When I used to be a child, my brother and I had a big field of wrestling motion figures. I didn’t know who most of them have been, however that didn’t cease me from pitting them in opposition to each other or some other figures mendacity round my toybox. Spider-Man, Stretch Armstrong, Baby Sinclair from Dinosaurs — everybody turned a participant in my absurd wrestling promotion. And that’s precisely the type of childhood vitality WrestleQuest goals to ship.
WrestleQuest – Legends Trailer | PS5 & PS4 Games
Set to launch on August 8, WrestleQuest is a wrestling-themed RPG that pays tribute to the golden age of WWF (earlier than it acquired the “F out”). Nostalgic 80s youngsters will acknowledge real-life icons like André the Giant and Jake the Snake, however this isn’t a grounded adaptation of wrestling’s illustrious historical past. Instead, it’s a wacky turn-based journey the place muscular athletes face off in opposition to toy tanks, rubbish pail monsters, and extra. It’s as if any individual turned my play periods right into a full online game.
Ahead of its launch, I went hands-on with WrestleQuest, enjoying by way of its opening for hours. While its foolish story has but to hook me, its battle system finds some inventive methods to translate the quick and fluid nature of wrestling into an acceptable turn-based RPG system. For youngsters who grew up worshiping “Macho Man” Randy Savage, it’s the type of goofy blast from the previous that’s certain to dig up some outdated recollections.
Cream of the crop
Developed by Mega Cat Studios, WrestleQuest follows an newbie wrestler named Muchacho Man who’s trying to win his world’s most prestigious championship. To obtain that, he units out on an unpredictable, usually absurd journey full of huge muscle groups and even larger personalities. That journey begins with an additional narrative twist too, as gamers leap between two totally different lead characters seemingly on a collision course.
Based on its earliest few hours, storytelling isn’t a lot the place WrestleQuest shines. It’s clearly going for childlike silliness, all the way down to its toy-themed presentation. So far, I’ve been shuffled between biomes with little or no narrative setup or cohesion. One minute I’m in a junkyard avoiding wrecking balls and fire-spewing vehicles, the subsequent I’m traversing icy mountains. There doesn’t appear to be a lot rhyme or cause, however I suppose that’s precisely what my very own tales have been like as a child.
Skybound Games
What I’m extra engaged by to this point, although, is a inventive RPG setup that feels wholly unique. Naturally, all battles happen in a hoop and are offered like a wrestling match. Each flip, occasion members can select between 4 totally different actions: Strike, Taunt, Item, and an inventory of character-specific particular strikes that expend AP. The fundamental assault system isn’t too far off from the Mario and Luigi RPG sequence, the place gamers must nail button presses to get extra injury from strikes. It’s just a little extra energetic than simply selecting a transfer from a menu, which provides extra stakes and stress to even the only strikes. I may even counter sure enemy assaults by touchdown an accurate button press at instances, a intelligent strategy to emulate reversals.
Special strikes combine issues up additional. Each recruitable character comes with its personal suite of strikes, from stunners to multi-target hockey slapshots (within the case of my deer pal Stag Logan). Though what’s notably neat is its method to combo assaults, discovering a enjoyable strategy to combine tag group and trio strikes. One character can spend a flip to arrange a tag maneuver, permitting one other within the occasion to unleash a robust tandem assault. It’s a sensible system that twists a regular RPG occasion system into one thing that is sensible in a wrestling sport.
Skybound Games
As any wrestling fan will inform you, an excellent match isn’t nearly large strikes. There’s an artwork to protecting a crowd entertained that goes past strikes. To replicate that, WrestleQuest has a singular hype system that gamers must handle too. Every motion both raises or decreases a hype meter on the backside of the display screen. Taunting, as an example, will add extra hype because the wrestler showboats to the group. The greater the meter goes, the extra passive bonuses the occasion will get throughout a match, like elevated assault energy or AP regeneration. On the flip facet, low hype can stack debuffs on the occasion, even slicing how a lot expertise is earned on the finish. That thought creates a considerate battle system that doesn’t simply encourage gamers to spam their strongest strikes time and again. They want to consider the “flow” of a match to essentially maximize the rewards earned for finishing one.
Of course, most wrestling matches don’t finish by beating an opponent to loss of life. As such, many enemies in WrestleQuest have to be defeated by way of pinfall. When an enemy’s well being is low sufficient, they lay down on the mat. A personality then wants to pick a pin from their particular transfer menu and full three well-timed button presses inside 10 seconds to get a “three count.” It’s one other intelligent system, although one that may get outdated quick — particularly while you botch a pin and your opponent springs again to life with a little bit of well being. Fortunately, there’s a strategy to allow auto-pins in the primary menu for anybody who finds that mechanic just a little too gimmicky for its personal good.
Skybound Games
There’s much more I’ve but to see too. I’ve barely gotten to experiment with managers, who grant passive boosts throughout battles and have their very own particular buff strikes, and there’s a heel/face morality system that guarantees impactful decisions down the road. Players may even customise Muchacho Man’s entrance or minimize promos earlier than large fights, including some additional particulars that make it really feel like a wrestling sport quite than a regular turn-based RPG. Each system pays tribute to wrestling’s nuances in enjoyable ways in which I’m desirous to dig into later within the journey. I simply hope all of these concepts can keep contemporary all through a promised 50+ hours of content material, which seems like a tall order for a sport probably missing a powerful story hook.
In a yr that’s seen a warfare between WWE 2K23 and AEW: Fight Together, WrestleQuest feels just like the third man operating to ringside with a metal chair. It’s a totally totally different method to a wrestling sport that brings a foolish, childlike innocence to it. Though I’ll must get deeper earlier than I can discover out if the cream will actually rise to the highest.
WrestleQuest launches on August 8 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. It’ll additionally come to cell units in August by way of Netflix.
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