Aided by a duck-like alien named Torque, the girls attempt to defeat the evil Lord Brevon, who plans to steal the Kingdom Stone and conquer the galaxy.

Game director Sabrina DiDuro first began developing Freedom Planet as a Sonic the Hedgehog fangame using characters created by DeviantArt user Ziyo Ling for its main cast.

The game received largely positive reviews; critics praised its gameplay, visuals, music, aesthetics, sense of humor and balance of Sonic elements with original content, but were mixed on its pacing, voice acting, story and the abundance of long cutscenes.

[6] Because of its aesthetics, level design, and fast-paced gameplay, Freedom Planet has been compared to the Sonic the Hedgehog games released for the Sega Genesis in the early 1990s.

Pressing the special button with a full energy gauge activates the Dragon Boost, an eight-directional air dash[2] that deals heavy touch damage and makes her temporarily invincible.

[10] Milla is considered to be the hardest to play as, since she only has 6 life petals and even though she could heavily damage an enemy by throwing a cube or reflect projectiles, it would always take some time before she could summon an energy block again.

[9] The game begins as Sash Lilac and Carol Tea—an anthropomorphic dragon and wildcat —rescue a duck-billed creature named Torque after his spacecraft crash lands.

That night, Torque tells Lilac, Carol, and Milla that he is an alien sent to apprehend the intergalactic warlord Arktivus Brevon, whose spacecraft wrecked on the planet.

Neera finds Lilac, arrests her, and brings her back to Shang Tu, where the Magister determines that she is innocent and sends her on a mission to recover an artifact containing information about the Kingdom Stone and their history in return of clearing her name.

Shortly after the battle, Milla awakens in a medical tent, and everyone sees the sky lit up by swirling, crystalline energy released from the Kingdom Stone.

[13] The physics and controls were also tweaked to be more responsive and tight; running up walls was made easier and jumps were less floaty to allow player to dodge enemy attacks more easily.

While the game retained the "speed platform gameplay", it took it in a different direction by introducing combat mechanics based on one of Strife's earlier Sonic fan projects.

[12] In an interview, DiDuro described Freedom Planet as "a nod to '90s-style Japanese platform games, like Sonic, Mega Man, and a little bit of Gunstar Heroes".

Browsing on the art website DeviantArt, she soon discovered Chinese artist Ziyo Ling, requesting and getting permission to use her characters Sash Lilac, followed by Carol Tea and Milla, for her game.

The soundtrack was composed by DiDuro in collaboration with Leila "Woofle" Wilson and Claire "Blue Warrior" Ellis,[7][13] the latter having contributed to two of the game's tracks before leaving the project.

There were disagreements on the direction of the soundtrack sometimes, with DiDuro wanting "fast-paced and in-your-face from the get-go" while Woofle aimed for more "fly-by-night"; starting "quieter and more happy" and progressively getting intense.

Woofle mentioned the track Sky Battalion to have been the hardest thing to compose, stating that it was "the low point in [her] entire career", it wasn't a song that she felt was "appropriate for the game".

[5] Shortly before that date, it was delayed again to July 19; the developers wanted to promote the game at a convention in Miami, Florida, and to avoid competition from the heavily discounted products in Steam's Summer Sale.

[13] DiDuro considered and rejected the idea of developing an Android version of Freedom Planet, but stated to be saving money to port the game to the PlayStation Vita.

[30] DiDuro later explained that the bug had taken so long to detect because it only occurred in retail versions of the console, preventing GalaxyTrail and Nintendo from learning of the issue.

[33] In November 2015, GalaxyTrail joined forces with the subscription box company IndieBox distribute an exclusive physical release of Freedom Planet.

This limited collector's edition box included a flash-drive with a DRM-free game file, the official two-disc soundtrack, an instruction manual and Steam key, along with various custom-designed collectibles.

[40][41] Tony Ponce of Destructoid reacted positively about the demo for Freedom Planet and commented that it was "nice to see a well-established style or formula applied to a new world with original characters".

[4] Similarly, Eurogamer's Jeffrey Matulef described the game's preview as "an indie Sonic-esque platformer done right", and enjoyed the redesigned health system.

[5] John Polson of IndieGames.com believed that "the spectacles like loops and wall runs ... [are not] as magical to do or watch" as in Sonic games, but he encouraged platformer fans to download the demo.

Pacing was remarked to be slower than that of the Genesis Sonic games because of the added combat sequences, though Grayson felt that this gave the player time to explore and appreciate the level design.

[45] Polygon's Griffin McElroy argued that Freedom Planet successfully performs "a difficult balancing act, borrowing and transforming elements from games like Sonic the Hedgehog and Rocket Knight Adventures without coming off as derivative".

Taboada lamented the game's obscurity and suggested that, had Treasure obtained the rights to Sonic and released Freedom Planet as an official sequel, it would have been more popular.

[52][51] Khan commented that the levels "never feel like they're over too soon nor do they drag on unnecessarily", and he appreciated the setpiece moments such as "explosive chase/escape sequences, maze like labyrinths, traps, and even shoot-'em-up style shooting segments".

[52] By contrast, Japanese website 4Gamer stated that the game's quirks allowed one to play extensively without boredom,[10] and Taboada enjoyed the large, Metroidvania-style levels.