People seem to hate so much on Gates to Infinity -- and trust me I can see the obvious hurdles -- but it's a good 20-hour-ish game.

The story is great and definitely is on par with everything that Explorers put down. Side characters have semi fleshed-out personalities and backstories. There is an option to make sleep/totter/whatever seed farms which adds to the overall goal of your partner. It's very cute.

It's the extremely slow text speed, limited character roster and unwavering dungeon designs that make this game hard to get through. The first couple of dungeons and the final dungeons have the same layout and are all hallway spaghetti.

It's not as replayable as EoT/D/S but I had fun playing it nonetheless!

Definitely watch a playthrough if you are not as invested in the Mystery Dungeon saga but want to experience the story.

What a feast of a game. Four playable characters with their own distinct movement and action verbs, nearly 30 stages, a whole world map with lovely hubs where npcs update their dialogue after every story event and an entirely optional arena with minigames and unique challenges. I'm in love with this game's sonic adventure-esque maximalism, I was grinning from ear to ear in the final area when it kept dropping new gorgeously animated and creatively distinct stages in front of me to consume. This game is so confident in itself that it never felt self indulgent or akin to a slog. One stage is an all out war between enemy factions which you're free to participate in whilst the next has you barely escape hordes of enemies to assemble a mech and then proceed to destroy them like the pests they are. It boggles my mind that a game with such nuanced, satisfying and responsive controls and high volume of high quality content can be made by a small team of people whilst larger studios flounder to achieve either of those two. Playing both this and Spark the Electric Jester 3 has sort of convinced me that the Indie is the definitive future of platforming.

The thing about Freedom Planet 2 is that you have to meet it halfway. The movesets are a half-step more complicated than most people would expect from a retro-styled platformer, not to mention the importance of the guard ability. It took time for me to adapt to Carol’s action vocabulary on this playthrough and to feel comfortable controlling her. There's an inherent Give A Damn-ness to playing this title.

Additionally, the game is rather demanding for something that looks cutesy and old-school. The game is twelve hours long which is still short by modern game standards but for splintering action like this, a campaign of 30~ levels is a big ask.

Those aren’t flaws, but it’s an explanation for why some people would bounce off of this game and an explanation for why it wasn’t infectious for me to play this the first few hours, even if it was far from a mediocre experience. Freedom Planet 2 was extremely rewarding for me as I mastered Carol’s verbset and by the end I couldn’t get enough!

The plot isn’t superb but I think the characters are very realized and the world is evocative. The audio is great. The first time I played FP2, I thought the soundtrack wasn’t as good as the first. I might still believe that but I loved a lot of the music replaying this campaign. I’m going to be spinning this OST, trust me on that!

This is the second time finishing Freedom Planet 2 and I know I’m going to return again, not just to play as the other characters but to master this game as it is a title that welcomes a player’s passion.

An improvement on the original in every way possible. The game oozes polish, love and care all the way through. Gameplay has gone through a number of improvements to suit the chaos and give the characters more options - better defining itself as a mixture between high speed platforming and breakneck combat. Boss battles are as exciting as ever, and the levels are tons of fun to go through, with many unique gimmicks and pathways. Even the story mode, despite actually being longer than in the first game, is far better paced and is better at respecting the player's patience, on top of just generally having better written dialogue and dynamics. The one area lacking in polish is the voicework - not the voice actors themselves, which are fantastic across the board - but the audio editing and mixing still sounds a little like everyone's using different mics, and speaking at different volumes. Minor, but noticeable nonetheless.

This time around in the art department, Tyson Tan lends his distinctive art style and designwork to Freedom Planet's cast and world, and there's never been a better fit- it's clear they want to use his work to help define the visual identity of the series. This general design style combined with excellent spritework and beautiful environments has definitely given the series the firm, appealing look it deserves. Overall, Freedom Planet 2 just reeks of "we figured it out" energy across the board- this is a good thing. The first game felt 80% there - but this game feels like it has properly realized how to establish its identity as something truly unique and remarkable in its own right. Everything feels more purposeful, planned, and adds up to one of the most fulfilling gaming experiences I've played in a minute.

TL;DR - Sonic + Mega Man Zero for people who wear thigh highs and it fucking kicks.