WreSpi Match Report: Stone vs Kudo

[Adam Ryland]

I thought it might be nice to describe a WreSpi match, so that people can get an idea of some of the subtleties involved. I'm not going to do a play-by-play description, as it would take too long, so instead here's a written report on how the match went.

The match was a regular exhibition singles match, no managers or run-ins, between two of the best in the game: NOTBPW's Dan Stone Jr. and BHOTWG's Haruki Kudo. I was controlling Stone, the computer controlled Kudo.

The Fighters

Stone is one of the best technical wrestlers in the game, and also has pretty impressive high flying abilities for a middleweight. He also has excellent stamina and toughness. His custom move set is one of the most focussed in the game, as it is especially built to target the legs, setting up for his main finisher, the Ankle Lock.

Kudo (also known as Hooded Kudo, although he is without the mask for this match) is a Strong Style fighter, who mixes high stamina and toughness with good all-round skills. His custom move set is made up mainly of stiff forearm and knee strikes combined with suplexes and the occasional high flying move. His finishers are the Kudo Lock (a Death Lock STF variation) and the Kudo Kutter (springboard face crusher).

The Match

The opening featured two distinct strategies. Kudo fought in an upright manner, mainly relying on kicks and forearms to keep me reeling. I on the other hand began with one strategy in mind, which was to begin to weaken the legs. Therefore, I attacked by mixing up some kicks to the legs with quick takedowns. Whenever Kudo was on the ground, I went to my selection of leg locks to continue the punishment. After 10 minutes, things were still pretty even - Kudo's legs were down to 80%, whereas i'd lost 10% to my head and body.

We both fell to Medium energy levels at about the same time, which meant we each had access to some new moves. This brought up one of the first WreSpi touches, as Kudo noticeably changed his approach at this point. Whereas he had begun with just low level strikes to weaken me, he now upped his intensity and started throwing in some bigger moves to try and press his advantage. This led to a different pattern for the next 10 minutes; while the first ten had been about 50\50 in terms of attacking, the next ten moved more toward 70\30 in my favour. This was because I remained with my low level strategy of "takedown and leg lock", while Kudo started trying more risks. Of course, while Kudo hit less moves, his were more powerful, and so he didn't need to hit as many to cause as much damage as me.

The 20-30 minute period saw the first big advantage, as I hit a lucky Belly To Back Suplex and locked on an Indian Deathlock. This did some serious damage to Kudo's knee. This damage meant he lost access to some of his moves. With his knees so badly hurt, he lost access to some of his key strikes, such as his Spinning Back Kick. This is a key part of WreSpi, as targeting a body part actually has serious ramifications for the opponent.

On 31 minutes, there was another key moment, as Kudo hit a running knee into the corner, busting me open. The resulting blood loss meant I was liable to get dizzy occasionally and lose what advantage I had.

As we hit 38 minutes, we entered the final stretch, and two of the previous key points came into play. Incidentally, at this point, we were both Tired, but not Struggling or Exhausted. This was because we both have high stamina. A lesser worker who had weak stamina would be Exhausted by this point, and would so be relatively easy to beat, as a lack of stamina affects performance late in a match.

The first key point to come into play was Kudo's leg damage. After 38 minutes of being punished, they were in terrible condition. This not only meant any leg submissions I applied would be more effective, but also meant that he could no longer execute some of his big moves like the Moonsault. It also made a big impact; as he tried to suplex me, his knee buckled due to the damage, and I collapsed on top of him for a near fall. This is because body part specific damage is taken into account with certain moves.

The finish came from an earlier point, the blood loss that I was experiencing. After delivering Rolling German Suplexes, I became dizzy, which allowed Kudo to fight back, delivering two successive Kudo Kutter's to get the three count.

Conclusion

This match shows a few of the small things that make the matches very realistic: my targeting of Kudo's knees eliminating some of his big moves, and also causing him to be unable to complete a suplex; the blood loss that caused me to become dizzy at a critical point in the match; the way that wrestlers can change their strategy mid-match to take into account new moves or situations.

There are of course plenty of other things like this that didn't occur in the match. I didn't cover the referee's involvement with the match, what would happen if two people with totally different styles fought each other, or how you might change your strategy against certain opponents. Hopefully I might get a chance to do a few more of these, covering some other bouts, and get into more detail about the stuff that was missing in this match.

[MajikMan]

Mmmm good read, thanks for posting this Adam.

Question: Is the match a reflection of matches in general? Or was it so long due to the quality of the two wrestlers? Are the user characters at the start going to be involved in more squash/five minute style matches?

[Unright]

Wow!... WreSpi sounds great! I can't wait until a demo or the game itsaelf gets released..

One question... Could you go over the fields that are involved with move creation? Do we get to specify what health levels body parts have to be to execute the moves?

Also, how many health fields are there? Head/Torso/Back/Leg (Right/Left)/Arm (Right/Left)/Other??

Thanks for this match description, Adam.

[Powerguy]

Originally Posted by MajikMan

Question: Is the match a reflection of matches in general? Or was it so long due to the quality of the two wrestlers?

Well it did say that any other wrestler with lower stamina would have been exhausted earlier.

Thanks for the post Adam

[MajikMan]

Worded it a bit wrong, oops!

I was trying to say that can we expect many matches to go that length and also how long did it take to play out that particular fight?

Just trying to gauge the amount of gameplay time each match could take

The breakdown of each guys body as you hit various moves on it sounds good. With that in mind will your body condition stats stay the same from match to match? (ie full health at the start every time) Or will it be healed by a certain amount or does the user have some control over the healing process? Any serious injuries causing permanent damage that limit your movesets ect?

[Locksley]

Good questions about the healing MajikMan...as for the match length...I would think that if a wrestler's stamina is low...he'd probably lose much earlier, but who knows...maybe luck plays in to it. So that is a good question as well.

It sounds like a fun game thus far. I keep hoping for a surprise release. lol

[Adam Ryland]

Originally Posted by Unright

One question... Could you go over the fields that are involved with move creation? Do we get to specify what health levels body parts have to be to execute the moves?

Also, how many health fields are there? Head/Torso/Back/Leg (Right/Left)/Arm (Right/Left)/Other??

The main things you set for moves are the Position (where you execute it from), Level (Low\Medium\High\Finisher, which decides how hurt your opponent needs to be before you can access it), Frequency and Impact (how often you can hit it, and what damage it does to each body part of the opponent), and Requirements (what skill levels and health you have to be at to execute it). There's tons of other things to, but those are the main ones.

The health fields are Head, Body, Arms, Legs. There's no difference between right and left for arms and legs, as the assumption is that your worker would always work one in particular, so it doesn't really matter.

[Adam Ryland]

Originally Posted by MajikMan

I was trying to say that can we expect many matches to go that length and also how long did it take to play out that particular fight?

Just trying to gauge the amount of gameplay time each match could take

The length of the match depends on the people involved. Stone and Kudo have very high stamina and energy, and so you'd be unlikely to go less than 30 minutes with them in a singles bout - which is about right, as that is a main event calibre bout. Whereas if you put someone like Dread in there with Cheetah Boy, you'd probably be able to finish in around 5 minutes, because Dread is a heavyweight bad ass and Cheetah is a weak lightweight.

If you play the full Rookie To Legend mode, you start as a not-very-good youngster, and so your matches will start out being quite short. As you get better, you'll find the bouts getting longer and longer as you move up the card. It's one of the best parts of that mode IMO, as you genuinely can feel the difference in matches as your stats increase.

In terms of real-time play, it depends on the match type. When there are multiple people in the ring (i.e. tag matches), the in-game time slows down, so a "20 minute" singles match will take you less time in reality to complete than a "20 minute" 4 vs 4 match. The Stone vs Kudo match probably took around 8 minutes in reality to complete.

The breakdown of each guys body as you hit various moves on it sounds good. With that in mind will your body condition stats stay the same from match to match? (ie full health at the start every time) Or will it be healed by a certain amount or does the user have some control over the healing process? Any serious injuries causing permanent damage that limit your movesets ect?

You start at full health in every match, unless you have an injury, in which case you get points taken off. For example, if you had a very deep thigh bruise, you can still wrestle, but your Leg health will probably only start at 75% (not all injuries can be wrestled through BTW - if you had a Broken Leg, you'd not be able to compete until it healed). You can get permanent damage from injuries, in which case you can encounter limits to your move set. For example, if you really messed up your back, you'd probably lose access to moves like Shooting Star Press or any Rana variations.

[MajikMan]

Thanks Adam for the reply, thats cleared up what I was wondering

[chinoflynn]

wow, that was fery cool, thank you for the anwsers and details adam!!

[Nutlaw]

*drools*

[cyberkitten01]

I only recently realised I hadn't actually registered, been watching this board since it was linked from the .400 forums. I'm very very excited and can't wait for this game, this description sounds utterly awesome. I loved EWR and adore TEW even though the load times can be a bit of a pain, but WreSpi sounds like your best project to date Adam. I can't wait to hear what your next project will be

Love live WreSpi!

[dmitch]

Hey this sounds great!!!!!! Is it possible to showboat when a wrestler is down or whatever? Also, Adam can you give details about what you can do w/ money earned besides training and travel

[steele]

sounds most escellant dude.... keep up the good work

[Adam Ryland]

Originally Posted by dmitch

Hey this sounds great!!!!!! Is it possible to showboat when a wrestler is down or whatever? Also, Adam can you give details about what you can do w/ money earned besides training and travel

No, there's no showboating (unless you count purposely not going for a pin and hitting more moves), as it's meant to be a real fight, and you don't generally see UFC fighters stopping mid-armbar to pose to the crowd, do the Worm, or give a complicated hand gesture.

Money isn't used for training (I think you're probably mixing WreSpi up with the console wrestling games where you "buy" skill upgrades). It's used to fund your lifestyle, and can also be used to purchase assets like your own gym or bar, to gain you extra income.