The PlayStation Vita is one of the few gaming platforms that I have absolutely no experience with. I just never felt a need to get one, which is a little weird, right? But ultimately, it doesn’t seem like I missed out on that many games. One that I did, however, was Freedom Wars. With the release of a new remastered version, I decided to correct that on the Switch.

I had always heard Freedom Wars described as a Monster Hunter-like, and I can definitely see where that’s coming from. The game has you fighting big robots in fairly small arenas using a variety of weapons. Combat ends up feeling a lot like Monster Hunter, but without the hunting. You always know exactly where your enemy is and there’s no worrying about them running off to other sections of a map. But even with that key feature missing, when you’re in a long drawn out battle with some kind of robot griffin, it’s very much Monster Hunter.

On the downside, the game often interrupts you for story moments. That isn’t inherently a bad thing, I like plenty of narrative heavy games. But this story is just not good and it drags on for so long. The basic gist is that it’s a post apocalypse and now different cities, called Panopticons, are competing for limited resources. One of the ways they do this is by arresting “sinners” for very silly reasons and giving them million year long sentences. They can shave off years by fighting and collecting resources for their Panopticon. As you probably guessed, your character is a sinner.

There’s also lots of silly laws that are very easy to break that result in more years being added onto your sentence. If you’re in a dialogue and take too long to respond, there’s an extra hindered years in prison. Each sinner is joined by a robot called an accessory, and if you get too far away from it, that’s some more years. It’s very silly, but is presented as super serious. I honestly struggled with the tone of the game. Is it supposed to be silly, or is it grim to such an extent that it’s hard to take seriously?

But beyond the premise, any time the game stops to try to tell its story, it’s long and doesn’t feel like it accomplishes much. The worst for me right now, was a really long section where another sinner is showing you around the prison. Not too long later, another character joins your group and you have to the entire tour of the prison again. It’s obnoxious.

Every one in a while, the game will also throw you into a stealth section. These are not very fun or particularly complicated. There’s actually very similar to sneaking into Hyrule Castle in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Guards walk in a very set pattern, and you just have to make sure to not get seen. It’s tedious and uninteresting.

So most of the post has been me complaining, and yet, I’m pretty hooked on the game. The main combat missions are extremely fun. There’s a ton of different weapons to play with and find out what fits you best, and collecting materials in the missions allow you to upgrade those weapons, which is always satisfying.

The main objective in those missions is usually to rescue citizens. Those giant robots I mentioned earlier? Those are called Abductors and they have captured citizens that you need to break out and bring to an escape pod. Citizens are workers, and thus, a resource for the Panopticons. You can either destroy the Abductor to free the citizen, or part way through the mission, break them out of their pod.

I can’t forget to mention one of the more unique elements of combat, the Thorns. Thorns have different properties, like being able to heal or deal damage, but they’re also primarily used to launch yourself around. They’re like a vine you throw out, and from there, you can act like Spider-Man and fling yourself up obstacles or enemies themselves. You can also use them to drag enemies to the ground to make them easy targets to attack.

There’s a lot of stuff I haven’t messed with at all yet, like multiplayer. But as it is, this is a really fun game that unfortunately gets bogged down by some really uninteresting story segments. But the combat is fun enough that I’m happy to keep going. If you like Monster Hunter and either want to try something a little different or just need something to tide you over until Wilds comes out, Freedom Wars Remastered is a great choice.