Freedom Planet 2 is such a massive step up from the original. Probably my favorite addition is all the characters having a Smash bros like dodge move. It makes the boss fights and other other enemy encounters feel a lot more dynamic and have a good sense of momentum. Many of the boss fights provided a nice challenge and the difficulty is basically whatever you make it. You can use potions to increase your strength, health, etc. I ended up choosing to not use them to push myself to learn the patterns.
The level design is also just plain a huge step up imo. I was never really sold on a lot of the levels in the 1st game since many of them went on way to long with some of them having too much backtracking. Something the feels really wrong in something aiming for Sonic like gameplay. Luckily, there were only a few stages I'd say that reminded me of those. The improved pixel art and cities to walk around in were huge pluses as well. I'm a huge sucker for platformers having hub worlds to just chill out and walk around.
The campaign was honestly way longer then I expected. I spent nearly 10 hours with just one character. Something very impressive given the few instances of non core gameplay moments. There's 4 different characters to run through too. I've taken everyone for a test drive but so far only beaten it with Carol. I can easily see my rating increasing as I continue to play this more with the remaining 4 characters.
This game is such an easy recommend for anyone into platformers. Especially Sonic.