You’re going to find yourself outmatched pretty quickly if you approach this new adventure with anything short of your best fighting skills. Luckily, we’ve been through it all and lived to tell the tale, and decided to help you start your journey armed with knowledge, while Kratos brings his still-developing yet awesome abilities to the battlefield.

Let’s dive right in!

Train Your Muscle Memory Right

You’re going to notice that attacks come with four different colors, and knowing what to expect when each one is displayed can help you prepare your response without really thinking about it. Look at it like a sort of rock-paper-scissors situation, and you’re golden.

A red attack must be met with a dodge, allowing you to reposition and get in a few hits of your own. A blue attack must be blocked while a yellow one can be parried to get your enemy off balance. A purple attack must be avoided at all costs. Internalize the colors and you’ll find yourself reacting to your opponents just as a Spartan would, with your reflexes taking over in the heat of battle.

Know Your Enemy Drops

Like enemy attacks, the drops you can obtain from them once are tied to the type of attacks you hit them with. For instance, landing basic attacks nets you yellow orbs that refill your Spirit meter, allowing you to dish out more stun damage via Spartan Spirit attacks. Those attacks net green orbs that provide health.

Since all of your orbs are absorbed automatically, irrespective of whether you need them or not, paying attention to your health, spirit, and magic is important to sustaining your attack potential over the course of a fight. Red orbs drop naturally upon defeating enemies, while blue ones drop from enemies that use magic attacks.

Know When To Back Off

Remember when we said that blue attacks need to be blocked? That’s a good time to reset spacing and regain your rhythm, adjusting your spacing just about enough to ensure that you can punish your opponent’s recovery animations once you do.

It can be easy to just back away completely out of attack range, acting on instinct instead of using the moment to try building up stun or perhaps unleashing a devastating counterattack. A true Spartan stands their ground while using their enemy’s own moves against them, after all.

Know When To Go In For The Kill

You should be treating every yellow attack as an opportunity to show your foes exactly why they should fear you in the moment and for a long time after. Parrying is a great way to shift the momentum of a fight in your favor and keep it that way for as long as your enemy is still standing.

Getting the timing down means that you’re not just avoiding damage, but actively opening up your foes to stuns and powerful counterattacks, unleashing your might on them before they even realize that they’ve made a grave mistake coming after you. The best warriors don’t just wait for opportunities, but create them on the fly.

Abuse The Stun Mechanic

There are many ways to stun your opponents, and you should be looking to do that as much as you can if you want to come out on top of each fight. Your shield is a good place to start, allowing you to learn how to block or parry effectively while building up your opponent’s stun bar. Spirit attacks are another great option, and mixing them in from time to time as you get the chance to do so is going to help.

Aside from these easy-to-access methods for stunning, charged, strong attacks, any environmental hazards, specific skills that are tailored for stuns, and of course, an upgraded spear are all options to let you get your opponent to the ground and let you unleash your highest DPS attack to close things out. Just be intentional about it, and you’re going to find that most enemies in the game are unable to withstand the incoming onslaught.

Invest In A Diverse Loadout

As you dive deeper into the adventure, you’re going to find enemies that come with aura shields, which only take damage from specific spirit or magic attacks. To that end, you’re going to have to think like a Spartan and prepare for every eventuality in battle. The way to do that is to have a reliable attack to break through those shields.

Make sure it’s one that you’re comfortable using, and that you know exactly how long it takes to start, execute, and recover from, to ensure that you’re ready to cause some mayhem once the shield is down. The last thing you want to do is waste your energy on attacks that don’t hurt your enemy. Inefficiency is not the Spartan way.

Purple Attacks and Positioning

We know we said purple attacks must be avoided at all costs, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be punishing them at all. Like with blue attacks, calculating an optimal amount of space to stay out of harm’s way while giving yourself the room for a counterattack is the way to go. Work against the instinct to panic roll, and you’ll soon find yourself reacting to them with a grin on your face.

Yes, they’re deadly if they connect and can have you facing death sooner than you’d like. But like any other attack you’re facing down as Kratos, they’re a chance to take advantage of the situation and showcase how he is the embodiment of a Spartan warrior, and a deadly fighter as his skills improve. We all have to start somewhere, right?

Use Spirit Attacks For Stability

It can be tempting to abuse your Spirit attacks to stun your opponents faster, as they do trade damage for more stun build-up. But we’d recommend being a little prudent in their use, as they’re also a way to get health orb drops when things aren’t going your way.

Despite your skills, mistakes do happen, and in a battlefield such as the one Kratos participates in, those mistakes can prove fatal if you don’t have the means to take them in your stride. Save a little of your spirit bar for such situations, using all the other ways we’ve outlined to get those stuns and just let loose on your opponents. It doesn’t matter how fast you take your opponent down, but how efficiently you manage to do so.

Buffs

Your buffs are not meant to be a last resort response that you use when you’re panicking or in a pinch, but are rather useful tools that lend versatility to your fighting style. Don’t hoard them for emergencies, but use them as versatile tools for the situation at hand.

Melee-focused ones are best used as combo extenders, allowing you to dish out damage while letting you reposition right after them and prepare for a counterattack, while the ranged ones can be used to take out hard-to-reach enemies or deal with particularly aggressive ones from a safe distance. You could also use them if you find you’ve messed up on positioning yourself after a blue or purple attack, sustaining your onslaught while you close the gap.

Don’t Sleep on Movement Skills

While it can be hard to ignore skills that let you deal more damage, given that we’re in Kratos’ shoes, you must remember that his speed is equally a part of his skill set as much as strength is. Just because movement skills don’t dish out damage doesn’t mean that they should be ignored.

Sons of Sparta is a platforming game after all, and since that genre revolves around loot, moving faster through levels is a great way to ensure that your inventory always has what you need to be more effective in the field. You’re also going to be avoiding more damage if you can outpace your enemies, too, so that’s a win-win for every movement upgrade you invest in.

Backtrack At The Right Moments

While we’re on the subject of movement, backtracking as soon as you get a new tool is a reliable way to ensure you’re not missing out on awesome loot for more upgrade materials from harder-to-reach or previously inaccessible areas that you’re going to find as you keep exploring.

Try to make a mental note of where you find locked gates or places blocked off by out-of-reach switches or brambles, for which the sling and fire are appropriate ways to tackle them, respectively. Come back to them when you get the means to deal with the obstacle at hand, and you’re going to find even more options to improve traversal, using upgrade hubs, meaning that each run is improving your power.

Play To Your Strengths But Cover Your Weaknesses

All of us approach combat differently, and the true warrior knows their strengths while being humble enough to admit their weaknesses. Of course, your enemies don’t need to know that, and using your spear and shield attachments to cater to your specific playstyle is going to have your foes wondering how you’re able to dispatch them so easily. If they’re capable of thought, that is.

Since attachments have their own upgrade trees, use one to play to your strengths and the other to cover a weakness. Don’t like crowds? Ensure that you’re adding ways to manage them easily. Do you like to strike from a safe distance instead of getting close and personal? Try to extend the range of your spear or add a few ranged attacks into the mix.

Get your attachments and skills to work in tandem, and you’re going to be a force to be reckoned with on the field.

Use The Battlefield To Your Advantage

The best fighters don’t just rely on their own weapons, but use the battlefield to its fullest. Kratos is no exception, and using any throwables in the environment to open a fight is a great way to get some free stun build-up before you even start sticking an enemy with the pointy end of a spear.

But try to keep a few of them handy to interrupt attacks or as a way to ensure you’re beginning your combo with a hit against foes that could spell trouble for you. Use the arena to its fullest, and your enemies will learn to rue the day they ever met you.

Practice Makes Perfect

The best Spartans are the ones who don’t neglect their training, and taking Kratos on farming runs from time to time ensures that you’re doing all you can to be prepared for the challenges ahead. But too much practice can leave you fatigued when you need your tired muscles the most.

To that end, easily repeatable runs that do not require you to stray far from your resting spots are the way to go. It also pays to keep a target in mind, such as your next skill node or an attachment tier for either your spear or shield. Hit it and continue on with your adventure, knowing that you have done all you can to be at your best for the challenges ahead.

Don’t Sleep On Optional Content

Speaking of being at your best, the optional gauntlets are a great way to chase down buffs that you can then use to gain a leg up at enemies. Go for one as soon as you hit a new attachment tier or gain an important skill, as you can use them to familiarize yourself with a new move or upgrade, or perhaps when you find that your farming runs aren’t quite cutting it.

This approach means that you’re always close to another upgrade, making your time with the game all the more efficient as a result.

And that’s all we have for you as you take on the adventures of a younger Kratos.

As its title might imply, Sons of Sparta revolves around both Kratos and his lesser-known brother Deimos. Set during Kratos’ brutal Spartan training years, the setting unfolds long before the series’ main events. Kratos and Deimos are young soldiers in Sparta, and have only recently gotten the freedom to travel beyond the city-state’s walls on various missions.

Right off the bat, it’s important to talk about how visually distinct and brilliant Sons of Sparta looks. The title makes use of a pixel-art style that combines a lo-fi look with incredible detail, especially in its environments. Character sprites are equally strong and enemy silhouettes communicate threat at a glance. The audio is fantastic as well, with attacks sounding chunky, parries culminating in a satisfying sound effect, and the general background score doing a great job of setting the right tone for the setting.

"The sheer variety of boss encounters in Sons of Sparta is quite impressive."

The story starts off quite simple; Kratos and Deimos have been tasked with retrieving specific tools. However, the actual plot starts shortly after the two set out on this mission, when they learn that one of their fellow cadets hasn’t returned from a field exercise. While Kratos has considered this friend dead thanks to the general deadliness of the wider world, Deimos is more optimistic, and persuades his brother to help find him.

It’s difficult to convey the novelty of getting to see a young Kratos, since we’ve only ever seen the man either entirely consumed by rage, or quiet and somber. Here, however, we see a Kratos that has a sense of humor, as often showcased with the banter he often engages in with Deimos. It’s also interesting to see the level of duty he feels towards Sparta and its traditions, especially in light of how things would eventually turn out. The presence of Deimos and the brotherly love the two share is also wonderful dramatic irony.

Throughout the journey, you get to face several enemies based on different myths. Along with standard foes like armed skeletons and wild animals, we also get more interesting enemies, like Centaurs, Cyclopses, and birds. The latter tend to show up in the form of boss fights, with their very first appearance being a great example of what to expect from the future.

The sheer variety of boss encounters in Sons of Sparta is quite impressive, ranging from fights against particularly strong soldiers using their own unique weapons, to beasts. My personal favorite boss fight from my time with the game was one of the birds: Apate. While it used many of the same moves as its brethren, it also offered an added level of threat thanks to its use of aerial bombardment and poison.

"The skill tree tends to offer improvements to your base offensive and defensive abilities, along with some new ones that don’t feel entirely necessary."

Combat in Sons of Sparta starts off simple, then steadily grows in depth as you unlock new abilities either through your own skill tree or through new gear. Taking a cue from Ragnaork, your spear’s various parts can give you different abilities. While the tip of the spear largely focuses on offering passive bonuses, the handle offers changes to your main combo. The pommel, on the other hand, gives you active abilities, like a vertical slam, or a combination of powerful thrusts. These pair up quite nicely with the otherwise-standard system that largely has Kratos  attacking, dodging, blocking and parrying enemies.

While largely fine as a system, it never quite feels like it goes far enough in offering loot as a reward for exploration. Big, glowing chests will often only give you crafting materials, and new pieces of equipment that might offer fun abilities feel, unfortunately, far too rare. On the other hand, the main exploration centric progression system offers a fantastic excuse to explore every nook and cranny of the game’s large map since they give tangible boosts to your damage and defenses.

The skill tree tends to offer improvements to your base offensive and defensive abilities, along with some new ones that don’t feel entirely necessary. One, for example, allows you to pull off a downward spear slam, with further nodes on the tree making it more efficient in terms of Spirit requirements and the damage it deals. The enhancements to defensive abilities like dodging and parrying are more fun, since they give you new ways to counter-attack.

The combat is often a balancing act where you’re managing your Health, Spirit, and Magic. While the latter is largely used for the various tools you’ll find during your travels, your Health and Spirit have a fun tug of war going on with each other. Regular attacks on enemies give you more Spirit, which you can use up by holding R1 alongside your attacks to deal less health damage to your enemies but more stun damage. Spirit-enhanced attacks also have the added benefit of causing enemies to generate healing orbs. Stun an enemy and you can pull off a brutal instant kill that gives you plenty of Health, Spirit and Magic in the process.

"Sons of Sparta is a fantastic platformer, and a true breath of fresh air for the genre. The fact that it’s on the shorter side for the genre, coming in at around 10 hours, also helps."

The only real complaint I had with the combat and traversal in Sons of Sparta largely came down to its controls feeling awkward at first. Since fast-paced combat-centric side-scrollers are often best-played with the D-pad, the fact that Sons of Sparta only uses the analog stick for movement feels like a strange decision. Aside from that, having a special button for climbing a ladder also feels unnecessary, since many platformers let you climb simply by holding up or down. These are minor quibbles, and they largely disappeared once I got used to the control scheme.

Owing to its lo-fi look, Sons of Sparta is generally quite light on the PS5’s hardware. There were never any frame rate drops regardless of how many enemies or visual effects were happening on the screen. Load times were also snappy, which is a great thing since, on the higher difficulties, you might find yourself dying quite often on some bosses. Speaking of which, newcomers to the genre will also find the three distinct difficulty options tailored to your experience with platformers and sidescrollers to be quite welcoming.

Sons of Sparta is a fantastic platformer, and a true breath of fresh air for the genre. The fact that it’s on the shorter side for the genre, coming in at around 10 hours, also helps. There is a certain lightheartedness that comes with the story despite its brutal and violent combat. Both Kratos and Deimos’ conversations often go on for slightly too long, but it’s still quite fun to hear their banter every now and then. Combine that with excellent combat that peaks during its epic boss battles, and you’ve got a thrilling new way to take in this Spartan tale.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

He’s clearly put a lot of thought and effort into a soundtrack that has stayed with us even after we rolled the credits, blending the game’s visuals, narrative, and context into a distinct tune. It certainly underlines the relationship that develops between Kratos and his brother Deimos in their effort to prove themselves as true Spartans.

“I realized it really wouldn’t make sense to quote any of the music I wrote for the Norse saga. It didn’t make sense, really, to quote any music from even the Greek games because they were very different stories…Sons of Sparta’s soundtrack is a bit unique in that it does blend these this modern orchestral and fire elements with these authentic retro sounds.”

We’d say that his efforts have borne fruit, bringing a unique tune to Kratos’ younger days while managing to call back to the games that have brought the franchise to where it is today. With McCreary’s past association with the God of War franchise and Mega Cat’s expertise in retro titles, Sons of Sparta does have a soundtrack that you might catch yourself humming long after you’ve put down your controllers.

For more details on God of War Sons of Sparta, check out our feature. Retailing for $29.99, it was announced and shadow dropped last week during the latest State of Play, and offers a look at the early life of Kratos.

A Canon Setting

Sons of Sparta isn’t just a side experiment or a “what-if” spin-off, it’s a full on canon entry. The game frames its 2D action-platforming around Kratos’ youth in Sparta, depicting the brutal discipline of the Agoge and the formative years that shaped him into the warrior he becomes later. Crucially, it also brings Deimos into the spotlight, positioning Kratos’ bond with his brother as a key part of the narrative.

Smart Level Design and Fluid Movement

Levels are thoughtfully constructed, blending combat arenas with environmental puzzles that demand clever use of your abilities and equipment. Movement feels responsive and precise, and with smooth, expressive animations tying everything together, traversal and combat both carry a satisfying flow.

Combat

Combat is built around a spear and shield foundation, with a heavy emphasis on reading enemy patterns, timed parries, and smart positioning. You’re not meant to just mash through encounters; the flow pushes you to defend with purpose, punish openings, and evade cleanly when the safest option is to disengage.

Graphics Style

Visually, the game also leans hard into a distinct identity. Instead of chasing realism, it goes for hand-drawn pixel animation, giving characters and effects a striking level of detail and motion in 2D. The result is a style that feels both modern and a throwback to the retro days.

Deep Weapon Customization From the Start

Kratos begins his journey equipped with a Spartan spear and shield, but this isn’t a static loadout. The spear alone can be modified across three distinct components: tip, grip, and tail, each altering how you approach combat. Rather than simple stat boosts, these parts meaningfully shape your build, letting you lean into offense, control, or survivability depending on your preference.

Spear Parts Fundamentally Change Your Playstyle

Each spear component serves a specific purpose. Tips can enhance attacks directly, increasing critical potential, adding protective effects, or inflicting elemental status ailments like burn or poison. Grips alter the finisher of your base combo, adding aggressive enders such as lunging slashes or forceful bashes. Tails introduce entirely new moves, from rapid stabbing flurries to crowd-disrupting strikes. Since every attachment has its own upgrade path, experimentation isn’t just encouraged, it’s essential.

Buffs

As you progress through Laconia, Kratos gains access to buffs. These buffs  grant special and super attacks that consume magic and can drastically shift the tide of battle. Some are built for ranged dominance, letting you control space or hit multiple enemies at once, while others enhance close-quarters devastation with brutal melee combinations. Choosing which buffs to equip can dramatically alter your combat rhythm.

Three Resource Meters to Manage

Combat isn’t just about combos, it’s also about resource management. Kratos operates with three core meters: health, spirit, and magic. Spirit fuels enhanced abilities and certain combat actions, while magic powers the special attacks tied to the buffs. These meters can be replenished through orb pickups and permanently strengthened via equipment upgrades, adding a layer of progression beyond pure skill tree investment.

Defensive Builds Matter Just As Much

The shield isn’t just for blocking. Its rim can be swapped out to emphasize different defensive strengths. Some rims widen your parry window, making counterplay more forgiving, while others reward evasive maneuvers by increasing damage after dodges. Much like the spear system, shield upgrades deepen these specialties, meaning defensive focused players have just as many viable build options as aggressive ones.

Skill Trees And Inventory

Character progression runs deep. Kratos begins with two skill trees centered on offense and defense, and later unlocks a third focused on movement. Upgrades can only be applied at campsites, encouraging preparation between major encounters. On top of that, the inventory can be expanded to hold up to six accessories, which grant passive bonuses like damage reduction or enhanced weapon effects. Some of the strongest ones require tracking down mysterious enemies on a secluded island, meaning exploration plays a key role in building your strongest version of Kratos.

Boss Battles

Boss fights are a major pillar of Sons of Sparta, and the game doesn’t hold back on variety. Kratos will square off against a roster of threats, creatures like Cyclops, Ioke, Ponea, and several other formidable enemies, each designed to feel like a proper skill check rather than just a tougher regular mob. Now, because this isn’t a big-budget, full-scale AAA production, you shouldn’t expect epic scale here. But what it trades in sheer scale, it makes up for with style and presentation.

The Price

On the pricing front, Sons of Sparta is positioned as a budget-friendly release rather than a full $70 drop, and it’s being sold digitally on the PlayStation Store in two tiers. The Standard Edition is priced at $29.99 / €29.99 / £24.99 / ¥3480, while the Digital Deluxe Edition bumps that up to $39.99 / €39.99 / £32.99 / ¥4480, so you’re essentially paying a $10 premium if you want the added deluxe perks (which we will discuss shortly). Either way, the base entry point is refreshingly accessible for a new Sony release, and it makes the game an easier impulse-buy if you’ve been waiting for something more straightforward (and cheaper) than the big blockbuster stuff.

Digital Deluxe Edition Contents

If you’re considering the Digital Deluxe Edition, it sweetens the deal with a handful of extras beyond the base game. You’ll get access to a Digital Soundtrack, which offer a deeper look at the game’s musical themes. On top of that, there’s a PlayStation Network avatar featuring the protagonist. In terms of in-game bonuses, the Deluxe Edition includes the Arrow of Virtue (a spear tip attachment), the Unstable Gemstone (a belt attachment), Rusty Scrap as an enhancement material, and a bundle of Blood Orbs to boost your early progression. Just note that some items are unlocked through story progress, so you won’t have everything available immediately from the start.

How Long To Beat

Expect a proper, full-length campaign, not a bite-sized spin-off. On a straightforward story run, you’re looking at roughly 9–11 hours, which puts it right in the same ballpark as the original, meaning it doesn’t feel like a “weekend demo” stretched into a release. And for the asking price we discussed, that runtime lands in a sweet spot: long enough to feel substantial, but still tight enough to keep the pacing moving. If you’re going in assuming this will be over in a few hours, it really isn’t, there’s enough mainline content here that you’ll get a satisfying arc before the credits roll.

Excellent Performance

We played on PS5 Pro, the game ran flawlessly from start to finish. There was no noticeable performance hiccups and it delivered consistently smooth gameplay throughout.

As a look into the past of Kratos’ life before he came into contact with Ares and set off on a destructive path against the Olympians, the game’s unique art style and its fluid combat weren’t as easy to make as one would think, according to several members of the Santa Monica team. Indeed, creating (or recreating) some iconic monsters from the franchise’s expansive rogues gallery did involve quite a bit of work.

“We really tried hard to keep to the core things of God of War… the franchise has always been known for its larger-than-life boss battles against Greek monsters from myth and lore. And we’ve been able to create some lost legends that people may not be familiar with and bring them to life in ways that pixel art has never been done before.”

The team is clearly proud of what it has managed to achieve in collaboration with Mega Cat Studios, and with good reason. There are a lot of familiar enemies for Kratos and his brother Deimos to take on, while fresh faces also grace the battlefield to keep things interesting. It’s been a long journey for Kratos since his time with the Spartans, but Sons of Sparta is an insightful look into the boy who would eventually become a man who was feared by not one, but two entire pantheons of gods, and with good reason. 

We found that Sons of Sparta was quite the entertainer, and it even features a challenge mode that you can take on with a friend once you beat the main story. That’s a lot of potential hours for you and your buddy to call each other “boy,” if you decide to take it on. 

“After completing Sons of Sparta’s main story, you will unlock a challenge mode that can be played solo or with local 2-player couch co-op.”

While a cool addition – and one clearly meant to be a surprise – some are left wondering why it’s locked behind story completion. The lack of online co-op is also noted as baffling, although it may have required more resources to implement than expected for a “passion project.”

While the rumors pegged it as a 2.5D Metroidvania, God of War Sons of Sparta is more of a side-scrolling action title. It focuses on Kratos in his preteen years, training under the brutal regime of the Spartans alongside his brother Deimos. Developed by Mega Cat Studios, known only for Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit, players go up against brand-new enemies based on Greek Mythology while wielding a spear, shield, and artifacts.

Those yearning for a more traditional God of War may have to wait a while. Sony Santa Monica also announced that it’s working on God of War Trilogy Remake, but it’s in “very early development” with more news down the line.

And this isn’t just a younger Kratos, but one who is still very much in his preteen years (with TC Carson serving as narrator). He trains alongside Deimos, his brother. He wields a shield and spear alongside the Gifts of Olympus, a set of artifacts, to smite foes. You can also expect new enemies and creatures based on “untapped facets of Greek mythology” with a story penned by the same team behind the Norse saga.

Available for PS5, God of War Sons of Sparta retails for $29.99 and is available digitally on the PlayStation Store. There’s also a Digital Deluxe Edition, which contains the Arrow of Virtue Spear Attachment, Unstable Gemstone Belt Attachment and a Rusty Scrap for enhancing weapons. You also get some Blood Orbs to buy something nice. That’s in addition to a digital artbook, soundtrack and PSN avatars for $39.99.

First and foremost, WrestleQuest feels like a game developed by and for fans of professional wrestling. Not only does the title have an immense level of respect for real-life legends of the industry, like “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Jake “The Snake” Roberts, but it also backs up this fans service with some unique gameplay, as well as a fun, interesting story telling us about the journeys of new and upcoming wrestlers through their careers.

The most interesting thing about WrestleQuest, however, is its gameplay. Sure, it might just seem like a traditional turn-based JRPG, but there’s a surprising amount of depth available for anyone to dig through, since wrestling can often be an incredibly complex business if you start looking behind the scenes. For example, not only do you have the classic options of attacks and using items, but you also have the ability to unleash devastating signature moves through the use of gimmicks, or setting up awesome tag-team tandem offensive moves. All of these combat options tie into the game’s Hype system.

"It also backs up this fan service with some unique gameplay, as well as a fun, interesting story"

When it comes to combat abilities, you get quite a few options to choose from, assuming you have the AP for it. If you want, you can kick off just about every fight by using Randy Santos’ South of the Border Stunner to try and fatigue them early on. Or you could slowly build up to it like you would see in an actual wrestling match, and finish things off with a glorious moonsault off the top rope.

Every time you get into a fight or a match, you have to also pay attention to the level of Hype your match is creating. Doing things like nailing your entrance moves and cutting promos adds to your Hype before the match. You can also equip your wrestlers with a Hype Type, allowing you to generate Hype in different ways, be it by doing power moves, putting your enemies in technical submission holds, or even just showboating by using the taunt ability. Having enough Hype at the end of a match gives you extra rewards, which can range from banal bonuses like extra cash or exp, to more interesting things like consumables and gear.

Of course, you aren’t just limited to regular singles and tag matches either. WrestleQuest can also throw gimmick matches at you if the situation calls for it, which match types like No Disqualification matches—where you can use weapons without problems—or ladder matches—where the objective is to climb a ladder and retrieve a reward—also come up from time to time. Thankfully, however, these gimmick matches seem to be more of a way to punctuate story beats or offer up some variety rather than constantly popping up as yet another fight.

"WrestleQuest can also throw gimmick matches at you if the situation calls for it"

Interestingly, matches important to the game’s story also tend to present you with a few extra objectives, some of which are just bonuses for extra rewards while others are mandatory to successfully complete the match. An early example is a tag team match where you have to do a series of moves before the scripted conclusion of the match kicks off. Through this, WrestleQuest is able to offer a clever take on the predetermined nature of professional-wrestling, which also tends to tie into the main driving story arc behind one of the protagonists.

The core RPG mechanics of WrestleQuest are rather simple—take part in enough fights or complete enough quests to get experience so that you can level up, which in turn also boosts your stat points. These stats can also be changed by making use of specific equipment, which in turn also tend to have different effects against elemental attacks. You can also change the nature of your regular attack by equipping different kinds of “hands” or “feet” to your character, allowing you to switch to not only between elemental attacks, but also between sharp and blunt attacks.

"At the very center of WrestleQuest is the question of whether professional wrestling is “real” or “fake”."

Just about every single aspect of WrestleQuest indicates that the studio knows exactly what it’s doing when the game throws around words like “work”, “shoot”, or “gimmick”, since those words tend to have very specific meanings in the world of professional wrestling. Like I mentioned earlier in the review, the game also features a surprising number of wrestling legends, not only from the past, but also figures in the industry who are still have an active career, like Jeff Jarrett, who currently works at All Elite Wrestling, and Conrad Thompson—a figure well-known for being the host of several pro-wrestling podcast alongside other wrestlers.

At the very center of WrestleQuest is the question of whether professional wrestling is “real” or “fake”. This is perfectly embodied by our first protagonist, Randy Santos, a wrestling rookie who is such a massive fan of the Macho Man that he often likes to punctuate his sentences with an “Oh si!” On the other side of the coin, we have the tag team of the Logan Brothers in Brink and Stag Logan—a duo that’s hoping to make it into the big leagues after paying their dues and taking scripted loss after loss in an effort to help their father’s wrestling company.

Of course, the whole story is wrapped up in the conceit that all of this seems to be taking place in a world populated by sentient toys. Wrestlers are action figures, and characters can range from being a nod towards Barbie, to a knock-off Mr. Potato Head, to even just straight up dinosaur toys. This also means that just about every location in the game is made to look like it’s in a toybox, from the piles of coffee cream at the base of a Randy Savage statue to the underbelly of Box Town.

"The use of the toy aesthetic also means that there’s a refreshing variety in the game’s various settings"

This wonderful aesthetic makes exploring the overworld in WrestleQuest an absolute joy, since you get to see a toy box-styled interpretation of what a city would look like. The use of the toy aesthetic also means that there’s a refreshing variety in the game’s various settings, from the green pastures of the early zones to the icy zones of the northern territories. It certainly also helps that every zone tends to have its own distinct take on the wrestling arena, which goes a long way in also offering some visual variety in the fights you’ll often find yourself getting into.

WrestleQuest quite honestly feels like a love-letter to professional wrestling. Not only does it feature an absurd level of fan service, especially for fans of classic wrestling, but it also manages to tell fun and interesting stories about the nature of the pro-wrestling business, all wrapped up in a wonderful aesthetic that manages to offer the perfect balance between the game’s serious moments and the more comedic bits. Throw on top a simple-but-robust RPG system that rewards understanding the ebb and flow of a typical wrestling match, and you get one of the most interesting takes on the wrestling medium in video game form out there.

This game was reviewed on PC.

Originally set to release today, publisher Skybound Games recently announced on Twitter that WrestleQuest has been pushed back to a bit later in the month, until August 22. Apparently, a code that can cause players to lose their save progress was discovered “in the final checks” prior to launch “on multiple different devices”, leading to the last-minute delay.

“Because this is a game filled with hours of content and player progress is so important, we could never bodyslam our fans like that,” the announcement message reads. “We are truly proud of this game and believe that we have a product that delivers on all counts.”

When WrestleQuest does release later this month, it will be available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS, and Android. For more details on the game, make sure to check out our recent interview with Mega Cat Studios founder James Deighan.

An update to our fans. See you in the ring August 22. pic.twitter.com/rvBXFu2Upj

— Skybound Games (@skyboundgames) August 8, 2023

Last year, shortly after the game’s announcement, in an interview with creative director Zack Manko, we learned plenty about WrestleQuest’s story, combat, progression mechanics, and much more, but of course, with the game’s launch now just around the corner, there’s plenty more information about it that’s become available. To follow up on all of those details and learn more about the game in the lead-up to its release, we recently reached out to developer Mega Cat Studios with a few more of our questions. Below, you can read our interview with Mega Cat Studios founder James Deighan.

"The lifeblood of both JRPGs and pro-wrestling is story and larger-than-life characters. We wanted to give players that epic-scale JRPG story they expect, told through a wrestling lens."

How much of an emphasis is WrestleQuest placing on story and storytelling, especially given its JRPG influences?

A ton! The lifeblood of both JRPGs and pro-wrestling is story and larger-than-life characters. We wanted to give players that epic-scale JRPG story they expect, told through a wrestling lens.

One of WrestleQuest’s most interesting visual elements is how it represents its characters as action figures. How did the idea for that first come about, and what does it add to the experience?

We knew from the beginning that we wanted to have a unique visual identity, maintain a pixel art aesthetic, and evoke a strong sense of nostalgia. For many of us, our strongest and earliest memories of wrestling started with the action figures. It also allows us to capture some of the fantasy that we wanted in WrestleQuest, from the animation to the feeling of being “in the playroom” throughout the game.

WrestleQuest is of course making use of plenty of external licenses. How complex has the process been of managing to nail those down, especially given the game’s unique premise and how it intends to use those licenses?

The licensing was interesting with WrestleQuest. We made a constant effort to do our due diligence as to not step on WWE’s toes, and make sure that, front and center, we were doing the character and estate’s justice to put them on the pedestal they deserve. Having a unique gameplay genre, visual identity, and use of licenses allowed us to follow our WrestleQuest dream as we’re exploring the use of these characters in a way that hasn’t been done before.

WrestleQuest is looking like Mega Cat’s biggest project ever, and by quite some margin. Can you talk to us about what that behind-the-scenes escalation has looked like and how your studio has grown to deliver a game on this scale?

I wish I had a more romantic version of the story. At one point, we decided that life is too short, and we may as well love the games we’re working on. As any indie studio can attest, it’s a constant challenge to stay excited and engaged with work for hire projects when the entire reason you joined the games industry was to make an impact, build a legacy, and contribute something to the fandom you’re personally invested in. WrestleQuest is our big bet on ourselves.

"We knew from the beginning that we wanted to have a unique visual identity, maintain a pixel art aesthetic, and evoke a strong sense of nostalgia."

The quality and volume of optional content can tend to make or break JRPGs. What should players expect from WrestleQuest on that front?

WrestleQuest does not pull any punches in the content department. Each legendary wrestler has their own themed side-quest, which unlock the game’s best rewards. For example, if you complete the Andre the Giant quest, you get the ability to summon him into combat, where he picks up the entire ring and slams it down, damaging your enemies.

Add that to numerous minigames, risk-reward arenas, and 40+ hours of core story content, and you’ll see that WrestleQuest has more than enough to keep you in the ring for the long run.

What can you tell us about the enemy variety and bosses in WrestleQuest?

Creating a spectacular combat system was one of our primary goals with WrestleQuest. We wanted to take that classic turn-based JRPG system and wrestlify it to make it better than ever.

Our enemies are a large part of that wrestlification process. Some enemies are just grunts that can be taken out easily. However, enemy wrestlers aren’t out when you reduce them to zero HP. To truly eliminate them, you’ll have to Pin them through the game’s reaction mechanics. Fail, and they’ll kick out with HP restored, ready to fight again.

Bosses go one step further in their presentation and spectacle. Before each major battle, you’ll perform a customizable walk-on routine down the entrance ramp. After that, you’ll cut a promo on your opponent, talking trash on the mic. Both of these systems allow you to build Hype, so you can start the battle with some buffs!

Additionally, boss battles themselves are themed after various match types, to increase the drama. You’ll take part in tag-team matches, hair vs hair bouts, multi-opponent rumbles, and more!

What can you tell us about the different locations and worlds that players will explore in WrestleQuest, and how varied they’ll be in terms of their design, visual style, and the kind of content they’ll have on offer?

WrestleQuest wrestlifies the tired, stale JRPG environments we’ve all been through time and time again. Rather than one more medieval-themed fantasy world, WrestleQuest is full of fresh locations. You’ll springboard off turnbuckles through ring-themed dungeons. You’ll track down a wrestling cult through a face paint store. You’ll battle through the corporate enclaves of scheming pro-wrestling execs.

Furthermore, each town in WrestleQuest is themed after a different regional style. Puroshi, for example, is themed after Japanese strong style puroresu. Early in the game you’ll come to a hardcore/extreme wrestling city. There is an entire continent inspired by lucha libre. We wanted to show every spice wrestling has to offer.

The Xbox Series S features lesser hardware compared to Xbox Series and Microsoft is pushing it as a 1440p/60 FPS console. Do you think it will be able to hold up for the more graphically intensive games as this generation progresses?

Seeing what Unreal 5 is capable of, I’m excited for the next generation of consoles. That said, I do think that great games don’t require great hardware, but great hardware makes great graphics accessible to developers and players alike.

"Creating a spectacular combat system was one of our primary goals with WrestleQuest. We wanted to take that classic turn-based JRPG system and wrestlify it to make it better than ever."

What frame rate and resolution will the game target on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S?

For frame rate, we’re looking at a buttery, baby oily 60 fps on PlayStation and Xbox platforms.

What are your thoughts on the Steam Deck? Do you have plans for any specific optimizations for the device?

We are absolutely massive fans of the Steam Deck, and have included it as a target device since its launch!