
Freedom Wars Remastered (PC)
|Freedom Wars was originally released for the PlayStation Vita over a decade ago back in 2014. Back then it was a real highlight for the handheld, Japan Studio’s collaboration helping it stand out amongst other God Eater clones. Lost to time like most handheld releases, being picked up by Bamco and swiftly ported to modern systems was certainly a surprise. Eager to return to your panopticon sinner? Lets find out.

In a distant future where all resources on earth have been depleted, being alive is regarded as a drain on society if you’re unable to contribute in a meaningful way, and by extension becomes a sin in of itself. As a sinner sentenced to one million years in prison, you must volunteer in dangerous operations to reduce your prison sentence and earn resources for you chosen home, in the hope of fighting your way to freedom. Surely this isn’t all there is to life?
There’s a surprising amount of story and world building for a handheld game with this one, you’ll sometimes wonder how folk may have played this on the go when it really piles on the chatting on occasion. Still, there’s some well detailed backdrop to an at times intriguing story because of it all, so you’ll likely enjoy most of it. If you need a break from the story then the missions you partake in can also be done online via co-op, or just take on other sinners instead in squad battles for some intense PvP.

Being a port of a handheld game, also a remaster and not a remake, It’s wise to keep expectations in check. Also, having installed the Vita version this past week to see the extent of the improvements, it graphically holds up surprisingly well on Sony’s last handheld – to give you an idea, and still looks great here too. That doesn’t mean there aren’t boosts, textures and models have clearly had a touch up and the jump to 4K & 60fps is huge, but it still retains the look of the original as a whole and is something I actually appreciate. The anime style is leaned on heavily enough to smooth out some of the rougher edges too.
Audio is just as you remember, but it does have a quirky addition in the AI generated English dub . 99% of the time the dub is fine, but every so often a word will be done in such a weird and quirky way you can’t help but notice. Still, the original Japanese dub from the Vita is there if needed. Luckily performance is nothing to worry about. My PC (R7 5800X3D/32GB/RTX 3090) didn’t break a sweat getting 4K/60 here, funnily enough the PC would probably sweat more emulating the Vita original. You should have no issue all the way down to a steam deck in getting 60fps.

Completing missions to earn resources for your chosen panopticon, and in turn having some years taken off your sinners sentence, is the main bulk of the game. The missions themselves will usually involve fighting bots or other sinners from different areas, the fight for resources never ends and even civilians. Skirmishes can get t6actical as enemies can be neutered by destroying individual parts, or you can use the Thorn to drag them to the ground, so there’s more to it than just blasting and slashing everything that moves. As you progress new weapon types, as well as Thorns to change your ‘class’, start to unlock and can mix the skirmishes even more – especially during the bigger fights.
When not out on missions you’ll get to explore the ‘prison’, doing the odd fetch quest and visiting shops and other sinners. All the stuff you keep hidden in your pockets come into play here as well, especially with the streamlined crafting for example, that uses parts and junk found during to upgrade your equipment – or even build all new ones. I suppose the handheld nature does rear its head with the limited scope of the game, missions can be brief for example, but its probably the best of the God Eater clones out there still.

Freedom Wars finally breaks free of Sony’s last handheld system years after release, and while there’s not a raft of updates to drag it into the modern age, it’s still at least carried hard by the gameplay. There are some notable improvements to performance and controls for this remaster, as well as some tweaks to gameplay, but in reality it feels little low effort. Don’t get me wrong, its great to see the game available on several new platforms as it was a highlight of the Vita’s library, but if you still have the game on Vita then you ain’t missing much – you can just play that version.
Summary
An appreciated, if somewhat low effort, port of a Vita classic that still holds up to this day.

Geoffrey Wright

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