• Price: $14.99 USD
• Developer: Ota Imon
• Publisher: Raw Fury
• Release Date: May 10, 2022

Be advised that the game is rated M and contains explicit language.

I found out about Wolfstride when I was doing research for our article on Switch games from Brazil. I usually prefer more colorful graphics, but I found the black and white art for Wolfstride very appealing. The game has you pilot a mecha in turn-based combat, and in between fights you wander around the city getting to know people and preparing for the battles ahead. I like mecha-related content, turn-based combat, and socialization (in games, anyway 😂), so I was more than ready to suit up!

Wolfstride has some really cool animated cutscenes from the beginning. You’re introduced to Shade, who does look a little shady and reminds me of Spike from Cowboy Bebop. He’s approached by a “humanoid” cat and dog duo, who want him to convince Knife Leopard (his friend) to throw his mecha fight or else…

Knife Leopard still wins the match due to a technicality – the only problem is that the mecha is almost beyond salvageable. You’re sent to Hog’s Yard (owned by an actual pig humanoid) to find parts to fix it up. The mecha was left to Shade & Co. by a friend of theirs who passed away. While Duque the grumpy dog humanoid wants to cut their losses and sell everything, Knife Leopard is hyped about the prospect of winning a big tournament and the associated cash prizes.

If you want to succeed in the tournament, you’ll need to work hard to build up enough cash reserves to restore and maintain Cowboy, your mecha. There are a variety of side job mini games for you to do, and you can repeat them as much as you’d like to earn more money and even the occasional part or other items. To be honest, I didn’t love the mini games because it got a bit “grindy,” but I did like the money and items I got from doing them.

When you buy parts for your mecha, you’ll need to consider how they affect its Action Points (AP), Movement Points (MP), healing ability, and attack and armor. Knife Leopard can equip different abilities to use, with offensive and defensive abilities and healing as well. It’s important to consider the range of the attacks and the cooldown period.

Once you’ve repaired and upgraded your mecha, get ready to crush your opponent! As I mentioned above, combat is turn-based, and it takes place on a line of squares. You and your opponent start on opposite ends of the line, and you have a set amount of Movement/Action Points per turn. Unfortunately, you can’t undo movements if you accidentally choose the wrong distance for a planned attack. Some squares have attack bonuses (or penalties) so it’s important to consider how much distance an attack requires and if you’ll have higher attack there.

You also have to keep track of how much ammo you’ve used so you can reload it, plus the HP for your mecha’s head, left and right arms, and chest piece. Healing abilities can restore HP and revive each part except for the chest – if the chest piece is destroyed, you lose. Targeting your opponent’s head will make it so they can’t choose which limb to target, but to me it seems better to target the arms to prevent additional attacks.

I chose to replay the side job mini games a lot before moving on, so I ended up with a ton of money and was able to make my mecha pretty powerful. I found most story battles fairly easy as a result. There’s an arcade game you can play in the hangar where your mecha is put in the game but any damage taken there doesn’t affect your real mecha. When you rank up, you receive money and items based on your current rank, and the prizes tend to be pretty good.

Another way to get powerful upgrades is to participate in the wacky pineapple side quest. You can find pineapples by winning mini games, and then you give them to people to strengthen your relationship with them. Every few levels you’ll get a reward; some are parts for the mecha and others are movies to help Knife Leopard learn battle stances. I spent a lot of time trying to get pineapples in the beginning so I could get all the upgrades from the start. They’re well worth the effort.

I really liked wandering around Rain City, although I didn’t enjoy the long pathways at the main entrance in each area. I liked the different storefronts and other aspects of the background, but the length of the road felt a bit unnecessary and it took longer to get to the main part of an area. I wish there was a quick travel menu so we could choose which section we’d like to go to. And this might be because I chose to grind so much in the beginning, but it felt like there were too many “free roam” days without much to do.

The characters are where the game really shines for me. Dialogue is voiced – and voiced well. Although the graphics (and occasionally the story) are dark, the character interactions are pretty hilarious. Humor is subjective, but I thought it was good, silly fun. I loved that there was an area known as the “Crapyard” since the “S” had fallen off of the sign. There were mentions of K-Dramas and even a subtle BTS joke, which I found hilarious. And the changing facial expressions made me laugh, too.

Duque the dog acts as your fed up, gruff mechanic who gives off “I’m too old for this ****” vibes. He’s often completely exasperated by the group’s antics but goes along with them anyway. Some of the things he says may seem harsh, but he does care about the team.

There’s also a silly robot named “Peepoo” who swears (the explicit language is censored with the word “PEE” 😂) and sounds a lot like Teddie from Persona 4. Shade gets Peepoo to help train Knife Leopard to use the mecha properly. This training results in Knife Leopard learning new skills. I think that Peepoo may be a polarizing character, and you’ll either love him or hate him. But I personally found him rather amusing, and the things he says make a nice contrast with the darker themes behind the team’s past.

Switch it ON or Switch it OFF? Wolfstride is a dark yet fun mecha RPG with social elements. The mini games were a bit of a chore to complete, and the amount of grinding for money and items was a little tiresome. But I liked the format of the mecha battles (and kind of wish there were more story matches). The art was neat, and I thought the soundtrack was very well done. In my ~40 hour playtime, I really enjoyed getting to know the characters. The plot did get a little confusing towards the end, but there were a lot of details throughout the game that come together to help you make sense of it all. It’s not perfect, but I think it’s one of my favorite games I’ve played recently due to the silly (often reference-based) humor and the artistic quality. 8/10