How a casual conversation in a synagogue is definitely the reason Freedom Wars is making a comeback

The collective hopes of Vita fans have been heard

Freedom Wars Remastered / Bandai Namco

A few months ago I was standing in a synagogue in the center of Manhattan. I was there to play a whopping four hours of Metaphor: ReFantazio – you can read about how good it is in our Metaphor: ReFantazio preview, and to interview the members of Studio Zero who would be in attendance. In the run-up to the event, there was one developer I was most eager to speak with, away from the prying ears of other journalists. Luckily, I speak Japanese, which I not only bring up to brag about, but also because this is how I shared a secret conversation with him. The others all asked me what we’d spoken about, eager to know if I’d gotten a scoop. “Oh, just Freedom Wars” I said with a smile as I skipped merrily away.

The man I spoke to was Junichi Yoshizawa, producer of both Metaphor: ReFantazio and Freedom Wars. Our conversation was very casual and not recorded, but I remember saying something similar to, “Thank you for Freedom Wars. I really love that game,” and I bowed with gratitude. 

Freedom Wars Remastered / Bandai Namco

Raising my head, I see an expression I knew all too well. It’s the face of a person who is trying to be polite but has no idea what you are talking about. Internally, I scrambled. Did I mumble? Was my grammar correct? Does Freedom Wars have a different name in Japan? Just as I was about to explain myself hastily, I saw the light return to his eyes. “Oh!” he suddenly exclaimed, “that game I made ten years ago.”

With his memory rejogged, I asked what happened to Freedom Wars. When Sony decided that it wanted to smother the Vita in its sleep, pretending to the public that it was a collective fever dream, most of its best exclusives were ported to PS4 with fancy new names like Tearaway Unfolded or Gravity Rush Remastered. Freedom Wars notably didn’t get this treatment. It’s often regarded as one of the best PlayStation Vita games, with a fun grapple mechanic that allows you to climb aboard huge mechs and sever off parts to build new weapons. It had great multiplayer too, and I played it smoothly with friends on the other side of the world.

So where is the Freedom Wars remake? Where is Freedom Wars 2? Yoshizawa explained to me that when Japan Studio, which co-developed the game, was shut down, the IP rights just kind of disappeared and there was nothing anyone could do about it. I was told this news in the corner of a New York synagogue and quietly accepted the fact that we, the Vita loving public, would never see Freedom Wars ever again.

Freedom Wars Remastered / Bandai Namco

We now know that ten years after Freedom Wars was released, Bandai Namco now has the rights and is developing a remaster for PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Freedom Wars is back, baby, and people will finally be able to experience the game that Vita fans have held so dearly in their hearts for the past decade. In my head, and I assume absolutely nowhere else, following my conversation with Yoshizawa, he called up Sony and said the code word, “There is demand,” or something similarly ominous. They immediately knew what this meant and set the wheels in motion for the Freedom Wars comeback, and it was all because of me.

Whether that minute-long conversation I had with Yoshizawa was the catalyst or not (it definitely was; don’t ruin this for me), Freedom Wars is back. The collective hopes of Vita fans have been heard, and those who don’t pray at the synagogue of our favorite handheld will finally get to experience another game that made the portable powerhouse so great.