Game Story Case Studies, Episode 31: Puyo Puyo Tetris (Finale)

Act 7, Ending:

Almost done, it is time for the Puyo Puyo characters to say goodbye to the Tetris themed characters:

Well, it looks like these characters won’t be able to meet again, and of course, Ess is unnecessarily crabby, as always. There is a sequel to this game that was recently released at the time of this writing, so that isn’t the case, but that information is for a separate case study at another time. Let’s see how everyone else is handling this situation.

Great, more dialogue in whatever language O and Carbuncle speak. I know they need to have their say, but a translation would be appreciated!

So then why do they think it’s goodbye? Also, there is a warp tunnel in the SS Tetra, who knows what that can do!

Well this got awkward, I guess they do like each other. Not much else to remark about this dialogue, so let’s move on.

You mean the apple she’s always holding? Whoever selected the image in this dialogue exchange missed that she had one in her hand already. Does this mean she wasn’t holding one this entire game, and they gave it to her in the images for no obvious reason? This is a continuity error, where something doesn’t match with what is said or shown in any media form.

Jeez, it’s not like she won’t come back! Oh, whatever, we are getting somewhat close to the end, might as well not harp on this story’s weirdness more than I need to.

Ok, more awkwardness, but not much else to this scene.

Okay, thanks to limited animation, we can’t see if Tee ate the apple or not. Right now, this scene is mostly small talk, so let’s move on.

And more drawn out awkwardness, mixed with sadness. Kind of clashes with the rest of the nonsensical story. This also makes this scene quite long, which isn’t great for a video game.

And more awkward sadness. Sure, this is adequately written, but get on with it, or change the mood or something! 

Okay, good, they lightened the mood with a joke. This is one of the few moments I will praise the writing of this game, if only slightly.

And more comedy. Were they really just watching these two have a moment? Is that rude? Creepy? I’d say a bit of both.

Ok, are we almost done here? Talk about a long scene! At least it is near the end of the game with no more gameplay, but still, let’s finish it already.

Now it is finally the end! This ending does seem a little abrupt too, and could have been enhanced with a visual cutscene at the end (though that must not have been in the budget)! Something like Tee and his crew flying off on the SS Tetra as Ringo and friends watch could have worked well. Heck, even having the spaceship in the background as they say their goodbyes could’ve done a better job setting up the ending.

And now to rate this game’s story, with an explanation why. There are three possible ratings that I could give to any game’s story. Here’s a breakdown:

• Pass: This story passes as either a standalone story, or as a video game story. In general, a game that gets this rating works.
• Fail: Any story that gets this fails as a story and/or clashes too much with the gameplay to work
• Succeed: This rating is for game stories that pass with flying colors, either as a story, or as a game that has gameplay and story work in harmony.

So which rating does Puyo Puyo Tetris get?:

FAil!

This game makes several mistakes in its story. Most notably, that it has one! Puzzle games do not need much of a story, and at most it could have a simple one. It does not need one that tries to explain the world where an abstract puzzle game influences the world around it! If the story is adventure based, it needs to be simpler and shorter. Instead, this game drags the story on for too long, with comedic scenes that frequently fall flat. 

As a warning to aspiring game writers (and writers in general), comedy is the hardest genre to write for. Oftentimes, it is too easy for a joke to fall flat, and much of the time when comedies are written, they focus more on laughs than on the actual story. This can be to the extent that it doesn’t make sense anymore, or that the story is shallow.

Don’t get me wrong, I want more comedic games to be out there, but Puyo Puyo Tetris messes up what story it does have by not being focused. Also there was one point I didn’t get. Why were those characters possessed in this game? They weren’t controlled by an outside force, or an evil entity, as Ex wasn’t evil. It is things like this that makes this game’s story really bad. It might have had some good one-liners, but the context was way off! The best comedies have a good reason for jokes to be there, and there was no real set up here.

Puyo Puyo Tetris is a good game, but not because of its story. There is little reason to play the story mode, so don’t play this game for its writing!

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And that finally concludes Puyo Puyo Tetris’s game story case study. Thank you to all who may have read this series of articles! I intend to make a more thorough series of eBooks based on these articles eventually, so let me know if you would like to see that. Also let me know what you thought of this game’s story. Were there any high or low points that I missed that I should have covered? Tell me all this and more in the comments below! If you enjoyed this article, then click that like button and share on social media! You may also subscribe via email or WordPress to keep up with That’s All Games! Until next time, have fun gaming!