Freedom Wings (DS)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.3 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Frank Provo
• Reviewed on: 09/01/2006
• Released on: 08/21/2006
• Originally published on GameSpot: Freedom Wings (DS) Review

Natsume, the company that's best known for producing role-playing games based on fishing and farming, has now produced an RPG with aerial dogfighting. You earn experience and money not by raising animals or catching fish, but by shooting down enemy aircraft and liberating occupied islands. That reward money can then be used to purchase better planes and to outfit each aircraft with a variety of weapons and upgrades. Unfortunately, some aspects of Freedom Wings feel underdeveloped or unpolished. The story is barely there, for instance, and the combat is simplistic and repetitive. Anyone looking for the next Final Fantasy or Ace Combat should probably look elsewhere. With that said, when you consider the overall game, it's a pleasant and quirky hybrid that people of the right mind-set will enjoy.

Just like any other role-playing game, Freedom Wings puts you in the role of a lone hero trying to rid the world of evildoers. In this case, the lone hero is an unnamed teenager who was separated from his parents as a young boy when the family's passenger plane was attacked by pirates. Our hero has joined the Air Patrol Association to bring air pirates, which now control the skies, to justice and in the hopes of one day finding out what happened to his parents. The plot is RPG cliché, and the structure and progression of the game aren't much different from what you would find in a traditional RPG either. You must wander from one town to the next, talk to people, engage in random battles, and fight powerful boss characters. The twist here is that the towns are airports, the people are pilots who hang out in cafes, and all of the battles are real-time dogfights played out in the skies. Experience and money are earned by fending off pirates and clearing the skies around airports, and these rewards function as you would expect them to, allowing you to buy new planes and outfit them with dozens of part upgrades and weapons.

The game's role-playing aspects are more focused on collecting and building planes than on advancing a meaningful story with developed characters. Much of the dialogue involves thankful pilots telling you where to go next or brash pirates challenging you to a showdown. Character development is nearly nonexistent, with the exception of Sebastian, a helpful mechanic who turns out to have an interesting past, and the eventual plot payoff involving the nameless hero and his parents. As it is, the translation from Japanese is riddled with spelling errors and grammar gaffes. Some role-players may also be disappointed that the main character doesn't turn into the typical RPG superhero as the game progresses. Gaining experience doesn't upgrade his skills or give him any new attacks. Instead, you become stronger by buying better airplanes and constantly upgrading them with meatier parts. That aspect is one of the game's high points. There are six different planes to unlock and dozens of parts to buy. New engines, armor, and wings influence a plane's fuel consumption, speed, and durability. Meanwhile, the succession of guns, bombs, and missiles lets you go from shooting down a pirate aircraft with a handful of bullets in multiple passes to downing them with one or two shots in a single run.

Up in the skies, Freedom Wings gives you the option of controlling the plane yourself or letting the CPU do all the work. Playing in artificial intelligence mode sucks all the fun out of the game, since all you have to do is tap targets on the touch screen and wait while the computer automatically shoots them down. Once you have a decent set of armor and weapons, you can literally let the game play itself. People who are more interested in the game's role-playing aspects may prefer AI mode, but real air combat aficionados will want to play in manual mode. Here, every aspect of the aircraft's handling is under your control, including throttle, steering, and weapons. It doesn't take long to get used to steering with the D pad, shooting with the buttons, and adjusting the throttle with the touch screen. You'll have to work harder to lead targets and stay behind enemies while playing on manual mode, but those uncertainties are exactly this mode is the best way to play. Most players will probably resort to a combination of both modes, such that they handle the aircraft in battle, while the CPU takes the stick when traveling the long distances between airports. Despite the simulation-like controls, the combat in Freedom Wings has more in common with an arcade game like Afterburner than a sim such as Ace Combat. Your plane won't stall if you fly straight up, for example, and you can bounce off the ground and water without incurring so much as a scratch. Even on manual mode, landing the aircraft is as simple as smacking into the airport's runway. Enemy AI is also rather rudimentary. The enemies are slow to react and, with the exception of battleships, can usually be destroyed before they fire a single shot.

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