Game Story Case Studies, Episode 8: Puyo Puyo Tetris (Part 8)

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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 8 of this series, with more to come. That being said, this article will continue directly from the last article’s scene.

Act 2, Scene 7:

Recap: After having a Puyo battle with a possessed Feli, the main characters finally stumble on the main conflict of the story. Certain characters are possessed by an unknown power, and are trying to merge the Puyo Puyo and Tetris worlds, whatever that might do. Let’s now look at how this scene begins.

This selection of dialogue only repeats what is known about the story. I do find it weird that playing Puyo Puyo and Tetris at the same time is a problem, though it is already unclear what Puyo Puyo battles do in the game world, from a narrative standpoint.

This batch of dialogue is pretty basic. It is interesting to note that this Rulue character normally plays Puyo Puyo, but nothing new is established about this situation. Also of note, the game switches to gameplay at this point, and there is more after winning this game.

There isn’t much here either. I should note that Raffina was a character shown in one of the scenes I cut from this case study, and is also possessed. What is unclear about this whole scenario is whether these characters are normally friends (or good guys) of the Puyo Puyo cast. (This is the first Puyo Puyo game I played extensively, so I don’t know what roles Raffina, Feli and Rulue play in other Puyo Puyo games. Feel free to let me know in the comments section!)

And of course, the description “girl with the sticks” isn’t a great description. What is established was that causing these characters to get lost helps further the villains’ plans. This doesn’t make sense, if it is a matter of merging the Tetris and Puyo Puyo worlds. In fact, that makes as much sense as having Puyo battles cause characters to warp to other worlds, and that is apparently something that normally happens in this game…

The self-aware humor doesn’t work great here. It clashes with the main conflict, and the somewhat more serious tone this scene has. The issue of finding an appropriate tone runs rampant in this game’s story too…

Most of this batch of dialogue simply reinforces what is going on, but is dragging it on for too long, especially for a video game.

Now the scene shifts focus to fixing the spaceship. I know that was a problem before, now we get to see how this will help now.

At least they are moving the story forward, sort of. There are a lot of on-the-nose comedic remarks, some more poorly placed than others in this scene (as well as in other scenes throughout this game). Many of these remarks aren’t funny in context, but might be funny on their own. Strange, the sum of the parts are sometimes greater than the whole in this game’s story, which is the opposite of both the usual expression, and what a good writer should aim for.

And now the scene finally ends.

Yikes, there is a lot wrong with the writing here, most of it is a clash of tones, particularly when they try to be funny. The length is too long for a video game, especially since talking is all that is going on! If there was something of interest on screen, the length might have been forgivable, but not even the dialogue is good.

There is much more to cover for this game, and plenty of scenes left to go. This game is so far failing in the writing department, but stay tuned until the last article, where a final grade will be given.

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This was part 8 of my case study of Puyo Puyo Tetris’s story. What good or bad parts did you find in this scene not mentioned here? What are you making of this game’s story so far? Let me know in the comments below! If you enjoy this case study so far, click that like button to show your support. You can also subscribe via email to stay up to date with That’s All Games. Until next time, have fun gaming!