One of the biggest issues with the plot is the fact that every stage and every story beat needs to be for every character. Meaning no individual character's story beats is allowed to have any significant depth because it would alienate a player who isn't experiencing that character's playthough first. I think a fix that would cut some of the replayability, but could allow for the story to be tighter and actually give each character their time to shine would be to structure it more like Sonic Adventure 2 (or to an extent like Super Smash Bros Brawl's Subspace Emissary) where each character has their own assigned levels for the main story, and you could even have it where multiple characters could be assigned to the same level and you could have the player choose (like in SSB Brawl) which character you want to play the stage with. This would allow to make the individual story beats feel more personal to the characters and give them the depth and impact required to provide some actual character development. This would remove have 4 different campaigns, but make it a lot easier to juggle the 4 main characrer's development and make it easier to have a more cohesive main plot. I think allowing any character to play any stage, once you'e done the initial story mode playthough is cool though, since the stages themselves are, for the most part, very well designed to work with all 4 characters.

the most heartbreaking thing for me is this game actually made me like Neera a LOT as a character. i like her comically serious moments and how they toned down her antagonistic traits, so she comes off as more of an evenhanded personality while we got to see that her care for her people is very earnest but at the same time i can't actually blame anyone for not liking her or feeling like she doesn't gel with the group and you perfectly nailed why. good video

@Dr_Dubz

12 күн бұрын

Oh yeah indeed. I don't have a problem with Neera from a gameplay point of view, or really as a character, it just doesn't feel right to include her alongside the main protagonists and the story missed the chance to really ramp up the drama using her as the catalyst. Even I can agree the Neera hate is a bit too much.

This probably the best Freedom Planet video essay/analysis on KZread rn.

There is nothing I love more than my friends talking at length about the things they enjoy and getting me excited about those things too.

That really was, a Freedom Planet...

@Dr_Dubz

14 күн бұрын

toe to tip Freedom planet

@41dn

12 күн бұрын

two :)

I finally got around to watching this, But I can APPRECIATE the fact you tear into Freedom Planet 2's story without completely hating it The offering of a rewrite that does justice to the characters and makes the narrative more tragic and have higher stakes instead of "End of world hur durh" Is so good. I also love the idea that merga only goes after the moon because she's THAT stressed. I really love these guys, but seeing how they could've been taken higher is great.

@Dr_Dubz

10 сағат бұрын

yoo, thanks! Honestly it's way easier to critique with love than rage in my books, the enthusiasm sticks with you.

This is such a good look into the story flaws of this game! I did have a thought: Perhaps Lilac’s speech to Merga could occur before the second phase of the fight - she tries to appeal to Merga, and, for obvious reasons brought up in video already, she’s unable to, with Merga reacting very poorly to it initiating the second phase of the fight (though I suppose that, if we integrate the time capsules into the story as a whole, that whole speech wouldn’t exist)

@Dr_Dubz

15 күн бұрын

lmao I mentioned that in the video, though not clearly enough I think. 1st phase is all fighting, then second phase is remove people, do speech, Merga mad

@SyntaxTsundere

15 күн бұрын

Quick thought on a fun line after the speech: “You don’t get it… you just don’t get it!! You’re of my kind, of my people and yet… you say this? You claim to know of me… of my struggles… of Cordelia… and yet… you say this?? You know nothing! About me! About Cordelia! About ANYTHING! YOU’RE JUST AS BAD AS THEM!!!” - Merga, after Lilac royally fucks up her speech This line idea is meant to be both a response to her speech to show how poorly it landed, and to also show how Merga feels betrayed per-se by Lilac. Hopefully this is a good line concept!

Something I really agree with is that the decision of making every character play every stage deeply hurts the story. FP1 had several instances of unique stages , in fact even Torque has one and I wouldn't be surprised if it was planned for Spade to get one as well ; while doing my Carol playthrough I fully expected a unique stage due to how disconnected she was from the group in Parusa. Making stages that feel good to run through with every character is probably a big reason as to why the development took so long ; those aren't classic sonic characters , these guys have complex movesets for a platformer ; Carol can climb nearly any vertical wall , Neera can turn ennemies into platforms , ect... Doing this could have helped flesh out the 4 side villains by associating them with the """correct""" character to help them grow. I also think Kalaw had no reason to be excluded from the Bakunawa arc , it would have given him a way to end his arc without it feeling like a punchline. However my biggest critique of the story is how the true ending feels vastly unsatisfying. I'm fine with the prospect of Lilac chasing after Merga , but revealing that Cordelia is somehow still alive in the underground of Pangu Lagoon , as well as the fact Syntax drops a distress signal and ending it like that is insane to me. Like yeah Brevon escape in FP1 , but he was humiliated by Lilac and his troops have been utterly demolished , the world was at peace and the ending left enough room for a sequel while feeling satisfying as it's own game. FP2 pretty much tell me "this is the mid-way point of a trilogy" , and considering the recent announcement of Galaxy Trail that they'd like to do FP3 but it's not a priority for them... Yeah... For a game with such an emphasis on the past haunting the heroines to some extent, i'm surprised the ending implies they won't be able to live on in spite of their past. I know it's not easy to "move on" , especially after a war , but learning that there is a very significant chance Brevon will come back to torment them again feels very messed up. Learning that Cordelia is still alive so Merga won't have to cope with her loss anymore is odd as well. If the ending stopped at Lilac seeking Merga to help sooth her soul I would be plenty satisfied , but dropping these two bombshells makes it feel genuinely unfinished , which hurts a lot considering we'd have to wait like 10 years for a sequel. (And they don't seem to keen on the idea of doing a Torque spin off finishing the tyranny of Brevon...) In any case , banger video please keep it up gamer.

This comment got way too long but whatever. First off, I love those comic bits - I want more - and the idea of Milla getting a glass eye. Lingering consequences! Guilt and tension with Lilac! _____________________ If Milla had her eyes flash evil with Code Black the first time, but fighting it off without stasis, it could have built tension for that later and convinced her that what Serpentine told her at least had a grain of truth. For the climax of her story when she breaks control, I have a pitch: Instead of just breaking out on her own, have Carol or Neera (because they have ranged attacks) try to free themselves, but realize that it is probably futile. But they see an opening to free Milla, so Carol throws her disk / Neera launches an ice ring to break the stasis on Milla before they're fully trapped. That would show them putting all their faith in Milla being able to defeat Serpentine and free them, despite what they'd heard of their origins, and showing their faith in her abilities and conviction. I think that'd be a more satisfying power of friendship moment. Though if Lilac had been overprotective of Milla from her past mistakes using your excellent idea, Lilac somehow sacrificing her own chance of escape to free Milla would be perfect. I'd love to have seen that payoff from when she became a monster: Lilac seeming to not trust her out of being overprotective, and it making Milla worry that her friends are afraid of her and don't trust her, and that maybe she could lose control somehow. Missed opportunity. __________________ As far as trusting Neera goes, Team Lilac can reasonable count on Neera being on Team Shang Tu. So long as they're on Team Shang Tu as well, they really only have to worry about the Magister there. Which could have been an interesting dynamic if Lilac's loyalties were allowed to fray more. It could be interesting if Neera said that what was done to the Water Dragons was horrible, but that's in the past and that disrupting the good status quo in Shang Tu wouldn't change any of that, so it's best it stay buried. If we just stop Merga, everything will go back. Lilac could obviously object to that with her sense of justic, longing for family, and sense of connection with them. That'd set up a stronger conflict on capture Merga vs reason and compromise with Merga. That'd even tie into Lilac's speech to Merga a bit, about the past as chains choking them. Neera respecting Merga as a soldier who defended her people makes sense to me though, in the "courage and discipline to do what needed to be done" line. It's a solid way for her to relate to her, despite being set up to be mortal enemies. Neera seems more narrow-minded than the Magister, if anything. I'd trust Gong as regent long before her. Maybe if Neera had grown more as a character it'd make sense. __________________ It'd have been nice to see Askal talk with Merga, maybe even after the betrayal when he's deploying to the volcano to ensure the Bakunawa scheme goes off without a hitch. Though I'm not sure why Merga recruited him: it'd make more sense if one of the other recruits knew him. I get that Merga may relate to him from being treated poorly despite her service to her own people, but was her plan to just get a private meeting with him, pitch him joining and hope he flips and helps with the coup, and kill him if he refuses and goes to alert the others? __________________ But on the Volcano, maybe the whole diverting fault lines thing was going to funnel the lava away from hurting anyone without Team Lilac's intervention, so they sort of prevented a problem they caused in partly sabotaging it? __________________ Kalaw wanting to do something meaningful makes sense, but I think it'd have landed better if, instead of saying I will be the hero, he said "I finally am a hero, even if I'll be called a villain. I'll take that over being praised as a hero for offering meaningless entertainment." That could still have the cameras rolling goof, but it'd build up his character better. He followed his dreams in the Battlesphere, but wasn't satisfied despite his success and yearned to use his skills for something mroe meaningful. __________________ Corazon's motives would have made more sense if Merga had told her that even with her people gone, she'd like to see Perusa thrive. Maybe offered to leave her army behind in their service to ensure their continued independence from Shang Tu, and/or other stuff? With that, keeping Carol safe could be an extra part of the deal Corazon pushed for. Money to buy Carol out of the Scarves could work, though. __________________ This would be several entirely new cans of worms, but developing the villains to feel like a team and fleshing out their motives might have worked if we could play as them: like the Sonic Adventure 2 Dark half of the story. That'd be problematic for many development reasons and probable some story ones, though. Just getting some cutscenes of them interacting like you outline would be much more reasonable and scale, and a huge improvement. __________________ I thought the first recording, from FP1, took place before the Cordelia story: like it was the initial stranded Earth dragons and possibly generations happened before the enslavement. My sense of how much time had passed may be entirely off, but with that it could be that they were benign at first, but as soon as they saw a way off the planet they subjugated the locals to do it as fast as possible. __________________ Merga's plan would have made a little more sense if she was going to turn Bakunawa on Shang Tu, but maybe Syntax turned it to deep space? She could have sold the plan as saying that Shang Tu can't be allowed to recover such a dangerous weapon, so she's going to remove it from the planet. Like if it was established that minerals from the moon specifically were needed to fuel it for deep space travel, like that was the original Earth Dragon plan and part of why the Water Dragons revolted, both due to ecological damage and seeing the Moon as sacred. Forcing every portrait into the end speech felt odd. ___________________ It'd be much more impactful if the characters saw the journal: maybe in-universe it'd be like they only worked for them if you'd assembled all the parts to salvage an intentially damaged recording? Like if the Magister had given a different speech leading to a different outcome, or Lilac's speech drawing from what she learned. Finding the journals in the Ancestral Forge would have been much more personal. ____________________ I like the idea of Merga's plan being just to leave with the moon thing being forced by losing some fuel. Meanwhile the Magister sees it as the most dangerous person in Avalice getting the most dangerous weapon. I definitely agree on splitting up the stages between characters to help the story, and I love the ideas for how it could play out. They could have let us play any stage as any character in Classic mode, after all, so it's not like we'd lose gameplay. Merga defending Lilac as the last of her kind's future with that line would be so much better.

@Dr_Dubz

6 күн бұрын

glad you liked it yo!

there’s not much for me to say without getting into essay territory but it boils down to DAMN THIS IS GOOD STUFF

Just listening in and pondering aloud but at 41:40 *[SPOILER]* But when you discuss about Parusa's volcano, I kinda had a thought of they could've maybe had the villains AND the heroes working together or separately to stop the volcano's eruption. So say either Merga doesn't tell her subordinates about how Bakunawa awakening causes the volcano to erupt or the volcano just so happens to be brewing and shows heavy signs of potentially erupting, combined with Serpentine's search for Syntax and attacking AA in the forest first before any other events, it basically sets up the volcano to erupt WAY too soon. So Kalaw, Askal and maybe even Cory work together collectively to try and stop it just to save the people, but do it in a way that could be harmful (say the beacons Kalaw used for the earthquakes are now just more so to counter the volcano's activity and cease its rumblings but by proxy he could potentially split Parusa in two) Then the heroes either stop the villains or assist them temporarily to kinda show that whole idea of them not actively being bad bad guys and just wanting justice.

For all of my lack of plans to actually play Freedom Planet, it's still the example that I hold up when people want to make a game that is inspired by a thing that they love, rather than simply making a fan project that is going to get DMCA'd instantly by a warrior tribe of feral corporate lawyers.

@Kuuribro

7 күн бұрын

Hey Wob!

This is a really great video (well edited, too!) You deserve a LOT more subscribers with the work you're putting in. I hope some come your way! I'm also glad the game helped you get your art-groove back. You're a fantastic artist!

@LeilaRWilson

6 күн бұрын

Also kudos for using some of the extremely rare/beta music. It was consistently surprising (in a good way) to see what you used.

@Dr_Dubz

6 күн бұрын

@@LeilaRWilson YOOOOOOOOOOOOO hey the beta tracks kinda fuck, so I couldn't NOT use 'em, you know? Thanks for your work and the kind words!

@LeilaRWilson

6 күн бұрын

@@Dr_Dubz haha yeah, I low key like a lot of the beta tracks better. That's the industry though. I didn't get to pick what went where or what was kept. :( either way keep up the good work!!

I'll admit some of the "worldbuilding for the sake of worldbuilding" doesn't necessarily feel light tight design for a standalone game, but in contact of this being answers to oft-repeated questions that had been asked over and over again from fandom RPers and fanfic-writers for all the years since FP1 dropped, some of those lore bits were *massive* re-contextualization. (Spade fans got absolutely rekt though lmao and now the questions of why Lilac and Carol bothered with the Scarves have been replaced with "wait Spade was HOW OLD when he stole the egg!??!")

Absolutely pure 100% awesomesauce Freedom Planet 2 retrospective, although to be quite brutally honest had mostly watched, clicked, and came for the content on Merga and Cordelia.

@Dr_Dubz

15 күн бұрын

ah, a person of culture I see

@GarudaUltima

12 күн бұрын

@@Dr_Dubz That I most certainly am indeed!

i have a friend who has gone nuts several times explaining how flawed the story of this game is to me despite the fact the gameplay is nutsack exploding and its pretty much my only exposure to fp really looking forward to find some time to watch this video lmao

Fantastic video it's so strange to see a video of this quality on such a small channel. I really do agree that freedom planet's writing is totally emblematic of series that were created by artists and oc creators instead of writers (Not a judgement of quality just common tendency's in types of stories) where lore and story exist as background and justification for settings. A level will be created and the story has to warp its way around in order to utilise that cool setting the concept artists designed. Freedom planet is so much better in that respect than something like chained echo's or sea of stars (God sea of stars has the worst writing in an award winning game maybe ever). Fantastic video though.

@jurtheorc8117

15 күн бұрын

If i may ask, what were some of the issues from Sea of Stars and how do they connect to the point of "oc creators instead of writers"?

@anonymouslucario285

11 күн бұрын

Why do you sound so angry about sea of stars? You seem to have a lot of vitriol against it

Stellar work, Dubz

Freedom planet is an absolutely amazing game. thanks for reviewing it :)

@Dr_Dubz

11 күн бұрын

Yeah game's good yo!

awesome video i love to see how other people think of this lovable mess of a story lmao me personally i really wanted to see more of kalaw and his connections to merga the most, out of all the side villains he’s the one that’s developed the least, he got like one or two scenes where that happens im pretty sure

@Dr_Dubz

11 күн бұрын

MAN UUUUUUGH

As someone who's favorite game is Freedom Planet 2, I do agree with parts of the story being undercooked and not as effective as the dev team realized. That being said, I still think the story is still a very fun and entertaining journey throughout. I think so because of how the story mixes the overworld exploration and NPC talk with the overall gameplay and levels you explore throughout. The fun of exploring Avalice and its characters while fighting Alien Forces, raiding Airships, partaking in Arena Competitions, exploring the nation of Parusa, and fighting your way through the Bakunawa, those moments stuck out to me because of the moments with Team Lilac, the fun and quirky cast of NPCs you interact with, and the stakes it builds up in the end, all without feeling too distruptive to the incredible gameplay loop this game offers. It has that Sonic Adventure/Dark Age story vibe for me, where yes you could nitpick or criticize a hundred things about the story in this game, but FP2 often pulls them out with a genuine love for these characters while having badass moments to keep you hooked. I'm fine with the story as it is, even though I think Cory and Kalaw should've been handled better and the Merga/Cordelia stuff should've been given more significance.

A big complaint that I personally have with FP2's story is the villain, Merga. I love the worldbuilding she gives, surrounding the near extinction of the water dragons, the earth dragons hiding it from history, her trying to convince Lilac to join her, etc. Shit's interesting. But as a villain, she and her team are kinda...meh. Average. They never really feel threatening, hell, half of her team are just comedic goobers. Merga herself could be imposing, but she never really does anything to make her feel like a bonafide threat. The closest we get to her being an active threat is her temporary take over of Shang Tu and the rise of Burkanawa, the former only has her moping the floor with the team and letting them escape, and the latter gets undercut by the giant ship being unable to absorb the moon, leading to a bit of an anti-climax. I think the main thing that works against Merga is that she has to follow up on Brevon's act as a villain, and that ain't an easy task. The dude's FIRST ACT is him invading Shuigang from underground, decapitating the King in front of his young son, and having Syntax mess with Dail's mind while he screams after the screen goes dark. That's his introduction. Don't get me started on his plan to ruin Avarice by puppeteering a world-wide war, taking the planet's sole power source and leaving it to rot, torturing Lilac while interrogating Torgue, forcing Milla to mutate on the Dreadnaught, how he goes out of his way to eviscerate the player if you lose to his final phase, I could go on. He was, quite frankly, one of the most brutal and cunning villains I've seen in a game like FP, he was a definitive highlight in the game's story. So Merga had big shoes to fill. And, despite her size 16 feet, she couldn't deliver.

@jimmy3608

14 күн бұрын

They went too far with Brevon and not far enough with Merga. They’re both mid villains.

@ajgameguy3674

14 күн бұрын

@@jimmy3608 How did the story go too far with Brevon? He's what you'd expect from an alien warlord, brutal in his methods to get what he wants, cunning with plans that lead to his potential victory with lots of collateral, and bloodthirsty in his constant attempts to end the group. He's supposed to be menacing and intimidating.

@AnnCatsanndra

14 күн бұрын

@@ajgameguy3674 I think they mean that Brevon is a bit overtuned specifically for the Saturday morning cartoon vibe FP1 and FP2 are trying to establish to the point that it spoils the vibe for people coming at the game specifically for that feel. And Merga, while being tuned a lot more to fit that vibe, has also had her political messaging defanged and made kinda aimless for the sake of maintaining that tone. Like, maybe a weird pull but I almost feel like a Thanos Snap is more along the lines of what this setting _wants_ to have for its villains, but it never quite finds its way there because being snapped out of existence does not make a good boss fight. Either the fundamental tone of the game and setting would need to push a bit more darker so that there's no reason to pull punches with the kind of villain Merga is supposed to be and to allow Brevon's conquest to really feel as the "status quo" that this one world has somehow managed to avoid thus far, or the series would need a different approach to picking antagonists. And I think FP2's Serpentine is showing where the series really wants to be. A comic villain who is a genuine threat, but also isn't taken too seriously because he does not have all of his plans in line, nor is he undefeatable by even a single of the core cast. He is there to be an excuse to move events forward towards some kind of satisfying conflict, and then get out of the way when he's inevitably bested or no longer relevant. The starter in the engine. -- [rambly junk to ignore] I think they mean too sense in that the way he's handled creates a kind of tonal whiplash that actively works against the Saturday Morning Cartoon vibe that both game games are generally tried to ride along. Like, they go a few steps beyond pulling their punches in the way of say some of the old X-Men episodes and at the same time while they're doing a good job of showing how Brevon would handle things in his "setting", it ends up feeling unbalanced when juxtaposed to taking a good chunk of time for a teenage sleepover party. They were clearly trying to emphasize that Brevon is *not* meant for this world, and succeeded, but at cost of cohesion. It's not too weird to say it almost feels like Freedom Planet is a crossover game with...itself? Like, I think if the game were following more along the lines of Brevon as the primary figure being fleshed out and built up with the playable characters being kinda marginal figures at best, then there would be a lot more room to dive deeper into what motivates Brevon, what his history is, and to really establish that beheadings and takeovers aren't just efficient, it's just an average Tuesday. Being stuck on a random planet for a few weeks is just an FTL random event.

@ajgameguy3674

14 күн бұрын

@@AnnCatsanndra I see what you mean, and it kinda makes sense. My only gripe is that you say as if Brevon's entire demeanor clashing with how corny and wholesome most of Avarice's world feels is a bad, unintentional thing, while I personally see it as intentional and a necessary upping of the stakes. Like you said, Freedom Planet seems to take its tone from old Saturday Morning cartoons, it can be goofy and heartwarming, just plain chill at times. But, I think it should at least contain some serious elements when the story necessitates it, like introducing an alien warlord that plans to take the planet's lone power source and leave it in turmoil, or delving into the scuffed history between water and earth dragons. Hell, it ain't even like those old cartoons never got dark, Sonic SATAM's darker tone compared to its goofier siblings at the time, or the X-Men. To me, Brevon works because he's the perfect contrast against the world that the protags are used to. Death, torture, and conquest are Brevon's bread and butter, and he revels in it. Which makes him an entertaining villain to me, maybe not the most complex or the most consistent with the rest of the game's tone, but he works. It feels like the clashing is intentional to show just scuffed his presence in Avarice is as a whole. Merga, while she feels like she's more in-tune with the world of Avarice and brings in a lot of worldbuilding, as a villain, she kinda feels a bit aimless. Outside of her short invasion of Shang Tu, she rarely acts threatening or even maintains much of a presence. She barely interacts with her subordinates or even reacts to their failures, most of them kinda just do their own thing, so it's not like they can seen as an extension to her as Serpentine and Dail were to Brevon. Hell, Merga's actions barely feel like they affect the world that much or leave lasting consequences, outside of the revelation about the Water Dragons. Merga, throughout the entirety of FP2's story, at most, kidnapped Zao and left him unharmed, seized control of Shang Tu temporarily with seemingly no casualties, used Parusa as a jump-start for Burkanawa, again, with little to no casualties, tried to absorb the moon to leave the planet for dead, which failed before the heroes even got on the ship because it was too far away. Compare this to Brevon, who, in his introduction alone, he kills the king of Shuigang and brainwashes its prince, taking it over in a single night. It's said that he killed all of Torgue's crew single-handedly, leaving him the lone survivor. He uses Spade to steal the Kingdom Stone, which sends the entire planet into turmoil. Manipulates the 3 kingdoms into warring with each other. Tortures Lilac while interrogating Torgue, leaving her charred and mangled. He gruesomely mutates Serpentine for failing him and then Milla to personally screw with Lilac and Carol, I could go on. You feel presence everywhere you went in the game, like him being there tainted the world. To me, Brevon, even if he isn't perfect, was incredibly enjoyable villain, it kinda sucks that Merga and her team didn't really match up with his performance.

@JohnnyTightlips2007

12 күн бұрын

@@ajgameguy3674 It actually uses something similar to what the Care Bears did. At first it's like "Oh, the Care Bears; this show should be fine for the kids". Then it becomes "OH GOD, IT'S THE CARE BEARS MOVIE!!!". One change I would have done though is maybe have a different intro and move the Shuigang Assault further in just so you don't get Brevon's cruelty immediately.

1:02:42 Also, will be waiting for it. Seems interesting.

Nice vid!

Great vid! I already spoiled myself with the story cause I watched a friend play first, but I decided to get this and the first game, I'll hopefully get to play them soon as they look great! I understand your gripes with the story, but given the development of FP2, at least from what I've read, it's not surprising that it came out the way it did. I still think the story was fine. I hope we'll get a third game some time in the future.

@Dr_Dubz

14 күн бұрын

I mean yeah I emphasise that point, I don't think the story is bad because what I consider bad is a story that makes me stop engaging with it. Game is good, so have at it and enjoy!

I'm rather sure Cordelia is not still alive. I'm not sure why everyone assumes that instead of seeing that scene as an obvious flashback to when she recorded the old damaged message. It was a log recorded on Pangu and that thing was lost for a very long time, long enough to damage the data. I believe the reveal is that when she made that final recording, she was doing something in ancestral forge. You know, the ancestral forge, where water dragons had biotech mastery.

@Dr_Dubz

14 күн бұрын

Oh yeah I don't believe she's alive, I omitted it from the original draft but I personally would have preferred lilac or merga there listening back, just to add closure and poignancy to the message, y'know? Also because its a possibility, I still have a bit of fear there lol

@Aperson-62

14 күн бұрын

Probably worth noting that when Sabrina streamed a playthrough of the game and this scene came up she was very coy about this part. Same with the statue in the museum that Lilac says looks like her mum. Judging from that it seems like these things have been left as an "open to interpretation" thing and not something the devs are going to readily confirm or not unless they get a chance to do it in official material later down the line.

Freedom planet has a huge “OH BTW THIS HAPPENED” and it’s very glaringly it does this. No mention about Lilac being stolen was revealed in the first game nore did she ever take it to heart. It felt like a lore dump then anything.

stuck through the whole way and god damn, dubz, this rules! I hope this was worth all the time, effort, and love you poured into this on your end because I enjoyed the hell out of this. :) also that bit with zito absolutely killed me LOL

@Dr_Dubz

15 күн бұрын

I'm saddened that an even funnier interaction is lost in the VOD graveyard, where we were playing the godawful fp track on SRB2K and halfway through me justifying my love for the franchise he had finally got so mad at the stage that he shouted "I FUCKING HATE FREEDOM PLANET" and I promptly died. But yeah thanks yo!

Great stuff.

Such a banger of a video.

@timoth4529

15 күн бұрын

But yeah the Story felt wierd but I didnt know why I felt that way, but I think I understand know why.

@timoth4529

15 күн бұрын

And you can defently feel the Love you have for that game in here. ok bye Iam talking to much because heeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I've always thought Merga would have worked significantly better if they went the Killmonger route, where they aren't a good/moral person but the justification for what they do is reasonable and believable and most importantly has consequences for the world and characters. Like you can have her be this war-mongering person who favours destruction (could be used as a nice way to explore how even her own people feared her and explore her character, like how does a character who knows only battle exist outside of times when its no longer necessary) but at the very least characters should be able to see the cause of her motives and be affected by the revelation of the earth dragon's horrific actions, where they all in their own way contribute to trying to rectify the history. I also think it's theoretically fine if Lilac maintains her naive hero outlook and the story supports that it's fine (protagonists don't have to be the height of moral superiority imo as long as you make sure the character makes sense) but the story has to acknowledge the consequences of that mindset and support where it comes from. As it stands Lilac should have no reason to side with the Magistrate, especially considering she 'contradictingly' is the trope of a 'free spirit' with no real allegiances and how she was treated throughout the last game. Heck, maybe instead of hero-stuff she selfishly wants to stop Bakanawha for the sake of her friends, which in turn could produce negative long-lasting consequences, however they manifest. I guess TLDR it feels like story wants to do a lot of things but really doesn't take the time to consider/piece together where it comes from, it just does it

I actually came up with an idea for Cory. Instead of working for Merga for Carol's safety she would actually be doing it for the money, as in she would be like the FP version of Rouge the Bat/Mr. Krabs that is obsessed with money and will do anything to get it hence her mercury business. Maybe in the past Cory started to use her sister Carol like theft or something in order get more money and Carol started to notice Cory's toxic behavior and left realizing what her sister is becoming and road she's heading. She would be working for Merga not because of shang tu and water dragon history or whatnot but only money as she couldn't care less about the world, people or anything in it only with the price is right that she will get her hands dirty on anything. As for Aaa maybe she found him and notice him as a good mechanic so she hire him and would have him make robots and stuff to sell but probably use him to make money so she might not be a good boss to him i don't know. When Carol wants to finds for sister to get her to stop working for them the group would understandably be against it consider the trouble her sister cause to them for money but Carol still go anyway. Carol finds her sister and tries to talk her out of it Cory would knock her out like in the game, but instead of stranding her out to sea she would of course take her to Merga where she could be torture and stuff, although Merga would send a message to the heroes saying "they have their friend and if you want her back alive then they would like to trade her for the magister or else they will kill her" and this would set the stake kinda high and must find a way to save Carol without giving up the magister. When Carol escapes she would meet of with the group and they or Neera would understandably be furious at Carol since she sort of made things worse for them as Carol realize she had messed up and that her sister hasn't changed a bit. At endgame after Lilac's speech of wanting to talk with Merga this would rub off on Carol and would like to try one more time to reason with her sister even after being hurt by her sister's betrayal. In Bakunawa in the final battle between the sisters Carol would try once again to reason with her sister but Cory would do anything to get her reward even if it means killing her sister. The two clash with Carol gain the victory and then Carol gives a stern talking too that what she was doing is wrong for the sake of money, but Cory replied that she just didn't want to go back to the time where she and Carol was probably poor, Carol would reply saying that it's true that they didn't have much back then but at least they had each other and that there's more to life then just money even if they need it, Cory began to realize she has been in the wrong and wondering what she has been doing her entire life and is proud of her sister for making this far. Before they can reconnect Merga would try to strike down Carol but Cory pushes Carol out of the way protecting her like in the game, Carol being furious Merga would say "you're sister was a lost cause being obsessed money as she let her own greed be the end of her, but if you wish to join she in the afterlife then i shall grant your wish!" and then Cory would die or not whatever floats the boat. Anyway that's my idea for Cory. Although maybe Cory's character is fine in the game i'm just sharing my thoughts on it that's all

@Galgus2000

6 күн бұрын

I like the idea, but I think it'd work better if Cory didn't think Merga would actually kill Carol. Merga could say of course they're going to try to save her without giving up the Magister like they did with Pangu and they wouldn't actually make that trade: we're just doing this to distract them away from Bakunawa. Then Merga leaves robots guarding Carol as Team Lilac arrives for the trade, but keeps security poor enough that Carol can escape with a remote message that the deal's off then, and Team Lilac wastes time fighting robots as Bakunawa gets fueled. With that, Cory could hold on to the idea that money could make Carol's life better alongside their own, thinking of how she'd failed to give herself or Carol a better life while they were living in poverty. I like the hook of Carol saying that them being poor but having each other was better.

The gameplay was solid, but I could not stand how Lilac's character was written. I get Merga may be the last of your kind, but she is OBJECTIVELY EVIL and having a tragic backstory doesn't change that! Her actions were going to destroy the whole planet for revenge against a group of people that have been dead for hundreds of years. STOP TRYING TO REDEEM THE WAR CRIMINAL!

Nice vid

I waited so excitedly for this! This is a masterpiece! Could you on day do the video describing in detail your individual character routes proposal near the end of the video?. I'm deeply interested in hearing your thoughts! God bless ya and Jesus loves ya!

@Dr_Dubz

14 күн бұрын

may have to just make a document on that one lol but glad you enjoyed it!

Wicked vid

Honeslty this is a great video. I actually thought this game's story is one of the better ones in the platformer genre but it definitely doesn’t hold a candle to many RPG storylines and I think this video explains why. And with so many unanswered questions that may yet go unanswered forever/quite some time it definitely leaves a more-ish feeling. Like, are there actually more Water Dragons than Lilac and Merga still alive? The entire race clearly wasn't COMPLETELY wiped put otherwise there would be no lineage to trace to Lilac. So is her mother still alive? Maybe hidden in some underwater society on the other side of the planet away from the Earth Dragons?

@Aperson-62

14 күн бұрын

Something else... I am inclined to believe Lilac's infallible idealism is not just an aspect of the hero trope but also one that mirrors that of the developer who has seen how idealism is often crushed by the harsh realities of the world around her but ultimately came to the conclusion that being positive is the best way to defy it. Apparently Lilac's end speech to Merga was supposed to sum up how Sabrina felt about life at the time. It helps that heroes in media are often portrayed as super idealistic, particularly in Japanese media.

@Dr_Dubz

12 күн бұрын

@@Aperson-62 Oh absolutely! Lilac is anime to the utmost, 100%. I'm certainly not contesting that, it just has a tendency to get in the way of anything deeper unless you actively want it or turn your brain off.

I need to know where I can find all your funny cut-in art for this video. It's beautiful.

@Dr_Dubz

15 күн бұрын

depends on what you're referring to but the yellow dude and scrungly FP art was done by me, otherwise mostly just memes I found lying about.

"and God has yet to stop me" damn Dubz going straight savage on 'em.

@Dr_Dubz

16 күн бұрын

he most certainly tried!

I have an interesting idea on how to make the story more interesting, rather instead of only focusing on the water dragons it would also be about the people of avalice Like make it where shang tu's action would affect a lot of people and this has been ongoing for years and there would people that tries to speak up against but would be shot down and this is where Team Merga comes in, shang tu is kinda corrupt and Team Merga wants to get rid of that corruption Well even though Merga would have her own plans she would sort of be doing the right thing thus making her an anti-villain/heroes or something As for Askal instead of making him a victim of racism (although maybe they can still go down that route) he would be a victim of the magister/shang tu's action (like they killed his parents or something i don't know) and he wants revenge not only on the magister but the rest of shang tu and Merga come up to him and agree to help him. However even though understandable he would be taking things too far evolving the people of shang tu even though they had nothing do with what happen with him in order to get back at the magister As for the others like Cory on Team Merga you have it that they also seen the corruption of shang tu and want to end it but that's all i got Anyway it would be about Merga exposing magister, shang tu and the earth dragons for what they've done having the world turn against them and their reputation would be brought down low and the heroes (or shang tu side) would have to deal with something that they probably never dealt with before, "CONSEQUENCES" and maybe later in the game when you talk to npc they would start talking down on you and shang tu as they heard the news and the consequence sets in and Merga would be seen as a hero And probably at endgame Merga would announce to the world to join her and live by her rules if they want to live so the they can travel space together in bakunawa and the magister would stay stay behind to die on the planet. But the heroes have to stop her and earn back the trust of the people and well you know the rest of the math

Kind of wished you were on the writing staff at the time. I mean really, when people tried to tell me that Cordelia was still alive, the excuses were just set to Maximum Stretch Armstrong. A pre-recorded message was somehow the princess herself making a direct call and go so far as to make the excuse that the corrupted message was just space distance interference.

@Dr_Dubz

12 күн бұрын

I appreciate that, but I'll be the first to tell you and re-emphasize that compromise is a part of game development, especially in the action platformer genre. The decision to not go darker was mostly to keep the pace going. Edwyn has confirmed as much and I don't think I would have thought all this up without experiencing it like I did. Like you only see the flaws in your painting once it's hung up in the gallery kinda thing, y'know?

@JohnnyTightlips2007

11 күн бұрын

@@Dr_Dubz Yeah, I once did a story of my own. Thought I knew what to do, then read it myself and realized how terrible it was.

@Dr_Dubz

11 күн бұрын

@@JohnnyTightlips2007 hahahhhhahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahha... me tooooooooooo

@JohnnyTightlips2007

10 күн бұрын

@@Dr_Dubz You know, they could save all this if one day some mad bastard in Netflix wants to greenlight Freedom Planet as a show.

Talking about "there is a draft of the script where..." How can one go about finding this early story info

@Dr_Dubz

14 күн бұрын

Edwyn dropped it on me when I asked him for bits and bobs on twitter. Like I didn't get much because a lot of it is possibly spoiler territory for the eventual third story whenever they get to it, but it was interesting to glean the process and make hypotheses. I don't wanna grill the guy and the others for my weird obsession so I took what I got and it was super interesting.

I quite liked the story, but I see your points. Also, if you want a Sonic-adjacent game with an actually amazing story, play Frebbventure.

@Dr_Dubz

14 күн бұрын

Not heard of that one, I'll give it a look!

As much as I loved how the gameplay is nigh-perfect to the point that this game is one of the only I've played to get my adrenaline levels firing at maximum overdrive, I've more and more felt that in some ways it's almost a downgrade to the messy narrative of the first game. They played it too safe for the stakes they were trying to provide to the point I find greater longing for what made the first Freedom Planet so special to me, and I'd say it's even reflected in the soundtracks to an extent. The first Freedom Planet didn't give a shit about what it looked like outwardly; how could it when its story only had a handful of weeks at most to be written, choreographed, and voiced all at once? Naturally that lead to the story and cutscenes ultimately being optional and (to some extent) the point of ridicule for many people looking at what it had to offer on the surface with no context for its developmental history, and I feel most of that informs how Freedom Planet 2 tried *too* hard to respond to particular criticisms (being of tonal whip-lash and large gaps between some levels being overly-crammed with cutscenes). It's comparable to a 17-year-old looking back, ashamed of who they were when they were a 10-year-old and letting that shame get the better of them at every turn as they strive for greater heights. You still gotta love the kid for trying, but it's none the less painful to watch them sabotage their self like that. Freedom Planet 1 was raw, I won't deny it, but that's what I like about it the most.

GNAWSA IS SO GOOD

Y'know, after watching the vid (twice cuz my retentive memory is trash), I feel a bit... Conflicted about the plot now. Which has helped me think of ways on how it would've gone much smoother. (Many of which involves a 5th wheel to snug themselves in that NO, it isnt Torque and definitely not a self insert, hell no!) I wish I could even draw to bring said ideas to life, but, as I stand...even tho I wouldn't go for a full rework of it all, but, just adding a more elaborated plot without the limits that follow it being a 2D platformer.

this is great video and I do think that the game could have done the story better but it is what it is and does not mean that the game is bad if anything this series of games probably needs some comics or something to help with the story.

@Dr_Dubz

15 күн бұрын

oh agreed!

This video is such a banger I will leave another comment for the algorythm. hehehehehehehihihehahaha

Great video are you going to talk about any other games the way you have with freedom planet? The way you cover plotlines and characters is great

@Dr_Dubz

15 күн бұрын

Ayyy thanks! As for new vids, not on my current watch. I have a couple of ideas though but whether I get to them is a different matter entirely, as these aren't for profit stuff, I just did 'em for fun. I might delve into Nine Sols and Laika's MCs being great because they have fucking adorable children that make the game so much better, or maybe a love letter to Silent Bomber, or maybe a deep dive into how Final Space just fucking died based on a theory that it was afraid to be anything other than cynical and shitty.

@spaceace9103

15 күн бұрын

Sounds great! Good luck with your future projects ​@@Dr_Dubz

@jurtheorc8117

15 күн бұрын

@@Dr_Dubz You can add Clash: Artifacts of Chaos to the list of games where there's a well-written and cute child character that has an integral positive presence on the story and protagonist. In fact the entire conflict is centered around mercenaries being sent out to kidnap the feathered little Boy. So they *had* to give the Boy some good writing. Fortunately, the protagonist Pseudo is an awesome earthworm version of Oro (from Street Fighter)- looking guy with some wisdom and humor to him as well as just knowing how to get things done. writing all throughout is pretty good. AoC's scope is not especially grand or bombastic, but it does what it does well and connects to the earlier Zeno Clash games. Would mention Lute from Soulstice too. She's dead and taking it quite well all things considered. She and her sister Briar work as a unit and elevate one another, both thematically and in gameplay. Recommendation aside, wish you good luck and fun on whatever you'll be doing next. Have a good one and take care.

@Dr_Dubz

12 күн бұрын

@@jurtheorc8117 Clash started to feel too clunky for me to finish it, but I do agree that little poof ball is adorable.

@jurtheorc8117

12 күн бұрын

@@Dr_Dubz In what way did it feel clunky, if i may ask? And at what point did you get? You're among the first to state it. It's a game I dearly love, so if you're interested in trying to get back to itand I can give any tips to make it go more smoothly, i'd gladly do so.

It really did disappoint me that most of the dialogue is the same between the different playable characters, what other characters say to you. Sometimes what they say in response to your character doesn't make sense or just feels awkward. I find Carol much more annoying in the sequel. I was fine with her in the original but now she makes too many cringey jokes. Still a likable character though. I don't find Merga intimidating honestly. Only good parts I liked were when she took over Shang Tu and fought the magister and also when she spoke to Lilac in the Gravity Bubble. Besides that she doesn't get much time to show off her character and just feels like an overpowered villain. I like your suggestion to give each character different routes and to give Lilac more time with Merga. I wish Merga was more active in a Lilac campaign, having Lilac chase after her as Merga goes about the lands destroying a bunch of stuff in rage. I wished that the other kingdoms were more involved. Obviously you got Zao helping out with his airship but I wish we got some cutscenes with the Magister, Dail and Zao all together discussing what to do in the later parts of the story. Or a level where each kingdom's forces are trying to shoot down the Bakunawa or fight a bunch of robots coming out of it. Sort of lame that it's just 5 people going up in one ship instead of every kingdom trying to help to save the world and stop the Bakunawa together.

@ericshun3926

13 күн бұрын

I like how you attempt to make the three nations of avalice connected in the story like in the first game where you had Shang mu and Shang tu team up to fight shuigang and brevon's forces. The fact that freedom planet 2 is mostly just Shang tu VS Merga's forces is understandable to the part of the story but the fact shuigang bailed out of helping Shang tu even though they helped them with entire serpentine thing and Shang mu's mayor just focusing on finding a new battlesphere champion even though he was captured by Merga makes it feel as they didn't care that their entire world was at stake

This story is written very Archie Sonic like. Kinda not a compliment but it's endearing in a way.

@Dr_Dubz

10 күн бұрын

Oh of course, mileage will vary on archie appeal, but we at least don't have a 'best friend created solely to die to an LSD laced chilli dog' scenario

Please make those videos on Milla's route and Parusa, i need more freedom planet analysis content because more indie games than just toby fox's work should get that respect(i do love toby's works but come on, it does seem like a lot of other indie games don't get the thematic analysis that they get)

Even with the plot being meh, I feel like a 7/10 is too harsh because I love almost everything else about the game other than the plot.

@GamerTowerDX

14 күн бұрын

7/10 is a good score

@bluudevil4483

12 күн бұрын

​@@GamerTowerDX story yea gameplay no

Someone tell me if this is bad (or a horrible representation of something I don't really know about), but here's how I'd have written Merga (trying not to like. Rewrite the whole story). Mainly, I'd write her as less bloodthirsty and sadistic and more depressed. Think Castlevania Anime Dracula. The opening scene is unchanged. She still wakes up and is furious, screaming to the heavens. But when we next see her, she's dull. Almost lifeless. She talks big when she has to, and can give an impassioned speech, but most of the time - especially in any cutscenes where it's just her and her troops - she's standing up straight, but there's no light in her eyes. Literally, there isn't that all-important eye shine that makes eyes look alive. When talking about how efficiently she took apart soldiers, it's noted that she just attacked any soldiers that were in her way directly. She showed absolutely no mercy - she didn't even act like they were people - but once the order was given to retreat, she just kept going. This characteristic defines her. She's never going out of her way to cause harm, but at no point does she ever even register when she does so. Instead of implicitly threatening Carol, her conversations with Corazon all dwell on one idea - she promised protection for Corazon's family, as long as the family didn't get in the way. And she means that - she says openly that if Carol isn't in the way then no harm will come to her. But she also says that she cannot make compromises if Carol does get in the way. (this also helps make Corazon's actions more believable. She knows that if she just gets Carol out of the way she's safe, but Corazon assumed Carol was either in jail or wouldn't interfere and panics when she's wrong.) She fulfils any promises she's making to get her team on her side, but they're hollow claims. The aforementioned protection for example, but when Askal asks how she's going to bring justice and a more egalitarian society, she just points out that the current society will fall apart when it stands in her way, and that means people can build it back better, mixed with the truth of the past that ultimately, Askal constructs into his own revenge. In effect, it is eventually revealed that Merga is nihilistic on some level. That because everything she knows and loves is gone, and even the people who actually caused it are dead and their descendants slowly dying out, in her grief-stricken state, she believes nothing that currently exists matters. There is no one to love, no one to protect, no one even to take revenge on. The planet is effectively an alien world by now. She does ultimately just want to leave - but because of this nihilistic state of mind, she absolutely does not care about the consequences and damage she's causing to do it. In other words - she's fuelling up on the moon not out of revenge, but simply because the consequence of that action is meaningless to her. This is why she holds no grudge against Carol and is still willing to let her onto Bakunawa - assuming she doesn't get in the way. Because she doesn't hate Carol at all, she's just going through the motions that bring her goal closer to fruition. She only attacks Carol directly at the end of that boss fight because Corazon proves that she can't stop Carol from getting in the way. Corazon has to go along with Bakunawa after Pangu is plugged in because the safest place will be on Bakunawa, and Askal is assured that she's happy to drop him (and any civilians he can convince to listen to come along which turns out to be no-one, unsurprisingly) off on a distant planet to restart society, or he can try to survive the coming catacylsm to raise a new one from the ashes. Kalaw at this point bails because frankly I just like your idea of Kalaw better, and AAAA just wants to go to space. The only person able to even briefly spark any emotion is, of course, Lilac. Lilac is the tiniest fragment of a symbol of the culture that was lost, and Merga occasionally reaches for that - occasionally letting a hint of passion and life in. That's why she tells Lilac to find out what happened to the Water Dragons. In these moments, that spark comes back in her eyes. When Lilac ultimately rejects her, though, she just goes back to that slump. And then there's the time capsules. The Time Capsules go into more detail with Cordelia and Merga's relationship, and the person Cordelia talks about is completely different. She's kind and passionate, lonely because her people fear her, and loyal. She's even described to be funny, and occasionally silly. Elements from each of the main protagonists can be seen in the description. Cordelia also laments the fact that the Earth Dragons don't see the people of the world as people - just a resource to be used to get off-planet. Even the kingdoms were set up to facilitate gathering resources. Specifically, insert a line about how Cordelia doesn't want to leave the planet - she thinks all the sacrifices just to leave is wrong, and that they should make a home of this world. She says that Merga agrees. Heck - maybe Merga even appears in person in that one, appearing way more emotional and chipper (and perhaps even affectionate or snarky or some other picture of a happy, heroic protagonist.) By contrast, Cordelia recounts a conversation she had with Merga that (in stark contrast to her behaviour in the modern day), that whilst Merga does enjoy fighting - a lot - and this results in a lot of casualties, she tries to kill as few as possible (still a lot), because Merga refuses to be the monster that the Earth Dragon government both is themselves and claims she is. Merga in the present day isn't wrong, isn't malicious, and is deeply sympathetic. Unfortunately, she still can't be reasoned with because she's commited to this course of action, and she doesn't view anyone else as having enough meaning to convince her otherwise. She's effectively a runaway train of unstoppable super soldier that's caught the other goons up in her trail - but the only option for people on the tracks is either to get out of the way or get crushed, and unfortunately, her goal means that eventually the only option left is being crushed. The final boss fight is still against this dead-eyed version of her - weapons in hand but just going through the motions. She barely cares enough to be passionate whilst fighting for her right to leave - and besides, she's entirely convinced she'll win. But when the Pangu message plays? When Cordelia appears, she starts breaking down. Or rather breaking out. She starts screaming, howling, first to bring Cordelia back, and then at Lilac that 'HOW DARE YOU? I JUST WANT TO LEAVE! I DON'T WANT TO BE HERE ANY MORE! WHY ARE YOU MAKING ME STAY HERE? WHY DO YOU EVEN CARE?', and doffs her extra weapons to engage Lilac in hand-to-hand combat, still screaming and sobbing. But critically, the light in her eyes is back, and her posture is dynamic and emotional. That dead dullness she's been running on is gone. The fight ends with the player character giving a speech (personal to each character) that broadly boils down to given about how yes! What happened was so incredibly wrong! That the team now has this enormous responsibility to try and fix a society that doesn't even know that these horrible things even happened. But ultimately, it's still their home, their families and friends, and that Merga has no right to treat them as disposable. Merga breaks down in tears as she realises that she's become what took everything from her - someone who views the whole world as just a resource or an obstacle to be used up in an effort to leave. Syntax's takeover still happens, and the player characters promise to come back for her. Merga then reappears to help in the final boss. Now having had a stage worth of time to not be actively in the middle of having every emotion she'd had buried or locked up or presumed dead actively kicking down the door of her heart, Merga is taking open responsibility for her actions, and helping to stop what is clearly wrong. The exchange of her refusing to leave and Lilac refusing, leading to Merga trying to rescue Lilac still occurs. This time, though, it all has the weight of Merga being her real self. She saves Lilac because it's the right thing to do, and Merga - actual Merga, the person Cordelia fell in love with - would do that in a heartbeat. Cue hypothetical actual redemption arc in Freedom Planet 3 of her trying to make amends whilst also not being around because she's like the biggest criminal. I dunno, maybe that's all shit, but I think that could be a good antagonist Merga?

Unintentionally Unsympathetic: All of Team Merga fall under this even if they're a group of antivillains. Askal wants half breeds to get more recognition, Aaa wants a friend that isn't a robot, Kalaw desired to be a real hero and Corazon wants to save her sister from Avalice 's destruction. The issue is that they are willing to cross the line and cause death and destruction in order to do so, such as willingly let an active volcano kill the residents of Adventure Square just to raise Bakunawa, or kidnap Mayor Zao and threaten to kill him to get what they want, or willingly go with Merga onto Bakunawa, enabling her destruction of Avalice; some fans think this is enough to have them executed instead of their community service sentence. Even then, Merga, Corazon and Askal stand out. Within the frame of the story, Merga is presented as a terrorist with sympathetic motives as to why she commits her atrocities, but even with the reveal that the water dragons were wiped out, Merga's actions may still come off as hard to accept for some. She calls earth dragons "schemers and liars" while lying to her sympathizers and scheming precise plans to destroy Avalice, and condemns earth dragon kind for their genocide of the water dragons while plotting to destroy all of Avalice, proving herself to be just as monstrous as the slavers who killed her people. While she says that the people of Shang Tu will be spared if they allow her plans to continue, she later shows no qualms over burning another town alive through the beacons activating the nearby volcano, with the full knowledge of her plan to power Bakunawa and flood Avalice potentially causing this intended "fair moment" to instead come off to audiences as Cruel Mercy. Merga displays a deeply homicidal and somewhat sadistic personality, saying to the player character that "their suffering will be a masterpiece!" in the final battle, as well as cruelly mocking Carol that she and Corazon are together after knocking Corazon unconscious in an attempt to attack Carol. Merga also holds a grudge against the Magister for his role in covering up the Water Dragon Genocide and openly yearns for his death, while acknowledging that he was merely a child when the event occurred. However, Merga's other actions, such as entering an intimate platonic relationship with the earth dragon Cordelia, working with the half-earth dragon Askal, attempting to assuage a water dragon child, inviting Lilac for a one-on-one dialogue about the water dragons as a prelude to recruiting her, allowing Carol one chance to leave and save Corazon after the latter takes a hit for the former, her breakdown when she hears Cordelia's broken recording, damaging the Bakunawa Fusion out of guilt over her actions, and saving Lilac after she gets concussed by a broken Syntax suggest she may have been driven insane by her imprisonment, adding an additional layer to her tragedy. Corazon. Her motive for teaming up with Merga is that she wants to protect herself and Carol, her sister. Despite saying that she loves Carol and is doing this for her, however, she has zero qualms with attacking Carol and her friends, gassing her and knocking her out despite all the trouble Carol went through to find her, stranding her in the middle of the ocean, and leaving her with her least favorite food, raisins. Askal's motive for joining Merga is because he's faced with racism in the past, and Merga promised him that she will change all that. However, not only is Askal a hypocritical jackass who treats Team Lilac like crap, he seen taking somewhat sadistic pleasure in taking them out at Diamond Point. Plus the racism he presumably suffers through is only seen like twice by NPCs, plus Askal has shown to be immensely powerful, so of course the Battlesphere wouldn't want someone so overpowered to compete against normal civilians. It's assumed that Askal knew the volcano was erupting and going to kill everyone at Adventure Square, yet never says anything about it and presumably doesn't care. And while he does turn ship at the end of the story, his demeanor and motives make him very hard to like, let alone sympathize with.

@superplayerex2431

6 күн бұрын

Finally, I've been looking for a comment like this. What Merga's trying to do with Avalice is equally as bad as what her kind went through at the hands of the earth dragons and it makes her look incredibly hypocritical. Similarly, Askal only harps about prejudice in dialogue when there's clearly moments in the game that make him rather untrustworthy, so I can't help but take his words with a grain of salt. I cannot sympathize with either of these villains because what both of them are doing is just as irredeemable as the root cause of the whole story, which also happened so long ago that it's possible the Shui-gang of the current day is nothing like the Shui-gang of old. There isn't anything in particular Merga could do to fix what has already happened, but instead of trying to reconcile the past and work for the future, she decided to go nuclear and wipe out all of Avalice, all out of her own selfishness and the desire to see her revenge be put through to the people that don't even exist anymore and only have their descendants left due to how much time has passed since the initial events. This game felt like it was trying to dip it's toes in some kind of a rather politically-charged topic and it ended up not going the whole way because it could've alienated the fans had it not handled that topic with the appropriate weight, so it all just comes off as half-baked and left off to interpretation. In the end, all of this just leaves characters like Merga as very cruel, hypocritical and irredeemable, all while undermining any point the story was trying to put across. Like how Cordelia just feels incredibly forced with how she's integrated into the story and how she seems to just be a way for the writers to guilt trip the player into not being so harsh on Merga by using their relationship as some sort of a justification for her actions through the attempt at inflicting an emotional response from the player. It really did feel to me personally that the game was trying to manipulate me into liking Merga despite her still being the villain.

I'm waiting release of their next game. Chrono Gear: Warden of Time This is not game with their original characters. Chargers are vtubers from Hololive. Main protagonist will be Kronii. I guess story will be based on holoCouncil(Promise) and Tempus lore.

If there's is one thing i would've wanted in this game is where someone would stand up toward Nerra and tell her to put a sock in it already To me she actually the worst character, irritating and annoying character lashes out on people when things don't go her way, however this wouldn't be a problem if there was consequences behind it Like during or after the dinner scene when the group said they wouldn't trust Cory things would reach a boiling point where Carol would had enough and start a fight with the group or at least standing up toward Nerra before leaving, or Lilac standing up towards Nerra and leaves leaving her all alone to deal with the mess by herself, or Askal comes and calls her out that everything that is happening is her and shang tu's fault sort of giving her a wake call It would've shown that it doesn't matter how scary or high position you are or whatever if you don't treat others well especially when there going through problems of their own then they can be done with you Or don't make her a main character and just kill her off since i don't think things would change if she was removed from the story

@gustavferreira627

15 күн бұрын

Thank you so much for pointing this out. I absolutely hated how Neera was written in this game to the point where I imagined a scenario where Torque was back along with The Coalition of Planets who have formed an alliance with Avalice directly after the events of the first game and he was sent in to assist Lilac and her friends again at the request of The Magister just as a form of catharsis. I even wrote the part where Carol and everyone meet up with her again after she left the team and Torque tries to calm the situation down and let's just say that it reaches a point where calls Neera out on how she has treated everyone ever since they started this mission. Keep in mind it's just a short scene but it delivers the catharsis well enough. “Okay, Neera can you please calm down?” Torque tried to reason. “Don’t you think you’re going a bit too far here? You’re seriously starting to act a bit too overzealous with your authority to the point you’re coming off as an overly loyal servants of Breven.” “You dare compare me to that monster, Brev-!” Neera said angrily but was cut off. “Yes, I dare compare you to Breven, Neera!” Torque shouted back angrily which caused everyone, even Neera to recoil at his outburst. Lilac did not think that the normally cool-headed and empathetic Torque was capable of sounding and being this angry, not even to his enemies. Sure, there was that time before they entered Breven ship three years ago but that was out of concern for their wellbeing his fear of losing another crew. This time it was out of genuine anger. “I am so sick and tired of you being so unfair, so condescending, so dismissive and way too hard on everyone for bringing up concerns ever since we started this mission! This split up wouldn’t have happened if you were just for once in your life, sympathetic and understanding of Carol’s plight! Her sister, someone who is her family and someone she loves, is on our enemy’s side and all you can do is care about stopping her without considering the consequences of how it would affect Carol! Hell! Carol didn’t even jeopardize this mission because she was either ahead of us or trailing right behind us the entire time and everything has worked out in our favour regardless! It’s because of people like you that tyrants like Breven was able to come into power! Because they didn’t ask questions of whether or not what they were doing was right or wrong! You’re almost no better than the mindless drones that serve Brevon with how overzealous you are to serving The Magister and Shang Tu! Can you just for once in your life look through the world with a grey lens, rather than black and white ones and have some sympathy for criminals and your enemies and at least try to understand why they are doing what they are doing!” Everyone was silent as Torque breathed heavily from that outburst. Neera’s expression changed to one of shock that told everyone that she was shaken by his outburst, which greatly surprised, Lilac, Carol and Milla. To Torque, her eyes told him that she knew he was right. To Serpentine, he gained a small amount of respect for the Captain with his outburst of anger. Torque sighed as he rubbed his face with both of his hands while turning his back to everyone to look outside of the diner’s window and tried to calm himself down. He dropped his arms to his sides with a heavy sigh once he was finished. He did not regret a single word he just said to Neera. While he did not have much interaction with her before they started this mission, from this experience and with how dismissive and harsh she was with everyone and how overzealous she was with her beliefs, downright irritated and frustrated him to no end. Not even his drill sergeants in boot camp were this rude and this dismissive to him and his fellow trainees. If anything, whenever they brought up a concern, the sergeants outright congratulated them on their observation skills but also told them that they should not let it get to their heads and then they would all laugh. But Neera was being downright dismissive and acting like as if she knew better than everyone and she had to be the one who was always right and did not bother to consider ideas everyone else brought up most of the time until she was appealed to. Because of this he was going to ask for documents on her performance during training from The Magister in a moment. “How you managed to become the advisor of The Magister and the Chief of Shang Tu’s Police Department with this type of dismissive and accusatory attitude… I will never know,” Torque said softly but the tone of his voice told them all that he was still not happy with Neera.

@alffffla4875

14 күн бұрын

She was completely right about Cory, though, and she was upset at Carol because Carol literally bailed on all of them without saying anything. It's fine if you find her annoying but if there's one thing the story does it's show she doesn't lash out without reason. Everyone agreed that if you needed to get someone like Cory on your team with money, that would pose a risk in the future. Neera doesn't have any personal issues with recruiting Cory, she's prioritizing minimizing risk and "hired help" is very risky. Carol running off on her own was also a very bad idea given the situation and while assuming she was a traitor was very hasty of Neera, Carol brought it upon herself by refusing to communicate with her own team about what she was doing. The issue with this is you want her to have "consequences" for things she never actually did (and when she has done something she felt was out of line, she did apologize). She's otherwise never treated the cast poorly unless they gave her a reason to first, and is just serious about the safety of the kingdom; you're speaking because you don't personally like her rather than really looking at what the story does with her and how her character is.

I could not bring myself to enjoy the game even while playing the demo years ago. I hate the older character designs, the realistic physics sucked out all the fun I had with FP1, Carol lost the Wild Kick, which was her best boss killer attack, and as you said, the story is straight up worse, as FP1 was more ambitious with its story by comparison. It did something different from your typical “save the world” story, and FP2 dropped that because they used up all their ideas with the first game. I will never understand where the hype for this sequel came from. This disappointed me just as much as Shantae Seven Sirens and River City Girls 2 disappointed me compared to Half-Genie Hero’s Friends to the End DLC and RCG1 respectively. The only reason people liked FP1 was because they were looking for a replacement Sonic game during the time SEGA was throwing everything at a wall to see what stuck, and I hate that people used Sonic’s questionable quality during that era to prop FP1 up instead of liking the game for its own merits.

Freedom Planet 2: "🙀LILAC, WRONG HOLE!"

Such a shame that both games have been almost completely forgotten while we got shit like "Garten of Banban" blowing up💀

@ajgameguy3674

15 күн бұрын

Honestly, it could be for a couple of reasons: A. Freedom Planet was marketed as the spiritual successor to Sonic during a time when Sega and Sonic Team had NO idea whatsoever on what to do with him after Generations. Now that Sonic has thankfully moved past that whole phase of being self-deprecating and mediocre, games like Freedom Planet kinda fall back to being more obscure, since folks aren't looking for substitutes as much anymore. B. The long development time between FP 1 and 2 unfortunately led to alot of the hype being lost. Took a good 8 years for 2 to release, a full on decade for folks that got it on console. C. Not too sure if advertising was all that strong for FP2. The game released two years, I JUST found out it released 3 days ago. And mind you, I loved the shit out of FP1.

@bluudevil4483

12 күн бұрын

Sonic still sucks tho

@ajgameguy3674

12 күн бұрын

@@bluudevil4483 Not has much as he did before.

@superplayerex2431

6 күн бұрын

@@ajgameguy3674 Nah, Sonic is still in that mediocre hole he has been for the longest time. His last game is simply not as bad as the other ones were, and Frontiers certainly does not hold a candle to Generations in terms of quality over quantity.

@ajgameguy3674

6 күн бұрын

@@superplayerex2431 I'm not saying that Sonic is in the greatest point in the franchise's history. But hey, Frontiers was decent, he has a movie franchise now that's actually doing pretty well, and Sonic X Shadow Generations hasn't looked too bad so far. Compare that to how he was during the mid 2010s, when Sonic Team tripped up after Generation's success with Lost World, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric came out damn near unfinished with mediocre to average 3DS games, and Forces being as barebones and lame as it was. The 2010s were flat out terrible for Sonic as a whole, not helped by how most Sonic/SEGA's social media at the time just leaned into Sonic being mediocre as a way to "be in on the joke". I don't wanna reduce FP to just being a Sonic inspired game, it has it's own strengths and fun that allows it to stand on its own. But, a big reason why folks got so excited for Freedom Planet was because they wanted a good Sonic game that undertood the series' roots of high speed platforming. Same deal on how Bloodstained, Yooka & Laylee, Shovel Knight, and Mighty N.9 got their starts. That's a decently big reason as to why it popped off. Now that Sonic's not in such an abysmal state anymore and fans can unironically enjoy the franchise without getting heckled a bit here and there, along with 2's lengthy dev time, Freedom Planet fell back a bit in popularity. Again, barely heard that FP2 was released until I found it on sale last week.

13:39 The Magister: You are a huge sinner like me! You just don't want to admit it! Lilac: You committed *GENOCIDE!* How *DARE* you even try to compare me to you! I don't give a fuck what title you have! Stop getting closer to me you old freak! *Attacks/runs off* -How that scene should have gone.

Why do you care about the plot? No cared about the plot in the original sonic genesis games.

@Dr_Dubz

11 күн бұрын

I'll humour this one. What do you expect my answer to be?

@justiceiria869

9 күн бұрын

Better question, why shouldn't he care? Its in the game.

Man, this game was kinda mid overall. The story kinda ruined the gameplay for me, which wasn’t as enjoyable at the first game’s.

@DSmith3279

13 күн бұрын

Personally I wouldn't say it ruined the game for me, but I must agree that the story just isn't as good as the first game's. Gameplay is an improvement over the first ones tho.

@anonymouslucario285

11 күн бұрын

How does story ruin gameplay?

Are you really giving a game a 7/10 because you thought the story was lacking? If a games gameplay exceeds a games story, shouldn't that be far more important to the score than a story that really isn't trying to take itself too seriously, at least 70% of the time? I just don't get this video or your previous one of FP1. You're overthinking this games story to an obscene level and coming across as extraordinarily pretentious for the sake of sounding like you could write a better narrative for a platformer. It's crap like this that makes me question just how bored gamers seem to be these days. What a giant waste of time this video was and the previous one. If I wanted to care about the narrative of a game, I'd play a JRPG. I'm not here to be wowed by a platformers narrative. I'm simply here to be entertained and for both games I was. It was funny, cheesy, had some surprisingly dark topics which I thought was interesting and the characters were very loveable. I don't think you need more than that really but apparently to you, and many in the comments, it does. Why is every gamer trying to get a critic? Like I love video games but it's a hobby and one I'm not going to obsess about overthinking a story for a freaking platformer. I don't play Mario games for the story, I'm there for the gameplay and while FP1 and FP2 put a stronger focus on narrative, it's still light hearted, Saturday morning cartoon content that really doesn't need to be analyzed with 1 hour video. Please for the love of all that's good and holy, touch some grass, use that analytical brain for something more productive and stop wasting time on videos like these that really just sour an amazing game. I'm sure if I looked over my 10/10 games with a microscope too I'd find a ton of things I don't like or didn't care for but I'm not gonna make a video or essay on it because it's freaking video games. This video is just depressing. It makes me wonder if people just play video games to have fun or to come across as a tool who thinks he knows better. This video is a perfect example of not to take video games so seriously because wow was that an excruciating 1 hour of whining.

@GamerTowerDX

12 күн бұрын

The idea that analyzing a product you love and its faults is a waste of time is very shortsighted. Games are as much of an artform as anything else, and they deserve to be open to criticism as much as movies, music, painting, etc.

@Railanor-rk4yh

12 күн бұрын

@@GamerTowerDX It's video games. A hobby. Treat it anymore than that and you lose sight of what truly matters. Most normal human beings don't do what he does because they have a life they want to live and they play games to have fun, not find faults. If a game doesn't interest me or is lacking in something, I move on from it I don't dwell on it, I don't tweet about it, or make a KZread video, I just move on because life is WAY too short to make a 1 hour video detailing something that really doesn't matter in a platformer. You can dislike the story, fine. But this video was very much unnecessary and silly. And most people who play games aren't bound to it like some blood oath. We just want to have a fun time, not waste our time whining about crap we can't control. It's wasteful, it's pretentious and it reeks of someone who needs to get a freaking life and go outside once and a while. Videos like this make me worry about the mental health of gamers.

@GamerTowerDX

12 күн бұрын

@Railanor-rk4yh You are right, most people aren't blood pathed to videogames, this isn't the case either, is just another analysis of a medium someone is interested in, like the thousands that are on KZread right now about videogames, movies, TV shows, and music. Nobody is doing these out of obligation.

@Dr_Dubz

12 күн бұрын

So I wasn't gonna initially reply to this, but I thought "eh fuck it, got time, might as well", so uuuh. I get it. Yes I have an aesthetic I like and I saw a lot of missed potential that the writers themselves have acknowledged and had good reason to cut out. A couple of times I mention that I get -why- they did it and it's why I say the story isn't BAD and it works. But I also don't get why people think 7/10 is a bad score, or even mediocre, and missed the part where I said that an analysis isn't a review or that critique isn't a teardown. I'm not making money off this and I'm barely on Twitter or Tumblr and not even in Spacey's or the Galaxy Trail Discords where most of the FP community presides, so clout isn't even a consideration. Like apart from the dumb obsession, the other reason I did these vids is because I wanted to check if my editing skills had rusted over. I also mentioned this in the video that no, I couldn't have written something better. Maybe I should have added that the reason is I only really started noticing what felt off to me because I played it a second time, incase people didn't get that. Like I said to another person in the comments, it's a case of only seeing the flaws in your painting when it's up in the gallery. I was also not expecting Galaxy Trail to give a fuck, in fact it's hilarious how blunt Edwyn was to this one guy telling him this exists, to quote "Not gonna watch that video essay, but I do like that guy's fanart and I understand the brainrot behind the big lesbian fish..." Like hell yeah Ed you know what you did lmao, but he was also super helpful when I messaged him for research and he gave me some good material that made me intrigued about the process. Spacey herself is actually super interested in seeing this because she's aware that her writing has flaws, like all of us, and is willing to play it on her stream (which reminds me I should warn her about the copyrighted music). Whether it happens or not is neither here nor there though because you're right, this shit doesn't matter, I tested my editing abilities while having a deeper dive because I liked the game enough to not just 'move on'. In fact fuck it, I'll explain this 7/10 that a couple of people are getting mad at for some reason: I got tired of the game by playthrough 3. There are 4 characters that play differently, but nothing new to the story mode. Sure I could have played classic mode, but that's just story mode without the cutscenes, there's no variety, no sense of wonder. So if the game actively makes me decide to not engage with its other parts or characters, it brings the score down. If they implemented a more diverse story mode that kept things fresh between characters, I woulda bumped it up to an 8 or 9, but that ends up becoming the redundant argument about the difference between a 7 and an 8, because it doesn't matter, game's good. Honestly, fair play to you for actively sitting down and watching a total of almost 2 hours of something that you hate, but once again as said in the vid, this game's story isn't something that needs defending. In fact fuck, the game itself doesn't need defending, you and I both agree that it's really good, glad you enjoyed Freedom Planet enough to get mad at me about a project I enjoyed making, regardless of whether you think it's a waste of time. It certainly didn't waste MY time because this was also done between commissions and helping friends with their stunt reels. So yeah, glad you could blow off some steam? I 'aint refunding those 2 hours though.

Nice vid

@feyerbrandx

15 күн бұрын

Thanks google for translating Nice vid into English so I could understand it *because Jordan is definitely is the farthest away from English as humany possible* Also RIP Dubz, dead to snake fatality.

@Dr_Dubz

15 күн бұрын

I got better