WrestleQuest Producer Zack Manko Details How The Upcoming Game Will ‘Wrestleify’ The JRPG Formula

WrestleQuest’s producer talks about making a hybrid of the wrestling and Japanese RPG video game formula. 

Suppose you are familiar with the Final Fantasy franchise or games like Chrono Trigger and Octopath Traveler. In that case, you understand that Japanese role-playing games, like any established genre, have their tropes. 

The new WrestleQuest video game, due out in early August 2023, will take the tropes of JRPGs and hit them with a trope of the pro wrestling industry, a character repackaging. 

Speaking with IGN at San Diego Comic-Con, Zack Manko, one of the producers working on the game, has opened up about how the game plans to blend the worlds of professional wrestling and role-playing games together. 

“So in most JRPGs, you have your Wizard, your Fighter, your Thief, things like that. 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,” said Manko. “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 will feature multiple legendary wrestlers, including Jeff Jarrett, Sgt. Slaughter, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Jake Roberts, and more. 

Fans can read what Jeff Jarett has to say about the game here. 

The game will be released on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC on August 8.

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