Overview
The sequel to Virtual Pro Wrestling 64, and released only in Japan. The title translates to Royal Road Succession; the name of the career mode in the game. The fifth wrestling game developed by AKI Corporation. Contained many improvements from previous titles that would be featured in AKI's final Nintendo 64 wrestling game WWF No Mercy. Some features, such as creating masks in edit mode and the MMA style grappling system, would not be carried over to WWF No Mercy.
Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 carries the All Japan Pro Wrestling license, and features 21 wrestlers from their promotion. The rest of the characters included in the game are based on other real promotions and wrestlers, but due to copyright have fake names and appearances. This is common among other Japanese wrestling games. You can identify who the other wrestler's are by their unique moves and taunts, and the edit mode contains each piece of ring attire you would need to recreate their actual likeness.
In total, there are 98 wrestlers in the game, 23 of which have to be unlocked. There is also 16 original character slots you can use to edit and create your own wrestlers, bringing the potential total of wrestlers in the game to 114. This game has the largest roster of all of AKI's wrestling games. In comparison, WWF No Mercy would have 64 wrestlers available.
Features & New Additions:
There are seven modes in Virtual Pro Wrestling 2: Exhibition, Royal Road Succession, League, Tournament, Rally, Ranking, & Edit Mode.
Exhibition
Exhibition mode is where you can setup your Single, Tag-Team, and Three Way matches, as well as a Battle Royal and Elimination.
In a singles match you can choose between a standard Pro Wrestling Rule Set or Mixed Martial Arts rule set. The Mixed Martial Arts set was included to go along with the new MMA grappling system in the game. With this set you can customize how you are awarded points and how the match can be won. Points can be awarded through takedowns, knockdowns, and rope escapes. You can set the amount of rounds between 1-15, have the match end by submission or when someone earns a set amount of points. This rule set can also be used in Elimination mode.
Battle Royal
In Battle Royal, you can choose between Random or Team Battle settings. With Random, you select which four wrestlers begin the match, and afterwards each entrant is chosen randomly. In Team Battle, you select how many wrestlers will belong to each of the four teams. This match type is at it's best when you have four people playing, because each person can keep entering the battle royal with their wrestler(s) of choice, until their entire team is eliminated.
Elimination
You choose two teams that compete against each other in a series of single matches. The damage done to the character that wins a match carries over to the next. The series ends when each member of one team is eliminated. A limited version of this mode is featured in WCW vs. nWo: World Tour, and is called WCW vs. nWo.
The cage match is absent from the game, first featured in WWF Wrestlemania 2000, most likely replaced by the Elimination match because there are not a lot of cage matches in Japanese wrestling. When they are done it is usually as a Cage Death Match with explosives and barbed wire. The Fire Pro Wrestling series features these match types.
Royal Road Succession
Royal Road Succession is the career mode for Virtual Pro Wrestling 2. It is very similar to Road to Wrestlemania in Wrestlemania 2000. The goal is to complete a full tour of the All Japan Wrestling schedule, where instead of Pay Per Views it is highlighted by tournaments, special match types, and championship bouts. The belts you can win during the mode are the Triple Crown Championship (which are three different titles unified as one), Unified World Tag-Team Championship (which are two different tag titles unified as one), and the All Asia Tag-Team Championship. Some of the special events you participate in are the Champion Carnival (a round robin style league tournament, which gives you a shot at the Triple Crown if you win), Real World Tag League (AJPW's prestigious tag-team tournament, also done as a round robin style) and a Battle Royal (another yearly event held by AJPW).
Many of the hidden wrestlers and items in the game can be obtained through Royal Road Succession mode. Certain items and characters can only be unlocked by using specific wrestlers in RRS, encouraging multiple playthroughs.
League
League Mode is where you can set up a round robin style tournament, a feature not seen since WCW vs. nWo World Tour. League tournaments are very common in Japanese wrestling promotions, offering wrestlers an opportunity to compete multiple times, earning points for their efforts. You can choose up to 12 participants in either a singles or tag-team format. A wrestler is awarded two points if they win, one if there is a draw, and zero if they lose. Whoever has the most points in the end wins. If there is a tie, then a final match takes place to decide the winner.
Tournament
Tournament mode is where you can create your standard elimination style tournament. In Wrestlemania 2000, this was represented as The King of the Ring mode. You can choose up to 16 participants in the tournament, either in a singles or tag-team format.
Rally
Rally mode is where you can customize your own event, similar to Pay Per View mode in Wrestlemania 2000. You can create as many matches as you like, and either play them yourself or let the computer simulate the matches, with the exception of title matches. There are some hidden items that can be obtained by holding specific matches as part of a Rally event.
Ranking
Ranking mode is similar to tournament mode, except you can enter individual names to represent yourself as opposed to the wrestlers.
Edit
Edit Mode is where you can customize every wrestler in the game, as well as create up to 16 new wrestlers. With an Nintendo 64 memory card, you gain an extra 16 slots that you can swap in and out as well.
An addition here not featured in any other AKI wrestling game is the creating and editing of masks. There are also various outfits, items, masks and moves that can be unlocked to use throughout the rest of the game. The edit mode includes every piece of attire you need to correctly change the non AJPW wrestlers appearances to reflect their actual likeness.
Arenas
There are five arenas you can select for your matches in the game, each based on real world venues.
Budokan (Nippon Budokan)
Dome (Tokyo Dome)
AKI Hall (Korakuen Hall)
Stadium (Kawasaki Stadium)
Dome Road (Tokyo Dome with ramp, must be unlocked)
Belts
For each mode and match type you have the option of putting a title on the line. You can create your own titles using the belts in the game which are based off real and existing championships. Initially there are eight belts you can choose from, but you can unlock 15 more bringing the total to 23. This is similar to Wrestlemania 2000, but this feature would be scaled back in WWF No Mercy, only allowing you to defend the WWF titles without renaming them.
Roster
These are all the wrestlers available in the game, listed in the order they appear.
All Japan Pro Wrestling | | |
---|
Giant Baba | Toshiaki Kawada | Big Van Vader |
Mitsuharu Misawa | Akira Taue | Stan Hansen |
Yoshinari Ogawa | Takao Omori | Johnny Ace |
Masahito Kakihara | Yoshihiro Takayama | Mike Barton |
Kenta Kobashi | Hiroshi Hase | Gary Albright |
Jun Akiyama | Jun Izumida | Johnny Smith |
Kentaro Shiga | Maunakea Mossman | Giant Kimala |
New Japan Pro Wrestling | | |
---|
Shinya Hashimoto | Masahiro Chono | Jushin "Thunder" Liger |
Tatsumi Fujinami | Keiji Muto | El Samurai |
Kensuke Sasaki | Hiroyoshi Tenzan | Kendo Kashin |
Shiro Koshinaka | Satoshi Kojima | Dr. Wagner Jr. |
Manabu Nakanishi | Hiro Saito | Shinjiro Otani |
Yuji Nagata | Scott Norton | Tatsuhito Takaiwa |
Kazuo Yamazaki | | Koji Kanemoto |
Tadao Yasuda | | |
Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling |
---|
Hayabusa |
Masato Tanaka |
Kodo Fuyuki |
Mr. Gannosuke |
Jado |
Gedo |
The Gladiator (Mike Awesome) |
Genichiro Tenryu |
Michinoku Pro Wrestling, Osaka Pro Wrestling, & Toryumon |
---|
The Great Sasuke |
Jinsei Shinzaki |
TAKA Michinoku |
Gran Naniwa |
Super Delfin |
Magnum TOKYO |
Shiima Nobunaga (CIMA) |
Dragon Kid |
RINGS |
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Kiyoshi Tamura |
Tsuyoshi Kosaka |
Bitsadze Tariel |
Volk Han |
Pancrase |
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Masakatsu Funaki |
Yoshiki Takahashi |
Minoru Suzuki |
Kengo Watanabe |
Semmy Schilt |
PRIDE |
---|
Nobuhiko Takada |
Kazushi Sakuraba |
Enson Inoue |
Rumina Sato |
BattlARTS |
---|
Yuki Ishikawa |
Alexander Otsuka |
Daisuke Ikeda |
Minoru Tanaka |
Unlockable Wrestlers | | |
---|
Jumbo Tsuruta | Andre the Giant | Antonio Inoki |
Mil Mascaras | Akira Maeda | Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) |
Terry Funk | Alexander Karelin | Naoya Ogawa |
Dory Funk Jr. | Rickson Gracie | Riki Choshu |
Terry Gordy | Mark Kerr | Don Frye |
"Dr. Death" Steve Williams | Bas Rutten | Atsushi Onita |
Bruiser Brody | Great Muta | Yoshiaki Fujiwara |
Abdullah the Butcher | Ultimo Dragon | |
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