Freedom Planet 2

Freedom Planet 2 is a 2D platform game. The player quickly navigates through stages with multiple routes to defeat a boss at the end. Unlike the first game, there are no minibosses or second phases to levels. The player can run, jump and use attacks to defeat enemies, as well as guard to briefly negate incoming damage.

By building up speed, players can run up ramps, through loop-de-loops and grind on rails. The game design and visuals have been compared to Sega Saturn games.

Freedom Planet 2 is set on the world of Avalice, a planet composed of four kingdoms: Shang Tu, a city once ruled by the earth dragons currently ruled by the Royal Magister; the advanced republic city Shang Mu currently ruled by mayor Zao; the northern kingdom of Shuigang ruled by King Dail; and the southern tropical island nation of Parusa, once home to the ancient water dragons who waged war on Shang Tu.

The main characters are Sash Lilac, thought to be the last water dragon in existence, who fights with her pigtails, Carol Tea, a motorcycle-riding green wildcat, Milla Basset, a basset hound and alchemist who can create phantom cubes and potions (later revealed to be an alien from Brevon's homeworld), and Neera Li, the trusted advisor of the Royal Magister.

In contrast to the original title, Freedom Planet 2 was developed using Unity and has more detailed pixel art than its predecessor. With the goal of "defin[ing] Freedom Planet's identity as a franchise", all characters from the original game received a design overhaul by Tyson Tan, who had previously drawn fan art for the first game. While the early concept artwork on the game's official website remain unchanged, Tan had been experimenting on a new art style with the fans of the game. It was also revealed that Sonic Mania developer Christian Whitehead had helped DiDuro with programming and was responsible for porting over the physics from Clickteam Fusion to Unity.

The game was available as a playable demo on Steam since early on in its development. Due to the commercial success of Freedom Planet, its sequel was completely self-funded, without the use of crowdfunding. In an early 2017 gameplay trailer, Neera Li (who was a boss NPC in the first game) was revealed to be the sequel's fourth playable character.

The Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X versions of Freedom Planet 2 all received generally favorable reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received strong approval, being recommended by 81% of critics. Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received strong approval, being recommended by 81% of critics.

In pre-release impressions, Chris Moyse of Destructoid said that he liked Freedom Planet 2's visuals and "Saturday morning vibe", calling it "delightful" and "pretty tubular". In a post-release review, Dominic Tarason of PC Gamer described the title as similar to a long-lost Sega Saturn game, noting how much it had evolved away from Sonic the Hedgehog. Calling the game "worth the wait" following its seven-year development, he nevertheless recommended that newcomers start with the first game. Saying that the boss fights were almost all "a joy", he praised the inclusion of a block button and a greater amount of control given to all characters. He noted that the game was forgiving due to its accessibility options, allowing players to greatly reduce or increase the difficulty at will.