I pirated the original game on my Wii U. I liked it a lot so I pirated this one when it came to Switch earlier this year. I loved this game so much that I knew I had to come back and buy both Freedom Planet 1 and 2 to show my support. These games are absolutely amazing and will not disappoint in pretty much any way. The music, the sprite work, the characters, all great, especially here in the sequel which blows the first game (which was already good) out of the water in my opinion. The combat is especially good here as well, giving a nice twist to the "Sonic" formula. All of the foes are formidable but never seem extremely difficult and are fun to take down, was was a slight issue I had with the first game (although it could have been a skill issue then. I should probably replay it to compare). The quality of the content and the amount of replay-ability here with the multiple characters with their own side-stories and extra challenges is insanely high for the low price they are asking for. If GalaxyTrail ever makes a Freedom Planet 3, rather than pirate it I will be their first customer because these devs and this franchise absolutely deserve it.

Also, if GalaxyTrail reads this, would you consider possibly restocking the Merga and Lilac plushies? I love goofy plushies like that and would love to buy them from you guys.

Honestly, this is kind of a hot take, but I think the only reason this game series didn't get more attention is mainly due to being perceived as "furry" on the outside, but trust me is pretty good. But yeah, this sequel is amazing, it does distance itself a lot from being a 'Sonic fangame' even if the first game had already lots of influence from other Sega Genesis/Megadrive vidya.

This game pushes a bit more the beat'em'up feel, adding even a dodge button, and slowing just a tiny bit the gameplay sometimes. Speaking of it, many stages are way larger, sometimes levels not being as straightforward as in the first game, but I think this is actually a right step (one of many) in comparison to the first game, giving room for more complex elements and enemies.

Overall this game has so much more content and the OST is amazing even if you'll miss a couple of the iconic songs from FP1. You're likely to finish your first playthrough in around 15-20 hours or so (including beating every level, battle-sphere, boss rematch, etc... but not 100% completion) and it does not feel draggy at all. If you played the first game, basically you'll be missing our lil' alien guy, Torque, and a continuation to the previous villain's whereabouts, which (spoilers from FP2) has a high chance of being subject of a continuation in a third game, since Brevon appears as an Hologram in a secret ending , but to be honest, I think they did good with changing the subject of an otherwise predictable sequel, and giving us in exchange a pretty deep story and lore about almost anything that was rather unanswered in the first game and tons of new characters, including a new antagonist.

TLDR; buy it, it's sooo worth and I love this game, there are very minor caveats but nothing is really stopping the fun.