Freedom Wars[b] is a 2014 action role-playing video game developed by Dimps and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Vita.

Due to lack of resources, each Panopticon has developed conflicts with others, and large portions of the populace are forced into serving sentences in order for these cities to maintain effective control.

[8] All inhabitants of a Panopticon are constantly watched by the state to ensure they abide by the draconian laws put into place, essentially forming a collective of dystopian surveillance societies at war with one another.

Criminals serving sentences are forced into providing labor for the state, in the form of participation in war as "volunteers", in order to regain their freedom.

Based on the philosophy that newborns waste resources, the very existence of a person is a crime; more than 100 million people serve as criminals throughout the world.

While in a restricted area deep within the Panopticon, the protagonist stumbles upon and rescues a captive woman named Beatrice Anastasi from a secret facility.

According to Junichi Yoshizawa, development was distributed amongst the various studios involved; Shift was allocated the task of game and character design, in addition to storywriting, whilst Dimps was responsible for programming, graphics and direction.

[28] According to Nick Accordino who is in charge of the western localisation, the English release would feature 50 Panopticons based on cities located around the world.

[35] The 1.04 update patch released on July 11, 2014 adds changes to game difficulty, including enemy spawning times in certain missions and allowing the thorn to be used whilst dashing.

[39] Ahead of the 2014 Gamestart Asia convention in Singapore, producer Yoshizawa explained during an interview that the setting of the game is intended to act as a social commentary for modern society, with the game's imprisonment system being used as a comparison with government taxation imposed on a country's citizens, a system that individuals taking part within may often find unreasonable.

[40] On 19 November 2021 it was announced via the Japanese PlayStation Vita Online Service Information website that the servers for Freedom Wars would be terminated on 24 December that year.

[41] Two music videos were released on Niconico to promote the game prior to its release, featuring the original songs "Let's Contribute: Imprisonment of Love for 1,000,000 years" (Let's貢献 ～恋の懲役は1,000,000年～)[42] performed by Shiina Natsukawa, Sora Amamiya and Momo Asakura,[43] and "Panopticon Songs of Labor No.1" (パノプティコン労働歌 第一) performed by Momo Asakura.

[45] The final in-character solo track by Shiina Natsukawa, titled "Ibara Lullaby" (イバラララバイ), was introduced on August 1, 2014, following the game's first major update.

[48] A spinoff novelisation written by Masachika Kobayashi and illustrated by Kei Watanabe and Erika Ide was announced under the title Freedom Wars: Blue Thorn of Prison (フリーダムウォーズ 牢獄のアオイバラ), and began serialisation on August 28, 2014.

[57] Hardcore Gamer rated the game 3.5 out of 5, describing it as a solid action RPG with good premise and deep themes, albeit feeling repetitive at times.

[56] PlayStation Universe gave Freedom Wars an 8.5/10 score, noting that the narrative and customization were positive aspects, even though the endgame relies on a large amount of grinding.

[61] PS Nation notes that the singleplayer and multiplayer modes are enjoyable overall, and that the game plays well on a PlayStation TV device, giving a score of 9/10.

According to Media Create, Japanese retailers state that the primary demographic of customers purchasing the game were students, and that platform penetration of the Vita slightly increased amongst that particular audience.

[71] Other improvements include adjusted game balance, a new "Deadly Sinner" difficulty mode, high-resolution textures, and control customization.