Fire Pro Wrestling World - New Japan Pro-Wrestling Collaboration DLC

So my dudes, it's finally here, fighting road, and after that long wait and multiple let downs it has finally been released, and here's a few thoughts. So the main selling point is fighting road, and at the minute I have spent around 2 hours on it and only just made my debut, it is incredibly long (I'm on about 2% completion.) and I'm excited to play it, FIRE PRO FINALLY HAS A STORY AGAIN!! The included wrestlers are all brand new, with new edit parts that can be used on custom wrestlers and all look as close as you're going to get to the real thing, with some new moves and all the new parts, I know I am very excited to start making more CAWs again with all these new additions. There is also the updated menu, voice lines for all the NJPW wrestlers which again CAWs can use and the addition of run ins for matches, great for if you are running a company and trying to make convincing rivalries like many of us are. Overall for the £15 I paid for this I think it is worth it, I've had no technical issues so far and with over 200 hours in the base game alone this is a very refreshing and very welcome change of pace, finally putting some meat on what was fun, but a little bare. I'm going to have so much fun with CAWs

Pros Story Mode Added (Young Lion - the champ) 39 new wrestlers and parts New Moves New titles New arena New Ref Cons Was online only until a recent update Overall recommended DLC it's now required if you downlowd steam caws.

I am someone who's been [b] very [/b] crtical (haha) of fire pro in the past, and while I still think the game is missing even the most basic of content, I'll run through the pros and cons of the DLC specifically. Pros: [list] [*]Amazingly detailed models. Look really nice [*]Updated movesets adding moves like KUSHIDAS back to the future. [*]Expansive roster of HEAVYWEIGHT NJPW talent [*]Fully fledged story mode that is actually pretty fun and addicting. [*]Logic is godly. Each match builds so naturally and is massively fun to play due to the way the edits are designed. Makes playing against the cpu a blast. [*]Awesome amount of NJPW Belts [*]Theme songs (Only 18 wrestlers have them but that's out of the developers hands) [/list] Cons: [list] [*]Half the roster segmented off with the Junior DLC. Hope you don't want to play as the Bucks, Will, BUSHI, Marty or Liger [*]Lack of Bullet Club members (only 4, Omega, Tama, Fale and Roa) [*]Some wrestlers use moves that they've never used in real life as filler. [*]Some attires haven't been added in (Red hair okada, Juice with Pants) [*]Crippiling mod support is a horrible thing considering they added in most of the basic features that the devs didn't [/list] Overall, the good outweighs the bad with this DLC (as lack of mod support is an issue for the whole game at this point) and it's defintley worth a purchase if you already own fire pro world.

tl;dr - Not recommended except for hardcore edit makers needing parts. I am not a fan of modern wrestling but had re-discovered NJPW through AXS in late 2017 and have followed it ever since. I was excited to get this DLC and excited for the prospect of the Junior Heavyweight DLC down the road. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this DLC unless you're 1) a huge NJPW fan who has to have "official" looking characters; 2) an edit maker desperate for more official parts; 3) have never used mods for Fire Pro World and for whatever reason never will. The latter is important because this update has significant programming changes for compatibility with PS4. Those changes break the mods and for various reasons, they can't and/or won't be brought to this version. Gone are features like 30 (or more) Royal Rumbles, custom parts, extended movesets, Wargames, etc. Gone are basic quality of life fixes like the rest holds not causing submissions mod (and don't say "logic fixes" - it doesn't if I want my wrestlers to use a rest hold late in the match when they're blown up), the ability to remove the collar and elbow tie-up when simming, or the ability to quickly organize and edit. But knowing many people don't mod, I have tried my best to put that issue aside and ask, for the Vanilla player, is it worth it? My answer: No, not for $20. Maybe for $5-10. The Good: 39 "Official" New Japan wrestlers; outside of Bullet Club, and limited to 2017 (so no Jericho or Jay White), the roster is well-covered with only the occasional WTF exception. A large number of additional edit parts A large number of additional moves The training mode/how you spend points to level up in FIghting Road seems well thought out and may be my favorite part. The Bad: A few glaring omissions from the roster - some from licensing (like the Young Bucks), some for future expansion (like Will Ospreay), and some for unknown reasons (like Killer Elite Squad) Some of the new faces look great but some don't seem to match the style of the other in-game art which is glaring when playing your edits against them. Paying for moves (that wasn't supposed to happen but... here we are). The Ugly: Fighting Road. This was the heart of the update and I understand a ton of hours and work went into it. But I've now hit "overseas excursion" time, about 15 chapters in, and it's so disappointing, I don't think I'll even finish it. The tone is weird but somewhat suits NJPW in that it's presented as partially kayfabe (victories matter a lot) but not always (you still have to hit certain match ratings and are told to "trust" your opponent and let him hit you on more than one occasion). The default dialogue probably works ok for the traditional Young Lion, but I think they should have locked down a lot more options if they weren't going to change the story to fit player choice. I was able to change my character to Rank S (which should never happen) and Charisma S but I'm constantly told how nervous I am, I nearly pass out in the presence of A-listers, and apparently Tanahashi and I are secret lovers if the flirting is any indication. I've picked cocky heel choices at every turn, won by countout, used chairs, built cheap heat, etc. but I'm constantly told I'm fighting the good fight and getting handshakes from my opponents. I guess they like having their eyes raked and taking a Kendo stick across the head. I've won and I've lost key matches but the storyline moved linearly to my excursion rather than branching; I might get a minor dialogue telling me I messed up, but it didn't seem to actually cost me an opportunity. I miss my target match rating, but the dialogue tells me it was "one of the best matches we've ever seen." Ok, maybe the Young Lions don't actually watch wrestling. There's just no sense of flexibility or control in the story line. It is very much a visual novel with all the essential elements locked, rather than a choose-your-own-adventure story. It does not seem nearly as interesting as some of the prior Fire Pro games where your actions at least led you to a different league with a different style. Not recommended at the $20 price..

So far, no complaints whatsoever. Any worries about this DLC should be pushed aside by now: everything that seemed like it'd be an issue either turned out to be a lot of worry over nothing, and there's only a few VERY minor things that came with the UI update that can easily be looked past. This was worth the wait and the price of admission.

Fighting Road aka career/story mode contains new moves, new parts, new entrance themes, and a solid career mode. This DLC was everything I expected and more. The career seems to be very long, and also fun. The in game NJPW models I've seen so far, look better than the Steam workshop models of the same wrestlers. New parts have also been added to the wrestler edit/create a fighter mode. The matches in the game are fun, and you can really build your fighter from the ground up. You get to decide everything from the look to moveset. As you play though the career, you unlock points that you can use to train your fighter in specific ways you see fit. You also get to unlock new moves. You ca change your experience in career mode by wining/losing matches, and by making different decisions on the mic or in the dojo. I also think the mode gives people who only sim matches, a chance to play matches in a way that at first really holds your hand and shows you the ropes. You also have the option to play the career mode on an easy, normal, or difficult setting. This DLC has a lot of nods to NJPW fans, but is set up in a way that even players who are not NJPW fans, will be able to keep up with everything going on. There is a lot of background info and NJPW history that is covered in the DLC. Which is a nice thing to have added. I'd say this DLC is a buy. The dev team (and NJPW) have done a great job putting this together.

It doesn't take much research to find that there is a lot of controversy surrounding this DLC. And I do get it. [b]While the price-point is high for a medium-level amount of content, and it's online-only DLC, I cannot help but still think it is money well spent on the greatest wrestling series ever.[/b] I believe where they went wrong was to not add even more content. As-is, this is 39 new licensed wrestlers, a full-on career mode, and a few more customization options. The new wrestlers are a moot point for some people because of Workshop support. Some say career mode should have been included with the base game. I can get on-board with both of these points; it's certainly hard to argue with them. Further, by having licensed wrestlers, it forced this online-only aspect which everyone hates. Yeah, I do too. [b]The solution to this problem (if you are going to ask $20 for DLC), is to have a metric ton of quality content, where most players would gladly pay simply because it is 'a steal'.[/b] Because of Workshop support, I probably would have stayed away from licensed content, but hey, that's just my opinion. [b]But again, as a long-time fan of wrestling games, I can confidently say that this series is hands-down the best.[/b] What a sandbox of fun. I'll be buying all the DLC from here on out, and while I wish things were handled a bit better, it doesn't change how much fun I have with this game.

There is a lot of great stuff in this DLC: - 39 NJPW Wrestlers - Loads of new edit parts - 50 new moves - New voices (for the NJPW wrestlers) - Official entrance themes (for the NJPW wrestlers) Now that Spike Chunsoft has removed the always-online DRM from this DLC, I can recommend it to anyone who wants more in Fire Pro Wrestling World.

- Fighting Road (aka Story Mode) - 39 NJPW wrestlers - New realistic heads for the NJPW wrestlers - New edit parts - New voice clips for every wrestler - 50 new moves - 18 theme songs - Red Shoes and the NJPW titles Seems like a great update to me and well worth the $20

The story of Fire Pro Wrestling World on PC, so far, has been one of bittersweet ups and downs. When the game first launch, the same old fire pro community banded together and started creating custom edits, modders started modding, and people started getting very creative with this game. It was awesome for a few months. Modders were constantly tweaking and updating their mods to add more features and functionality to the game. Then it was announced that Spike had licensed NJPW for officially licensed content. As many have, I had been looking forward to this DLC for quite some time. However, had I known this update would completely destroy the modding community, alienate basically the entire PC community, and set the stage for future money-grab DLC's, I would have thought otherwise. Sure, it's great to be able to play as our favourite NJPW wrestlers (but a lot of the custom edits were better than the officials), but now we can only do so with a completely vanilla version of the game, which is quite boring after you've had a chance to play with mods. But no, that's going to be another $30 spike wants from us in a few months. It seems like Spike Chunsoft is completely oblivious or careless of their main playerbase for this game (ie: people who have been playing fire pro games for years, run e-feds w/ mods and custom things). But this update completely changed how the PC version loads data, rendering all mods unworkable and un-updateable. The community is now split into 2. People who have updated to FPWW 2.0 for the NJPW wrestlers and ZERO MODDING (and either couldn't be bothered or don't know how to rollback to previous versions and get a 2nd copy of firepro working with mods post-update). It has been discovered that the only way to continue using mods with Fire Pro Wrestling is to make a 2nd copy of your game before updating, and running a separate 1.02 version while offline in steam. Essentially, people who want to use mods basically have to pirate the game now.... Not exactly sure how Spike saw this impacting their buyrates but... they just killed their game.