Pocket Quest

Genre: Match-3 Puzzle / Turn-Based RPG

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local)

.

Review:

Pocket Quest is a Match-3 Puzzle game and Turn-Based RPG released on Nintendo Switch in 2023, where players match colored tiles on a gris to empower special moves and attack their opponent. Or, to be more precise, this is clearly a copycat of Puzzle Quest. However, as I often say, it’s okay for a game to be a copycat as long as it’s a good copycat. So then the question is, is this game a good copycat?

Pocket Quest has a decent but unspectacular presentation, with 2D backgrounds and 2D characters that animate in a paper doll style, backed by generic-sounding medieval fantasy music. This is joined by a story about a young warrior seeking to become the new jarl of her viking-esque society and being sent on a quest to prove themselves.

Compared to Puzzle Quest, Pocket Quest is far more linear and limited, with players progressing through levels one after the other. And unlike Puzzle Quest, only bosses have you facing off against an enemy who also uses the same puzzle board to power their attacks, with other enemies automatically attacking you every turn. This works, but it does make non-boss battles less engaging, as the lack of enemy interaction with the game board makes it more like a race against the clock to beat them before they whittle your health down.

The controls in this game feel a bit stiff and clunky, and players don’t get nearly as many options for customizing their character loadout, especially early into the game. You’ll soon find that most pieces of equipment enemies award you with are useless to your class, forcing you to pawn them off for experience points.

Overall, I would say that Pocket Quest still works, but it’s a much lesser game than Puzzle Quest, making it hard to recommend over the game that inspired it, unless you want to save money, as this game is just a little over half the price of Puzzle Quest. However, if money is your concern, you still have a better option – Gems of War, the spiritual successor to Puzzle Quest, is not only excellent, but it’s free-to-play, meaning cheapskates already have a better alternative.

Don’t get me wrong, Pocket Quest is a competent Puzzle Quest clone, but it just can’t compare to the wealth of nuance, variety, and freedom that Puzzle Quest offers, and between Puzzle Quest and Gems of War you have two better alternatives to Pocket Quest. As a result, I can’t really recommend this game – get one (or both!) of the other two instead.

tl;dr – Pocket Quest is a Match-3 Puzzle game and Turn-Based RPG that’s clearly copying Puzzle Quest, and while it’s not bad, it’s not as good as Puzzle Quest or Puzzle Quest’s spiritual successor, Gems of War. With both of those games available on Nintendo Switch, I recommend you get one of those instead.

Grade: C+

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Jamie and His Cats, Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Johannes, Jaka, Jared Wark, Gabriel Coronad-Medina, Francis Obst, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}