Wrestle Angel: Survivor

"The perfect wrestling simulator?"

Wrestle Angels: Survivor is the latest of many "Joshi Puroresu" (Women's Pro-Wrestling) simulators that have been released for several years under the "Wrestle Angels" name. However, Wrestle Angels isn't your ordinary wrestling simulation. Instead of mashing buttons, or timing your button presses in a real-time 3D environment, you're instead engaging your opponent in a complex card game where your offensive attacks are determined by what card you choose. The result of what card you picked is determined based on the stats of both wrestlers, along with the card your opponent has chosen.

Gameplay: 9
While I cannot say that I understand everything about the mechanics of the card battling system, I can tell you that simply playing matches in this game is a severe misuse of this game. The meat and bones of Wrestle Angels: Survivor is its "Management" mode. In this mode, you are the President of your own Joshi (Women's) Pro-Wrestling organization. You start out simple enough by naming your organization (Don't worry. The nice folks at Success have included Romanji/English letters!) You will then pick a logo for your group. You also get to determine the number of opposing organizations you will go up against, and how many years you want to play the game for (You can play for one year, or NINETY-NINE YEARS!) You're also given the choice of where you want to base your organization in Japan. You're given a slight popularity boost in what ever prefecture you choose. The problem for us English speaking players is you'll have a hard time knowing where you're choosing, unless you have a map of Japan, or know your Asian geography.

As the President of your organization, you're given many options and tasks. You can recruit current experienced wrestlers to join your organization, or hold open tryouts for rookies. You can even scout specific areas of Japan to get rookies from that area to join you. The options at your disposal are almost limitless. You can form relationships with overseas groups, which will allow you to use four of their wrestlers for your shows. Along with that, you're also able to create your own championship belts (For a price, of course), and expand your company in different areas when you feel you're ready.

When you have six wrestlers to book, you will finally be able to book (set up) a tour/series of shows. From there, you can book anywhere from one to eight shows for your tour, and decide where each show will be held. Again, players who aren't fluent in Japanese may have trouble here. But it's nothing a simple Google image search for a Map of Japan won't help.

Another key aspect of the Management mode is following the careers of all the girls you bring into your organization. Whether they're experienced veterans, or young rookies--you will watch them progress and regress as time goes by. Veterans will slowly get older and work their way down the card, while rookies will improve slowly over time, and soon take over from where the veterans left off to become your top stars. This is a common aspect in the world of Japanese Pro-Wrestling, and Wrestle Angels: Survivor is the first time to accurately simulate this.

Wrestler improvement all depends on how you manage the Dojo/Gym aspect of Management mode. You can bring in talented coaches to guide your girls, and even appoint one coach to one specific girl to help progress her quicker. You can also determine the training regiment for all of your girls, or simply just one. In addition, you can also talk to your girls one-on-one to try and help improve either their trust or ethics. Trust impacts how much loyalty a girl has to your company. The higher the trust, the less likely she is to quit and join another organization. Ethics affect the girls attitude, and determine the overall disposition of the girl (She can either be "GOOD", "NORMAL" or "EVIL".)

If there is a downside to Management mode, it's that things progress VERY, VERY, VERY slowly. Like real life, rookies take YEARS to grow into talented performers. Along with that, starting out is ALWAYS tough, as it takes many years to build a powerful pro-wrestling organization. However, this should be no problem if you're a patient player like I am.

Aside from Management mode, there are other modes such as One Night Special Match (Exhibition), Tournament and League (Round Robin). There is also a Gallery where you can view various pictures you unlock in Management mode.

Graphics: 7.5
The game itself is presented much like many Japanese dating simulators, such as Tokimeki Memorial. The games "graphics" are primarily motionless pictures of the girls in various poses drawn in the traditional "anime" style. Each girl is unique in her look, and has a distinctive presence. The downside is that this probably isn't a game you could play in a room full of judgmental people, as there is a lot of "fan service" in the game. Characters wear very detailed, yet revealing wrestling attires. Personally, I'm not a big fan of this, as I feel it appeals to the common otaku, and takes away from a stellar game engine. However, if you're a fan of big breasted anime characters with tons of cleavage, then this might be right up your alley.

Sound: 8
The game features some nice tracks to go along with your gameplay experience. The OP of the game is a song called "Starry Night" performed by MANYO. The rest of the music is your traditional synth RPG music. There are also voice overs for all of the girls in the game, which includes grunts and cries of pain, along with actual dialog.

Replayability: 9.5
Wrestle Angels: Survivor is a game you could very well play forever. Management alone will be the sole reason to keep playing this, as your organization will be forever changing until you finally hit your ninety-ninth year (And that is a milestone I absolutely CANNOT fathom.)

Conclusion: 9
The overall score of this game is rather subjective, depending on what you like. Bottom line is, if you're a fan of Japanese pro-wrestling, you will love this game. If you're a fan of pretty anime girls, and like dating/upbringing simulators, you will love this game. If you don't fall into either of these categories, then you may want to pass on this title.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/18/06