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

+ Posted by Nick Accordino on Jun 30, 2014 // Associate Project Manager, SCEA

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.

Click here to see the full gallery

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

//Add Your Own

315 Comments 128 Replies

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+ Vilens on June 30th, 2014 at 6:08 am said:

Can’t wait. Any word on a North American release date?

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 7:04 am said:

Thanks Vilens!

Can’t quite give you a release date yet, (still working hard on the localization) but I promise you’ll hear it here first! Thanks for your patience!

+ Sonicfan11589 on June 30th, 2014 at 6:22 am said:

And according to amazon, it’s only $29.99. Going by how much hype there is for this game, sounds like a real good deal.

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 7:05 am said:

Thanks very much! I think the quality’s pretty top-notch – can’t wait to hear what you think! :)

+ Hefestus91 on June 30th, 2014 at 6:24 am said:

Honestly this looks way better than I had expected :O

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 7:06 am said:

Appreciate the kind words! Stay tuned to the blog – we’ve got a lot more great info to get out to you guys before we release! :)

+ thecontroller92 on June 30th, 2014 at 6:31 am said:

one of the last few big titles from Sony for the vita (oreshika and the next gravity rush are the other 2 big titles). so sad.

anyways, this game looks awesome! already preordered on amazon for that nice price of 29.99

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 7:08 am said:

Definitely a big one! :)

Thank you very much for preordering – can’t wait to tell you more about what we’ve got in store for you guys!
Stay tuned to the blog for more info! :)

+ Archacus on June 30th, 2014 at 6:37 am said:

@Vilens
Probably it will be around December… but I’m guessing…

@thecontroller92
Well… if I’m not mistaken it is not clear if they will make Gravity Rush 2… let’s hope they do… and let’s hope that it will be for Vita and not for PS4. But yeah… I also do fear that those games might be the last great titles… god I hope I’m wrong.

+ Taruha on June 30th, 2014 at 6:40 am said:

awesome! i played the demo a lot, and i actually dreamed of being in panopticon! lol

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 7:09 am said:

Wow! So was your accessory watching over you? :)

Thanks for the kind words!

+ PhoenixDowny on June 30th, 2014 at 6:46 am said:

Now where are those haters who were saying that PS Vita had no more video games coming? Eh? PS Vita WILL not DIE! PS Vita Lives! Vita = Life. As long as the video gamers continue to support PS Vita by being vocal, buying the handheld and it’s games Sony and third party developers will continue to support PS Vita.

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 7:11 am said:

I’m personally producing 3 VITA titles for SCEA this year, so you know who’s side I’m on! :)
Thanks for checking out Freedom Wars!

+ Archacus on June 30th, 2014 at 7:03 am said:

@PhoenixDowny
Take a chill pill lad, it is not that healthy to get excited over nothing, mkay :)?

And I dunno if we are “haters” but me and thecontroller already said here that we fear that it might be the last few great titles. So yeah… you asked where are we… so I’m giving answer.

+ SaberX85 on June 30th, 2014 at 7:10 am said:

Thanks for bringing this to the West. I hope there will be an online play not just ad-hoc play. thanks

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 7:13 am said:

Hey SaberX85,

You’re incredibly welcome! We’d never deny such an amazing title to our North American audience, and I’m incredibly stoked to share it with you!

The game does indeed have full online capabilities – 4 player online co-op and 8 player online competitive modes will be available from day 1, so please look forward to it!

+ DanteMerfi on June 30th, 2014 at 7:14 am said:

Shut up and just take my money already!!!

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 7:38 am said:

Too kind, too kind! Can’t wait to show you more! :)

+ Archacus on June 30th, 2014 at 7:17 am said:

Hey may I ask one thing?

What are chances for retail physical edition for both Eu and NA?
Big? Small? Non-existing? Please it is important for us…

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 8:39 am said:

Hey Archacus,

I can only speak for SCEA, but we’re fully planning on a retail release for the Americas.

Hope you’re looking forward to the game! :)

+ Rukia on June 30th, 2014 at 7:18 am said:

Really looking forward to the game, was initially going to import it but I decided to support the localized version. I did however pre-order the Japanese soundtrack

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 8:41 am said:

I love hearing that Rukia – thanks for supporting us! (I love your icon, btw!)

+ KazeEternal on June 30th, 2014 at 7:19 am said:

Thank you for bringing this to the US. However can we get more AAA titles on Vita? I love my indies, but I also love my variety. right now my Vita is living as a box for remote playing FF14 when I take my dog out mid dungeon and not much else.

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 8:44 am said:

Hi Kaze,

Thanks for your message – I love all varieties of games on my VITA, including indie and “AAA.” We’ll keep doing our best to make sure you have a great variety of games to play, so thanks for supporting us! Hope you’re looking forward to Freedom Wars!

+ jetzerox on June 30th, 2014 at 7:19 am said:

Will this have a English dub?

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 8:45 am said:

It will not. We’re sticking with the original (fantastic) Japanese audio and adding in subtitles for multiple languages. Hope you enjoy it!

+ GummyCore on June 30th, 2014 at 7:23 am said:

Will this English version be released concurrently on all regions, especially Asia? Very often new games are only released in US and Europe, publishers have practically forgotten about Asia region (which the majority plays games in English, not Japanese or Chinese) and do not bring their games over to the Asia PSN store, or not until 3 months later (and at ridiculous price). Can we expect Day 1 release concurrently?

Also, will there be Japanese voiceover?

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 8:52 am said:

Hey GummyCore,

I can’t speak for any territory other than SCEA, but we are doing our best to make sure that all regions receive the game as quickly as possible. I know that there is a version hitting the Asia territory, but I’m afraid I don’t really have any details to give you about that.

And yes, we’re proudly featuring the Japanese audio throughout the game (including voice-overs, so please look forward to it!

+ hiroy_raind-S on June 30th, 2014 at 7:39 am said:

Saying that I’m excited for this game would be a huge understatement! XD
Good luck on your work, we’ll definitely be waiting for this!

Also, a question. Will the English version use the same prefecture system as the Japanese version (as in, using the 47 Japanese prefecture)? Or will it feature extra/altered prefecture, like a global region instead of prefecture? And if it uses the same one as the Japanese version, then will the English player plays on the same server as the Japanese one? Thx in advance.

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 8:55 am said:

Hi, and thanks for the kind words!

We won’t be using the same prefecture system – we’ll be using an alternate list of 50 cities from throughout the globe to represent all of the Western Panopticons out there. (And of course, you’re free to choose which one you’d like to represent.)

Can’t wait to share more with you – thanks for looking forward to the game!

+ Nevi901 on June 30th, 2014 at 7:43 am said:

Thank heavens there’s still a branch of SCE that still cares about the Vita. Can’t wait for this to come out!

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 8:57 am said:

Hey, I looooooove my VITA. :)

Thanks for the kind words about Freedom Wars – can’t wait to show you more!

+ ImPaCTxX- on June 30th, 2014 at 7:51 am said:

OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 8:57 am said:

Indeed! :)

+ Notday319 on June 30th, 2014 at 7:55 am said:

I want this so bad. localize people localize!!!!
tyty

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 8:59 am said:

Working hard on it – thanks for your patience!

+ boypogi789 on June 30th, 2014 at 7:57 am said:

(Heavy breathing)

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 9:00 am said:

(my favorite meme right now.)
(i love that cat.)

+ jchill001 on June 30th, 2014 at 7:59 am said:

No dub = no buy

+ Ryumoau on June 30th, 2014 at 8:00 am said:

i might rent this.

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 9:06 am said:

I think you’d enjoy it – can’t wait to show you more!

+ Mando44646 on June 30th, 2014 at 8:03 am said:

Nice to see Vita support. this is one of 3 Vita games for the second half of 2014 that I actually think looks interesting enough to play.

Lets just hope that voices are in English :)

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 9:08 am said:

I appreciate the kind words – thank you very much!

+ pPpPancakes on June 30th, 2014 at 8:04 am said:

Sounds neat. Most likely day 1.

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 9:09 am said:

Love hearing that – thanks Pancakes!

+ Teflon02 on June 30th, 2014 at 8:19 am said:

I heard this won’t have english voices… Is that true, that actually kinda ruins this for me, ruins the experience. I probably won’t even be able to pay attention to the story IF I play it now smh

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 9:11 am said:

Hey Teflon02,

I’d strongly encourage you to still give it a shot – we think the Japanese audio fits pretty perfectly with the game, and I’m willing to bet it’ll grab your attention a lot more than you think. Plus, this will let us get the game to you much more quickly, so I hope you can understand!

Can’t wait to show you more!

-Nick

+ xClayMeow on June 30th, 2014 at 8:22 am said:

Are there going to be any pre-order and/or PS+ bonuses?

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 9:12 am said:

Hey XClayMeow – stay tuned to the blog over the next few weeks! :)

+ FifthDream on June 30th, 2014 at 8:37 am said:

I just preordered mine! Looking forward to it.

The voice of Natalia is provided by Yuu Asakawa. She’s awesome. One of my very favorites.

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 9:14 am said:

I love it – thanks FifthDream!

Asakawa-san does a pretty fantastic job in Freedom Wars – I think you’ll have a lot to be happy about!

Excited to show you more!

+ KidGreengene on June 30th, 2014 at 8:39 am said:

Is this the same style jRPG as, say, something like Persona? I didn’t see much of that combat style in the trailer… but that is a good thing to me. I prefer my RPG’s have more of a western feel and less turn-based.

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:19 am said:

Hey KidGreenegene!

I’d consider this to be more of a co-operative/competitive action title – you can put the RPG descriptor on there if you like, as there are lots of things to create, unlock and level-up. :)

I think you’ll love it – thanks for checking it out!

+ spacemonkeyham on June 30th, 2014 at 8:44 am said:

Esciting stuff! So are the environments mostly open space, or will there be a platforming element to the combat?

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:21 am said:

Hey spacemonkeyham,

I’d say there’s a lot of verticality to the fights – especially with your whip-like thorn item.
You’ll be climbing on walls, buildings and even enemies, slashing through them and shooting from all sorts of different angles. I think you’ll really dig it – thanks for taking a look!

+ Benzitor on June 30th, 2014 at 8:45 am said:

Please a release date… this game looks amazing

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:22 am said:

As soon as I can confirm a release date for you, I’ll be right on here to let you know. (I promise!)

Thanks for the kind words! :)

+ Elvick_ on June 30th, 2014 at 8:46 am said:

So excited for this to come out, it looks amazing. One of the best Vita games visually.

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:22 am said:

Thanks Elvick! As kind as always! :)

Can’t wait for you to get your hands on it!

+ TeamGreen615 on June 30th, 2014 at 8:47 am said:

Saying thanks doesn’t seem to let you know how grateful I am that you are bringing this to the west. Anyone that really loves their Vita should buy this game to show Sony this is what we truely want. It’s a day one retail purchase for me. Vita owners unite!

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:34 am said:

Thanks TeamGreen615!

I really appreciate your enthusiasm! :)

+ TheOathsworn on June 30th, 2014 at 8:51 am said:

Pretty excited for this, it gives off a sort of God Eater 2 vibe for me.

I’ll definitely have this pre-ordered when I see a release date appear. In the meantime I`ll go see if I can`t get my hands on the Japanese demo to give it a try.

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:36 am said:

Hi Oathsworn,

Actually, Yasui-san (from Shift) who designed God Eater, designed Freedom Wars as well, so you’re definitely on the right track!

Can’t wait to hear what you think – thanks for checking it out!

+ Ryumoau on June 30th, 2014 at 8:53 am said:

Theres no english dub option? That almost guarntees that this will be digital only, so i can’t rent it. I’ll have to pass on it altogether then. Not buying an rpg with lazy localization effort where you couldn’t even bother to offer an english dub option.

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:39 am said:

Oh no my friend – we’re quite happy to announce that we’re going to be at retail as well.

And we’re fighting as hard as we can to give you a great localization, so I hope you check it out!

+ gold_og_roger on June 30th, 2014 at 9:00 am said:

Awesome. I’ll pick this title up, when I get another vita! I’m planning on getting the new blue unit, while vacationing in Japan later this summer. Please continue with the excellent support of the vita, it’s the best handheld system. Looking forward to TCG in September, and seeing latest the software from Japanese developers.

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:40 am said:

Sounds great! Thanks for the support!

+ Trendy_Kid on June 30th, 2014 at 9:05 am said:

@Ryumoau I have been riding the hype train for Freedom Wars for a long time…but no english dub is making me rethink this pre-order…

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:43 am said:

I think you’re going to love it – hope you give it a shot!

+ Archacus on June 30th, 2014 at 9:09 am said:

@Nick Accordino
Thank you for reply! I was mainly intrested in EU but ow well… I hope we will also have physical edition… not planning to buy digital and won’t import it from NA

Do you know who can we ask in EU about retail edition?

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:44 am said:

You’re very welcome!

I’d say pay attention to the SCEE blog and twitter account – they’ll be able to provide you with more information in the future!
Thanks for your support!

-Nick

+ Notday319 on June 30th, 2014 at 9:21 am said:

ha. my first ever psblog post got a reply!
you just made my gamer day
ty ty

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:44 am said:

You’re so welcome! :)

+ gus_xl on June 30th, 2014 at 9:21 am said:

There’s really only one detail that matters to me anymore.. ( it’s ‘when’ by the way )

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:45 am said:

Oh trust me, that detail matters very much to me too. :)
I’ll share it with you as soon as I’m able!

+ TomHoang on June 30th, 2014 at 9:22 am said:

Love the Vita to death, especially with its plethora of Japanese games. Looking forward to getting this day 1, and I am also super pumped for Oreshika Tainted Bloodlines. That game looks amazing!

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:45 am said:

Another fantastic title from our friends at Japan Studio! Thanks for the kind words!

+ TYruler50 on June 30th, 2014 at 9:23 am said:

where is the weekly sale post?

+ RSevo09 on June 30th, 2014 at 9:23 am said:

I’m so stoked for this game…I preordered it as soon it was available to do so. Will we be getting a release date soon?!

Also, does anyone know what’s up with the shortage of vita slims? I want to buy a borderlands 2 bundle for a backup to my 1000 but there’s none in my area at any major retailer within a hundred miles. And all the websites show no stock too….what gives???

Will we be getting a new bundle in stores? Or maybe just the vita slim sold by itself?

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:46 am said:

Can’t really talk about hardware things, but I’ll be sure to give you an update on the release date as soon as I can! Thanks for your support!

+ TomHoang on June 30th, 2014 at 9:25 am said:

I have never seen so many people upset about a lack of an English dub. Usually it’s the other way around.

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:48 am said:

I’m usually the one upset that there’s no Japanese audio!

Either way though, the game is fantastic – I hope everyone checks it out!

+ RE_Player on June 30th, 2014 at 9:27 am said:

Freedom Wars all day every day!

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:48 am said:

Thanks RE_Player!

+ MarshMarlou on June 30th, 2014 at 9:41 am said:

I hope this game gets a retail release! This game looks awesome! :) No English dub is fine with me. TOUKIDEN isn’t English dub but still it’s fantastic!

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:49 am said:

Hi MarshMarlou,

We’re definitely planning a physical release over here – thanks for your support! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts once you try it!

-Nick

+ GaMeR_bOi_83 on June 30th, 2014 at 10:00 am said:

Getting this day one. Going to pre-order asap of Amazon. I would of got it digital but no room in my memory card. And please no English dub. I prefer subtitles.

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:50 am said:

Loving the enthusiasm! Thanks GaMeR_bOi_83!

You’re going to love the Japanese audio – thanks for looking forward to it!

+ Teflon02 on June 30th, 2014 at 10:05 am said:

Reason I hate games not having english. It feels cheap, These days almost every game is dubbed, apart from maybe a few fighting games lol. But I don’t play them, this is just a horrible idea, I’m not saying the game won’t sound right in Japanese, seeing it’s originally created in such form. But that destroys the appeal to ALOT of people. Doing what Soul Sacrifice did was perfect for everyone.
I think teams, especially ones like Japan Studio’s need to think more like SE did with the console FF games. Do the localization work during the process of creating the game. For 3rd party publishers and so on it’s understandable, but Sony should have put more time into that. If a English patch was coming 6 months after release I’d wait for that honestly. My interest is fading away like tales of hearts r.

+ Souledge94 on June 30th, 2014 at 10:15 am said:

Well skiping this title.Why arent you guys dubbing.Its so freaking lazy.

+ Souledge94 on June 30th, 2014 at 10:16 am said:

i was afraid this was going to happen.Once one dev takes the lazy route so will others. If you are going to bring it over put actual effort and dub your game.

+ ManjoumeThunder on June 30th, 2014 at 10:19 am said:

Can’t wait to play on the PS TV!!

+ Nick Accordino on June 30th, 2014 at 10:54 am said:

It’s fantastic on PS TV – I’m completely with you!

Thanks for the kind words!

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