Tucked away in a dark corner of the PAX East convention floor is a little turn-based RPG called WrestleQuest, which turned out to be my favorite game at the show. The Megacat Studios and Skybound Games indie was announced last month and said to feature wrestling legends like “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Booker T, Andre The Giant, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Diamond Dallas Page, and Jeff Jarrett. I have only a basic familiarity with professional wrestlers, so I didn’t expect to connect with WrestleQuest much at all. By the time I finished my one-hour session with the game, I was in love. WrestleQuest is a classic turn-based RPG with deep mechanics, innovative gameplay, and an expansive story about up-and-coming wrestlers in a fantasy toybox world that serves as the ultimate celebration of the heroes of professional wrestling. It may look like a gag game at first blush, but Megacat Studios has taken a clever premise and gone further with it than you can even imagine.
When I sat down for my appointment, the developers told me that professional wrestling and turn-based RPGs actually have a lot in common. It sounded like a dubious claim, but it really is a perfect pairing. WrestleQuest feels like a game that should have been made a long time ago.
The combat has a foundation in old-school JRPGs like Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, and Final Fantasy 6, but the developers of WrestleQuest have found new ways to update the formula and blend it with wrestling conventions at every possible opportunity. Every battle is a wrestling match, in a ring, in front of an audience. While choosing attacks and special abilities (called gimmicks) to weaken and eventually pin your opponent, you’re also performing for the fans. Mixing up your moves, nailing timed combos, and playing into the strengths of each fighter’s wrestling style will build up a hype meter that increases your power. Conversely, spamming your way through fights with basic attacks will lead the audience to turn on you, giving your opponent an advantage.
When you’ve dropped your opponent's HP to zero, you still have to pin them. Succeeding at the quick reaction mini-game is tough, and if you fail to pin they’ll jump back up to continue the fight. There’s tag-team and triple-team fights, cage matches, and just about every other variation known to professional wrestling. If it's an important part of the history of wrestling, Megacat Studios has found a way to work it into this game. Even a simple basic attack will bounce your opponent off the ropes and give them a chance to counterattack.
WrestleQuest is a massive game. The 50-70 hour campaign follows two main protagonists and a dozen playable characters throughout their journey in a fantasy wrestling world. Here, wrestling legends like Randy Savage and Diamond Dallas Page are imagined as action figures, fighting alongside and against stuffed animals, LEGOs, and all the iconic toys we used to play with while watching wrestling as kids. WrestleQuest captures the spirit of the wrestling fandom at its peak in the ‘80s and ‘90s and pays tribute to the heroes and villains of the sport, as well as all the different cultures of wrestling around the world, like hardcore wrestling and Mexican wrestling.
The more I try to explain all of the different mechanics and qualities of WrestleQuest, the more I’m bound to leave out. It took me a full hour to complete the tutorial and learn just the basics of the story and combat. During that time I got to experience how WrestleQuest gamifies things like cutting a promo - which uses dialogue options and a point system to trade insults with your opponent - and building a custom fight entrance, complete with lights, music, and special effects. There’s dungeons to explore, tables to break, taunts to learn, wrestling idols to meet and even recruit to your team, and so much more.
Playing WrestleQuest as an RPG fan gave me a lot of respect for professional wrestling, so I can only imagine that playing it as a wrestling fan will give you a newfound admiration for RPGs. If you’re already a fan of both, boy, I think this might be your new favorite game.