Developed by OTA IMON Studios and published by Raw Fury, Wolfstride was released for PC via steam on December 7, 2021.
A friend’s parting gift
The story is about how a few friends get a mecha they nickname “Cowboy” (actual name is A-P-Wan Gallow 7) from their late friend G.W. Knife Leopard, the pilot, and Duque, and his anthropomorphic dog-repairman attempt to make some money by fighting with it but fail.
Long story short, combined with their other good friend Dominic Shade, the protagonist of the story, they learn about a tournament called the “Ultimate Golden God Tournament.” The reward is millions of RD or Real Dollars, the currency in Wolfstride. The story takes place within a time period of 63 days before the end and their struggle as they face: problems along the way, learning how to get better fighting, and mecha battles to get the prize money.
The smoking man— with cool Japanese-anime style shades no less
Duque: The anthropomorphic dog-mechanic that helps repair the Cowboy. He enjoys beer and good food. He originally just wanted to sell the Cowboy for money instead of fighting with it. He wears a hat with “Wolf” written across the top.
Knife Leopard: The laid-back pilot of the Cowboy. He is easy-going and very amicable. He has long hair, wears a hat and no shirt. He trains on a treadmill bought at a convenience store.
Z.Z. Zowie: The owner of the “Scrapyard” whose “S” on the sign got eroded or erased somehow so now it is the “Crapyard” (the map menu even lists it as “Crapyard”). She doesn’t get along that well with Bounty Hog. She helps the team immensely with her knowledge about mechas and helps them fix it for a fee. She is fond of cats and takes care of several at the “Crapyard.”
Bounty Hog: Owner of the junkyard who initially put the mecha fights together with Cowboy and other potential mecha fighters. He owns a goat named Barbara.
Nebraska: A mysterious girl from Dominic Shade’s past. She shows up at the Hangar out of nowhere several days into the game.
Joy: Bartender at the Midnite Rider, a bar in the middle of town.
Peepoo: It is the robot coach of sorts. It will tell some information on your opponents and other mecha knowledge. It stays in the hangar by Knife Leopard who calls it Marlene. It doesn’t like it’s name being abbreviated into vulgar variations.
Calla: Works as a cashier at the Rambler and Gambler (R&G) convenience store. She just moved to Rain City.
I want to ride my bicycle
By talking to Z.Z. Zowie in the “Crapyard,” you can play your first mini-game in which you try to deliver as many packages as you can with your bicycle. You can speed up, dash, and jump over many obstacles like traffic cones and dumpsters. Watch out for arrows on the road accordingly as they can slow you down or speed you up. The reward for completing even partial deliveries is RD. It is free to play and you can play as much as you want.
Take care of your mecha and it will take care of you
You won’t be able to upgrade parts or change them out for the first several days in the game but you still will need to repair each components health regardless of whether you win or lose via repairing them in the hangar. You have to go to each part one by one and hold a button to replenish the health as seen below. Doing so costs money.
Scrappin’ with scrap metal
Mecha battles are turn-based in which you try to deplete the other party’s HP. You can focus on other areas like the head and the left and right arm, but victory occurs when the chest area is depleted of HP. Wolfstride shows one mecha at a time although you can view the status of the other fighter by pressing the button indicated over your opponent’s head. Let me break down some of the basics of fighting in Wolfstride:
Attack: This is where you choose a skill to attack with. The AP listed on the upper-right means Action Points and different attacks require different amounts. Permitting enough AP, you can attack several times per turn. Sometimes attacks also carry an ammo requirement.
Move: Movement is done done by one square tile at a time. Certain square tiles give you an attack bonus as screenshoted above. Movement costs one MP or movement point. To push your opponent, it costs 2 MP. This is beneficial when you want to corner them or want to push them away from an attack bonus square.
Defend: Requires AP and are applied to the player. Certain defense skills are able to replenish ammo.
End Turn: Ends your turn while replenishing AP and MP.
Ammo: Required for some attacks. The number of ammo the player has indicated below the MP bar in the above screenshot.
NFG Bar: This is the bar on the far-right with the gear and a wrench symbol. It fills up a certain amount every turn. When it is fully filled, you can use a NFG charge. You can save up to three charges. A charge allows you to use repair skills which allows you to heal your mecha.
Cornering your opponent into the wall gives you an advantage so try to do so whenever possible. Think of it like Sumo a little. Winning battles gives RD and you can learn new skills.
Wolfstride utilizes Japanese onomatopoeia like that in traditional manga series. Basically they are written sound affects. They are not translated in-game but neither is most of the writings on buildings and such which uses several different eastern languages. Here ドコッ is Japanese which means like “Ker-Pow.” Another one commonly used in battles is ヒュン which means like “whoosh” in Japanese.