You bet your sweet urinals I did.
The sad thing is, I don't care for Spade, but for very different reasons. Specifically, I was almost certain that he was going to be the game's Platinum Games-style rival, with several encounters and lots of motivation for both the rival and the main character to kick each other's respective hind-quarters. The big problem was that Spade had next to nothing to do, and we know so little about him, so I found myself not caring about him at all. Every time he showed up, it was like:
"I need to find my father's killer."
"Dude, I know who your father's killer is."
"I don't care. You betrayed me."
<I cross my fingers hoping for more information on that last bit>
"Smell ya later."
<Facepalm>
I think one of the worst parts for me was that
the fight against Spade was BORING compared to every single other rival fight! He only has like three moves and an... admittedly cool dash/air dash, but every one else you fight has so much more going for them.
Nothing with him is resolved. None of his plot threads go anywhere, you never get the full story of why he hates you, and worst of all... YOU ONLY GOT TO FIGHT HIM ONCE?!? ONCE?!?
The funny thing is, there actually was a character that ended up being exactly what I hoped Spade would be
Nerra! Nerra is given a strong motivation to hunt you down (you are ex-cons, and your trying to bust out of prison), we know a decent amount about her, we as the player want to kick her ass for what she does to your party, she gets actual plot stuff to do, and the fight against her was kickass! She was freaking awesome! Just going on their respective appearances in the game, I would much prefer Neera to be the DLC character to Spade. I love you Neera!
So I managed to beat the whole game once. First, I'll give my spoiler-free review, than I'll give a couple points of interest that are spoilers.
Freedom Planet is a gem. It manages to find the perfect line between speed, platforming, combat, and exploration that so few games can. The game is short, but there is plenty of replay value from trying to collect all the collectibles and trying to get the best level competition times, easily making the game worth the $15. The characters are great, the story starts kinda shaky, but improves by about the second half, the dialogue ranges from alright to very impressive, and the game is just a beauty in terms of visuals and music. I recommend this game to anyone with an interest in platformers, Sonic or otherwise.
Now for spoilers:
I talked about how the plot was weakened by the number of characters. Luckily, right after I started feeling that, they stopped introducing character, and gave several of them more time to actually be... characters. My personal favorites were Neera, Major Zao, Brevon, and Serpentine.
One of my main concerns going into Freedom Planet was that it would be too easy. Dragon Valley and Relic Maze were pushovers, and I feared that a similar difficulty would reside in the rest of the game.
I could not have been more wrong.
The difficulty curve, to my extreme pleasure, ramps up super high, leading to a final boss that I can only describe as the most fun I've had dying 27 times in ages (and I was playing on NORMAL!). The difficulty felt challenging, but fair, always making me aware that the vast majority of deaths I suffered were from my own dumb mistakes.
On the subject of the final boss, the game did two things that I REALLY HOPED they would do with it's final battle(s).
1. The final boss was the antagonist from the beginning of the game. I am so sick of games that give you loads of motivation to want to stop a villain, only to switch out that villain at the very end for an "even badder villain". By the end of the game, you hate Brevon so much that your motivation to destroy him couldn't possibly have been the same towards some new villain out of nowhere. So thank goodness he is the final boss.
2. The final phase of the final boss is a 1v1 against Brevon without any giant robots. It is just you and him. It was pretty much the 2D equivalent of a Platinum Game's final boss... only HARDER! He is SO STRONG!!!
One of my main concerns going into Freedom Planet was that it would be too easy. Dragon Valley and Relic Maze were pushovers, and I feared that a similar difficulty would reside in the rest of the game.
I could not have been more wrong.
The difficulty curve, to my extreme pleasure, ramps up super high, leading to a final boss that I can only describe as the most fun I've had dying 27 times in ages (and I was playing on NORMAL!). The difficulty felt challenging, but fair, always making me aware that the vast majority of deaths I suffered were from my own dumb mistakes.
On the subject of the final boss, the game did two things that I REALLY HOPED they would do with it's final battle(s).
1. The final boss was the antagonist from the beginning of the game. I am so sick of games that give you loads of motivation to want to stop a villain, only to switch out that villain at the very end for an "even badder villain". By the end of the game, you hate Brevon so much that your motivation to destroy him couldn't possibly have been the same towards some new villain out of nowhere. So thank goodness he is the final boss.
2. The final phase of the final boss is a 1v1 against Brevon without any giant robots. It is just you and him. It was pretty much the 2D equivalent of a Platinum Game's final boss... only HARDER! He is SO STRONG!!!