Talking About the Story

[Silver5596]

Long warning. Long as heck post ahead.

So I've seen the story reviewed before, but I've seen most of it talked about from the perspective of gameplay focus rather than a writing focus. I as a writer I try to appreciate a good story when I see one despite the medium it's in. A lot of this is opinion based. I will listen to the opinion of others as I enjoy others' point of view even if I don't adopt them, so understand that I have my own point of view and we can have a civil discussion. If you think I am dead wrong, please provide a properly logical or literary reason why.



I think the story over all is a great piece that flows nicely at a narrative point of view (give or take a few hiccups). I enjoy the fact that there were light and heavy moments where some might say it's an identity crisis. If a story is all nitty gritty heavy edge all the time, you suffer because the audience will get used to the tone and it becomes the norm or opposite effect. Comic relief is a viable and necessary strategy of writing in even the darkest stories (sue me). It makes the dark moments genuinely shocking and worth my investment. Overall I found the light-hearted moments to be well paced and in appropriate times. At the beginning, before the true extent of severity or stakes are known the characters act happy and eager, really fitting and down to earth. It really drives home the severity of their fight when they do show it. I also ADORE the fact that a heavy and serious story could be made with no swearing, overly violent scenes, and minimal blood/gore.

The characters felt natural and I loved the mostly down to earth and top notch voice acting (minus Dail's Father for trying a little too hard) which added to how natural the characters felt. Again, by not locking the story and characters into happy or gritty it made a nice story with lots of foils and genuinely realistic moments. One great example is post Jade Creek cutscene where they have a divide and Lilac no longer wants to put her friends in danger because of what Carol said. It also feels right that friendship isn't the main resolution to the story. The resolution is an appropriately fueled vengeance that screams "Don't PO Lilac!"

Cliches exist in this story, but I feel they were used right and well rather than the hindrance most people make them out to be. Brevon was an amazing villain as he represented my definition of tyrant perfectly, an oppressive ruler who claims to mean well or act on a good when in reality he is a selfish power hungry dictator. Neera also made a great anti-villain by meaning well, but became an antagonist through her skeptical nature. There's also the idea of friendship cliches, but they're used sparingly and in some cases appropriately at least they're not the point of resolution.

Now I'm getting to the few downsides. The long 12+ minute story dump after relic maze is the one bandwagon I will hop on. SO MUCH could have been placed on the cutting room floor. The Plane Scene, the Movie Watching Scene, and possibly some Shuigang Palace Scenes sprinkled throughout the story (except the one where Brevon convinces Dail they attack Zao). These were the few points where I did feel my gameplay and story were interfering with each other. Aside from that every scene felt like a natural transition to the next stage. I think a lot of people have an issue with first impressions on pacing due to this cutscene alone, and psychologically first impressions are actually the most important.

Now this criticism is the flaw I do have personal beef with. The entirety of the way the mystery of Lilac and Carol's past with Spade and the Scarves was misused. It was used AMAZINGLY before Jade Creek by getting them locked up to lead up to the team splitting, and then there's moments where it's annoying like just before Fortune Night, during Sky Battalion, or after Battle Glacier. Mystery like that isn't a bad tool to keep audience invested, but it went unanswered and felt like a cheap tool due to the inverse of dramatic irony. Torque and Milla had EVERY reason before Jade Creek to get either girls to spill juicy details to make Battle Glacier's moment with Spade impactful (which it wasn't). Carol's moment with Spade after trap Hideout feels natural and right, but most of Lilac's with spade don't due to the long time information is not available. Milla and Torque had every reason to be curious since it landed them in jail and on the run. I REALLY want to know Lilac, Carol, and Spade's story even in the sequel or through pieces. It's a plot-relevant mystery that should have been answered.

Speaking of unanswered points, I don't have personal beef with the world-building mystery between Brevon and the Dragons due to the fact the Dragons' device and Syntax are clearly the same machine. A few hints would've been nice because I'm all for world building to be obtuse. Making World-Building too narrow will hinder a story rather than supplement it. I feel with Brevon, Torque's Coalition, and the Dragons it was nicely done and correctly obtuse. With the whole Syntax being a dragon machine wasn't, but I can overlook it, it didn't work bad for the plot.






Overall I think the story was well put together with great moments, natural flow, and motives that kept me intrigued with some points falling behind. I'm REALLY excited to see how these elements that made a game to rival Sonic 3 & Knuckles in almost all fields expands upon them in the sequel. I apologize for not being able to give a potato because trying to add a potato means this is my 3rd from scratch draft. Kudos if you read the whole thing.

[Ultrablockstar]

It's been a while since I've seen someone analyze Freedom Planet's story, and although that it has been a while since I've played the campaign or closely analyzed the story (mostly due to lost interest). I'm willing to express my thoughts on your observations and the narrative itself.

I agree that the difference in tone between the different cutscenes in the earlier half of the game isn't necessarily a con. I'm personally subscribed to the idea that the shifts in tone shows the difference between Brevon and the girls, their perspective on the situation and their approach towards the problem they're faced with. Brevon is a brute but methodical and overall realistic, the girls during the first half of the game, especially Lilac, are more ideological and complacent. In a way, Brevon's influence acts as a deconstruction of your typical mascot platformer plot.

Speaking of the characters, they are probably the strongest aspect of the narrative. Lilac and Brevon are the strongest and most well written characters in the game, rightfully so, since they are the main protagonist and antagonist respectively. Lilac is the protagonist, but she is far from innocent, aside from being a thief at the beginning of the game, throughout the first half of the game she is selfish and manipulative in her attempts to satisfy her hero-complex and absolve herself from her previous transgressions, always at odds at with Carol whose far more pragmatic (deleted scenes makes this more obvious, I will refrain from referencing them to often). Brevon is cruel, sadistic and barbaric, despite this remained behind the scenes for most of the game, his core motivation being the Kingdom Stone, caring only about escaping from Avalice; for the most part, most of the atrocities he committed in Avalice were in response to the actions of the Avalicians, with the exception of his siege against Shuigang Palace and ordering Dail to retrieve the stone from Zao. Brevon rant about his homeworld and the coalition’s lack of action is also interesting, though sadly, the game doesn’t explore this in enough depth for me to give a detailed opinion aside from seeing it as an opportunity to give Brevon more depth.

Most of the character are fine, though there are two characters I do have problems with: Torque and Milla. They’re less like characters and more like plot devices, Torque pretty much acts as the motivation for Lilac and co to be involved in the plot as well as act as the main source of relevant information about the antagonist and their goals so that the protagonists can act. Milla is, and I will be frank, entirely pointless: she’s not relevant to the plot, the only notable thing she did is break up a fight between Carol and Spade, she has no notable character traits outside of being the cute feral dog girl, her adventure mode doesn’t really add anything to the plot either and ultimately acts as another plot-device to give Lilac (and Carol) a reason to oppose Brevon by the end. Spade is your cliche edgelord, but he at least have relevance and is interesting as a character; he has every right to be the way he is throughout the game.

I think the premise of Freedom Planet is fantastic but with a sub par execution. The dialogue is, not the best, and I strongly believe that the poor dialogue is the main reason why most perceives the voice acting as bad (which it’s not). The world building is a far larger problem; barely anything is explained, your example with Spade is a great example as we have no explanation as to why the girls left the scarves in the first place (supposedly Freedom Planet 2 will explain this). Milla and Torque’s characters suffers due to poor world building as well, since we know close to nothing about them. There were scenes deleted at the beginning of the game prior to it’s initial release which explains why Lilac and Carol were at Dragon Valley, ironically the dev’s reasoning for deleting the scene in question is why I’m criticizing this in the first place. I do agree that the info dump after Relic Maze is problematic, and though this is because there were originally a stage planned between Relic Maze and Fortune Night, I feel a lot of the information from those cutscenes could’ve been spread out and more could’ve been explain. There’s nothing inherently wrong with long cutscenes. Coincidently this makes me disagree with your opinion on the pacing, as I feel the pacing is one of it’s weaker points but far from it’s worst. The lack of information and world building definitely made things difficult for me when I was writing fanfiction for Freedom Planet. That is to say, I’m not saying a writer should spell everything out to the reader, inferencing and context clues are a thing for a reason, there’s a balance to these things.

Overall, I agree with most of your points, though I feel you were a bit lenient towards the game. In my opinion, Freedom Planet has aged fairly poorly, but still fun to discuss about and play, I most certainly do not believe it holds a candle to S3&K or Mania for that matter, and although my hype for the sequel is nonexistent, I’m still looking forward to it regardless.

Also apologize if this post may seem sloppy, since I pretty much wrote what I thought and felt.

[Silver5596]

Originally posted by Ultrablockstar:

I think the premise of Freedom Planet is fantastic but with a sub par execution. The dialogue is, not the best, and I strongly believe that the poor dialogue is the main reason why most perceives the voice acting as bad (which it’s not). The world building is a far larger problem; barely anything is explained, your example with Spade is a great example as we have no explanation as to why the girls left the scarves in the first place (supposedly Freedom Planet 2 will explain this). Milla and Torque’s characters suffers due to poor world building as well, since we know close to nothing about them. There were scenes deleted at the beginning of the game prior to it’s initial release which explains why Lilac and Carol were at Dragon Valley, ironically the dev’s reasoning for deleting the scene in question is why I’m criticizing this in the first place. I do agree that the info dump after Relic Maze is problematic, and though this is because there were originally a stage planned between Relic Maze and Fortune Night, I feel a lot of the information from those cutscenes could’ve been spread out and more could’ve been explain. There’s nothing inherently wrong with long cutscenes. Coincidently this makes me disagree with your opinion on the pacing, as I feel the pacing is one of it’s weaker points but far from it’s worst. The lack of information and world building definitely made things difficult for me when I was writing fanfiction for Freedom Planet. That is to say, I’m not saying a writer should spell everything out to the reader, inferencing and context clues are a thing for a reason, there’s a balance to these things.

Overall, I agree with most of your points, though I feel you were a bit lenient towards the game. In my opinion, Freedom Planet has aged fairly poorly, but still fun to discuss about and play, I most certainly do not believe it holds a candle to S3&K or Mania for that matter, and although my hype for the sequel is nonexistent, I’m still looking forward to it regardless.

Also apologize if this post may seem sloppy, since I pretty much wrote what I thought and felt.

Hey same, I just wrote down what I thought. And I agree with how World Building is lacking, though I've seen far worse examples than this game and it suffers from not answering it's world building. Inferenced worldbuilding was pretty good, but it does lack a lot of necessary answers and I mean A LOT. I won't say the pacing was the best either. I just felt a lot of people make it out far worse than it needs to be.

I also agree that characters like Milla had some rocky footing in the plot, and some other examples would be Gong, Syntax, Dail, and even Carol had some limitations to the plot. I at least appreciate that rather than pushing each to be nothing but hollow plot devices they seemed like somewhat reasonable characters with motivation. And I definitely was disappointed with Milla's story. They didn't do anything to add to the plot with her, not how she got caught by Brevon nor what she did during the escape attempt.

Also, I will say that Mania doesn't compare to this game, but after I grew up with and ran S3&K to the ground I found that I personally would rather play this game than that if I had to, if slightly. Though if you enjoy SK&3 more, I don't blame you and I can see why. SK&3 was very solid with unspoken story and gameplay, but I tend to feel more fair challenge and fun when I play FP, but that's me.

Also if you're writing fanfiction, note that bending rules is always ok in my view. I find that to be the fun in the endeavor. Thanks for the contribution.