Yorokonde! Review

No longer the Anime Blog you once knew. We review Anime, Manga, Games, Music, Dramas, Plays, Comic Books, Websites, TV Channels, what have you. Not bad, eh?

Saturday, May 15, 2004

Puyo Pop Fever Review!

Or rather, my pathetic attempt to make you buy this game. Rawr.

Wai, my first Yorokonde post! Since this review is way overdue, I figured I should make it a bit lengthy. And I'm warning you, it is quite a read. I've also noticed an extreme lack of video game reviews. I just had to remedy the situation, being a game whore and all. I wonder if anyone will bother reading this...?

And now for a bit of introduction.

Although I love playing RPGs in general, I always had a preference for puzzle and sim games. Sure, roleplaying games have a plot, character development and kewl skillz, but I always have to refer to walkthroughs whenever I'm stuck somewhere. That, and I find levelling-up to be very tedious work. These are some of the reasons why I tend to lose interest in RPGs fairly quickly. I also have an attention span akin to a fruit fly. Meep.

Puzzle games, on the other hand, are meant to be light-hearted, unadulterated fun. And Puyo Pop Fever directly falls into that category. So yeah, this game may not have an intricate plot or in-depth characters but it does the job of getting you entertained. Very fascinating.

To start off the actual review, PPF is a puzzle game for the PS2 console. Like Tetris in a way, only with less annoying background music and cutesy characters. It has taken over my soul. It's my newest obsession, actually. It's the good alternative for crack, I tell you!

Since I'm not used to explaining game mechanics without sounding completely stupid, I've provided a couple of links for your viewing convenience. Granted, I didn't put that much effort into compiling said links, but go click them anyway. Atleast you'll have an idea what I'm raving about. Moving on!

Hmm. As expected, PPF doesn't have much of a plot. I haven't finished the Wakuwaku and Harahara courses (<-- one-player modes) yet because I suck, so I can't contribute much. To progress to the next stage you have to beat up your opponent, basically. For some reason, there seems to be a "I CHALLENGE you! You can't pass until you DEFEAT me!!" thing going around.

Now that the game objectives and plot are out of the way, time for a bit of chara talk!

PPF's main character is Amitie, your typical genki girl trying to study magic. Er, she doesn't appeal to me much, but she's definitely main character material. I just prefer Raffine (<-- the obligatory rival) over her. The cast is nicely designed and the Japanese voiceovers are well-done as per usual. My favorite character is Arle, by the way~! The cuteness! Cute, cute, cute~! You should see her in action ("Ikimasu~! Ice Storm~! Yatta ne~! Matakyuu~~~"). Hyep, I use Arle all the time to DESTROY.

Oh, be still my inner Arle fangirl!

This game has a nice batch of characters to choose from, actually. I just love Arle so much that I tend to ignore them. They're all cute, nonetheless. The mascot-looking ones, especially. I still have to unlock Carbuncle (<-- Arle's dog, who reminds me of the San-X mascot, Purin.), though. Hmm. As for the music, it's cute, happy and really reflects the game well, in my opinion. Other than that, there's nothing uber-special about it.

PPF looks easy, happy and sparkly at first glance, but mastering the Fine Art of puyo-stacking is actually quite a challenge. I've only started getting the hang of things after, say, endless hours of playing. The practice paid off, though. My Arle can DESTROY my little brother's Onion Pixy. Yesss...

Overall, I highly recommend this game. Very, very addictive. I've managed to rack up hours without even realizing it! So if you can't seem to defeat any of the Aeons in FFX-2 (Chapter 3. Grrr. Yuna's a 100% White Mage. This shouldn't be happening! *ventvent*), consider giving this game a try!

And wai~! Arle is actually the main character of the previous Puyo Pop installments! Must get. Hmm. It's funny how much I worship Arle and completely ignore Amitie. These two are so much alike. Even their attacks and catch phrases are the same. Ah, well. Arle is cuter anyway. Sucks to be Amitie.

Ohhh! I've used the word 'cute' about eight times. It's definitely time to invest on a thesaurus. Go me!

The oh-so-relevant links:
01. Das official PPF site.
02. Review #1. Fwee.
03. Ah, look! A Review #2.
04. Why don't you check my search results? Or look it up on Google yourself?

...I'm just hoping SOMEONE was converted benefited from my article.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home