Wolfstride Reviews
need to know
What is it? Do chores during the day to fund robot battles and maybe get rid of your dark past.
Expected payment: $14.99
Release date: come out now
Developer: Ota Aimen
Publisher: Primal Fury
Comment on: GTX 2070, 16 GB RAM, i7-10875H
multiplayer game? Do not
Association: Official website
A dog, a gangster and a witch walk into a bar. This is where you want me to say “If you’ve heard this before, please stop me”, but I won’t because you haven’t. Wolfstride from Ota Imon is unlike any other game — it’s a self-described adult role-playing game that indulges in immature humor all too often just because it can. While lacking mecha combat, and Wolfstride never quite built on its narrative promise, the thoughtful setting and unique cast make it a refreshing spin on an often stagnant genre.
With its action-heavy opening, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Wolfstride was faster-paced than it is. One of those mech battles kicks off, as your lovable goofy pilot Kao Pan (aka “Pineapple”, for some reason) faces off against hardened criminals in a rigged robot battle. Elsewhere, hero Dominic Shedd tries to escape from two gangsters – a cat and a dog – who hope he convinces Pineapple to throw a match. Shadow refuses, and with a scream from the gangster’s deadly dog toy, Pineapple’s mech explodes.
(Image credit: Ota Imon Studios)
That’s how much action you’ll see over a long period of time. The team’s grumpy canine mechanics, Shade, Pineapples, and Duque, develop a routine of exploring Rain City, meeting new friends, and desperately seizing any money-making opportunity. You have 63 days of play to repair your broken Mech Cowboy and prove yourself in the ultimate Mohegan Sun tournament. But the way Wolfstride rolled out its story gradually meant that much of that time was wasted.
Some days there’s only one mission, so you trek across the empty highways of Rain City to the scrapyard, have a brief conversation, then head back to the hangar and turn it in. Shade ended up getting some part-time jobs that were like money – there are as many ways to make money as there are ways to break repetitive movements. While our goal is to reinvest the money into Cowboy’s arena battles, Wolfstride is a vivid visual novel about the luck of a group of shady middle-aged heroes, not an action-packed RPG game.
Focusing on the older, frankly unflattering cast of characters is refreshing and makes me more interested in seeing how Shade’s story unfolds than mech combat. The problem is that Wolfstride never knew what to do with itself, and leaned too far into the “Immature” part of its “Immature Growth RPG” tagline. Every time I start to fit into the story, Wolfstride throws me something absurd and unnecessary—for example, an entire character arc revolving around a robot named “Peepoo.”
If you giggle unhappily at a job called “Boys Delivering Special Messages,” or BDSM for short, you might find yourself skipping a lot of Wolfstride’s dialogue.
(Image credit: Ota Imon Studios)
As much as they love to tell nasty jokes, however, I’m starting to care about the weirdo in Rain City. The city itself plays a major role in this attachment: a jazzy, multicultural metropolis with a surprisingly unique sense of place. An abandoned street feels very similar to another street in Wolfstride’s early days, but as you unlock more areas, it gradually gives you a deeper understanding of Shade’s world and how he ended up here.
Mechs and cities
With two massive junkyards, a mechanical hangar, and a hospital dominating the map in your first week or two, there’s no doubt that mech combat is the soul of Rain City, for better or worse. The downtown area is full of failed dreams and abandoned shops, so your local watering hole, The Midnite Rider, truly feels like a friendly oasis on the edge of life’s most desolate scenery. Its owner, Joey, will prepare you a drink, and then you can lighten your load. On the way to the hospital, there is even a peaceful mountain view behind the torii gate. It largely does nothing but serves as a reminder of what the region was like before crime and robot warfare took root.
Ambient narrative helps flat and static characters look interesting. There are few other actors to compare, the closest being Yakuza: Like A Dragon’s gang of misfits, but Wolfstride’s character seems to resonate more than Ichiban and his friends. You struggle when Joey talks about the hardships of life and her need to make money because you see it every time you travel to Rain City.
Combining this nuanced approach with Wolfstride’s childish humor feels like a waste of potential, and I’d love to see Ota Imon use his talents to create deeper characters and more complex narratives.
(Image credit: Ota Imon Studios)
I would also like to see more mech combat. While they’re not as detailed as the mech battles in Super Robot Wars or even Roads of Cold Steel, there’s a solid combat system waiting for you once you’re finally back in the cockpit. Wolfstride lets you balance brute force and well-planned defense in a continuous dance of give and take. You move forward on the moving grid to gain strength bonuses, but end up in the enemy’s ranged attack range. They push you back, but now they’re close enough that you can retaliate with a powerful close-range attack. And so on until one of you destroys the other’s thoracic nucleus.
The only downside is that you’ll see most of what Wolfstride has to offer early on. The lack of skill types and small battlegrounds means there’s little room for experimentation or strategy, which is a shame. Wolfstride’s combat is as fresh as the RPG cast, and I hope Ota Imon gets a chance to create a wider system in the future.
Despite its many glaring flaws, Wolfstride still manages to captivate with its flawed heroes and confidence in its own story. Focusing the narrative between jarring humor and a funny story of regret and redemption isn’t the best choice, but this distracting approach doesn’t stop it from being a memorable one.
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