her frustration toward her past, Carol is more accepting of her status as a criminal, which create minor tensions between the two.

Notably, Carol begin as the more flawed of the two, being more reckless and less morally solid. However as the situation worsen and Lilac begin her downward spiral, the tensions between herself and Lilac start to worsen as the dragon girl ignore her more and more. This come to a point when the situation reach its nadir, the entire world on top of Brevon being against. Given they are kids and petty thieves, Carol feels overwhelmed and when she voice her concerns to Lilac who then brush them off, she end up heartbroken and leave the Chasers.

However, when Milla tells her that her friend has decided to try and take on Brevon alone, Carol decide to stamp on her ego for her friend's sake. Though she head to the Red Scarves for help, her resentment toward what happened between Lilac and Spade prevent her from truly committing, fighting him when he bruise her ego. However, Milla's intervention manage to calm not just Spade but also herself, allowing her to let go of her resentment and hatred of Spade to do what's right.

Letting go of her grudge to work with Spade and the Red Scarves not only allow her to rescue Lilac successfully but also save her life when Brevon ambush her, allowing her to live on to fight at Lilac's side in the finale of the game.


Meanwhile, Milla is the least defined of the main trio. She does not undergo a proper character arc (though this may change when her story mode is released). Despite being more naive than Lilac and Carol (due to being younger and being more of a regular kid compared to them), she is surprisingly independant and dependable. Thus, act as a balancing force in the main party, helping Lilac and Carol remain level-headed through the events of the game.

Also, she serve to highlight when characters go off the rails ; for players who picked Lilac, it is her abandonning Milla over her pleading not to do so that really drive home how Lilac has become disconnected with her original goals if the argument scene does not do so. For players who picked Carol as the player character first and thus did not see the torture scene, Milla's capture and mutation serve to highlight how insane Brevon is.

Her background story is left unknown and mysterious though unused dialogue would reveal her an orphan not unlike Lilac and Carol, living in the woods. Dreaming of meeting a dragon someday, she follow the protagonists and finally join them when she witness Lilac during the events just before Relic Maze.


Torque is interesting in how he is, in a way, what one may call a decoy protagonist. He is an alien, not unlike Brevon, being a commander in the Chaser organization which serve the Coalition of Planets. Torque is dispatched on a mission alongside a team to take down Brevon. Due to the threat level posed by Brevon and preliminary scans indicating how much energy the Kingdom Stone has, the captain (and leader) of the team cause the Chasers to attack Brevon despite them being over an inhabited planet.

The battle ends with the two sides mutually annihilating one another ; Torque is left as the only survivor of his team while Brevon's ship is crippled in the battle, losing its FTL fuel source.

During the story, Torque is defined by his determination and fear. He is determined to stop Brevon despite the sheer odds yet is haunted by the fear of growing attached to new friends and of dragging them into this mess as he already saw his friends die before his eyes before. This reflect in his actions ; he tried to hide his origins and true mission from Lilac and Carol, hoping not to get them involved at first. Later on, as the stakes rise more and more, Torque's fear eventually cause him to have a minor breakdown though by this time, his friendship with the main trio has grown enough that they're able to snap him out of it.


Spade is another interesting character. Prince Dail's brother, he is a member of the Red Scarves and the highest ranking one seen in-game (if not their leader). He was once very close to Lilac, with them having been extremely close friends, potentially as close as she is to Carol in-game and possibly even more but something happened between them which caused them to cut off ties. Spade resent Carol and especially Lilac for it, seeing her as immature for what he see as a blatant overreaction.

The nature of what caused them to part ways is not elaborated upon and is left ambiguous ; though Lilac and Carol act extremely hostile to him, Carol accusing him of being a murderer, the fact that Lilac apologize and admit she overreacted after her character development does make one wonder what truly happened between them.

Spade begin the game bitter and obsessed with revenge, following any trail that may allow him to get revenge on the one who killed his father. His obsession make him a pawn in Brevon's plans, allowing him to be manipulated into delivering the Kingdom Stone to a brainwashed Prince Dail. This however leave him empty-handed, no closer to achieving his goal of revenge.

Though he does not let go of his resentment toward Lilac, it is by accepting to cooperate with the Chasers and burrying the hatchet if only for a while that he get a real shot at achieving justice for his father's murder and saving his brother from his brainwashing. His story arc however remain incomplete in the game's current state, with the tension between Lilac and Spade unresolved due to Lilac wishing to reconcile or at least apologize while Spade still hasn't let go of his resentment.


Overall, considering what one would expect of a game like Freedom Planet, I found the characters to be surprisingly complex (especially the main protagonist, Lilac, and the main antagonist, Brevon).