Ps Vita has been around now since 2012. As one of the early adopters, I just haven't found the right game that would somehow glue me to my handheld for hours. Just to be sure, I do love em RPG and Action Games (I am a huge fan of the monster hunter franchise). Saying this, I did play some of the bigger titles like Soul Sacrifice and Toukiden. But those games didn't really hit the spot.
Hearing about Freedom Wars and seeing the trailer made me excited and yet doubtful. Doubting if the feeling of excitement is just due to the hype, the interesting trailer or maybe more. Because of the preorder bonuses and the extra discount for PS Plus member (hmm I should talk about this in another post) I took the leap of faith. Hoping that this will finally quench my yearning to hunt for huge monsters.
Now the most important question, I am sure you are here reading this to know if it was worth it or not. My humble opinion? If you love MH and Hunting, You should freaking get this game!! For those who are still unsure, lemme highlight some points that I thought was awesome about the game.
+ Story
Set in a world where countries are known as Panopticons, and people are classified as resources that are further classified into different classes (Sinners, Citizens, Officers?). You are one of the sinners who have been sentenced into 1 million years of prison. Fret not, the game is not about just looking around the prison cell for 1 million years worth of time. So what happens is that you can sign up for missions or donate stuff you find during missions to somehow shorten your sentence.
This gets a little bit more tricky. Since you are a sinner, you start as a low code 1 sinner. This means you don't have entitlements and everything seems to get you punished. Some things that got me in trouble, 1) Lying down while sleeping 2) My team member lied (yes I got punished too), ETC. But as you do missions and progress, you do get to purchase entitlements to allow yourself more freedom as well as increase your code level. Code level somehow translates to ran if you will (like how MH has G rank and such). These are the times that makes you appreciate being able to run as you roam around the prison which some of us may have taken for granted since most game allowed continuous running.
Because of all these things, it makes a hunting game like Freedom Wars to be so much more. As well as making the player feel like they are really immersed and affected by all things in the game. Like how I was irritated whenever I will get punished (in the form of additional years on my sentence). Also, progression to more difficult missions do make sense and you don't just suddenly get dropped into a difficult mission.
+ Gameplay
Concept is good, yeah sure. But does the gameplay work well? For me, it does! I have read some
people complaining that it feels more stiff that MH and such. But I think those are just teething pains for us to get used to a different style of play and to stop comparing it to MH.
In the game, one of the most important tools is called a Thorn. As a sinner, you can actually choose (with the right set of entitlements of course) if you want a ATTACK, HEAL or DEFENSE type of thorn. Basically all thorns have the same usage as of a whip. You can latch to something and pull it or pull yourself to it. But difference lies on what happens after charging the thorn (ATTACK sets traps and binds opponent, HEAL well heals your team and DEFENSE helps increase defense somehow). This new system is interesting and awesome as it does help a lot since there is no jump button in the game. Oh and it does help a lot to be able to pull your opponent so they could lose their balance and in effect stun them for a few seconds.
Guns are a welcome addition to the whole equation and makes it more interesting. Freedom Wars offers guns from machine gun, to chain gun, to grenade launcher, to rocket launcher, to even missile launchers. But definitely, I still prefer my melee weapons compared to the guns as bullets gets depleted fast, melee does a lot more damage and well destroys parts :D.
Like Toukiden, Freedom Wars also has the system where in you can not just destroy, but also severe limbs and other parts of the huge opponents called Abductors (yeah you cannot tear human opponents.. sorry psychopaths). But the difference is that, you can actually use your thorn to pull yourself towards the opponent and try to severe the part from there. Which includes a lot of button mashing (mainly the circle button if you are using a light weapon or the optional item called flare knife). It does feel awesome when you succeed in severing a part.
- Button Mashing
Yes, there is a lot of button mashing especially the circle button. This happens when you try to severe a part using a light weapon or when you use your thorn to try and pull abductors into losing their balance. This process sometimes makes me worry about my vita and how the circle button will break eventually. But during missions, who cares! I mash it like a crazy fellow.
- Vita functions are under utilized
Vita has a lots of ways to make gaming different. using the gyro or even the touch screen. Thus, it makes me wonder. Will it make the game more fun and interesting if a different sort of touching mechanism is used rather than button mashing (this will save my precious circle button too)? Or even changing weapons by touching the back panel. Well, I hope there are future iterations for this game and I hope they try to put in more creative ways to somehow use the Vita functionality. Because as it is, it feels like I am playing the game using a PSP. :p
All in all, I still believe that Freedom Wars is an awesome game. But please don't get me wrong. This game is different from MH in certain ways and somehow I just don't get the same dragon killing feeling with this game. But this will quench the thirst until Capcom decides to make MH available to VITA.
One big question about the game, what happens when you finish your sentence of 1 million years?? Well, for now I don't know the answer. But I will definitely find out. :D
Go on and get this game and start contributing to your respective Panopticons! If you are not sure where to purchase, you can get it at Play-asia for a reasonable price.
US) http://www.play-asia.com/freedom-wars-paOS-13-49-en-70-7p7t.html?affiliate_id=693474
ASIA) http://www.play-asia.com/freedom-wars-english-paOS-13-49-en-70-84xn.html?affiliate_id=693474
