The PlayStation Vita didn’t have many standout exclusives, but the sci-fi action RPG Freedom Wars was one of them. The game by Japanese studio Dimps, Inc. about criminals forced to fight giant robots in a post-apocalyptic future seemed destined to be stranded on Sony’s ill-fated handheld, but in a surprise twist it’s not only coming to modern platforms, it’s also getting an HD upgrade.
Bandai Namco announced the move overnight, confirming that Freedom Wars Remastered will come to PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC (via Steam) on January 10, 2025. In addition to general graphical enhancements, the game will support 4K resolution and 60fps on PS5 and PC. There have also been some changes to the gameplay to improve balance, difficulty, weapon crafting, and upgrades.
The teaser trailer for the remaster conveys the general premise of Freedom Wars, which is that in the year 102014 the planet’s surface is largely destroyed and uninhabitable, forcing humanity to live in underground siloes that function as penal colony city-states. People are convicted as criminals at birth and forced to work off million-year life sentences by serving as mercenaries in intra-colony raids and skirmishes with giant robots called “abductors” that try to steal citizens.
The game plays similar to God Eater with missions consisting of big battles where players run around hacking away at smaller enemies and big bosses. Grinding missions and completing optional objectives net resources and XP that can be used to upgrade weapons and skills, unlocking tougher missions and new story beats. It’s grindy but fun, and the worldbuilding and anime style make it feel like a unique riff on violent dystopia storytelling. A mechanic called “thorns” lets characters use a giant red whip to set traps and decapitate enemy body parts.
“I’ve wanted to make a sequel since it was released 10 years ago, but the opportunity never came,” the director of the original game, Takashi Tsukamoto, said in an interview at the PlayStation Blog. “This time, we were blessed with the opportunity to develop it and have Bandai Namco Entertainment produce it, and since it was also the turning point of the 10th anniversary, we decided to do it at this timing.”
Tetsunosuke Seki, director of the remaster, said the loot system will be much less luck-based this time around, hopefully leading to fewer pain points in the progression system. More buttons on the PS5 DualSense should also make the control scheme much less cumbersome. The only thing that would be better is if Sony secretly released a PS Vita 2 for long-time fans to play it on.
