Game Story Case Studies, Episode 6: Puyo Puyo Tetris (Part 6)

Links-Home–Reviews–Articles–Library–Contact

It is time again to continue analyzing the story mode if Puyo Puyo Tetris. As mentioned in earlier articles, I will skip some scenes in this analysis, but will cover the important story arcs. There will be major SPOILERS throughout this article, so if you want to see them for yourself, wait until you play the game before reading this article in full. So, let us take a look.

Act 2, Scene 4:

Recap: The crew of the SS Tetra is lost on Ringo’s home world. While some of the crew was found in two of the scenes skipped in my analysis, we start this scene here:

Well, we catch Ess uncharacteristically crying about being lost on Ringo’s planet. She is blaming Tee, as usual. This does beg the question of how scary an earth-like planet is to these space people. Have they never encountered this sort of planet before? The crew of the SS Tetra is mostly human, so one has to wonder what kind of world they are from, or if they were raised in space. Ess also mentions someone she refers to as “Papa”, who wasn’t introduced, yet.

It is good to see the characters are aware of how odd Ess’s behavior is. Keep in mind that she was described as “abusive” earlier in this game’s story. As for Tee’s last comment, not making eye contact sounds more like a trick to not startle a wild animal, as opposed to a human being. Though I guess staring at someone crying could make things worse, to his credit.

And again, there is the concept that playing Puyo Puyo or Tetris will fix things, like calming a person down. I really don’t see how this works…anyhow, the game then cuts to game play at this point.

 Well, the only thing that helped with was making Ess her usual crabby self, which I guess is the point…and there is a lame and over-used quote like “the power of friendship” for whatever reason.

Okay, a few points here: First, Ess is on an unfamiliar planet, sees a stranger, and decides to follow her? Even though she calls Tee incompetent, she isn’t too bright herself…

Next, I would like to mention something about the description of said character Ess had followed. “A girl with a crooked stick in each hand” is a strange description. I will make a note of this description when this character is revealed in a later scene, as the game doesn’t properly acknowledge what the crooked sticks are.

I also need to mention that there were similarly vague descriptions of characters in some of the scenes I skipped in this analysis. I find it interesting that Ringo hasn’t put any of these descriptions together yet, as these characters are (I believe) regulars in the Puyo Puyo games.

Time for a long but interesting exchange before the scene ends…

Okay, there is a lot here to discuss. First, the obvious one: why does Ess consider Zed the robot her papa? This is most likely an adoption situation, though the game never addresses this question fully.

Another interesting point, is that Ess’s description of “Papa” is vaguer than the one she gives of the mysterious girl she followed, but Ringo, who met this character only recently, gets the description right away! This is an inconsistency in this game’s narrative (Though, I will admit, isn’t impossible).

Also, Ringo’s “It sounds completely biologically routine” is way too wordy. She could have said “it’s completely normal” instead, and have gotten the point across.

This game’s story has a lot of issues, as this article and its predecessors have shown, but I’m not even remotely done. There is plenty more to critique, and look forward to seeing more in the future.

---

And that was part 6 of my case study of Puyo Puyo Tetris’s story mode. There will be more parts to this case study in the near future, as there is a lot to cover. Have you found more that is worth discussing about this game’s story? Any good or bad points that I may have missed so far? Keep in mind, I will cover the full story ark in the future, but let me know what you think in the comments below! Be sure to click that like button if you enjoyed this article, and would like to see more! To keep up with That’s All Games, be sure to subscribe via email! Until next time, have fun gaming!