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Puzzle Wars
The Fruit kingdom was engaged in civil conflict until their sworn enemies, the Luther Empire captured their holy place, Gnosis. When it came to light that Pope Balterex might be the one responsible for this dastardly deed, King Fruit offered a reward for the capture of the traitor. This prompts the disgraced Lord Istvan to give chase in the hopes rebuilding his ruined life by apprehending Balterex.
If you have played any of the Puzzle Quest games before you will know what to expect from Puzzle Wars. You travel across a world map, engaging enemies in battle through the age old tradition of match three puzzles. Only in Puzzle Wars, its match two puzzles. I thought that this would make the game too simple but it turns out that it actually doesn't make that big of a difference. Each board contains sword blocks used to attack, shield blocks for defense, black and white magic blocks for spells, battle skill blocks for special moves and item blocks to use something from your inventory. Battles are turn based enemy encounters are random apart from the main and side quest battles. To even your odds in battle you can purchase new weapons and armor with a nice touch being that your character is actually shown wearing these on the battle screens. Weapons and armor can also be upgraded with scrolls but there is a chance of these failing which will then reduce the effectiveness so it's a risky business. The game has quite a lengthy quest with a multitude of side missions but unfortunately there also appears to be a level cap of sixty. Most of the game is spent grinding for levels as you can face up to two enemies at once during battle and at higher levels they are no pushovers. Enemies have elemental strengths and weaknesses so care must be taken during battle to not inadvertently heal them with the wrong types of attacks. Even at level sixty, some enemies can kill your character in three hits which obviously poses problems when you face two of these at a time. Luck plays a very big role in the game although your character always makes the first move during battle. Making matches causes the blocks to move down which can form further matches and combos. This means you have to always look ahead when making your moves in order to get the most out of a round. You need to make four of the same type of matches for spells, skills and items but only one match for attacks and defense. It is possible to sometimes make a wrong move due to the small screen size and touch controls but with care this doesn't happen too often. Rounds are played against the clock with your enemies automatically winning when you run out of time. The visuals are quite polished with rendered battle screens and lots of colors. Only Istvan has a character portrait however as all other characters are represented by the same generic face in conversations. The enemy designs are nice and well animated but also a little lacking in variety. Since the game is free you have to put up with some ads displayed the main game window but I didn't find these to be too obtrusive. Puzzle Wars is a very addictive game although it has to be said that the English translation is more than a little odd. I'm sure that the story was supposed to be very serious but whoever did the translation is clearly not a native English speaker. This isn't too big of an issue s it is still easy to figure out what is going on but it bears mentioning. I quite enjoyed my time with Puzzle Wars and the ability to save at any time on the world map made it perfect for playing on the go. Since the game is free there is no reason not to give it a try. |
TAGS: Puzzle Wars, Fruit Kingdom, King Fruit, Pope Balterex, Gnosis, Istvan,
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