Game Story Case Studies, Episode 7: Puyo Puyo Tetris (Part 7)

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Today, I am continuing my critique of Puyo Puyo Tetris’s story mode. So these articles don’t drag on forever, I have skipped some scenes. As such, I have included the most important scenes, or the most noteworthy ones. This is part 7 of this series, with more to come.

 Act 2, Scene 6:

Recap: After finding the crew of the SS Tetra, Ringo meets a friend that is possessed by some unseen force (note, this is in a scene that is skipped, as the scene I’m about to show was more interesting). We now move on to the next encounter.

So it is clear that the characters have no idea what is going on, and want to figure out what is happening. I’m not sure if the scene needs Maguro’s comment, though.

It is a little weird that Ringo recognizes the character before they show Feli on screen. The dialogue here is very campy too. The “Hey wait, it’s YOU!” followed by “That’s correct, I’m me.” are very on the nose. Let’s not forget to mention the humor of Ringo’s long line of adjectives might be lost in the apparent seriousness of the situation.

Okay, there is a lot to cover here. First, we have the relevance of Feli showing up in the scene, she got Ess lost in a previous scene. Next, the “crooked sticks” are an odd description, although the game acknowledges this in an attempt at humor. It appears the villainous plan is to merge the Puyo Puyo and Tetris worlds together, whatever that might do. I can’t help but point out how much of an oxymoron the sentence “she is weird though, that part is definitely normal” is.

I left in the “HYYYYAH!” portion, if only to show the “crooked sticks” more clearly. It has occurred to me that they might be dousing rods (the game’s characters never call give them a proper name). Dousing rods are a controversial way to find water or minerals and such. They might not even really work in real life. They are somewhat associated with magic, but other than that, I have no idea why Feli has these. Finally, the game cuts to game play at this point, and this is oddly the end of the scene, with no post battle follow up.

This scene is short, and gives some context of the conflict this story has, but ultimately has some conflicting tones, shifting between way too goofy to relatively serious at the turn of a dime. This seems to be a reoccurring issue with Puyo Puyo Tetris’s story, and I will have plenty more to say about this as I complete this case study.

That was part 7 of my case study of Puyo Puyo Tetris’s story. What did you make of this scene? Do you find this writing is genuinely funny, or does it fall flat? Do you have a different impression of this game’s story? Let me know in the comments below! If you enjoyed this critique, be sure to click that like button. You may also subscribe via email to keep up with That’s All Games. Until next time, have fun gaming!