Time for a little evangelism. I’m on a zero-man crusade to try and let some more people know about Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords for DS and PSP, which is due out in March. I’m convinced this is going to be one of those great games no one ever plays. It has one of the more intriguing concepts I’ve ever seen, combining two vastly different genres together to create something that is unique, yet built on solid battle-tested mechanics.
PQ is one part quest-based RPG, complete with several classes to choose from each with their corresponding skills/spells, one part Bejeweled. No, I’m not joking.
The combat grid is 8*8 squares, and on it you’ll find mana gems of 4 colors (red, green, blue, yellow-each corresponding to an element) as well as purple gems, coins, and skull gems. when you match 3 or more in a row (by exchanging the position of two adjacent stones ala Bejeweled) they are removed from the board and you also derive some form of benefit from the particular stones you collect.
For instance, match three yellow gems, and your character gains three yellow (Air) mana, which is used to activate spells. Collecting coins gives you money (surprise). Collecting purple gems gives bonus experience. Collecting skulls does direct damage to your opponent.
You and your opponent alternate turns on the same board, so you have to be careful not to set up your opponent with moves that will hurt you. Creating 4 in a row of any gem/coin gives you an extra move. Creating 5 in a row gives you an extra turn plus a wild-card gem. Wild-card gems match any color of mana gem have a multiplier (I’ve seen 2x to 5x) which modifies the amount of mana collected. There are also special skull gems that do extra damage and collect all the surrounding gems when they are removed from the board.
During your turn, provided you have the mana for it, you can activate a spell instead of making a move on the grid. Some spells do direct damage to your opponent. Many of them seem to manipulate the board in some way. In playing the demo, my newbie knight had only an ability called Thrust which could be used to destroy/collect any one square on the board. These abilities are really going to help differentiate the gameplay from being a simple clone, yet the game is fun and getting started is so intuitive, since most people have at least seen Bejeweled before and the fundamental concept is so simple.
Incidentally, if you make an invalid move (that doesn’t remove anything from the board) you take damage. Furthermore, the time limit on taking a turn can be infinite or set between 4-16 seconds (not sure on the interval). This should allow for people that want a more action-packed game to get into this and not leave people like me that want a more relaxed experience out in the cold.
When combat ends you are presented with a reward screen that shows you the experience and gold you gain for defeating the enemy, plus any bonus gold and xp you gathered along the way. Characters are level-based and when you gain a level you receive skill points that can be spent in several areas, including one for each mana type as well as battle, cunning, and morale. Cunning determines who goes first and likely has other effects. The mana masteries will increase the amount of mana you gain when collecting gems of that color, and presumably open up new abilities. Battle likely increases the yield from collecting skulls.
I haven’t even mentioned the map yet. There’s an overhead map that shows places you can visit. If there are quests available at a locale there will be a yellow exclamation point over the town, or if the quest is part of the main story arc, a red one. Selecting a locale pops up a menu of stuff to do, such as obtaining quests or visiting shops. You can buy items in shops that give you combat bonuses. I believe you can equip one helm, one weapon, a piece of armor and one miscellaneous item. Apparently, as the game progresses you can also capture towns and build special structures that give you bonuses, but I didn’t get a chance to see that.
Other stuff I’ve read but not seen myself:
There is some form of crafting new items with salvage you acquire.
You can choose to capture some opponents, then learn their skills.
The latter, and possibly both of these make use of some sort of mini-games which are variants of the main combat mechanic.
You can also apparently get companions to join you, though I’m not sure in what way these aid you.
In addition to the quest mode (with over 150 quests), there’s a single-player instant-action mode as well as a two-player vs mode. You can level up your character in the instant action or 2p modes then hop right back into the main quest.
Almost forgot to mention that the game is also apparently going to appear on the PC and on the 360 at a later date.
Well, I think I’ve covered most everything. This is my most anticipated game on any platform right now. I had some concerns about how well they’d be able to mesh the puzzle-based gameplay with an RPG, but after trying it for a few all-too-brief minutes (30 of them passed me by in what seemed like 5) that is no longer a concern. I’ve read the main quest is expected to hold 40+ hours of gameplay. It remains to be seen how well balanced the game is as you progress and whether or not the different classes really feel different, which would add some replayability.
As far as PSP versus DS, I played the PSP version, and it looked nice enough, but I don’t think it was pushing the system too hard. I think the DS version will look fairly comparable, though the gems are going to be smaller and I hope it doesn’t become heavily squint-inducing. The DS version apparently does support using the touch screen for the combat grid. One bummer about the DS version is that there are apparently only two save slots, which stinks when there are four classes to try. The PSP version is said to allow as many saves as you have room for.