Puzzle Quest : Challenge of the Warlords (First Impressions)

Puzzle Quest is available on both the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP and can be picked up at a bargain price from online retailers. I got the DS version delivered yesterday and finally got around to giving it a go later that evening.

I'm not really into puzzle games but I thought I'd give this a try because of its blending of fantasy RPG and puzzle genres. At the start of the game you're asked to choose a hero from one of four classes: Druid, Knight, Warrior or Wizard. Once the class is chosen you can also choose your portrait and name before starting the game. As with most other RPG games you have the ability to customize what your character wears and the items you take into battle. There is a story arc to the game main quests to drive the story forward and side quests are available from a top down map, which is so far jotted with a few locations I can visit.

Once engaged in a quest battle the puzzle elements of the game take over with players taking it in turns to swap adjacent pieces on a grid to create matching rows or columns of three or more pieces. A number of different types of pieces are available which can either build up your mana reserves, attack the opponent, gain gold or gain extra experience. During combat once sufficient mana has been accumulated you may also cast spells to aid your character or to directly attack the opponent.

So far the game has been a lot of fun, it was easy to get into and the early tutorials give you enough information so you can engage in combat without having to refer back to the manual. For me the story and RPG elements add extra depth and encourage you to continue playing when normally I'd put the game down after a short while. In fact I found that a couple of hours had passed when I only meant to give the game a "quick go". My only gripe so far is that there seems to be an annoying "click" sound whenever the main music repeats its loop.