Thirteen years ago before the release of FREEDOM WARS Remastered, I wouldn’t have expected that monster hunting games would end up becoming one of the most influential genres that would define my adult gaming life yet the PlayStation Vita, which I just got towards the end of my college years, became the platform that started it all. You’ve got games like Ragnarok Odyssey, which is the very first game I’ve got from the genre.
There are even multiple God Eater and Toukiden titles but the game that really stood out to me was Freedom Wars. It’s one of those games that didn’t technically become the best out of all the Vita titles I had ever played but still holds a nice yet dystopian place in my heart.
Fast forward to the current year, 2025 is bringing that very same game back to life and with it, came a couple of friends that I had met during that time. It’s kind of funny that our group chat which never got any traction all these years suddenly started to become active again.
But enough about me, FREEDOM WARS Remastered as I mentioned is one of those monster-hunting games—it’s by no means a META-defining moment nor is it something that made much of an impact on the genre but its unique traits that focus on modern weaponry instead of the trusty bow and arrows aside from some huge and chunky hammers and blades made for such a nice change of pace back then.
Its story follows pretty much every main protagonist you’ll ever see—amnesiac and silent. And in a world where every nation, every district and every panopticon are struggling to survive on a day-to-day basis, your role as a sinner is to follow every rule and command of your panopticon. Failure to comply? You get reprimanded, fined and even thrown back into your jail cell. This is the literal game where they put diss into dystopian and where you have to pay for the right to even sleep lying down or have the “freedom” to even breathe.
Titans aren’t real and they can’t hurt you…
Gameplay-wise, Freedom Wars Remastered is a game that literally tasks you with fighting skeletal titans while singing the OST of Attack on Titan. Now before you start chanting “Sasageyo” let’s strap down to some basics first. As a monster-hunting game, your job is to beat and destroy these skeletal and armoured titans known as abductors using a multitude of different weapons and playstyles.
You can equip two different weapons that you can swap around when necessary as well as some consumable items that could help you out in battle such as first-aid kits and ammo packs. But what’s somewhat unique about FREEDOM WARS Remastered is its thorn mechanic which you can use in different ways such as to drag down abductors to the ground or to even latch on to them so you can sever some of its parts using a knife-type weapon.
In other circumstances, you can use it to zip around the map or grab items from a distance. They also have three distinct types such as binding, healing and shielding thorns and each does a different effect when charged.
Another unique factor that FREEDOM WARS Remastered had is its different mission types and online features. Freedom Wars Remastered is pretty simple with either throwing you into a map filled with abductors to destroy or have you reclaiming a certain number of captured citizens. In some cases, you’re also just tasked with a “Capture” or “Deathmatch” type game mode against human-type enemies—capture more areas or kill enough enemies than the opposing team and you win. These are just the things you can expect to do alone or with friends online through their Coop and Versus modes.
More of the same but more…
But much like the original, nothing much has changed or been added. However, its old facility management system which was used mostly for crafting and upgrading weaponry has been completely revamped. Unlike before when you needed to set up a couple of facilities to do certain things like weapon crafting that also required a couple of real-world times to finish, its newer system scraps that idea.
When you finally unlock the facility management tab, you now just have two options between Weapon Development and Ability Development. Weapon development involves upgrading weapons using materials you gained from the world or from specific abductor parts. You can also add elements to your weapons which adds certain elemental effects or even craft and synthesize modules for your weapons. But unlike the original where you’re able to get up to 12 modules for each weapon, you now only have up to 8 module slots that can be equipped or removed whenever.
Similarly, another unique addition to its system is more unique traits to certain weapons that have a yellow corner icon that indicates it has higher stats than normal like clip size, power, effective range or critical chance among a few others. Meanwhile, ability development remains somewhat the same where you can create abilities that can be equipped on your character or increase their ability slots.
The change to its weapon development is a welcomed change that really needed to be fixed for its remaster because nobody’s going to wait thirty or even five whole minutes for a weapon to be crafted. Thirty-year-old me would’ve fallen asleep before my weapon was crafted at that point. It’s just a shame that they didn’t really add anything to its story nor did they add any major outfits to celebrate its re-release because even then, it looks stale despite their multiple changeable styles and designs.
By the time I reached the latter half of Freedom Wars Remastered, I had already obtained all of the outfits that can be used by the sinner except for one that gets unlocked towards the end.
Its environment and graphics didn’t also get anything major. It just feels like a more HD game while still keeping the cell-shaded looks and design. Its monster types remain the same with very little variety. The only saving grace for these abominations is their multiple configurations where one Biped Abductor could have homing rocket launchers attached to its arms while others could have shield generators or even lasers.
Conclusion
All things considered, Freedom Wars Remastered is exactly just how I remembered while taking a bit of liberty to modernize some archaic features. Its story was and probably still is as interesting for its rugged takes on the idea of freedom. Meanwhile, its combat is fun yet simple.
Don’t expect anything to blow your mind here especially since this is a fairly old game that couldn’t be aged as well as fine wine. It’s still not the perfect game even with its remaster. It can be rough around the edges especially when citizen reclamation is involved plus the fact that its drop rates can be somewhat abysmal.
Seriously, 10 freaking missions and the resource that I need still haven’t dropped. But all in all, this is still the same game with the same addictive gameplay loop that’s a bit hard to put down once you’ve started. So, if you’re looking for something to scratch that itch before Monster Hunter Wilds comes out, then look no further.
Freedom Wars Remastered Video Review
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The code was provided by the distributor.
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