Gungho Entertainment Online had two separate stations setup at PAX East this year. One the left side was Puzzle & Dragons Z on the 3DS XL and on the right side was Puzzle & Dragons Super Mario Bros. Edition on the 3DS XL. On the center stage was both Mario and Luigi taking photos with people and it was hilarious and quite funny. There was a Princess Peach Cosplayer there and it was great timing on my part to get this funny photo below.
I had the pleasure of playing Puzzle & Dragons Z on the new 3DS XL. This is developed and published by Gungho Online Entertainment. This was my first romp into the world of puzzle game RPGs like this, you essentially are playing two types of games in one. It looks and acts like a normal RPG however to fight enemies in a turn based manner you have to move colored circle jewels around and match up colors in lines to create combos in order to attack your enemies each turn. I’m not normally interested in puzzle only games but this combination of puzzle/RPG was really fun and being an RPG fan I very much liked it.
I started off in an fully unlocked demo world so I was able to explore any area I wanted and see what it fully had to offer as instructed by a Gungo Online Entertainment PR rep. I made my way into the Forest of Echos and took the Forest-Sprite path. My quick demo quickly turned into a 2 dungeon play through. You walk along a path and you have enemies that spawn randomly along your path. Normally I’m not a fan of this when I play RPGs but it didn’t bother me this time around because these paths are short and encounters go by fairly quick.
The music was fun and kept the pace going and the graphics actually blew me away for a 3DS game. This game is colorful and fun with animations happening in the foreground and background and detailed sprites all around you. Even the puzzle jewels looked great. The 3d aspect was also great as well taking note that I did play this on the new 3DS XL, it was quite a smooth experience. I even was able to play to the end boss at the end of the dungeon and successfully beat him.
Outside of the dungeon level and paths you have an over world city where you can do many things. I was told by the PR rep its where you can join your friends and adventure together which is pretty exciting, you can also purchase items and plenty of other things I wasn’t able to play with due to timing.
I will have to say that this is surprisingly a title that I was sold on, a hidden gem if you will and I will definitely be picking it up. It’s an easily accessible game with quick pick up and play and fast paced addicting gaming. Both Puzzle & Dragons Z and Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition will be included in one single package and is set to release in North America in May of 2015.
