Freedom Wars/Setting

Freedom Wars takes place on Earth, in the year 102014.[FN 1] The world surface lies in ruins and is no longer capable of supporting life. As such, humans live in underground cities called "Panopticons", where they struggle to research how to be able to live on the surface once more.[11] A Panopticon functions as an artificial nation in the form of a city state that provides security for its inhabitants, in exchange for contributions each inhabitant is obligated to make towards the state. This system forms the overall societal structure of each separate Panopticon, which were created following the disintegration and demise of countries. 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.[9] 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. Overpopulation has become such an issue that the Panopticons have implemented a drastic measure: anyone arrested for any crime is found guilty, regardless of whether or not they actually are. 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. Criminals are forced to battle giant monsters called "Abductors" as punishment. Defeating the Abductors, which are known to capture civilians, reduces the Criminals' sentences, which start at 1,000,000 years.[9] Criminals are placed under constant surveillance and have their rights stripped; personal rights can only be gradually regained through labor. Surveillance of criminals occurs in the form of dual-purpose androids known as Accessories, which watch over criminals whilst serving as partners to them during combat.[9]

The player assumes the role of a young male/female customisable protagonist who received a prison sentence of 1,000,000 years for "the crime of living" upon his/her birth. 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. She is a human from On High (天獄, tengoku, lit. "sky prison"), a city-state that exists in the sky which has a high degree of civilization and technological prowess that frequently makes incursions and assaults against the humans living on the earth, during events known as "retribution" (天罰, tenbatsu, lit. "divine punishment"). Eventually the protagonist's Panopticon comes under attack from the hostile Hourai Panopticon, home to Abel Balt, one of the world's most powerful criminals.

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