Bejeweled combat system in an RPG. Seriously. It works.
Lengthy RPG with side-quests, and all the standard features, except a puzzle-like combat system to keep things fresh. Music doesn't suck.
The bad:
You really gotta like playing Bejeweled.
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You might be wondering who to believe at this point….on the one hand, GS gives Puzzle Quest a rather positive review, accurately describing the mechanics of what sounds like a ridiculous concept on paper: take a standard RPG and make the ‘combat’ a version of Bejeweled.
On the other hand, Nintendo Power gives this a pretty negative rating, but no review. Who to believe?
Well….it depends.
If you are a fan of the style of RPG where you level up your character at will, buy and craft new armor and weapons to outfit him/her, and head out on main and subquests to save the land, you might like this game.
The reason I say might has to do with the combat: as the official review indicates, this is not as simple as pushing the A button repeatedly. To hack and slash at your opponent, you must play the bejeweled game. Fortunately, the game is so full of elements of strategy that it keeps things pretty interesting. The different ‘jewels’, when cleared, add money, experience, or mana to one of several mana element types, allowing you to cast spells (to stun your enemy, do damage, etc), in addition to doing direct damage to your foe, who alternates taking turns on the same board as you are using.
There is no way around the combat system, so if you don’t like playing Bejeweled, you probably won’t like this game at all. If you do, however, then wow, are you in for a treat.
The official review is pretty clear in the description of the game, so I won’t repeat it here. What I will mention, however, is that they are way off the mark in terms of the graphics for the DS.
I find them crisp, clear, and easy to see. Using the stylus to ‘click’ on your jewels to move them is far easier than having to scroll around a pointer, making the DS version superior in terms of control features to the PSP. Plus, no stuttering at all on the DS.
One other thing I disagreed with was the frustration level playing this game. Basically, like any RPG, if you want to have an easy time of things, you need to level up sufficiently, and have good weapons and armor. This game is no exception. If you try to go too far on the main quest without taking on some side-quests and random battles to buff up your character, you will indeed find yourself in deep water pretty quickly. Luckily, there is no shortage of ways to level up (side quests, random monsters blocking the path, buying trait boosts in your Citadel, etc.), not to mention the item crafting system, the monster-capture system (which allows them to confer extra spells, etc.). It is a deep deep RPG, disguised as a puzzle game.
In closing, let me just say that it is about time games developers finally got around to making proper use of the stylus. Recent releases tend to see it as a mouse pointer, allowing for PC-style game control, something I think Nintendo was hoping would happen when they designed it. The new games coming out (Theme Park, Settlers) are capitalizing on this feature, allowing some fan favorites to become portable. Well done.