Narratively Draggin’
Uncover a legacy buried beneath the fallen kingdom of Libra in Puzzle and Dragons Story, a match-3 puzzle adventure RPG from GungHo Online Entertainment. Once protected by the benevolent goddess Eschamali, Libra fell into ruin after her sudden disappearance. Don the mantle of Root Hunter and wield a mighty team of monsters as you crawl through treacherous dungeons and search for answers. With truly challenging puzzles and interesting creature designs, Puzzles and Dragons Story offers plenty for match-3 puzzle game enthusiasts to worship. Its story, however, feels almost as absent as its goddess.
Have You Seen Our Goddess?
As you begin your journey as a Root Hunter, you’ll meet Hermei, a friendly wizard that acts as a temporary mentor (á la Pokemon’s professors). Hermei offers players a choice between one of three starter creatures—Flame Key Heir, Gileon; Ice Key Heir, Menuit and Forest Key Heir, Amlynea—before ushering them off to a series of tutorial dungeons.
Players must drag and match three or more elemental orbs of the same color to create combos and unleash attacks. Creatures of the same elemental alignments as your orb combos will spar with their monstrous opposition. A successful three-orb match lobs an attack at a single enemy minion. Matching five or more orbs will add extra oomph to your attacks and strike all enemy creatures at once. Over time, creatures’ skills will charge, offering time buffs and the ability to clear or change orbs. Furthermore, each creature has a unique special ability that buffs your entire team after meeting its criteria. Triggers include matching specific orb types or achieving a specific number of combos, just to name a few.
After successfully completing the tutorial, Hermei hands you the Root Tree, a magical scroll that contains the family trees for all of Libra’s creatures. As you discover new beasts, you’ll unlock their recipes, which require crystals dropped by defeated foes and elemental-specific mana to create. You’ll be on your own from this point forward, save for the occasional tip between loading screens. However, these hints and tricks disappear almost immediately, with no in-game guidebook to go back to for reference. You won’t need most of these tips since the gameplay feels largely intuitive, but the few I managed to spot offered a revelation or two. Sadly, this minor irritation was the first of many.
A Hoard Squandered
I’ve always wanted to play a Puzzle and Dragons title but never pulled the trigger until Puzzle and Dragons Story. As a puzzle game enthusiast, I knew the basics—the main series centers around match-3 gameplay, with a character-collecting gacha element thrown in for good measure. Wouldn’t a story focused on this popular IP only improve an already winning combination?
As I began my journey through Libra, my enthusiasm gradually evaporated. Still, I hoped, in the face of a near-absent narrative, that Story would eventually blossom into the match-3 RPG I knew it could be. Dishearteningly, the game never fully delivered on its titular promise. Beyond Hermei and Eschamali’s brief tales, we never get to know any of Libra’s other inhabitants or uncover its past. It’s a real shame, too, because its world is teeming with interesting critters full of personality, begging for a voice.
What Puzzles and Dragons Story does manage to get right is its strategy-rich puzzle-solving. Thanks to the ability to move an orb anywhere on the board, players have a wealth of opportunities to score. This freedom, coupled with the cornucopia of unique creature skills and environmental obstacles, creates one of the most challenging match-3 puzzle games I’ve ever played. The game’s puzzles were fun for a while until around the tenth set of dungeons. Players will likely struggle with progression, having to grind for crystals and mana to level up their teams. Difficult dungeons and a lack of adequate monster allies finally thwarted my crusade to free Libra’s goddess. Maybe you’ll fare better as a Root Hunter than I did. If you do, give Eschamali my best.
