Namco and Dimps continue to work hard on tweaking Freedom Wars Remastered, with a regular stream of monthly updates improving players' experience. That's even in the face of massive indifference from Namco's marketing team despite the game available across more PS4/PS5/Switch and Steam.
Update: 12th June. A fresh update, 1.09 is out with only minor bug fixes, suggesting the game is pretty near its final state. And as a bonus we finally get a belated demo for PSN and Switch so those uncertain about the world of the remaster can give it a shot.
The demo allows progress up to player level 2 and there's no multiplayer element.
Price Cut: Freedom Wars Remastered has had its first price cut on PSN, down 25% to under £25 in the UK and $28 in the US. Will this tempt newcomers to have a blast? The offer ends on 4th June as part of a Multiverse of Games sale.
Update: In a May interview with Sacred Symbols, PlayStation legend Shuhei Yoshida said that both Freedom Wars 2 and Soul Sacrifice 2 were in the works at Sony until the inevitable canning when they lost interest in the Vita and moved to PS4. Quite why the sequels couldn't migrate to PS4 bringing their audience and tech across is one of life's many mysteries.
Update: Freedom Wars Remastered update 1.08 arrived at the end of April. Rather less extensive than 1.07, it comes with a long list of bug-fixes and tweaks to weapon balance and effects damage.
Update: Do keep checking the JP Freedom Wars Twitter (with auto-translate), they have lots of detail on the monsters and characters.
Among the fixes and tweaks are improved severing damage, weapons balancing, accessory voice language options, and more. At the end of the list is a further batch of upcoming plans, suggesting there's a few more updates in the pipe.
- Weapon balance adjustments
- Addition of a feature to view TIPS at any time
- Ability to bring substitute Accessories to volunteering at any time
- Display adjustments for the Modular Selection screen
- Addition of an option to turn on/off dash function by holding the Dodge button
The one thing the game hasn't had is a price cut, so either Namco are happy with modest sales (25K+ on Steam, 13K physical on PS5 and Switch in Japan at launch, plus whatever digital console sales globally). Or, they are waiting for as long as possible in the hope that it develops a long tail as multiplayer keeps it active.
