| paleface [sys=PS1; cat=Wrestling; reg=JPN] |
| | | It's like the Dreamcast's Fire Prowrestling D except with less edits, fewer move types and grainier graphics (though they are, as ever, based around those wonderfully versatile compound sprites). So why the dickens would you want it if you already have D?
For me the answer is the "Fighting Road" mode, in which you take this fellow whose name I forget on an RPG-ish journey from a wrestling novice to king of the professional circuit. You have conversations with your current peers and trainers, during which you get to make choices that will develop your skills/attributes in certain ways, or shape the future path of your career, then you wrestle someone, the outcome possibly affecting for who and against who you fight next, and so forth. There's quite a bit of text but there are, thankfully, some very good translations available.
The personal focus and story in this mode, as well as the huge array of well-drawn character portraits, make it much more interesting than, if not quite as broad in scope as, the generic "Victory Road" mode in Fire Pro D. Sure, you can't run your cool edit character through Fighting Road, but at least in the (relative) short term you get a much more story-like experience, and then you can go back to D wiser in the ways of professional wrestling federations. |
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| | | | I seem to have unloaded my PS Fire Pros at some point, dang. |
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| | | This is the last Fire Pro where the 2D segmented style still looks pretty good--after this, with D on Dreamcast, the resolution gets too high and it looks like sticks swiveling around. But play it here in low res--or at minimal settings in DuckStation, anyway--and the sprites still look pretty darn solid.
This one's on the JP PS3 PS Store for 628 Yen, 174 MB. And it's just one track according to the redump .cue, so should be fine to dump and extract. |
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| | | | And I don't mean just resolution as in pixel size--the lighting and colors get more shading etc later, whereas here it's more cohesive big color blocks that don't divide up the forms. |
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| | | I don't know if it was a budget title on actual PS1, but the PS3 version dumped and on the PS Store is labelled "Spike Library."
In DuckStation, the controls don't respond until you set the controller as "Digital Controller" rather than "Analog Controller." |
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| | | | The CRITICAL podcast says fatigue (breathing) started in G. It's on R2. R1 orbits around the opponent. L1/L2 are taunts. /\ is Run / Irish Whip. |
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| | | | Has a Hulk Hogan stand-in. |
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| | | | The characters are smaller and much more chunky pixels than Returns, which is sorta good and bad. ^ _^ |
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| | | Downloaded a rename save from GameFAQs--they're in Dexdrive format but DuckStation can import those:
https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationOnPC/comments/m9w3gj/comment/grp716f/
'Assuming you have your memory card to per game (either via game code or game name) and you already started the game in question once (you don't need to have a saved game for it), you can go to the mc editor, select the game mc in question, go to "Import Card", select the .gme file you want, save the card on the "Save" button and you should be ready to go.' |
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The save file is 10 blocks, 10x larger than most PS1 saves, and takes a while to save/load--but in DuckStation you can fast-forward. BUT G doesn't auto-load (I didn't find it auto-saving, either) so you gotta remember to pick the Memory Card option on the main menu--bottom right, then top for Load--and load your save file manually each time you boot the game, or you won't have your renamed wrestlers and edits, Fighting Road progress, etc.
Top to bottom & l to r, the main menu items are ( https://www.thesmackdownhotel.com/games/fire-pro-wrestling-g ):
- ONE NIGHT MATCH (Exhibition mode)
- ONE NIGHT TOURNAMENT (Tournament mode)
- OPEN LEAGUE (League mode)
- ELIMINATION MATCH (5v5)
- BATTLE ROYAL (Up to 4 wrestlers)
- DEATH MATCH (Hardcore wrestling)
- GRUESOME FIGHTING (MMA)
- FIGHTING ROAD
- EDIT RANKING
- EDIT MODE
- DOJO (Tutorial)
- TITLE MATCH (Clear FIGHTING ROAD to unlock.)
then
- OPTION
- MEMORY CARD
Got cranked in TITLE MATCH, did some FIGHTING ROAD but it's all in Japanese so I don't understand the plot or story choices (even back in the day I didn't end up having the patience to go through w/ a translation FAQ), and wrestling as a noob wrestler in complete ignorance is a bit dull. EDIT RANKING is maybe a manager type mode where you just watch? And OPEN LEAGUE can be a watching ("simming" as the peeps seem to call it) mode too if you accidentally set up a 60-man CPU field as I did hah.
Kinda spooked by the non-renamed wrestler who shows up in Battle Arts ("Battration"): ~20 yr old "A rising star" Yuji Yamashita... AH okay that IS the Fighting Road default char name. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/197349-fire-prowrestling-g/faqs/5057 I wish random select (Start button) didn't keep landing on him!
I think I'll probably mostly be doing Exhibition matches in these games, that's where I seemed to have the most fun. Mutoh threw some real twists into that CPU (default) lvl 3 match vs my clunky Goldust with a few insane combos. ^ _^ Pretty entertaining to chill out with the huge cast and their massive variety of moves.
Skipped SFC & Saturn--went from PCE to PS1--so suddenly I have 3 new buttons: Performance 2 (L2), Breathe (R2), & Drag Opponent (R1). There's more you can do in matches in G and the segmented animation--which still looks pretty solid here in PS1 low-res--allows for much more varied and elaborate moves, but I also miss the simplicity of Joshi on PCE--don't have to worry about getting tired and breathing and repositioning the opponent and all that stuff.
(Though Joshi I don't THINK has a free-select Exhibition mode, it's more of an Arcade mode.)
Really good music in both games!
Don't think Hoost can pin? He's a kickboxer so maybe he has to go for KOs, more or less? Goldust has a poison breath []+X strike; don't think I managed to hit with it. |
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