My Top 8 Favourite Freedom Planet Characters

Damn, this game is already TEN YEARS OLD?! I still remember when it was new!

OK, some of you may need an explanation for this one. Freedom Planet is an independently made video-game created by Sabrina DiDuro and released for the PC in 2014. The game was notorious for being similar to classic Sonic the Hedgehog games and received critical acclaim from fans and critics alike for its nostalgic gameplay, solid level designs, challenging boss fights, lovable characters and lovely pixel art, though some were more critical to the game's unbalanced difficulty at times and the story suffering from tonal whiplash to the point it felt like shock value for the sake of it. The game was such a hit that it released a sequel in 2022. The game was announced in 2015 but suffered heavy delays and didn't release until 2022. The wait was worth it for the sequel was also a critical and commercial hit, getting better reviews than even the first game and was such a hit that both it and the first game were given console releases for the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, the Nintendo Switch and more. Talk about starting off small and climbing up the ranks, eh?

I myself was quite intrigued by this game when it came out and even played it back in the 2010's. I enjoyed Freedom Planet for its engaging story, interesting world-building, memorable characters and lovely art style, though I do feel the difficulty could be a little frustrating sometimes and the voice acting was slightly hit-and-miss for me. Back during the days I used to be on DeviantArt, I even drew a lot of Freedom Planet related fanart and I used to write Freedom Planet fanfiction that you can read on my FFN page here. So yeah, I got quite into it back then. Now, I still remember it fondly, but I'm not as into it anymore. I still haven't actually played the second game yet, though I did see the cutscenes so I know how the story goes.

Still, I feel like I should do something for Freedom Planet's 10th anniversary. I'm actually late to the party since the anniversary itself was July the 21st, but let's not be too fussy about it, eh? So for my (belated) anniversary special, I'll be doing a list of my favourite Freedom Planet characters. This is a Top 8 List rather than a Top 10 List because I don't have enough favourites to make a Top 10 List.

So without further ado, let's count down my Top 8 Favourite Freedom Planet Characters...

Number 8: Neera Li

A good chunk of the reason why she's even on this list is down to the sequel and the sequel alone, because she was pretty loathsome in the first game. Neera Li when she started out was your typical by-the-book cop who is devoted to her duty to the point of having a gratuitously black-and-white view on the law. If you're a criminal, you deserve to rot in jail no matter if you're reformed or not, there's no in-between for her. I also imagine much of the fandom resents her for being responsible for the chain of events that led to Lilac and Torque getting captured and the former getting brutally tortured. So yeah, not a great first impression. So why is Neera on the list when I've talked about why she's hateable in the first game? Because again, that all changed when the sequel came and it's thanks to the sequel she made it here. Neera was promoted to playable alongside Team Lilac and given her own story mode, and that I can tell you caused fans to warm up to her, myself included. In the first game, she was at least liked for being a cool boss fight (fitting since she has ice powers) that is a genuine challenge and in the sequel, she appears to be just as enjoyable when playing as her.

As for how she's written, I found her a much more likeable character than she was in the first game. Not only is she main character now so now she's an ally instead of a hinderance to our heroines, but her personality is better handled here. We see more layers to her character in how she's extremely loyal to The Magister and has severe trust issues and we even see moments of vulnerability to her such as when she has an emotional breakdown over losing Shang Tu to Merga and how everyone around her seems to be a traitor. She's also genuinely funny as the straight woman to Team Lilac's antics and has a dry sense of humour that leads to her having some very funny quips. I also like how even if she's not mellowed out completely, she is at least a little nicer to Team Lilac and she even genuinely gets on well with Milla to the point where Milla's the one that can get her to calm down when she gets mad. We also see a compassionate and kind side to her like the scene where she comforts Dail or when playing the story from her perspective, she's supportive towards Milla and trusts her despite Serpentine revealing the truth about her. The sequel really made Neera a more nuanced character than before and it goes to show how a bad first impression doesn't mean that the character is inherently bad.

Neera Li managed to make it onto the list thanks to the improvements the sequel made to her. Her design was improved, her personality was improved and her role in the story was improved. That along was enough for me to name this scary lady as one of my favourites. Neera Li: an officer of the law that will put you on ice if you cross her...

Number 7: Mayor Zao

Who doesn't love this hot-headed, overly arrogant yet funny mayor?

Mayor Zao is the mayor of Shang Mu, the red-coloured kingdom of Avalice, and despite his short-size, his personality is much larger. I always found Mayor Zao to be a ball of fun when playing the game, especially his hammy personality, Alejandro Saab's over-the-top performance and of course, that 5+ running gag of his. I don't know if I'm in the minority here, but I always found that gag really funny whenever he'd do it.

5+ FUNNY

Mayor Zao isn't the most important character in the franchise, but he's still a favourite of mine because of how enjoyable he is whenever he's onscreen and he does provide some of the game's funniest moments for me. In spite of his giant ego and arrogant nature, he's also a pretty decent guy by nature too, so that helps. If you do something good for him, he's instantly grateful to you and he will reward you handsomely...with coupons that give you 5% off selected brands admittedly, but in the case of our heroes, he rewards them with dinner and a ride to Shang Tu. Even if Zao may be more in it for himself than others, he clearly has a heart and he does care for the people of Avalice to some degree, which always puts him above most politicians out there who care more for power than the people they're supposed to be governing. I really do like how as greedy and full of himself as he can be, he's not all bad and has a good side to him. Maybe if I bribed him, it would bring out more of it...

Mayor Zao. Short on height, big on entertainment. It's easy to see why he earned a spot on this list.

5+ EARNED

OK, I'll stop now.

Number 6: The Magister

This guy really proved to be a fascinating character, especially when the sequel came out.

The Royal Magister is the ruler of Shang Tu, the blue coloured kingdom of Avalice, and when we first saw him, his face was completely shrouded in shadow, so we didn't know what he actually looked like. In the first game, he was the stern but otherwise honourable leader of Shang Tu who can be reasonable and is also able to acknowledge his own flaws, such as how he admitted he'd been foolish to ignore Lilac and Torque when they presented evidence of Brevon's attack. Once our heroes are in the clear, the Magister is nothing but helpful to them and that along with his cool design and deep voice courtesy of Edwyn Tiong really made him an intriguing and likeable character. Then came the sequel and he only got even more interesting.

As you can see, we even see him unmasked, revealing him to be an Earth Dragon. It turns out that the Magister's ancestors played a part in the enslavement and genocide of the Water Dragons and they covered up their crimes, passing it off as a war that they won when it was anything but. The Magister is HORRIFIED by this revelation and despite the fact he played no part in what happened in the past, he still feels he has to pay some kind of penance for his ancestor's actions, so he abdicates the throne to Shang Tu and puts Neera Li momentarily in charge until a successor can be found. That is unbelievably honourable and noble of him to do and I just loved him even more for it. If only all world leaders could be as noble as this guy. This guy was a fascinating character from the start and the sequel only made him more fascinating.

The Royal Magister: this is a royal who is more than deserving of his position.

Number 5: Merga

Freedom Planet has a good track record with its villains so far. Brevon was great and this lady is great too.

Remember the genocide of the Water Dragons I mentioned earlier? Merga was one of the victims of that genocide. She's a Water Dragon and she wanted to do stand up for her people. All that resulted in was her being sealed away for centuries and after the events of Freedom Planet caused her to be freed, she's out for revenge and she makes it clear she isn't messing around. Merga is a threatening and devious villain with a fantastic design that looks incredibly striking. It's like if somebody turned Vaporeon from Pokémon into a dragon and put it in a suit of armour, she just looks so cool. Her backstory is very tragic and adds an air of sympathy to her that makes it very easy to understand why she does what she does, even if we can't root for her because she's going too far in her actions. I mean having the Bakunawa destroy Avalice's moon and condemning a bunch of people to death for crimes they didn't commit is WAY too extreme, but at the same time we can't really blame her for what she's doing. The Earth Dragons didn't show her people any mercy, so why should she?

Merga is a powerful force of nature that can give all our heroines a tough fight, which is justifiable since she was genetically engineered for combat. One has to wonder if she could beat Brevon in a fight... She's also a cunning and manipulative schemer too, able to sway at least three different people to her side by feeding them false promises and remains ahead of our heroes for much of the story until the Bakunawa rises and is ready to destroy Avalice's moon. Anytime she was onscreen in the story, things got SERIOUS and she was such a compelling threat that we couldn't take our eyes away. I also found it rather fascinating and surprising to learn that she actually has a girlfriend, a mysterious Earth Dragon princess named Cordelia, and she genuinely seems to love her too. I'm genuinely intrigued to learn more about their relationship. How did she find love in an Earth Dragon despite hating them for massacring her people? That's a story worth telling I say and hopefully there'll be a third game to delve into that...

Merga was an amazing villain for Freedom Planet 2, easily on par with Lord Brevon, and I hope she'll be back again in the future for I feel her story isn't over yet...

Number 4: Lord Brevon

I don't think any of us went into this game expecting a genuinely scary and menacing villain like Brevon, yet here we are.

Lord Arktivus Brevon set a terrifying first impression with the opening cutscene to Freedom Planet showing him and his forces attacking Shuigang's capital and slaughtering nearly everybody in sight, including Prince Dail's father. Yeah, we get ONSCREEN MURDER IN THE OPENING CUTSCENE!!!! How many of us expected that to happen when playing for the first time?! So already right off the bat, Lord Brevon has our undivided attention for what a menacing villain he's set up to be. And he's not a one-trick pony either, he continues to show how threatening he is as the game continues. He manipulates events from the shadows to get Avalice's people to start fighting each other over the Kingdom Stone, even using a hypnotized Prince Dail to help with that, and all while he's beneath their notice. This shows that Brevon is a cunning strategist who is able to use opportunities to his advantage when they come, making him a dangerous villain in more ways than one. He's physically AND mentally a threat, and that always makes for a great combination when it comes to making a powerful threat for the hero to deal with.

Lord Brevon is also not the kind of guy to play games. When he's onscreen, all hell breaks loose and the game is suddenly more serious and darker in tone. None of his scenes are ever played for laughs and the characters react with dread whenever he's here. Even Lilac shows genuine fear when faced with him, and she should considering what he did to her! So yeah, Brevon gave us THAT infamous moment! You see what I mean by how threatening he is? Oh and if that's not enough for you, he MUTATED MILLA INTO A HIDEOUS MONSTER! They really didn't need to go so hard on making Brevon a terrifying threat who makes the game suddenly more serious and intense whenever he appears, but they did anyway and that just made him a more memorable and compelling foe to fight when playing the game. Unlike Merga where she's more sympathetic, Brevon is as straight-forwardly evil as we get and he carries that role beautifully. His design is cool, his voice is awesome and he adds a dark edge to the game that made it more interesting to play as a result. I really hope we'll see him again some day soon.

Lord Brevon: Dangerous with a capital "D" as Torque described, and that's enough for him to make this list.

Number 3: Milla Bassett

Sorry to be so predictable, but the top three spots will be filled by our main heroines, starting with this adorable doggy.

I love dogs (I even own one myself), so naturally I took an instant shine to Milla because of that. But it's not just because she's a dog that makes her a favourite of mine. Milla is absolutely precious for her adorably sweet personality, playful nature, innocent demeanour and how devoted she is to her friends. Dogs are man's best friend after all and in this case, she's Lilac and Carol's best friend. Being the youngest of the trio, Milla has the most childlike personality and innocent outlook on life, which is endearing as all hell and I love her interactions with the cast because of how cute she is. Even someone as big-headed as Mayor Zao can't help but be charmed by her. But of course, this precious puppy isn't just an adorable face. Underestimate her, and you'll regret it! Milla has a special power of her own in which she can create force-fields, conjure up energy cubes and fire laser blasts to blow away enemies, and she's pretty powerful when she uses this power too. I remember when playing as her, I was surprised how much damage she could do if she got to charge up a powerful laser blast and fire it. It also helps that she's more badass and capable in the sequel too.

Milla is also a sympathetic character with her desire to get back to her parents, something that happened so long ago that she's not sure how long it's been since then. And then the sequel comes in and reveals the shocking truth that she's actually from Lord Brevon's home planet and thus Serpentine tries to play on that to get her to work for him, thus putting the poor hound in a crisis of faith. I...really didn't like this twist myself. It just raises too many questions like how Milla ended up on Avalice in the first place and why Brevon doesn't seem to recognize her. But it did give Milla a neat character arc about learning where her true loyalties lie and that most importantly, she shouldn't be defined by her origins. That's always a good lesson to take away from a story and Milla taught us that nicely. Hate the twist, but the story that resulted from it made up for it at least.

Milla is a good dog and a great friend for anybody to have. It's no wonder Lilac and Carol are so attached to her. I'll be happy to play as her again any day...

Number 2: Carol Tea

This girl is like Lilac's tail, always RIGHT behind her, and a good thing too as Carol is an awesome friend to have watching your back all the time.

Carol Tea is Lilac's best friend and like Milla, is not just an adorable kitty cat. No, Carol can whup your ass if you make her mad and she'll probably take great delight in doing so too. Carol enjoys a scrappy fight here and there and while she's not as much into the "Little Miss Hero Pants" act as Lilac is, Carol will ultimately do the right thing in the end and follow Lilac to the bitter end. Carol is a hoot anytime she's onscreen, a large part of that being down to her sassy personality and hilarious quips. I guarantee a lot of the game's funny dialogue comes from her, and she's also responsible for this hilarious moment in the sequel. Priceless, I tell ya! XD Not only is Carol very funny, but she's also really cool to play as. I mean who doesn't enjoy playing as a badass, martial-arts kitty on a motorbike? Only people who hate fun I guess. =P I know I always found it enjoyable riding around with her on her motorcycle and some of her moves were fun to use too, especially the spinning kick attack that can be surprisingly damaging when you use it. It's easy to believe she was raised by a gang of thieves with how she can throw down with even the most dangerous of threats like Brevon, Serpentine, Merga and more, and it could even explain why she enjoys a good brawl now and again.

Carol's also a fun contrast to Lilac in how Lilac's the really heroic one and at times, she's like the reluctant tag along who'd rather just fool around and have fun than save the world. This even leads to the two arguing and momentarily splitting up in the first game, but it doesn't last and Carol does come back to the group to help take Brevon down. When she sees something is serious, she gets serious too and doesn't mess around. Brevon and Merga find that out the hard way. The sequel also added more layers to her character with the inclusion of her sister, Corazon "Cory" Tea and her presence gives Carol some conflicting allegiances as a result. She sticks up for Cory far more often than she should (especially since Cory's pretty horrible to her, even leaving her stuck on a boat with raisins, a food she doesn't like) and tries so hard to get her to see reason and turn back on Merga. Thankfully in the end, she does and one has to wonder how things will go between the sisters in future.

Carol is an enjoyable character due to being very funny, complex, badass and a loyal friend to Lilac. I think we can say Lilac picks her friends will with both Carol and Milla. And speaking of Lilac...

And My Number 1 Favourite Freedom Planet Character Is...Sash Lilac

Yeah, sorry to be so obvious. It would be hard for me not to like a purple dragon who dresses in blue considering I love dragons and I love the colours blue and purple. But obviously, that's not the reason she's number one. XD

Lilac is an awesome heroine and is easily worthy of carrying the franchise on her shoulders for how cool she is. She's brave, she's selfless, she's caring, is insanely badass and above all, heroic. While it's easy to argue she's heroic to a fault, none of that takes away the fact Lilac is a true hero through and through. If anyone's in danger, she will waste no time in sticking her neck out for them and will risk her own life to save others, even if they're a total stranger. Need I remind how you she selflessly went out of her way to save Torque despite not even knowing who he was at first? Carol may derisively call her "Little Miss Hero Pants", but that's exactly what makes Lilac such an appealing protagonist. She's such a courageous soul that she won't back down from a threat, no matter how big it is. Even when faced with Brevon and Merga respectively, she won't back down until the day is saved and they're defeated. That to me is insanely badass and very admirable. I'd even say Lilac's the kind of character that people could look up to and she'd be a great role model to have. With Lilac, we can learn to be kind and caring to our friends and loved ones, stand up for others no matter the danger and to never give up no matter what.

I love Lilac for not only being a great protagonist who we can look up to and her lovable personality that is effortlessly conveyed through Dawn M. Bennett's top-notch performance as the character, but she's a genuinely flawed character in a way that makes her more interesting and relatable. While she is a heroic character with a big heart, it comes at the cost of making her extremely stubborn and reckless to the point of unwillingly putting her friends in danger and also getting herself in trouble. Do I need to bring up the infamous torture scene again? Thankfully by the sequel, she's mellowed a little and is less reckless, thus showing she's grown since the first game. I also found her backstory to be pretty tragic too. Spade stole her when she was just an egg (which does have me questioning how old he was when he committed the deed since she's a teenager and he doesn't seem that much older than her) and thus denied her a chance at a normal life. One really has to wonder how life would've turned out for her if Spade didn't do that. Would she still have gone on to be a hero like she is now? Definitely something to wonder about...

Lilac is my favourite Freedom Planet character for multiple reasons. Her design is slick and cool, she's fun to play as, she's a badass, she's got a great personality, she's an awesome role model and she's just overall a very likeable protagonist. When it comes to Freedom Planet, Lilac is the character I'm always looking forward to seeing or playing as the most in the games and she's primarily the reason I even checked out the games in the first place. Sash Lilac, my number one favourite Freedom Planet character...

And that's it for this list. Happy 10th Anniversary Freedom Planet and I hope you'll be back with another new game in the future. I see much potential for this franchise to continue to grow from here on out. For you guys, I hope you enjoyed the list and I invite you all to share your thoughts down below. Who's YOUR favourite Freedom Planet character? Do tell me.

Next week, I'll be covering the rise and fall of RWBY. See you then media fans!