Puzzle Quest: The Legend Returns

Genre: Match-3 Puzzle / RPG

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local)

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Review:

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is a remake of the classic Puzzle/RPG hybrid originally released to the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable over a decade ago and then subsequently ported to numerous other platforms. This version of the game, made exclusively for the Nintendo Switch, includes high-resolution graphics, all of the content previously released for the game, as well as an additional campaign, new character classes, new monsters, new items and abilities. In short, this is the definitive version of the game, by far.

The gameplay here takes the simple Match-3 Puzzle gameplay of a game like Bejeweled and adds in a competitive element. Generally speaking, matches in this game are a face-off between two opponents using the same puzzle board, with matches on the board acting as attacks or fueling magic that can be used to power spells and abilities that players can outfit their characters with.

It’s a great concept that’s surprisingly addictive, despite that I would argue that Bejeweled isn’t an especially great puzzle game, the RPG elements here aren’t very deep, and the game’s story is terribly generic. However, the fusion of these elements into such a great battle system actually makes Puzzle Quest greater than the sum of its parts. Crafting a character build that has the perfect combination of equipment and magic spells to annihilate enemies is an immensely satisfying experience.

Having said that, some elements of this game haven’t aged especially well. For starters, there is a lot of text in this game, and it feels especially odd that the game’s voiced content basically just amounts to announcer comments (“That was a heroic effort!” “Your hero is near death”, etc.).

On top of that, it’s hard to ignore how random the puzzle gameplay feels sometimes – often, the difference between victory and defeat will hinge on what gems fall after you make a match, something you can neither control or even predict. It’s extremely frustrating when you make a carefully-considered match only for the game to basically just give the opponent what they need to kill you in the wake of your move. Likewise, it feels odd when you make a match that sets off a chain reaction that you had no active role in setting up. When you get far enough into the game, your character build can have a spell loadout that can help to mitigate this randomness somewhat, but it will always be a factor in the gameplay, which is frustrating.

Also frustrating is the need to start over from scratch every time you want to try out a new class, meaning if you want to try out different character builds, you’ll be stuck playing through the lengthy campaign(s) multiple times.

As mentioned above, the graphics and look much cleaner this time around, which makes everything display much more nicely on a big TV, with clear text and hand-drawn visuals. That said, this greater definition does make a lot of these elements seem a lot more generic, from the map to even the font used throughout the game. Also, while the game’s sound and music are all still good, the lack of variety in the music is hard to ignore at this point, as players will be hearing the same tunes cycle over and over again… you may find yourself deciding to mute the game before long, not because the sound is bad, but because it’s so repetitive.

Despite all of this griping, the core gameplay of Puzzle Quest is still fantastic, and it is being presented here the best it’s ever been, with improved visuals and more content than the game has ever had. Puzzle Quest definitely shows its age throughout, but it’s still an excellent game worth getting.

tl;dr – Puzzle Quest: The Legend Returns is an HD remaster of the classic Puzzle/RPG hybrid that adds in a slew of new content. This is a fantastic game with compelling gameplay that’s greater than the sum of its parts, and this is the absolute best version of the game, but it is also a game that definitely shows its age in some places.

Grade: B+

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