3 Important Reasons Why Cult PS Vita Hit Freedom Wars Remastered Deserves Your Attention

Unlike its widely successful rival 3DS, the PS Vita is often regarded as the black sheep of the PlayStation family. Nevertheless, dedicated fans have found many hidden gems in that handheld that seem to be forgotten even by Sony itself. One of them is the Monster Hunter-like shooter Freedom Wars, which is getting a remastered version in January 2025. Here’s why both newcomers and veterans to the cult hit should be excited for its PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC revival.

1. It’s Dystopian Monster Hunter with Giant Robots

For those who are uninitiated, here we play as Volunteer, lower-class citizens living in the dystopian underground cities called Panopticons. As resources are scarce and freedom is a luxury, each Panopticon often fights each other for control. To fill the bulk of its fighting force, the Panopticon government can sentence anyone as a Volunteer who has to pay “1,000,000 years of service.” Volunteers are then forced to battle one another and against Abductors, giant robotic monsters that often kidnap civilians for rival factions.

Aside from futuristic guns, players will also be armed with anime-styled bladed weapons and thorny grappling hooks called Thorns. These Thorns can be used to grapple enemies, take down weakened Abductors, or even give buffs to friendly teammates.

Cutting Abductors’ limbs will be an important gameplay mechanic in Freedom Wars Remastered. Like how cutting Pukei-Pukei’s tail or crushing Gypceros’s head in Monster Hunter will neuter some of their moves, destroying Abductors parts will cripple them as well. For example, cutting off a Biped’s arm or shoulder-mounted rocket launcher will remove its ability to smash you or rain down rockets. Occasionally, some missions will task you to rip open an Abductor and rescue civilians who are already trapped inside it.

Of course, you’ll get additional crafting materials from broken parts– which you can sell to lower your sentences too. Any Monster Hunter, or even Lost Planet 2, aficionado should feel at home when they boot up this game.

2. Freedom Wars Remastered Might Pave the Way for More PS4 and PS Vita Ports

Undoubtedly, the Freedom Wars Remastered announcement is great news for PS Vita fans. But more importantly, it’s also a beacon of hope for Sony to reintroduce its 8th generation library. This opens up the possibility for more ports of beloved games, from PS Vita and PS4 to modern consoles and PCs.

Although the original game was a collaboration between Sony Japan Studio and Dimps, the remastered version is now published by Bandai Namco. In this case, Sony actually permitted Dimps to find a new publisher to rerelease the game. This shows that, as long as Sony wills it, all of its IPs can be handled by other developers and publishers.

Does that mean Bandai Namco will be able to publish the long-awaited PS4-exclusive Bloodborne for other platforms? Considering the company also has published other FromSoftware’s Souls games aside from Demon’s Souls, only time will tell. While it has already ported to PS4, Sony could lease the Gravity Rush series to other companies for a new remaster as well. Thanks to this announcement, we believe other lesser-known PS Vita games such as Soul Sacrifice Delta could come to PC and Switch one day.

3. Freedom Wars 2 on the Horizon– If the Remastered is a Success

Lastly, Freedom Wars fans should consider purchasing the Remastered and heading back to their old Panopticon once more.

Speaking to IGN, game director Takashi Tsukamoto explained that Dimps has always wanted to make “something related to” Freedom Wars. However, the opportunity “never really presented itself” until 10 years later the team managed to make a deal with Sony and Bandai Namco. If Freedom Wars Remastered is successful enough, Tsukamoto says he hopes to take the next step into “potentially” releasing a sequel. “[…] If there is a sequel, we have tons of ideas we’d want to implement into said sequel,” he added.

For that reason, Freedom Wars Remastered is more than just a simple nostalgic trip. If it is considered a success, we might finally learn everything behind Beatrice and Panopticon’s mysteries in Freedom Wars 2. And who knows, maybe this game’s sales performance could assure Sony that a Bloodborne rerelease is worth the investment.