Screenshot by Destructoid<\/figcaption><\/figure> Cuppa coffee in the big time<\/h2> As a game, however, Wrestlequest<\/i> is just okay. It uses a Super Mario RPG<\/i> system where you can improve the effects of your attacks and defenses with timed button presses. The downside is that these are presented more as QTE, and some attacks are absolutely useless (or don\u2019t work at all) unless you manage to pull off the QTE. It\u2019s okay, at first, but having to repeat these sequences every time you want to use a move gets really tiresome.<\/p>
Your characters also wind up learning way too many special attacks. One character learns multiple different versions of the same attack, each with a different elemental effect. However, if enemies are weak against certain elements, I never really found a good example of it. I mostly just rotated between them, trying to figure out if they were weak against fire or microwave.<\/p>
The difference between attacks was often mystifying to me. What benefits did each hold? I could never tell. For every other character, out of the dozens of moves they learned, I\u2019d often just stick to two or three that seemed to have the best effect.<\/p>
The dungeons are another matter. I appreciate the fact that there are no random encounters and a dead enemy stays buried, but I feel like Wrestlequest\u2019s<\/i> wonky difficulty makes it necessary to fight everything. Or not. There were sections where I had to tip-toe between encounters to keep my party alive and others where it felt like I was extremely overpowered. I guess that\u2019s the scripted nature of wrestling.<\/p> Screenshot by Destructoid<\/figcaption><\/figure> Spice so nice, brother<\/h2> I also feel like Wrestlequest<\/i> doesn\u2019t cash in on the wrestling theme very well. There are custom walk-ons, a hype meter where you excite the crowd for bonuses, and special goals in some matches where you have to put over your opponent to increase the drama. However, only the hype meter is present in smaller battles.<\/p>
I think it would have been more beneficial to Wrestlequest\u2019s<\/i> mechanics if it focused more on boss battles. Less combat would have made the QTEs more tolerable and got more mileage out of the theme and the mechanics built around it. Even if some bosses repeated, it would still feel more like wrestling.<\/p>
Actually, a lot of its design would have been better if it was smaller. I put dozens of hours into Wrestlequest<\/i> and still haven\u2019t seen the ending. I\u2019m not sure I ever will. It\u2019s certainly ambitious to try and meet the runtime of games like the genre greats like Final Fantasy VI<\/i>, but it resulted in a lot of bloat that is difficult to sort through.<\/p> Screenshot by Destructoid<\/figcaption><\/figure> Art thou bored!?<\/h2> It feels like a lot of time was spent on crafting a big game, and not enough of it was spent tightening up what was there. At the very least, its themes and visuals help it stand out from the glut of Kemco JRPGs on digital marketplaces.<\/p>
To be certain, Wrestlequest<\/i> isn\u2019t a bad game, but it doesn\u2019t quite feel like the main event it should be. There are a lot of great ideas mixed in here, but they\u2019re piled on by unnecessary bloat. An infectious love for the subject matter doesn\u2019t quite manage to hide all the flaws. It\u2019s got the spice, but not the execution.<\/p>
[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]<\/sub><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lemme tell you something, Mean Gene…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":398025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"article_type":"","gamurs_wordpress_blocks_hide_tags":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[22566],"tags":[22939,19152,21210],"internal-label":[],"invoiceable_action":[],"article_type":[],"coauthors":[{"id":17,"display_name":"Zoey Handley","user_login":"Adzuken","user_nicename":"adzuken"}],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
WrestleQuest brings the spice but fumbles the execution – Destructoid<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n