u/HailedAcorn

Freedom Planet 2's story is certainly more complex and ambitious. As an anthropologist, I find Freedom Planet 2's story infinitely more interesting that Freedom Planet 1. Freedom Planet 2 is primarily about the very contemporary debate around "heritage." We live in a unique era where the age of imperialism is mostly over, yet the world is still reeling from the effects of it. We're all asking, "Who is to blame? Do the citizens of today bear the weight of the sins of their ancestors? Do my loyalties lie with my ancestors, or the people I care about who are alive today?" The main writer Edwym Tiong is Filipino and this is probably a problem they have chewed on, being both a victim of Japanese imperialism and a fan of Japanese anime. This is clearly reflected in Freedom Planet 2's story, not just with Merga and her vendetta against the Magister, but also with Lilac vs Merga, Neera vs Askal, Milla vs Serpentine, and Carol vs Cory. I don't have a direct statement from Tiong confirming this reading, so take it as my speculation rather than fact. Basically, it's a story of "a person vs their origins," and I think it pulls this off almost perfectly. I think it's a genuinely important work. But it's also somewhat topical — tied to a debate that is very much of this moment.

Freedom Planet 1, on the other hand, is a story that is relevant, and will continue to be relevant for as long as humanity exists. If you brought it back to some of the first civilizations, such as the ancient Greeks or Mesopotamians, even they would understand the general message. That's the actual distinction I want to draw here, and I don't think it's that FP2's themes are lesser — a person confronting the sins of their ancestors is itself an old and universal story, arguably a specific case of the older archetype FP1 is built on. The difference is scope, not value: FP2 takes the universal underdog-versus-oppressor structure and grounds it in one very specific historical wound — post-imperial reckoning, right now, in our world. FP1 leaves that wound unspecified, which means it can be read onto any oppressor, any era, any audience. FP2's specificity is what makes it feel urgent and contemporary; FP1's vagueness is what makes it feel eternal. Neither is a flaw. But it does mean FP1 is doing something FP2 structurally can't — it will still make sense the same way a thousand years from now, in a way a story about the specific psychic legacy of 20th-century imperialism might not.

This is because Freedom Planet delves more into the world of fantasy and mythology. It touches on some universal mythological themes that have been present across humanity since the beginning of time. Most cultures on Earth share a common mythology — the Greek Odysseus was known as Ulysses in Rome, the Greek Zeus was known as Jupiter, the Greek Poseidon was known as Neptune — and the story of a young girl living in the middle of nowhere who goes up against a great oppressor is common throughout mythology, from David and Goliath onward. That story touches something in us that we need to explore through fantasy, because reality rarely lets us access it directly.

The types of themes FP2 works with are, in a way, more contained — set within a certain set of historical circumstances — where FP1 is exploring the full spectrum of human feeling without needing to justify it historically. Even though you're talking about characters that aren't human, we identify with their struggles, because most great storytelling deals with an ordinary person up against extraordinary odds. Look across the history of recorded literature and you'll find that pattern again and again.

The actual plot, which received the most criticism, is almost unimportant, because the grand themes are what's carrying the weight — human achievement in the face of unlikely odds. Our protagonists face threats of every kind: physical, emotional, bureaucratic. That's relatable to all of us. Relatability is what makes an audience invest in a story.

I'll also say the Freedom Planet universe, while exotic on the surface, has a musical score grounded in nineteenth-century Romantic music — and this isn't incidental. A lot of the story's actual emotional information is carried by the score rather than the dialogue. However that's a rant for another time. People complain that the Freedom Planet story is "unrealistic" or "nonsensical." A term I hear thrown around a lot is "tonal whiplash," though I'm not entirely sure what people mean by it. I believe they're referring to the game's range of tone — at one point there's a very family-friendly sleepover scene, three young girls joking about cooties, and less than an hour later, a torture scene.

I don't think that's a weakness. I find it incredibly relatable. Real life is often unpredictable. One minute you're celebrating your birthday; the next you find out your parents died in a car crash. Freedom Planet isn't meant to be a literal recounting of events — it's a reflection of the emotions people feel across the grand scheme of life. People also complain about the amateur voice acting and dialogue. I don't think that's a weakness or a strength. It just is.

Sash Lilac is an underdog. An outcast. Both because she was a water dragon hybrid, possibly the last of her kind, and because she was a criminal. It wasn't really about saving the Kingdom Stone. All she wanted to do was go the distance. She wanted to prove that she was more than a lowly fugitive — which is something everyone can relate to. Not a fugitive, maybe, but "I'm more than just an ordinary teenager." Many teenagers desire to be exceptional in a way their peers aren't.

The message of Freedom Planet is this: if you want to succeed, you have to go the distance. This is a common message in epic tales throughout human history. Whether it's the Odyssey or Little Witch Academia, the message is that you have to actually work toward your goal, and there will be obstacles on your path. You will have to contend with a Brevon, a Cyclops, a Goliath. Whether or not you defeat them, what matters is that you don't let them defeat you.

I relate to Freedom Planet the way I relate to some of Van Gogh's impressionist paintings — not photographic or photorealistic, but able to pull your imagination toward the concepts underneath. Look at Starry Night: it doesn't look exactly like a city and stars, or wind through trees, but you can feel what it was like to be in that situation.

And yes, Freedom Planet is unrealistic. It's unrealistic to become best friends with a random dog you just met. It's unrealistic for a mayor to hire three random girls he just met. But why is realism inherently good? Photographs are realistic, but a photograph gives you a two-dimensional slice — a split second, a microsecond — and anyone who's had a bad photo taken of them knows a split second doesn't represent the whole picture. A painting isn't capturing minute details; it's capturing a feeling.

How do you put a feeling down on canvas? On a screen? That's the job of artistic storytelling. The storyteller here took their own human emotions and struggles, and those of others, and put them into a fantastic circumstance none of us could have literally experienced — yet we can still relate to the young, struggling outcast wanting to be part of something greater than themselves. (Freedom Planet had multiple writers, but the general plot was created by Sabrina Diduro.)

For an artist to accurately portray a feeling — in a game, on a canvas, in a hunk of clay, whatever the medium — the medium itself is almost irrelevant. When a singer performs, you don't care about vocal cords vibrating at certain frequencies; you're relating to the feeling the artist is conveying. When a sculptor clears away sections of a block of stone, it isn't about the minerals present — it's about the feeling being conveyed.

I've seen a lot of reviews of Freedom Planet by gamers, and they all completely miss the point of Freedom Planet. Their reviews act as if the flaws in Freedom Planet's story are a core issue with the game and not merely a rough edge that needs to be polished up. I feel sad that Sabrina Diduro has apparently taken these criticisms to heart, as she has taken a backseat in the writing of the other games, and although the writing may "make sense" they don't have an ounce of the heart that the original Freedom Planet did. Sabrina wrote Freedom Planet (intentionally or not) based on her lived experience and naturally it contains her wisdom therein; Freedom Planet 2 and Chrono Gear do not. I hope she takes another shot at writing in future. In conlusion, this is why I like FP better than FP2.