Incline WrestleQuest - Pro Wrestling And RPG Fantasy Collide

[cyborgboy95]

https://www.wrestlequest.com

Spoiler

THE ULTIMATE PRO WRESTLING ADVENTURE
Powerbomb and piledrive your way through a massive pixel art universe where professional wrestling and RPG fantasy collide.

WRESTLE WITH DESTINY
Take a hero’s journey... in tights! Upgrade from aspiring rookie to world champ by training, learning, glamming, and SLAMMING to the top of the pro wrestling food chain.

YOUR IDOLS AWAIT
Draw inspiration from wrestling icons like Jake the Snake Roberts, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, and even André the Giant. Explore worlds based on their lofty careers.

HEART-POUNDING ACTION
Classic RPG combat meet wrestling moves, match styles, and gimmicks galore.

GOOD GUYS, BAD GUYS, LIZARDS, ROBOTS, AND MORE
Wild realms, exotic monsters, action figure fighters, and spandexed allies await as this fantasy goes beyond the ring.

GEAR UP ON YOUR WAY TO THE TOP
Choose your moves, style, taunts, and even your entrance as you learn what it takes to be the cream of the crop in the pro wrestling world of your dreams.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

OOOOH YEAH

 

[ERYFKRAD]

 

[Darth Canoli]

A real shame it's basic jrpg combat, action or grid-based tactical combat would have make for an interesting game.

 

[Reinhardt]

where is rikishi for proper sweaty manly wrestling experience?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

A real shame it's basic jrpg combat, action or grid-based tactical combat would have make for an interesting game.

We got Fire Pro Wrestling for that.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

IRL pro wrestling is real time with pause.

Think about it.

lights cigar

 

[ERYFKRAD]

IRL pro wrestling is real time with pause.

Think about it.

lights cigar

I'm trying but there's no pause.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

I'm trying but there's no pause.

Hehehe...

Isn't there?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I'm trying but there's no pause.

Hehehe...

Isn't there?

Of course there isn't or we could have saved you time in the brig.

 

[cyborgboy95]

WrestleQuest Steam Next Fest Demo Out Now!

Get ready to step into the ring—WrestleQuest is coming to the Steam Next Fest! That’s right, you’ll get a chance to demo this sweaty, slammy, powerhouse of a JRPG firsthand. This isn’t some midcard demo either. With over an hour of battles, smack talk, walk-ons, and powerbombing through dungeons, the WrestleQuest demo will have you saying “OOOOHHH YEAAAH!” and wanting more!

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Fatberg Slim]

Seeing this game listed in the GOTY 2023 poll reminded me that I played it for a while, so I thought I'd post some impressions from what I remember:

The good:
+ Fully commits to the pro-wrestling theme and adapts wrestling tropes to (J)RPG mechanics. The items reference wrestling terms and gimmicks, the special abilities are named after wrestling moves, managers are used as a kind of magic, cutting promos ahead of boss fights can give you some bonuses/maluses, etc. I'd say fans of 80s/90s pro wrestling would get most of these references. It includes the likenesses of several wrestlers who were very popular at the time, and while I realize that wrestlers tend not to have the most financially secure lives post-retirement I'd be curious to know what it took to make this happen

The neutral:
= The game takes place in a world based on various childhood toys, so in addition to other wrestlers you'll see and fight army men, robots, animals, etc. I guess this helps add some variety but it took some getting used to

The bad:
- The combat takes JRPG tropes to an unhealthy extreme. There is a lot of combat, and the routine battles not only don't have much variety but also can't be breezed through like in many RPGs. The main reason for this is that most attacks require a QTE to complete or to defend against, and the buttons you need to push change every time so you need to stay focused on the screen to know what to do. In addition, when you fight human enemies and drop their HP to zero you need to "pin" them with an additional action and QTE. If you fail this, they get up with some HP which means at least two more actions are then needed to get rid of them for good. The net result of all of this is that in addition to consuming the party's resources like encounters are intended to do, they also take too much of your (the player's) time and energy which I think could have been avoided with different mechanics

I played for around 12 hours and got maybe halfway through the game before concluding that I had seen enough of the game and there weren't likely to be major changes if I were to keep going. It's worth checking out if you really like both pro wrestling and JRPGs, although it's probably going to be a slog otherwise.