You play the character of a K’Ogari Warrior who has been captured by a group of slavers. Afterwards, you are purchased by a mysterious sorceress named Morgana, who will free you providing you perform a small task for her at a later date. Until that day, she guides you on a journey to gain revenge on your captors. If you are familiar with the Puzzle RPG genre in games such Puzzle Quest and Galactrix then you will understand how Puzzle Chronicles works. The genre name is exactly that, a puzzle and a RPG game.
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The main battle puzzle game is a horizontal gem drop game which you play against an opponent. There are four coloured gems which drop in three main types; Normal, Battle and Rage. Normal blocks are the most common and provide a basis for creating chains. Battle blocks are star-like gems and will destroy any adjoining gems of the same colour. Finally, rage blocks are skull gems which add points to your rage meter when destroyed.
Two less common types of gems, known as “Special Gems” exist. “Wildcards” match any adjoining gems when destroyed and a “Multiplier Gem” gives you a special attack bonus. If a group of 2×2 gems match they will merge into a “Power Gem”. If you have an item equipped to the colour of the Power Gem, you can gain attack or defense bonuses when it is destroyed.
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The play area is split into two by a bar that moves towards your opponent when you score a hit which is performed when the Rage meter is full. Once the bar has reached the opponents side they are defeated. To help do this you have special attacks which come from your partner, a “Warbeast” who you rescue early in the game. When coloured gems are destroyed, they fill up their respective special attack meters. Once full, you can order the Warbeast to perform the attack on your enemy.
Battles are played in real time and usually last shorter than a battle in Puzzle Quest for example. At the top of the screen you have a visual representation of the battle, with your character, Warbeast and opponent fighting it out. The animation is fairly good and attention to detail has been made with individual graphics for your equipment, but you rarely get to enjoy it as you are concentrating on the play area at the bottom of the screen. The difficulty level can be changed at any time between Casual to Deathbringer. I would recommend starting at a lower difficulty until you have built up your stats and items, then increase the difficulty until you are comfortable as Deathbringer is extremely tough to start the game on!
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In between battles, you are introduced to the RPG element of the game. You spend most of your time travelling from location to location, you also get to explore inside buildings which was a nice change and gave a more adventurous feel to the game. Accessible locations are highlighted with a question or exclamation mark acting as a useful guide to avoid getting lost or missing a side quest. Side quests are optional but are recommended to complete as they often reward you with XP, gold and items you can’t find elsewhere. One such quest is St Giles’ Scrolls which continues throughout the game and has a humorous narration in the scrolls content.
From the map screen you can access mini games once you have unlocked them. You can play these games to improve your character and Warbeast stats, unlock dungeons and treasure rooms and forge weapons. The mini games are different to the battle game and are played with vertically falling gems with variations on the rules. The rules include matching groups of four gems to increase your score, matching specified gems, match groups of 4 gems with 3×3 blocks and so on. The mini games can provide a good challenge at higher levels and make for a nice break from the battle game.
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Cut scenes are shown in between missions and are presented in a comic book style with voice overs from the characters. The voice acting is performed well and each character is suited to the role. While the scenes are non animated, they do work well and progresses the story which initially starts off fairly dull but picks up to provide a decent story later in the game.
Puzzle Chronicles will take an estimated twenty hours to complete on a standard game with some side quests, longer if you if you want to complete everything such as collecting all the trophies, scrolls and awards, as well as the online multiplayer battles. It is not as lengthy as Puzzle Quest but there is still good value for money. Granted it is essentially a clone of Puzzle Quest and I have seen some comments saying it is a poor rip off. While this feels true at the start of the game, Puzzle Chronicles becomes a very enjoyable puzzle RPG standing on its own two feet.
Puzzle Chronicles costs 800 :MSPoints:, you can download the demo or purchase the full version on the Marketplace. Thanks to Robert S. of Konami for providing the codes for the game.
Competition
UPDATE – IntenseDebate comments are working again and all entries are now synced. The deadline has been extended by one day to make up for the issues. Apologies for any inconvenience.
Here is your chance to win a code for a full copy of Puzzle Chronicles for the Xbox 360. The game allows you to name your character so what we would like to know is:
What would you name your character and why?
Reply in the comments below with your answer and a winner will be picked at random after the deadline on May 2nd at 11:59:59 AM GMT.
Rules and information
– The deadline to submit your entry is Sunday 2nd May at 11:59:59 AM GMT. The winner will be picked at random from all eligible entries and will be notified within 24 hours.
– Include your correct email address in the field as this will be used to contact you if you win, the email address is not shown to the public.
– Please only enter once. Multiple entries and using multiple accounts may be banned from this and future competitions.
– Anyone may enter but please remember that the token may not be redeemable if the game is not available in your country. No alternatives will be offered, you can either give the code back to us and we will pick another winner or you can give it to someone else.
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