WrestleQuest Producer Discusses The Game’s Wrestling Twist On JRPGs

The upcoming WrestleQuest game will apply the JRPG genre to a wrestling game, and producer Zack Manko recently laid out the game’s approach. Manko spoke with IGN at San Diego Comic Con and talked about making a game in the format popularized by Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, but giving it a pro wrestling theme.

“So in most JRPGs, you have your Wizard, your Fighter, your Thief, things like that,” Manko began (per Fightful). “With WrestleQuest, we wanted to ‘wrestleify’ those, right? So, there’s certain mechanics that tie back into which of those you have your party take part as.”

He continued, “There’s the Powerhouse style in wrestling. Big, strong guys throwing people out of the ring. Then, you have more of your Technicians that are doing submission holds and locks and things like that, and each of those plays mechanically back into your overall strategy in combat because, again, it’s about taking that tried and true turn-based formula that sometimes gets a little bit boring — sometimes you’re just hitting the attack button on autopilot. In WrestleQuest, you can’t really do that. You really have to approach it like it’s a wrestling match, reacting to the audience, reacting to your opponent, mixing it up, and coming at it with a certain degree of strategy.”

The game is set for release on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC on August 8th.