Trading fierce competitive gameplay for fiendish preset puzzles.
Nazo Puyo is a subseries of the Puyo Puyo puzzle game franchise by Compile, spun-off from the Mission mode of the very first entry in the series. Nazo Puyo still utilizes the Falling Blocks gameplay from Puyo Puyo, but the goal is to solve preset puzzles instead of battling AI opponents or playing for a high score.Games in the Nazo Puyo subseries include:
- Nazo Puyo (Game Gear, 1993): Released exclusively in a bundle with the Game Gear itself, this game takes the Game Gear port of Puyo Puyo (1992) and replaces the CPU and Endless modes with 100 Mission mode puzzles.
- Nazo Puyo 2 (Game Gear, 1993): A Mission-Pack Sequel to the first Game Gear Nazo Puyo. The puzzles are new, the music is new, and the game no longer uses a Password Save system, but everything else is identical.
- Nazo Puyo: Arle no Roux (Game Gear, 1994): The third Game Gear Nazo Puyo features updated graphics, more varied challenges thanks to the introduction of gravity-defying Wall Blocks, an extremely loose narrative, and a health system that limits how many times the player can retry a puzzle. Arle no Roux also reintroduces the Endless mode from traditional Puyo Puyo games. The game was re-relased in 2020 for the Japan-exclusive Game Gear Micro line, rounding out the "yellow" version of the handheld that otherwise consists of three Shining Force games.
- Nazo Puyo (PC-98, 1994): An expansion of the Nazo Puyo mode from the PC-98 port of Puyo Puyo (1992). The game contains 200 puzzles, split between a mode with a loose narrative and a mode without it.
- Super Nazo Puyo: Rulue no Roux (Super Famicom, 1995): The first Super Famicom Nazo Puyo features a variety of game modes, including a loose remake of Arle no Roux, a new scenario involving Arle Nadja's rival Rulue, a plot-less "Road to Chains" mode, and an Endless mode.
- Super Nazo Puyo Tsu: Rulue no Tetsuwan Hanjouki (Super Famicom, 1996): The sequel to Rulue no Roux, and final dedicated Nazo Puyo game. Rulue gets the game all to herself this time, with slightly more emphasis on the RPG elements and even more puzzles.
Nazo Puyo was also a staple of Compile's disk magazine Disc Station, with the PC-98 and Windows '95 incarnations often featuring a few puzzles for players to solve in each volume.
Tropes that appear in the Nazo Puyo series:
- Anti-Frustration Features: Nazo Puyo: Arle no Roux lets the player take a (larger-than-normal) health penalty to give up on the current puzzle and receive a new one. Rulue no Roux, on the other hand, cruelly subverts this by making the puzzles that you passed on earlier in the game reappear near the end.
- Creator Cameo: Masamitsu "MOO" Niitani, president of Compile, appears in Super Nazo Puyo Tsu as the True Final Boss.
- A Day in the Limelight: Both Super Nazo Puyo games give Rulue her own scenarios, with Rulue no Tetsuwan Hanjouki completely demoting Arle.
- Early Game Hell: Unlike most Nazo Puyo games, which typically ease players into the game with puzzles simple enough for total Puyo Puyo beginners, Arle no Roux throws some incredibly fiendish puzzles the player's way right from the start. In particular, one puzzle in the first area
◊ demands knowledge of exactly how piece rotation is programmed, as the Puyo pair will get stuck if the player rotates the wrong way. - Embedded Precursor: Super Nazo Puyo: Rulue no Roux has two main scenarios, one of which is a remake of Nazo Puyo: Arle no Roux.
- Excuse Plot:
- Arle no Roux and Rulue no Roux are essentially shopping trips to cook up some curry. Arle's got an ingredient shortage and Rulue is trying to impress Dark Prince.
- The PC-98 Nazo Puyo sees Arle passing through Magical Junior High.
- Failure Is the Only Option: The first two Game Gear Nazo Puyo games do not explicitly tell the player that they've failed a mission; after the player has used all of their alotted Puyo, the games will endlessly provide pairs that are completely irrelevant to the current puzzle. This changes in Arle no Roux, where the player is given a hard limit on the number of pairs that they will receive for a given puzzle.
- Fake Difficulty: In the early Nazo Puyo games, the player only gets to preview a single pair of Puyo, while the puzzles often require multiple Puyo placed in a specific sequence. This basically means restarting the puzzle over and over until the player memorizes the order in which the Puyo pairs fall.
- Level Editor: Many Nazo Puyo games allow players to create their own puzzles.
- Mission-Pack Sequel: The first two Nazo Puyo games for the Game Gear are basically the first Game Gear Puyo Puyo minus Scenario and Endless Modes. The only major distinction between the two Nazo Puyo games are their title screens, music, and Continue options. (The first uses passwords while the second has battery-backed storage.) The third GG Nazo Puyo game, Arle no Roux, averts this by adding light RPG mechanics and an aesthetic refresh.
- No Plot? No Problem!: The first two Game Gear Nazo Puyo games don't bother with a plot. The PC-98 game and Rulue no Roux have Excuse Plots, but also separate modes with no narrative attached.
- Mythology Gag: Nazo Puyo: Arle no Roux and its sequels inherit the "experience orb" and "facial expression as health indicator" mechanics from Madou Monogatari 1-2-3.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Played for Laughs in Arle no Roux, Rulue no Roux, and Rulue no Tetsuwan Hanjouki.
- After both protagonists go through all the trouble in getting their curry ingredients in Arle no Roux and Rulue no Roux, Carbuncle steals Arle's plate, making her quest All for Nothing. Rulue, on the other hand, sucks at cooking, and her attempt at cooking ends in failure and can't serve the dish to the Dark Prince. At least Minotauros (probably) likes it!
- In Rulue no Tetsuwan Hanjouki, Rulue makes it all the way to the top of the tower ...to find a legendary broom. It has nothing to do with her quest to become the Puyo Puzzle Master, and Witch led her on with a fake prophecy so she doesn't have to do the work. Rulue and Schezo are not happy about this and take out their rage on Witch, sending her into the skies above.
- Vague Age: Arle Nadja is frequently stated to be 16 years old, but the PC-98 Nazo Puyo has Arle in junior high school which would imply that she's younger.note
