Freedom Wars: New Details on PS Vita’s Upcoming Action RPG

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Freedom Wars: New Details on PS Vita’s Upcoming Action RPG

It’s my distinct honor to bring you more information regarding one of the biggest PS Vita titles you’ll see this year – Freedom Wars! The futuristic action game launched last week in Japan, so we wanted to bring a few more details to our North American “Prisoners.”

Those who were able to visit the PlayStation booth at E3 might have had a chance to play our multiplayer co-operative demo – thanks to all who stopped by! I saw a lot of expert thorn-wielders soaring across the skies of the Panopticon, sawing Abductors apart and saving civilians to decrease their 1 million year sentence of penal servitude, and I must say, I was very impressed. However, the one recurring question I continue to hear from the community is – “How’s the story?” Well, let’s take a peek:

Freedom Wars promises intense co-op action with a captivating storyline. I’d like to leave you today with a message from our Japan Studio Producer, Junichi Yoshizawa. Yoshizawa-san has been tirelessly promoting Freedom Wars throughout Japan across the past few months, so I asked him to share a few words with the community:

Last week, we were finally able to release Freedom Wars in Japan. To celebrate the successful launch, I wanted to take a moment to write a message to our eager fans in North America.

Freedom Wars is a title I created to realize a dream of mine. My vision was to develop a PS Vita game that took advantage of the handheld system’s unique features, enabling gamers to come together via ad-hoc and Wi-Fi to overcome terrifying enemies. PlayStation has a storied legacy of creating innovative experiences and our collective goal was to create a Vita game that brought gamers together in a socially connected, location-based, co-op experience.

In order to do that, I gathered a number of well-known developers with an impressive pedigree for creating some of Japan’s most beloved titles – developers Shift and Dimps. These two developers both produce high-quality, interesting titles, but in this case I wanted to utilize both of their strengths, so I asked Shift to be in charge of game design, character design and story, while Dimps handled programming, graphics and direction.

Freedom Wars on PS Vita

Freedom Wars on PS VitaFreedom Wars on PS Vita

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The collaboration between these two developers has been wonderful and the “Freedom Wars” that they have helped create has three distinct strengths:

The first is the outrageous world and story, where prisoners are bound by 1 million years of penal servitude for the sin of “living” and need to fight for their freedom.

The second is a new game where the goal isn’t to just defeat your enemy, but to save people from your defeated enemies and create a multiplayer experience where you can clearly divide up responsibilities among your teammates.

The third is a ranked competition where players can contribute to the areas they actually live in and battle on behalf of their own “city state.”

With the coordination of each of these pillars, we created Freedom Wars – a testament to our collective vision of delivering a frenetic, co-op action game that we believe will please the Western community when it launches later this year.

Take care!

Junichi Yoshizawa

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315 Comments

129 Author Replies

  • ENGLISH SUBS FTW!!! That’s all I wanted to say. Already have the game on pre-order and this just cemented the purchase. Now, where’s Gravity Rush 2?!?! Get on it Japan Studio! =D

    • That’s the spirit, Ender_Bean! Thanks for the kind words!

      Can’t wait until you get a chance to play – let’s take down some Abductor’s together!

  • @Nick Accordino
    Ow yes yes… we know…we are planning to start on kickstarter campaign to get funds for cloning and of course a little bonus for “original”. So you just have to name the price.

  • Will this be Vita TV Compatible?

    I really want it but I don’t due handhelds devices.

  • @104
    I dont remember anyone really talking in that game just some sounds.

  • Very excited for this! I appreciate the choice of subs over dubs as well. TBH I’m liking this trend. Tales of Hearts is only subbed too. I’m all for choice but if it means we don’t get the game unless its dubbed I’d rather just take subs (which I would play in anyway) any day. I believe one of the developers worked on Patapon right? Can we please get a Patapon 4? :)

    • Thanks Mako!

      We think the Japanese audio is a perfect fit for the game, and we’re very proud of the localization effort going into Freedom Wars, so I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!

      Yoshizawa-san, the J Studio Producer for the title, also produced the Patapon series! I’ll let him know you’d like another! :)

  • @111
    Yeah they already confirmed that in an E3 interview in gamespot.

  • @Souledge94
    Completely Understand your want for English Dub.

    I personally do not mind Japanese Voiceovers, though sometimes, would rather just have them able to use clear written text and forgo on memory space for voices.

    But a better looking game kind of deserves the extra effort in my opinion.

  • I wonder why Nick Accordino just doesint out right say they dont want to put money into dubbing as the real reason.Im sorry but “we want to rush it out to gamers as fast as possible” is a BS reason.

  • @117
    While money is a big factor them wanting it out by the year’s end is also another reason most likely. As I’ve said before the game uses an English text speaker for accessories (robot AI companions), creating a text speaker from scratch in English would take a fairly long time to make.

  • Thank you for bringing this over, will be my second copy when it comes out here! :)

    also didn’t expect a blog post this soon.

    • You’re so welcome, and thanks for supporting the game! (twice!)

      We’ll be bringing you lots more content soon, so please look forward to it!

  • @118
    Whoops meant to say the game uses a Japanese text speaker for accessories, though you can make them say certain English phrases from what I’ve seen in previews.

  • @118
    isint just dubbing the AI partners in english?

  • @121
    Could you rephrase the question? I’m not sure I understood it.

  • I don’t think you can call what they are doing lazy. It takes a lot of work just to bring it here as is. It would suck to wait another year for this just to have a crappy english dub. I mean come on. How lazy are you for not wanting to read the text on some cutscenes. Do you need people to read books for you so you can enjoy the story.

  • @122
    TO be honest im not sure I understand what a japanese text speaker does that you couldint just dub the character in english.Can you please explain.

  • @123
    After playing god eater I know there will be alot of talking and I want it in english not japanese.I do not enjoy watching subs.

  • @124
    Oh, well what I meant when I said that it had a text speaker was that you can literally write whatever you want your robot companion to say when you give them certain commands and they’ll say it. You can also choose from some pre-made phrases but where’s the fun in that?

  • @123
    Also I would have no problem waiting another year for this game since it would be worth it.Rushing it out is just beyond dumb.

  • Damn, this game looks great. I may have to pick this up.

  • I can’t wait looks like Kid Icarus Uprising, but with parkour elements. I would love to record this sadly there is no way to record Vita.

    • Thanks for the kind words – I’m sure you’ll love it!

      You’ll be able to take plenty of gorgeous screenshots though, so I hope you’ll share some with us!

  • I hope this game has some awesome DLC. Need this game now.

  • After all that ignoring on EU blog and the fact that there is no pre-order on amazon.uk but there is on amazon.com… I think that there won’t be retail edition for EU… so probably I won’t be buying it… but just in case… if I import it from NA will I be able to play online?

  • Awesome, I always choose subs over dubs for games/movies/anime etc.

    • Glad to have your support, AaronSOLDIER!

      We’re excited to bring you more news about the game, so please stay tuned!

  • Just pre-ordered this game, can’t wait for it to come out.

  • @Nick Accordino
    Ok thank you! it might be (or not if EU will have retail) the last chance to play this game… you realy are great!

  • Eagerly awaiting this one. The Vita needs more first-party love, so I’ll gladly show my support for this game. How lucky I am, then, that this game just happens to be crazy fun. I played the JP demo and fell in love. Preordered it the same day.

    • I love it – thank you so much for the positive and kind words!

      Can’t wait to play with you later this year!

  • Thank Nick. Sounds great.

  • Any chance this’ll be compatible with the Vita TV? I really want of those.

  • Already pre-ordered.

    Hope it gets localized soon and with patches.

  • Games like this is why I bought a Vita!!! Can’t wait for this game!! I also would like this as a retail in the EU. Hope to see some sequels made after this game as we need more of this! The Vita needs more!!! This will keep me happy for some time!

  • I usually prefer Western games, but I have to say I am VERY excited about Freedom Wars.

  • Thanks Mako! Look forward to sharing more great information about it with you soon!

  • It’s been so hard to not bite the bullet and import this because I really love the Japanese voice cast. I’m so happy I waited because the news that you’re keeping the original voice acting, and the fact that it’s getting a retail release, is great news to me. Definitely a day one buy.

    Also, to all the complainers, if you don’t like how they’re choosing to release the game then don’t buy it. No one is forcing you to support sub only releases if you don’t like them. I’ll happily take a sub only release over a release with a dub that grates on my nerves any day.

    • Hey Morbid-lithe,

      You’re awesome! Thanks so much for your patience and your interest in the game!
      We can’t wait to bring it to you, and I personally can’t wait to hear what you think when you finally get a chance to play!

      -Nick

  • This game flew under my radar for a little bit, but the more I keep hearing about it, the more interested I’m becoming. Thanks for sharing! Hope more news on this (more specifically, a release date) comes soon.

    Any chance you might share some details on Oreshika?

    • Hi Blue_flare!

      Glad I could help shed some light on the game for you! We’re super-excited to share more with you, so stay tuned to this space!
      (I know people are looking for the release date – as soon as I can, I’ll be sure to share it with you!)

      I unfortunately don’t have any details about Oreshika (I’m not producing it myself), but I’ll be sure to pass on your interest!

      Thanks for your support!

  • @Souledge94 Seriously dude, shut up. The more you comment, the more stupid you look. The guy explained to you about the Japanese text speaker and you had no idea what it was and just said “leave it out”. Didn’t you just say you don’t want a half-assed game? You say they put in no effort into localizing, yet you don’t even know the process of localizing. If I were to guess, I’d say your an ignorant little 13 year old who has no concern for other people. The vita isn’t doing great in the US and it’s probably not cheap to localize games. They want this to be released as soon as possible to help the Vita in the US before 2015 so they can start working on more AAA games if this game successfully helps the vita (which I think it will tremendously). Can you imagine the amount of time it’d take it fully english dub this game? This game would not come out until mid 2015, and for what? Most likely a bunch of not-so-good voice acting just to please a few whiney, inconsiderate people? It’s not worth it so you and anyone else whos deciding to not pick up the game because you can’t listen to english voices should get off this blog post cause people who want the game don’t need to see you whine.

  • @147
    I second this. Move on so we can enjoy the game you tools

  • @147
    patience is a virtue, id rather wait for a dub then buy into the half assed crap theyre giving us

  • Its downright sad that SCEA actually responds to questions about an retail EU release while its nothing but chirping crickets from SCEE on the EU PS Blog.
    If the online will work with an NA copy on a EU Vita i guess it will yet another import for me if SCEE decides to jump on the digital only is good enough for Europe bandwagon.

  • I for one would prefer a dub as well, being a native english speaker, but at this point in the Vita lifecycle, and in light of Sony’s recent actions/comments we beggars are not in a position to be choosers. The game didn’t get dubbed cause it would cost too much, and the majority of people buying this thing don’t care enough to with hold a purchase based on that alone. As for the speech generator, most english speakers won’t really be able to use it anyways unless they are bi-lingual so they might as well leave it out and in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if that is part of the localization to simply remove it. End of the day, it didn’t get dubbed cause it didn’t need to get dubbed to sell. That’s where we are with the Vita…

  • @149
    You’d rather wait a year for a stupid dub than get it now and do some reading. Yeah. You’r reasoning is half-assed. Sucks to be you

  • @147
    The funny thing is this is considered to be one of their AAA games but they are not putting full effort in it.Instead they are just subbing and moving on.Basicly being cheap and lazy.I rather wait to get my game in enlgish then hear jpn voices overs.Also come out of the voltron days of english dubbing since English dubbing has come a long way and you rarely run into crappy voice work.Also thanks for calling me stupid it makes me look so much better.

  • too bad its not coming out soon you coulda sold me 3 copies for my road trip

  • @152
    Thank you.They did this cause its cheaper.Yet they keep spewing crappy excuses.If your going to be cheap about it at least be upfront.

  • @Nick Accordino That’s actually not too big, not too small. If that estimate is correct, I will consider it for sure. :)

    @Souledge94 Kat’s voice actor was Japanese, but she didn’t speak Japanese in the game. She spoke in a made up language that sounds like Modern French.

  • @149 No, patience is not a virtue right now. The Vita is in dire need of a comeback and waiting any longer will take it off the radar completely. The faster they get this game out, the better. Localizing a game already takes effort, if your inconsiderate ass can’t understand that localizing itself is effort then please stop saying “half assed crap” because you don’t know anything. The amount of money they would need to English dub is unnecessary when they can use the good actors that they have already. Please go away

  • @158
    No its a half ass effort in bringing it over.If you really want this game to succeed and believe in it you would put your all but I dont see that here.Why rush it and give a product with half the effort.

  • It’s pretty upsetting that some of you won’t buy the game just because there is no English dub. I would’ve preferred a dub myself, but for that being the only reason to not buy the game is just foolish. You guys might miss out.

  • @154 You didn’t read anything I said…that’s why I called you stupid because your blinded by your “wants”. They need to be cheap because the Vita isn’t supporting itself over here in the west. The rush is for a good REASON. So PLEASE STOP WHINING

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