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Preface: At first, what follows may seem like nothing more than a gush about how great Puzzle Quest is. I don't really need to do that, since the guys at Penny Arcade already did. In reality, with this piece I hope to analyze the game and extrapolate outward from it to describe the parameters of a genre that may well prove successful, entertaining, and lucrative. I probably failed in that goal, but read on to judge for yourself.
If you're anything like me, when Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords showed up in the "Upcoming" section of RPGamer, you basically ignored it. Sure, the fact that it was being simultaneously released for both the DS and the PSP might have intrigued you. You may have even considered buying it used or in the bargain bin, if that time ever came. Or you may have written it off entirely, seeing it as a quick cash-in on an already tired internet game. To be certain, I saw no buzz leading up to its release. The game never came up in the forums, and, aside from the release date and box art, RPGamer had little information on the game.
And then, maybe, you played the demo.
The point is, this is a game no one saw coming. Or, to be more accurate, we saw it coming and thought it insignificant. We were wrong. Word of mouth and the online demo are carrying this game around the internet. As one forum-goer stated after the release, "I didn't realize I needed the game." That may very well be the definitive statement on Puzzle Quest.
So, for those who didn't catch the post-release hype of the last two weeks, what is it? The best way to answer that would be to encourage you to give the demo a try; that's what it's there for. The game itself attempts to co-mingle elements of puzzle games (think primarily Bejeweled) and RPGs. The puzzle game is the battle system, where matching up three to five like objects yields specific results. Match up green, red, blue, or yellow jewels to get mana in each of the colors, respectively. Use this mana to cast spells that affect gameplay or your opponents HP. Match up gold coins to get gold, purple stars to gain additional EXP, and (most importantly) skulls to do damage to your opponent. Battle plays out as a turn-based affair, with the basic strategy being to maximize your turn (matching up four or five of a kind will net you an extra turn) while a) doing damage to your opponent, b) gaining the mana you need for specific spells, or c) denying your opponent the mana they need for their spells.
"Basically it's just a puzzle game with a medieval skin. Why don't I simply go play the original on Yahoo Games?" If it were nothing more than Bejeweled with a new look, do you really think so many of us would be engrossed by it? The game is a melding of genres, not a cheap facelift for an old game. Puzzle Quest tells a story, offers quests and loot, and allows character customizability. There's even an overworld map to navigate. In other words, rather than just give you a puzzle game that offers no reward for its completion other than personal satisfaction, Puzzle Quest compels you to play against and defeat its monsters by offering three things that no RPG player can turn down: EXP, swag, and story progression.
That's not to say that battle isn't fun in its own right; on the contrary, it is. Think back to the last in-depth RPG you played to completion (in my case, Final Fantasy XII). Why did you fight battles? Was it to progress through the game, gain experience, and pick up any items the defeated monsters may leave behind? Or was it just for the sheer joy of battle? In most cases, I'll bet it was the former. Few RPGs have a battle system that is inherently fun in and of itself. Now imagine that every enemy you met in that in-depth RPG, from the lowliest slime/cactuar/goblin/whatever to the most powerful optional boss, took at least ten minutes to defeat. Imagine watching the gambit system play out for ten minutes on a single hyena before it's vanquished. Now further imagine that nine minutes into the battle, the hyena Hastes itself, drains your MP, and Immobilizes you, right before ripping out your putrid entrails until you die.
Such is Puzzle Quest, except for instead of being tediously mind-numbing, the battles are actually enjoyable, though they do present a challenge. The words I uttered after being defeated - no, not just defeated, outsmarted - four times by a giant spider are not printable here. Rats and skeletons, two traditional enemies good for easy kills and early level grinding, will defeat you. Multiple times. The game (or at least, the PSP version) will serve up a high level of difficulty. Yet it simultaneously extends to the player fun (and frustrating) gameplay and generous rewards for besting vermin in puzzle solving. It lures you on with story elements and character growth. In Final Fantasy XII, if a mark defeated my party, I'd turn the game off in disgust. In Puzzle Quest, if a Rat King defeats me seven times in a row, I am compelled, by a force from the darker parts of my soul, to face him an eighth time in the hopes of vanquishing him.
As a game, it succeeds on nearly every level. I play it with the sound off due to bad voice acting and annoyingly repetitive sound effects, but it's not a game that needs sound, and in every other area, it's incredibly well done. As a niche-genre-definitive experience, however, it falls short. While it is by far the best puzzle-RPG currently on the market, it's easy to see the ways in which Puzzle Quest could be improved. The most obvious is the inclusion of more than one kind of puzzle. As long as we've got a Bejeweled clone as a battle system, why not throw in other clones? Specific types of enemies could utilize specific puzzles. Facing an enemy with high agility? Your battlefield is a Tetris clone. Facing a scholar or a mage? Sudoku them to death. Up against a vicious troupe of dancers? Slay them with Lumines.
The problem with Puzzle Quest is that it's far too modest. It slipped onto shelves silently (some might even say apologetically). In the case of some retailers, the two copies they received have either already been purchased or were pulled from shelves due to poor sales. It could be that D3 was simply unsure about how well their little game would be received, and so didn't invest in a marketing push for it (although the post-release hype Penny Arcade gave the game, including two strips, probably did more for Puzzle Quest than any marketing scheme could have). If there was a limited initial run, this could possibly become one of those rare games that, in 10 years, people will buy on eBay for a hundred dollars, similar to the original Valkyrie Profile. Because, despite all the misgivings of how the two genres would mix, the game turns out to be fun.
Almost certainly, Puzzle Quest will be superseded by future games that take the elements that make it great and expand upon them. But it is this game, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, that will be remembered as the true father of the puzzle RPG niche genre; we'll even be referring to it in acronym form, PQ: CotW, a sure sign of a game's greatness. In the future, the term "puzzle RPG" could become as standard as "random battles" and "androgynous protagonist with a giant sword." Like those staples of the RPG genre, puzzle RPGs will have fans and detractors. We may well be experiencing a quiet revolution in RPGs. Puzzle Quest could popularize a niche genre, raising it up to the status of action and strategy RPGs.
By making the battle system enjoyable on its own, the puzzle RPG presents the possibility of giving gamers the perfect RPG experience. Add a variety of puzzle battles, put top-notch story writers on the team (imagine a Puzzle Quest-type game in the hands of Square Enix), and explore the unique options presented by the puzzle RPG genre, and the revolution will truly have arrived.
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