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Popping Puzzle Fun.
note 

"It's fast, it's furious, and it's puzzlingly addictive!"
Puyo Pop Fever, EU back cover

Puyo Puyo, known as Puyo Pop in English for a number of years, is a series of competitive Falling Block puzzle games originally created by Compile as a Spin-Off series of Madou Monogatari, currently owned by Sega. The object of the game is to flood your opponent's board with Nuisance Puyo by making chains with several multi-colored Puyo, which explode when four of the same color are connected. Despite its relative obscurity in the west, due in no small part to a history of not being localized, it is arguably one of the more influential puzzle series; its competition-based gameplay and colorful stable of characters were groundbreaking in the early '90s and inspired a wide variety of competitors.

Puyo Puyo was created to counter the legions of aesthetically-bland Tetris imitators of the late '80s and very early '90s. To that end, Compile incorporated characters from Madou Monogatari 1-2-3, an earlier first-person RPG that sees Action Girl Arle Nadja battle a variety of colorful monsters. Though the original MSX and Famicom Disk System Puyo Puyo games quietly came and went, the arcade version became a hit and its sequel became nothing short of a Japanese arcade phenomenon. How many other puzzle games can boast that they have held televised tournaments?

Unfortunately, despite (or, perhaps, due to) Puyo Puyo's success, Compile very quickly racked up a staggering amount of debt that they were unable to repay. As part of a restructure attempt in 1998, ownership of the series transferred to Sega. Compile continued to create Puyo Puyo titles for two more years before leaving the series forever. Sega, utilizing their Sonic Team banner, produces Puyo Puyo games to this day.

    Major Entries 
The following games are considered the major Puyo Puyo titles. This includes the seven mainline entries, as well as miscellaneous games that utilize Puyo Puyo's standard gameplay mechanics:
  • Puyo Puyo (1991): Primitive, primarily single-player version for the MSX2 and Famicom (in disk and cart form) with simple Endless and Puzzle modes, the latter serving as a predecessor to the Nazo Puyo series. It is generally conflated with its identically-titled arcade successor (including in official materials) despite being a vastly different game.
  • Puyo Puyo (1992): Compile, with the help of Sega, retooled Puyo Puyo into a multiplayer Arcade Game. As mentioned above, this is the "first" game for all intents and purposes. The Game Gear version, despite never leaving Japan, turns into the fully-translated Puzlow Kids in a "foreign" system, and the arcade version received an incredibly-obscure (to the point where its authenticity was occasionally questioned) English-language release in Europe. An Updated Re-release of the original System C-2 version under the SEGA AGES banner saw a western release for Nintendo Switch, released on March 28th 2019 in Japan and August 22nd internationally; in addition to incorporating counter-clockwise rotation and the sequel's Double Rotation, it also featured the aforementioned English arcade version as an alternate play mode and online multiplayer.
  • Puyo Puyo 2note  (1994): The second, and arguably most popular, Puyo Puyo Arcade Game adds Offsetting (the ability to erase and potentially counter Nuisance Puyo that waits above the field) and Margin Time (an invisible time limit that, upon being reached, results in the steady increase of generated Nuisance Puyo). The Neo Geo Pocket Color port was localized as Puyo Pop, being the first localization to retain both the characters and most of the names for said characters, while the Mega Drive port was released untranslated on the NA/PAL Wii Virtual Console. Notably part of both the SEGA AGES 2500 series for PlayStation 2 as Puyo Puyo Tsu Perfect Set and SEGA AGES series for Nintendo Switch. It was also similarly part of the SEGA 3D Classic line on Nintendo 3DS, originally bundled in SEGA 3D Fukkoku Archives 2 as a bonus title along with Power Drift. It was later released as SEGA 3D Classics Collection in both North America and Europe, notably giving Puyo Puyo Tsu a rare release outside of Japan, and later got a independent release on the Nintendo eShop in 2016 that included a new tournament mode in Japan. The untranslated Super Nintendo version was also released as one of the first 20 titles on the Nintendo Switch's Super Nintendo Online service.
  • Puyo Puyo Sun (1996): The third arcade Puyo game that used SEGA's Sega Saturn based arcade board SEGA ST-V (aka SEGA Titan Video). The main gimmick are the "Sun Puyo" that are produced when offsetting, which drop on the player's field similar to Nuisance Puyo and sends extra Nuisance Puyo to the opponent when cleared. This arcade game returns to the linear stage progression format of the first Puyo Puyo arcade game, but instead focuses on three different characters depending on the difficulty. Draco Centauros for the Easy Course wants to get a tan to take advantage of Dark Prince intensifying the sun, Arle in the Normal Course wants to stop the Dark Prince's typical shenanigans, and Schezo in the Hard Course wants to stop Dark Prince because he can't sleep in his cave. Notably the first game to introduce multiple playable characters in a main game, which would be a standard feature for future Puyo Puyo titles. A version of Sun was ported to SEGA's SEGA Genesis Mini 2 mini console as a Video Game Demake called VS Puyo Puyo Sun and released in 2022.
  • Puyo Puyo~n (1999): This console-exclusive entry introduces character-based Super Attacks, moves at a much less frantic pace than its predecessors, and employs a variety of gameplay gimmicks in its story mode instead of being a straightforward gauntlet. The Game Boy Color version is notable in that it is not simply a scaled down version of the console game, but has its own set of rules and utilizes a more traditional single-player gauntlet.
  • Puyo Puyo Box (2000): Compile's swan song for the Puyo Puyo series is a compilation. It features ports of the first two arcade games, an RPG-like Quest Mode, and a gauntlet that features every single Puyo Puyo character up to that point as a potential opponent.
  • Puyo Pop (2001): Originally released as Minna de Puyo Puyo, it is the first installment developed by Sonic Team.
  • Puyo Puyo Fever (2004): The final arcade Puyo Puyo game introduces an almost entirely new cast of characters and adds "Fever Mode", a Limit Break that repeatedly drops preset chains into the player's field. Known as Puyo Pop Fever internationally, it was localized for GameCube/DS in North America, and many more platforms in PAL regions.
  • Puyo Puyo Fever 2 (2005): Fever 2 adds several single-player features, including a map system and items. It also introduces new characters.
  • Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary (2006): 15th Anniversary features a wide variety of gameplay rulesets, including the rules of the original Puyo Puyo, Tsu, and Fever. It also reintroduces several Compile-era Puyo Puyo characters that went absent after Minna. Unlike previous games, every character has their own set of single-player opponents.
  • Puyo Puyo 7 (2009): In addition to introducing yet another set of new protagonists, 7 adds the "Transformation" rule. When triggered, the player's character will transform into either a child (which causes tiny Puyo to fall Fever-style) or a fully grown adult (in which the player uses gigantic Puyo).
  • Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary (2011): 20th Anniversary retains most of 15th Anniversary's rulesets and adds even more, including a ruleset based on Puyo Puyo Sun.
  • Puyo Puyo Tetris (2014): A crossover between Puyo Puyo and the grandfather of nearly every Falling Block game, Tetris. Each player can individually select whether they want to play Puyo Puyo (based on Tsu) or Tetris, play modes where all players are switching between separate Tetris and Puyo Puyo boards on a timer, or even have the two games running on the same board. It was released for PS3, PS Vita, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U on February 6, ported to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on December 4, then ported yet again to the Nintendo Switch as a launch title. It also got an overseas release for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 on April 25th, 2017 (28th in Europe) then on Steam on February 27th, 2018, the first proper Puyo game to be localized in 13 years.
  • Puyo Puyo Chronicle (2016): A game to celebrate the franchise's 25th anniversary. Similar to past anniversary titles, it features a plethora of game modes for multiplayer, up to 17 modes including the return of Tsu and Fever rules. Unlike past anniversary titles though, there is a new mode that acts as an expansive RPG with a healthy amount of side quests. As Arle and Carbuncle, you are flung into a new world where you have to find your way back home, with the help of a new character named Ally. Released for the Nintendo 3DS on December 8.
  • Puyo Puyo Champions (2018): Also known as Puyo Puyo eSports in Asia. A download-only title for the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch that focuses on the gameplay and specializes on...well, eSports. It's a trimmed-down installment that borrows the visual style of Puyo Tetris but brings back the overlaid animations from 20th, utilizing the Tsu and Fever rule sets. Features the introduction of characters from the mobile spin-off Puyo Puyo!! Quest into the core series. Released in Japan on October 25, 2018, with Xbox One and PC ports released on May 7th, 2019 in tandem with an international release.
  • Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 (2020): A sequel to 2014's Tetris x Puyo Puyo crossover which features the return of Chronicle's RPG-inspired Skill Battle mode. Comes with free post-release updates that expands the roster, including, but not limited to, Sonic the Hedgehog as a playable character. Released on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam.
  • Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop (2024): An Apple Arcade exclusive game that will feature an original fully-voiced story and a multitude of different Puyo rules, including the return of Mega Puyo from 7 and the Anniversary games.

    Spinoffs 
In addition to the "major" games, there are more than a dozen spinoffs. They are listed below:
  • Nazo Puyo (1993-1996): A series of single-player games spun off from the Quest mode of the 8-bit, Game Gear, and PC-98 Puyo Puyo.
    • Nazo Puyo, Nazo Puyo 2: Mission Pack Sequels to the Game Gear Puyo Puyo.
    • Nazo Puyo (PC-98): Mission-Pack Sequel to the PC-98 Puyo Puyo.
    • Nazo Puyo: Arle no Roux: The third Game Gear Nazo Puyo game, which adds very light RPG elements such as an overworld and health system.
    • Super Nazo Puyo: Rulue no Roux: A Super Famicom release that builds upon the gameplay in Arle no Roux and contains stories for both Arle and Rulue.
    • Super Nazo Puyo Tsu: Rulue no Tetsuwan Hanjouki: 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.
    • Additionally, several editions of Disc Station (see below) contain Nazo Puyo puzzles.
  • Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon (1998): A roguelike for the Sega Saturn and Playstation. Arle, Rulue, or Schezo tackle a dangerous amusement park. Originally intended to release in 1997, it was delayed into 1998, after Sega had gained ownership of the series.
  • Puyo Puyo Gaiden: Puyo Wars (1999): A Strategy RPG for the Game Boy Color that takes place in the far future via an implied Alternate Universe.
  • Puyo Puyo DA! (1999): A rhythm game starring Arle and the protagonist of earlier Compile game Broadway Legend Ellena. Released almost simultaneously on the Sega NAOMI arcade system and Sega Dreamcast.
  • Arle no Bouken: Mahou no Jewel (Fan-translated as "Arle's Adventure: Magical Jewels") (2000): A Game Boy Color RPG that is Compile's attempt to capitalize on the Mon fad of the time. Arle summons monsters through Puyo cards that assist her in battle.
  • Disc Station (1988-2000): A magazine ran by Compile. It was initially produced entirely on MSX2 floppy disks, changed to a print format with pack-in disks for PC-98, and focused on Windows 95 in its final years. It was the source of several smaller games, including games in the Madou Monogatari and Puyo Puyo series. The most notable games include:
    • Kikimora's Clean-Up: A Pac-Man clone for PC-98 starring Kikimora.
    • Madou Monogatari: Hachamecha Kimatsu Shiken (roughly Madou Monogatari: Chaotic Final Exam, often abbreviated to "Final Exam" or "The Final Test"): A first-person dungeon crawler, in the style of 1-2-3 and A-R-S, for Windows 95.
    • Rulue's Iron Fist Spring Break (generally referred to as Rulue's Spring Break of Fists or simply Rulue's Spring Break): A visual novel starring Rulue for Windows 95, where she tries to do something productive on her spring break.
    • Serilly's Happy Birthday: A simulation game for Windows 95. Players help Serilly find friends to celebrate her birthday with.
    • Comet Summoner (1998), Comet Summoner Time Trial Verion: An action-platformer game for Windows 95 starring Witch.
  • Puyo Puyo!! Touch (2015): Another smartphone game with different gameplay from Quest. It lasted roughly a year before being shut down.

    Other Games 
As you might already know, Puyo Puyo came to western countries in the form of Dolled Up Installments. Said installments, as well as other non-Compile/Sega-developed Puyo games, include:

    Other Media 
In addition to the above games, the franchise has also heralded several Drama CDs and Light Novels, and even a stage play.

  • Drama CD Puyo Puyo: A 9-Volume Audio Adaptation telling various stories from the character's lives, from simple Slice of Life vignettes, to fully-fledged 20-minute adventures, to elaborating on their backstories, to having them reenact fairytales. There are even a couple of Alternate Universe stories, featuring the characters as average High Middle School Students or Tokusatsu Heroes.
  • Amitie and the Mysterious Egg (April 15, 2014): Amitie finds a lone egg in the forest, only to hatch before her. She then raises the bird, named Tama, until she could find the bird's mother to return it, but grows increasingly attached to Tama over time.
  • Everyone's Dreams, Coming True!? (December 15, 2014): Having found a small chest one day, Amitie tries to crack it open in order to find the original owner, only for it to release a strange mist that makes dreams manifest. With the help of Arle and Ringo, the trio tries to gather all the mist back and re-seal it.
  • Puyo Puyo On Stage (May 2-6, 2015): A Screen-to-Stage Adaptation to commemorate the series' 24th anniversary. It tells the story of a fabled white Puyo that can grant a wish, and everyone's misadventures to find and catch it.
  • Sig's Secret (July 15, 2015): On the onset of Primp Festival, Amitie is tasked to lead the school project. However, in her ambitions, she gets involved with Sig's increasing distress over something he refuses to talk about.
  • Satan's Space Amusement Park (February 15, 2016): Satan and Ecolo are scheming up an amusement park to impress their respecive crushes, by forcing them to partake in the amusement park activities and filling out a stamp card as their only way to leave.
  • Amitie and the Girl of Love (June 15, 2017): Arle, Amitie, and Ringo spot a mysterious girl from another dimension (Ally) falling from the sky, but the gate leading back to that world is blocked by the serpent Ouroboros.


Let's play Puyo!:

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    Tropes Present in Major Entries 
  • Aerith and Bob:
    • The major Compile characters are all named following European fantasy conventions, including exotic, but still distinctly European-sounding names (like Arle or Schezo) or just typical folkloric creatures from the continent (Witch, Satan, etc.). The sole exception is Suketoudara, which literally means "Alaskan Pollock" in Japanese.
    • Of the S.S. Tetra's crew members, Jay and Elle are both names that people have in real life. Granted, this is only because of a Dub Name Change, as their names are J and L in the Japanese version.
  • Affectionate Nickname:
    • Arle regularly refers to Carbuncle as "Carby".
    • Dark Prince refers to Arle and Carbuncle as "Arly" and "Carbunny" respectively in the English localizations of the games.
  • All There in the Manual: The SEGA games seem to assume that you've already played some of the Madou Monogatari games, in that facts like where Arle got Carbuncle from, what her favourite food is note , and several other callbacks are meaningless unless you're aware of the past games.
  • Alliterative Title: The series was originally known in English as Puyo Pop, which ditches the original "Double, Double" Title but still repeats the letter "P".
  • Ambidextrous Sprite: Arle was the only one that played this straight, as her armor pads were the asymmetrical aspect of her design. This lasted up until 20th, where her current appearance is entirely symmetrical. Sig, Ecolo, Ringo, Ess, Jay and Elle, and Zed avert this, each having a second set of sprites to reflect their asymmetrical aspects (Sig's left arm, Ecolo's "?", Ringo's hair clip, etc.)
  • American Kirby Is Hardcore:
    • Puyo Pop on the GBA changed several pieces of dialogue when it was localized, mainly to emphasize Arle's Deadpan Snarker characteristics. This is especially noticeable when you compare it to the hidden English translation in the Japanese version.
    • The Dolled-Up games are also a case of this. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine has more crude artwork with larger emphasis on shading and more sinister-sounding music, with the characters themselves being goofy-looking robots that tend to be depicted with rather sinister or smug faces when the player starts losing. In keeping in-line with the Trope Namer, Kirby's Avalanche meanwhile depicts Kirby as more of a Trash Talker than he is normally and advertisements compare him to a criminal.
  • The Anime of the Game: An anime mini-series based on Madou Monogatari and Puyo Puyo was released via Compile's Disc Station magazine.
  • Another Dimension: Originally invoked to Hand Wave Arle and Carbuncle appearing in Sega's retooled setting, dimension-hopping has since become a frequent plot point.
  • Anti-Frustration Features:
    • The arcade games reduce the Puyos' drop speed whenever the player uses a continue. It will only do so twice per enemy, though, so Puyo will still drop ridiculously fast against late-game opponents. This seemingly does not carry over to the home ports.
    • Tsu introduces double rotation. To make a long story short, it enables the player to flip their currently-controlled pair of Puyo if they are locked into a tight space.
    • All the Puyo Puyo games in the SEGA era have a cheat code which unlocks everything except the in-game shop's content, removing the need to play through the entire game.
    • The ability to look up each character's enemy description in SEGA AGES Puyo Puyo 2 was billed as this for Japanese fans, particularly for the harder-to-reach "last chance" opponents like Owlbear and Zombie. That being said, this feature was likely intended for international fans so that Sega could translate the enemy descriptions without having to modify the game itself.
    • Champions and Tetris 2 both get Color-blind Settings, granting accessibility to color-blind players that feel the Puyo shapes aren't different enough, or want to use a specific skin but can't differentiate.
  • Arcade-Perfect Port:
    • The Mega Drive versions of the first two arcade games almost qualify. The gameplay, graphics, music, and sound effects are perfect, but the arcade hardware for both games has an extra chip that makes the voice acting possible; as a result, the first game gets rid of all but three of the voice clips while Tsu plays them at a noticeably lower quality.
    • The (second) Wii Virtual Console ports of both games are straight examples.
  • Arc Number: 24, the Goroawase Number for "Puyo". Puyo Pop Fever was even released on the 24th of a month for each platform, Puyo Puyo On Stage was made to celebrate the series' 24th anniversary, and recent games have a roster of 24 characters.
  • Arrange Mode:
    • Puyo Puyo 2 has Rule Henka mode, which can only be enabled in the operator menu (it cannot be selected by the player). It mixes single-player mode up by replacing Garbage Puyo with Point Puyo (Garbage Puyo that add bonus points when cleared) and Hard Puyo (Garbage Puyo that need pops of 2 adjacent Puyo rather than one to be cleared out, whether simultaneously or individually)
    • Sun mode, originating in Puyo Puyo Sun, has Sun Puyo drop when a player offsets Garbage Puyo. Clearing Sun Puyo powers up your chains, but due to how they fall like Garbage Puyo, they can often be more harm than help. In addition, the screen has 2 hidden rows instead of 1, which allows for a maximum 20-chain, instead of Tsu's 19-chain.
    • Fever mode introduces different piece dropsets for each character, and the Fever gauge, which fills up each time a player offsets Garbage Puyo. Once in Fever mode, preset chain setups are set on the player's field. if the player successfully sets off the chain, a bigger chain setup is given. If they don't, a chain setup of equal or lower chain value is given.
    • Puyo Puyo 7 has the Transformation mode, a version of Fever mode where the Fever Gauge is replaced by a Transformation Gauge. Filling it up gives you either a child-like or adult-like form. The child form plays much like Fever mode did but with smaller puyo, while the adult form has you clear as many Puyos as you can, with bigger Puyo.
    • Puyo Puyo Box has the Quest mode, a campaign that infuses Puyo battles into an RPG. Attack affects your combo strength, defence mitigates the strength of your opponent's combos, and speed affects puyo drop speed. In addition, Experience is determined by combo size, and equipment can enable or disable mechanics like previews of your next puyo pieces and being able to offset puyo.
  • Art Evolution:
    • Arle's design in general improves immensely from one version to the next for Madou Monogatari, and further improves over the course of Puyo Puyo, as Arle matures.
    • Happens to the characters over the course of Sega's run. Fever 2 dials back the color saturation, and 20th Anniversary adds shading, giving it a more refined appearance. Compare, for example, Amitie's appearance in Fever 1 from the initial version in 2004, then redrawn as a special card variant in Puyo Quest in 2018, right here.
  • The Artifact:
    • Satan is the only character that retains their English arcade Dub Name Change in later English releases. (Though this is toyed with at least a couple of times.)
    • Older games would sometimes recycle voice clips from past games. As a side effect, Rulue in the first arcade game did not have a voice clip since she didn't have one in Madou Monogatari III, Arle had the same voice clips between the original Madou Monogatari trilogy despite the age differences, and Minotaur lacked voice clips for Pocket Puyo Puyo~n due to those games recycling voice clips from the console versions of Yo~n and SUN.
    • Subverted with Arle and Carbuncle, who appeared to be headed this way until they were rejoined by other former Madou Monogatari characters starting with 15th.
    • In an amusing meta example, Puyo Puyo's official Japanese Twitter account uses the handle @puyopuyo20th, being created to promote 20th Anniversary, but gaining enough of a following to make an account name change unfeasible.
  • Artificial Brilliance: The AI definitely has its moments in the Sega games:
    • If the AI faces an impossible amount of Nuisance Puyo, but might still win by waiting out the opponent, it will exploit the game's rotation mechanics in order to keep its active Puyo in the air for as long as possible. This most commonly occurs in the Anniversary titles' Original and Excavation rules. On the other hand, if an AI is gaining Nuisance Puyo at the top of their field, they will drop their Puyo as fast as possible in an attempt to quickly build a counter-chain.
    • Characters who normally build large chains will occasionally break from their usual behavior if the player is about to lose; instead, they will attempt to prevent a comeback by making a chain that is just large enough to win the game. Some will also abandon their usual patterns if they have the ability to obtain an "All-Clear" bonus.
    • Exaggerated when Core AI is initiated. Invoked by holding a certain button combination while selecting the COM opponent, this "cheat" allows the character's AI to go without any restraint; they will always drop their Puyo at full speed (and use Quick Drop if allowed) and will build strong chains.
    • The AI tries to exploit Fever mode's rules to its fullest. If there are nuisance puyo in their garbage tray, the AI will try to make as many chains as possible, one after another, in order to reach Fever. This ties with the aforementioned situation where the AI will start dropping Puyos at a much faster pace before starting to stall your chain.
  • Artificial Stupidity: Whether actually invoked or not, there are several instances of this in the series.
    • The most common one is a character never rotating their puyo, not even under Core AI. Skeleton-T and Dapper Bones have this trait in all appearances, as well as Draco in 20th and Tetris. They are still fairly good at chaining under Core AI, however.
    • The second most common one is never trying to manually drop their puyo, letting gravity do so instead. Lidelle and the aforementioned characters are examples of this. Draco in 7 is a vast exaggeration of this, as her AI does not change in the slightest under Core AI, unlike other examples. This situation can be enforced on certain versions of the first arcade game, as well as Mean Bean Machine, through the use of a second controller.
    • In 7, no character AI ever tries to take advantage of hard drop in Transformation mode, for some reason. They also hardly ever bother defending against incoming attacks, preferring to keep building their chain instead, and getting buried by nuisance puyo as a result. The latter is particularly interesting, as it does not happen in Fever mode.
    • If the AI gets a giant Puyo and only the final row of the third or fourth columns is left free, they will rapidly shuffle colours while dropping very slowly, often losing the match right after. This happens even if they have other free columns, or even if they can turn the giant Puyo into a colour that avoids defeat.
    • If the AI reaches Fever and is not in immediate danger, they will start building a chain that breaks the prebuilt one, wasting a long time in the process. Similarly, if they reach Fever while another player was popping their chain and sending Nuisance Puyos to them, they will likely react as if they were in danger and break the fever chain in a wrong way, even if those Nuisance Puyos are going to the background tray.
  • Ascended Extra:
    • Any of the Madou Monogatari Mook characters that appear beyond the first two Puyo Puyo titles could count. The most notable examples are Skeleton-T, Draco Centauros, Suketoudara, and Witch. (The last of whom goes from Mooknote  to playablenote  to The Cameonote  and then back to playablenote .) There's also Harpy, Incubus, Panotty, Serilly, Nasu Grave, and Zoh Daimaoh, who become playable characters in SUN, Yo~n, 15th Anniversary, and/or Chronicle & Champions. Not to mention Doppelganger Arle, and the characters prominent in the Nazo Puyo games (i.e. Succubus, Demiserf, Jaan, etc.) who all returned for Puyo Puyo!! Quest.
    • Alex, Sultana, Ciel, Penglai, Hed, Hartmann and Paprisu (in a later update) went from being previously exclusive to Puyo Puyo Quest, to being playable in Puyo Puyo Champions. Legamünt and Rozatte would do the same as part of Tetris 2's third DLC wave.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: While it is completely possible to do 19 chains in a standard field (which has one hidden row above), anything above 10 builds incredibly close to the top, risking a quick defeat from a small chain, and anything above 15 would require the perfect setup to fit it. We're talking chains you build yourself. Fever mode's pre-built chains don't count. The puzzle edit function featured in some games allow players to easily create their own beautiful but highly-impractical chains.
  • Badass Adorable: Arle, Carbuncle, heck, almost everyone in Fever qualify just because of the art style.
  • Bad Powers, Good People and Bad People: Despite being half-demon, Sig doesn't care about it and seems to care only about his friends and bugs. It should be noted that, besides Akuma, most demons and monsters before are protrayed as Jerkasses or being Affably Evil, as well as Sig's ancestor being part of the demon within's Klug's book's original body. There's an unknown, but possibly good, reason that the demon was sealed away in the first place, something nobody even did to any previous demon. When the demon posses Klug, he intends to wound or likely kill Sig to get his remains.
  • Batman Gambit: A failed attempt at this by Compile is the reason why Sega currently owns Puyo Puyo. To alleviate some of the financial stress that Compile was going through in early 1998, they worked out a deal with Sega where they sold the rights to the series but retained nearly-unrestricted usage for roughly four years. Masamitsu Niitani planned to use the borrowed time to raise enough money (presumably through the multitude of Spin-Off titles) to buy the series back, but the damage was already done to the company's reputation and they didn't even make it to the end of their deal before they abandoned the series.
  • Battle Butler: Otomo for Ocean Prince. Except he doesn't really fight, though he did once draw out his dagger in his "Serious Otomo" card in Quest.
  • Big Bad: Varies per game. After the original series, the villains got less effective.
    • Most, if not all, of the games before Fever had Dark Prince as the final boss, for varying amount of (silly) reasons. He establishes a tower in Tsu, and sends an invitation to challengers all over to reach the top and eventually battle him. In Sun, he enlarges the sun and causes an unbearable heat wave on an island, all to try and pick up girls with a tan. In Minna, he broke apart a hot springs ticket and turned them into runes to send Arle on a hunt for them, with said trip as her "reward". If he wasn't, it was likely due to someone overshadowing him. Such as Doppelganger Arle in Yo~n, who takes control of him, uses him to capture Carbuncle, and lure Arle into a duel so she can replace her.
    • Fever technically had Popoi, a talking cat-puppet-shadow who has Accord's lost Flying Cane. But it turns out Accord staged the entire thing to get her students to finding something she never lost.
    • 7 had an effective villain in Ecolo, who takes control of Arle to try and flood the world with Puyo.
    • 20th seemingly didn't have one, until the Extra route puts together Ecolo and Dark Prince's plot to fufill everyone's wishes, which leads to Ecolo possessing Dark Prince to do something crazy...
    • Tetris has Ex, though he's Not Evil, Just Misunderstood, if anything. He is behind the world merging, but it was out of neglect of duty. Loneliness put an emotional toll on him, inadverdently letting two worlds come together.
    • Chronicle makes it seem at first that Dark Prince is behind everything, but it's later revealed that Ecolo was the catalyst for yet another near-apocalypse by creating the threatening and powerful would-be annihilator of existence, Rafisol.
    • Tetris 2 has Marle, and in a twist from the usual reveals, the game establishes early on that she's the one merging the worlds. It's later revealed that she's also victim to the problem at hand and the actual instigator of the incident is Squares. Squares in particular is the first antagonist of the series to play this trope straight, as he posed a legitimate threat in the game's story, though he is turned good by the end.
  • Big Fancy Castle: Ta-Doon-Da Castle; it's fancy, but it hangs over a cliff side and reeks of ill omens. The inside is in need of cleaning, is the location of the boss fight with Popoi and Carbuncle, and it might be where the "demon" lived.
  • Blame the Paramour: There are several instances where Onion Pixie finds that his girlfriend Oniko has fallen for Sig, which makes him angry and starts a Puyo Battle with Sig, who has no idea what is even happening because he can't speak the Onion Pixie language.
  • Bootstrapped Leitmotif: Several examples.
    • "Theme of Puyo Puyo", or the Stage 1-8 theme, has gone from being something of a misnomer to serving as Arle's theme as of 15th Anniversary as well as the series's answer to Tetris's "Korobeiniki" in Puyo Puyo Tetris.
    • "Area A" from Puyo Puyo Tsu became Carbuncle's theme as of Puyo Puyo Sun.
    • "Area C", also from Puyo Puyo Tsu, has become Witch's theme as of 20th Anniversary.
    • The 2-Player versus theme of Puyo Puyo Sun became Draco's theme as of 20th Anniversary, despite there being a different song in the game serving as her theme.
  • Boss Game: The first game, Tsu (especially Hard mode), and Box's Scrambled Mode are all arguable cases.
  • Bowdlerize: Most of the less family-friendly aspects of Puyo Puyo are either retained or made even more outlandish in the English versions, but the topic of religion seems to be a no-no, resulting in Satan being rebranded as the Dark Prince, the angelic Harpy receiving a dubious species change into a Dark Elf in the English arcade game, Incubus losing his signature "Oh my God!" defeat quote in the GBA Puyo Pop, and Demon Servant becoming "Demiserf" in Champions. Strangely enough, the English arcade game adds a vague reference to hell. ("You will fry in the Black Kingdom's Eternal Flames!")
  • Bottle Episode: Puyo Puyo Champions reuses and edits art assets from Puyo Puyo Quest and Puyo Puyo Tetris, its voice clips from Quest, and most of its soundtrack from games as far back as Fever 1. As for the content, it's one of the rare Puyo games without any story or anything resembling a cutscene, and most of the game is just battling with AI or local/online multiplayer. It is meant to to cater to the competitive crowd, or just lovers of Puyo Puyo's gameplay in general.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Anyone possessed by Ecolo.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the 25th Anniversary Drama CD story "Heartbeat Horror Night", Ringo directly references the name of the story and complains that since a "horror night" is inherently scary, adding "heartbeat" to the title doesn't do much to make it sound any cuter.
    Amitie: R-Ringo, calm down a little! Stop taking it out on the poor fourth wall!
  • Breakout Mook Character: Subverted; the game may be named after the Puyo, but they are still treated as fodder. Played straighter with characters like Draco Centauros and Witch, who are playable in Puyo Puyo, but were Mooks in their home series.
  • Briefer Than They Think: The period between the arcade Puyo Puyo becoming a hit and Compile losing the series to Sega is just over five years; even if you take away the roughly three years that Sega essentially let Compile borrow the series, Sega has been running the show for more than twice as long. This is almost certainly due to the sheer volume of Compile's output. For example, they managed to release six unique console and handheld Puyo Puyo games in their final three years despite constantly bleeding talent, amounting to 11 releases if individual ports (save Sega's two handheld ports of Tsu) are counted.
  • Broad Strokes:
    • The general approach to the Compile era by Sega. There are occasional nods to the older games (such as Witches having to earn the right to have a proper first name), but Sega has also handwaved, ignored, and/or flat-out re-imagined characters and aspects from Madou Monogatari and Compile's Puyo Puyo games. It doesn't help that the one novel that claims that there actually is a continuity longer than a couple of games is under the Madou Monogatari banner, calling into question whether Sega even owns that material.
    • This even applies within Madou Monogatari itself, between the multiple versions of kindergarten-age Arle's adventures and the wildly different Game Gear versions of Madou Monogatari II and III.
  • Brother–Sister Team:
    • Yu and Rei are sister and brother respectively and always fight together, excluding ''Puyo Puyo Fever''.
    • Puyo Puyo Tetris gave us Jay and Elle of the Starship Tetra crew.
  • Calculus Is Arcane Knowledge: Ringo's highest level spell chant in the English version of the games is Calculus.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Actually useful in competitive play, since it gives you an idea of how big your opponent's chain is (and yours too) and how close it is to finishing. Admittedly, when you hear them begin to repeat their strongest attack, just put the controller down.
  • Canis Major: Baldanders, a giant armored hellhound which is Feli’s pet in Puyo Puyo Fever (also 15th Anniversary and Puyo Puyo Quest)
  • Canon Immigrant:
    • Puyo Puyo and Madou Monogatari share many, many characters and concepts with each other. About the only things that the two series don't have in common — aside from, obviously, the Sega-created characters — are Puyo Puyo~n's Chico and a number of Madou Monogatari Mooks and main antagonists.
    • One of the game modes introduced in Tetris did return for Chronicle: Big Bang, a battle mode where you attempt to deplete your opponent's HP by clearing as many Fever boards as you can within the time limit.
  • Captain's Log: Tee regularly logs reports about what is currently happening to his partner O which go...somewhere, not even Tee is certain where or who they go to. It’s revealed later on that they go to Ex, the Keeper of Dimensions.
  • Cast Full of Crazy: A more lighthearted example in this case. A variety of characters have their fair share of quirky personalities and traits, some of them even having a few eccentricities of their own, even including people like Arle Nadja who is relatively well-rounded or snarky.
  • Cast Herd: There's so many charactersnote  that everyone's in certain groups to better keep track of where everyone falls under. They are:
    • The Compile-era characters, who were introduced when Compile were developing the games in the 1990s. Pretty much everyone there was introduced in a Madou Monogatari game before a Puyo Puyo game except Ragnus and Chico. This is the largest group in the series with so many characters being somewhere between one-offs to major reoccurring characters, even to this day.
    • The Fever-era characters, the first generation of new characters when Sega started taking over the series. They tend to consist of anyone introduced in Puyo Puyo Fever and Puyo Puyo Fever 2.
    • The characters introduced from Puyo Puyo 7 onwards, which is the smallest group of them all as new characters were introduced in small batches while Sega rotates the cast of returning characters in later games. These are the characters introduced in 7, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Puyo Puyo Chronicle, and Puyo Puyo Tetris 2.
    • Puyo Puyo!! Quest has so many original characters that they have their own Cast Herd in the form of card series, sorted in groups of 5 (and maybe a lore fest being the 6th) fitting a certain theme.
  • Catapult Nightmare: One of the DiscStation anime shorts has a shocked Minotauros sit upright in bed when he wakes up from a dream where Rulue flirts with him, completely forgetting her feelings for Satan.
  • Character in the Logo: Calling the Puyos "characters" might be a bit of a stretch, but at any rate, a Puyo appears on the logos for Puyo Puyo Fever and its sequel.
  • Cheat Code: Most SEGA era Puyo games have them, enabled through certain button commands, though varies between consoles.
    • On the title screen from 15th Anniversary and onwards, players can input a button sequence to unlock all of the unlockable content. Games with shops such as 20th Anniversary gives you 9999 points to breeze through the shop items, which are excempt from the unlock.
    • The most prominent of these is the infamous "Max Level AI" cheat, which takes Very Spicy AI and removes the kiddie gloves, performing feats up to par with competitive players.
    • There's also a cheat that lets a CPU play in place of the player during free battles, if one wishes to sit back and watch the AI duke it out.
  • Cherry Tapping: As only one specific column needs to be filled for elimination, a lowly two-chain can be enough to defeat a short-sighted opponent. Box contains straighter examples; namely, three Yon-rule powers that drop a Puyo by the single digits, named "Pinpoint", "Solar Ray", and "Resist". Pinpoint drops a single Garbage on the last location a pair's "pivot" Puyo was placed, Solar Ray does the same but uses a Sun Puyo instead, while Resist limits Garbage drops to one for the next ten pairs. All three cases can potentially drop a fatal Puyo if circumstances allow for it.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl:
    • The only reason that Rulue hates Arle is because the Dark Prince is in love with her.
    • Ecolo harbors a major dislike for Maguro and Tee, two characters that get quite a bit of Ship Tease with Ringo.
  • Cock Fight: The Dark Prince and Schezo get on each other's nerves whenever Arle is involved.
  • Colour-Coded for Your Convenience:
    • The Puyo themselves, as matching them by colour is part of the core gameplay.
    • Arle, Lilith and Doppelganger Arle physically look identical, except Arle wears blue, Lilith wears purple and Doppelganger Arle wears red.
    • The Primp Town magic school students represent Puyo colors. Amitie wears a red Puyo hat, Raffina's Sailor Fuku-ish shirt prominently features yellow, Sig has blue hair and sometimes wears shirts that have blue on them, Lidelle features lots of green in her color scheme, and Klug's signature outfit is purple.
    • Similarly, the crew of the S.S. Tetra all represent the various Tetris pieces and their colors. Tee’s outfit features various different shades of purple, Ess has green hair and a small bit of green on her dress, Ai has blue lining on his clothing and boots, Jay and Elle wear a blue and orange jumpsuit respectively, Zed has a big red Z tetrmino painted on his body, and O’s body is yellow.
  • Commuting on a Bus: Arle Nadja, who was not the main character for almost the entire time SEGA has owned the franchise, but also is in every single game. Puyo Puyo Chronicle returns to Arle being the main player character for the first time in over a decade.
  • Complete Immortality:
    • Several characters visibly are mortally injured, but come right back in later instalments, none the worse for wear. Most notably, there are absolutely no Game Overs in the Madou Monogatari games, and Doppelganger Arle is banished to another dimension when she loses in Yon. In one of the dramas, Arle even finds said dimension.
    • Both the Puyo and Madou Monogatari games exclusively call losing a battle receiving a "batankyuu" in Japanese, which is like saying that the loser goes "night-night". There are only rare, story-related exceptions to that rule, such as when Schezo was briefly presumed dead (Madou Monogatari: Chaotic Final Exam) and Lemres and Amitie discussing the possibility of Sig's personality being erased (Sig's Secret).
  • Company Cross References: Various games let you buy Puyo skins based of Morolians and Sonic characters, with there also being Tetrimino skins for the latter. And then, in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, the blue blur himself was made into a playable character with the first post-release update.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Dark Prince is one of the main offenders. Your pieces will be falling extremely fast. His aren't. If you can keep up with the pieces, this can be used against him.
  • Continue Countdown: Several of the earlier titles featured this, but were eventually phased out after the later releases of Fever.
    • Puyo Puyo (1992) featured a defeated and flabbergasted Arle on the ground with a panicked Carbuncle in the background.
    • Puyo Puyo 2 has a defeated Arle sprawled on the ground with a Dramatic Spotlight. Timing out the countdown will drop a giant Puyo on her to finalize the Game Over.
    • Puyo Puyo Sun puts Draco-Centauros, Arle, or Schezo in the scene where they lost, slumping in defeat when the timer ends.
  • Cosmetic Award:
    • 20th Anniversary, Tetris and Chronicle have a Shop option allows you to buy alternate Puyo appearances, alternate voice clips, and in the case of 20th Anniversary, alternate character designs. The latter two often come with unique AI patterns.
    • Most of Haro no Puyo Puyo's unlockables are alternate voice clips that can be equipped to each character. The game's final boss, Gihren Zabi, is an exception.
  • Cosmetically Different Sides: In Tsu-based modes, all characters have the same chaining power and dropset. It is, however, averted in Fever-based modes, where characters have variable dropsets and (in most cases) chaining power. Either way, it is also averted when the AI is playing, as each character has a different playstyle, even in Core Mode.
  • Creator Cameo: Masamitsu "Moo" Niitani, president of Compile, voiced Carbuncle in the Saturn version of Tsu and Dark Prince in all versions of Sun. He's also an Optional Boss in Super Nazo Puyo Tsu!
  • Crocodile Tears: In the light novel Sig's Secret, Witch acts surprisingly heartbroken over the girls deciding not to use one of her potions for the benefit of the cafe they're setting up. Amitie approaches Witch to cheer her up... but then Witch decides to start a puyo battle on Amitie out of nowhere.
    Amitie: Are you kidding me!? All those tears were an act!?
  • Cross-Popping Veins: To go with the anime-like art style. During cutscenes in some games, characters will often have a cross-popping vein appear on or near their head when they get angry or irritated.
  • Crossover:
    • Puyo Puyo Tetris is a classic exmaple of bringing two games together, with addition of adding characters to represent Tetris.
    • There was a collaboration with Love Live! which produced several merchandise featuring Rin Hoshizura in Arle's clothes.
  • Cute Slime Mook: The Puyos themselves are just adorable little blobs with various emotions showing in their eyes.
  • Darker and Edgier:
    • Downplayed with Puyo Puyo games from Puyo Puyo 7 onward. While still having the familiar cute, colorful, and comedic tone SEGA's interpretation of the series is known for, Puyo Puyo 7 would start the trend of games having a plot that involves the prevention of an apocalypse-like situation and including more drama.
    • Donwplayed, but compared to other Puyo light novels released before it, Amitie and the Girl of Love has a somewhat tense beginning, what with Arle, Amitie, Ringo, and Carbuncle fighting a difficult battle against the snake creature 'Ouroboros' in order to rescue Ally. It's probably worth noting that Ouroboros (appearance-wise) would not be out of place in a Madou Monogatari game.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Somewhat...in Puyo Puyo~n, Puyo Puyo 7, and Puyo Puyo Chronicle. In Yo~n, a select cast of characters (Draco, Serilly, Witch, and Chico) will tag along with Arle after you beat them (and even then, they have their own agenda for joining Arle), allowing you to use their special attacks. This gets taken away from you when you face Dark Prince, who walls off your allies away from the battle scene. In Puyo Puyo 7, a defeated person might tag along with Ringo for the story, as she takes a few heroes and, for a short bit, Dark Prince. As for Chronicle, just like with Yo~n, a defeated person will tag along with your party for the entirety of the story. This includes random enemies, as well as the main playable cast.
  • Demoted to Extra:
    • Minotauros, Mamono, and Owl Bear, all of which were final bosses in the Madou Monogatari series: Minotauros eventually becomes a background character, Mamono is a generic opponent in Tsu, and Owl Bear serves as an "extra" battle in the same game. The latter two might be justified, given that Arle defeated them while in kindergarten. Mamono's demotion is Lampshaded in versions of Tsu that feature pre-battle conversations; the poor creature starts crying when Arle figures out that he isn't the final boss.
    • In a meta example, Puyo Puyo~n & Columns is named Sega Columns Deluxe outside of Japan.
    • Fever mode slowly got hit with this since 15th — being just one of the default modes in that game (Alongside Puyo Puyo, Tsu, and Task) instead of being the only important one, having very few appearances in 7's story mode, with more focus being given to Transformation, and getting the same treatment in 20th as in 15th. In Tetris, Fever itself does not appear at all, and only as an Endless option, partially in Big Bang Mode, and Fever dropsets in PuyoTet Mix. It would eventually return in Champions as one of the two main modes of play, the other being Tsu... only to immediately get the shaft again in Tetris 2 as part of the Endless, Big Bang and Fusion modes.
    • Rulue and Raffina, the 'R' characters of their respective 'ARS' trios, wound up getting hit by this. Arle and Amitie both managed to retain their major roles as main protagonists, Schezo gets the occasional side-story dedicated to him in recent games, and Sig remains prominent enough in marketing and other official media, even if not so much in the games proper. All that said, Rulue and Raffina have largely been relegated to being mere side characters and are usually now characterized by their relationship with other characters, most commonly the Dark Prince and Klug respectively.
  • Difficulty by Acceleration: Is utilized in almost every game's Scenario and Endless modes. As the games' hardware improved, they began to rely less on this and more on smarter AI; nonetheless, you can still expect fast drop speeds against later opponents.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: The AI in the Sega games (especially if it's Core AI). Did you just pop a single group of Puyo that sends a single unit of nuisance Puyos to the opponent? They fire their main chain.
  • Ditching the Dub Names:
    • The series as a whole was known as Puyo Pop in the West for some time in the 2000s. Starting with the English release of Puyo Puyo Tetris, it reverted to its native name for all international versions.
    • The original arcade game changed most of the characters' names, Arle was known as Silvana for instance. The localized versions of Fever and Tetris would change these names back, at least for the characters that appeared anyway.
    • Tetris would also change Raffine and Rider's names to Raffina and Lidelle respectively, and drop the "Arly" pronunciation of Arle from Fever.
  • Divergent Character Evolution: There were no notable differences between characters in Sun. Yo~n introduces character-unique Super Attacks, Fever and 7 use Dropsets and character-specific score tables, and Ice Block mode from the Anniversary titles have character-specific color sets.
  • Dolled-Up Installment:
    • The first Puyo Puyo game on the MSX2 did not originally involve anything from Madou Monogatari, it was instead originally designed as a game where you would stack dominoes. Adding Arle, Carbuncle, and the Puyos was later incorporated to give the game more character.
    • Kirby's Avalanche, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, and...Timon and Pumbaa's Bug Drop?
    • Given the series's history with this trope, Haro no Puyo Puyo almost feels like a subversion.
    • Attempted (in 2015!) with Puyo Puyo!! Quest becoming Cranky Food Friends, but it was caught and then proceeded to crash and burn before even being released.
  • "Double, Double" Title: Puyo Puyo.
  • Dragon Variety Pack: In this world, you have dragon girls modeled after western dragons (Draco Centauros), traditional western dragons (Dragon), cockatrices, dragons with humanoid anatomy (Dragorunes from Quest), and even eastern dragon people (also from Quest).
  • Dub-Induced Plotline Change: The English arcade game, and Puzlow Kids by virtue of sharing ending text with it. In addition to inventing the "Black Kingdom" (a group bent on domination at a galactic scale), the translation alternates between keeping the characters roughly the same as their original versions and turning them into Card-Carrying Villains.
  • Dub Name Change:
    • Satan has had his name changed to "Dark Prince" in all English localizations.
    • Puzlow Kids changes Puyo to "P-Kids."
  • Duels Decide Everything: Just about any problem that happens can be settled with a Puyo match. An elephant blocking your way? Settle it with Puyo. Going to stop the Big Bad's plan of the day? Settle it with Puyo. Two people trying to stop the Big Bad but only one of them can? Settle it with Puyo! If you're part of the crew of the SS Tetra, it's settled with Tetris, and it works much the same way.
  • Dysfunction Junction: Nearly everyone except Arle has some serious problems, though they're usually played for laughs.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • The MSX/FDS Puyo Puyo's competitive mode is an afterthought, only Arle and Carbuncle are present, and the game uses six colors.
    • Multiple playable characters didn't exist until Sun; Arle narrated both sides of the field in the first two arcade games. And in Sun and Yo~n, characters had six "named" attacks instead of the five that they are given in the Sega games.
    • Minna de Puyo Puyo, Sega's first original Puyo Puyo game, was done in the style of the Compile games. It only contains former Madou Monogatari characters, exclusively uses Tsu rule, remixes older music, and features an art style with muted colors and super-deformed characters. It was Fever that gave us the Soft Reboot, saccharine art style, and Comeback Mechanics that define Sega's take on the series.
    • Haro no Puyo Puyo in its entirety, as the other games in the Kidou Gekidan Haro Ichiza series are mahjong games.
    • The DS games have portraits of the characters that appear on one of the screens that react to events during the game, such as being close to losing or close to winning, while another screen is dedicated to the Puyo gameplay. In Fever and Fever 2, the Puyo gameplay is on the top screen while the characters are on the bottom screen; in 15th Anniversary and it successors, their placement is inverted.
  • Easter Egg:
    • A hilarious one appears in the PC-98 version of Puyo Puyo. If you hold ESC after defeating Dark Prince, the typical ending with Arle celebrating is replaced with her getting drunk on sake.
    • Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon, Puyo Puyo~n, and Madou Monogatari Saturn have extra files that are only accessible when put into a PC. Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon has two screensavers, while Madou Monogatari Saturn and Puyo Puyo~n have illustrations.
    • The recurring cheats in SEGA games such as Core AI, Unlock All, and CPU only matches count. 20th in particular takes it a step further by also having a cheat that allows the play to have "classic" voices for the Compile-era characters by holding select.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin:
    • Many, many examples, given that most of the early characters began as generic RPG enemies. The aforementioned Witch is a start.
    • Puyo Puyo Champions was originally called "Puyo Puyo eSports", so named because the game is officially recognized by the Japan eSports Union, or JeSU.
  • Excuse Plot: Pretty much every game. For example:
    • The plot of the first arcade game is essentially "Arle has learned a new spell and she's going to go beat Dark Prince with it!" ...and even that much comes from the instruction booklet of the home ports. The Cut-and-Paste plot from the English arcade game (and presumably Puzlow Kids) has "Silvana" defending her home against the Dark Prince's Black Kingdom.
    • Tsu is basically Arle showing she's the best Puyo player in the world, and is invited by Dark Prince to ascend a tower to prove it.
    • In Sun, Dark Prince enlarges the sun as part of a devious plot to... get the ultimate tan.
    • In Yo~n, a magic trick by the Dark Prince gone wrong has Carbuncle disappear, revealing at the very end that Doppleganger Arle possessed the Dark Prince and commanded him to steal Carbuncle for her in order to lure Arle into a life-or-death battle after getting wind that Arle has been living the life they both should have been living. Notably, with the portable version, it completely drops the implied Kill and Replace and plays it as All Just a Dream.
    • Most of the plots are excuses for the Fever series, as they're all done to play the named game; Fever 1 has finding Accord's cane (with no explanation why and how she lost a flying wand), Fever 2 involves trying to find a special guest and some MacGuffins, 15th Anniversary is a tournament...
    • 7 has something along the lines of, "The 7 wonders of the world, to play Puyo with 7 players." Turns out it isn't much of an excuse, though, as all of those battles rip open a dimensional rift...
    • The plot of Puyo Puyo Tetris really just boils down to several levels of Tempting Fate through random musings, usually by Ringo, that all come true in often the worst ways.
    • The MSX game, the first two Nazo Puyo titles, and Champions don't even bother.
  • Expy Coexistence: Due to playing Puyo having a possible side-effect of being taken to another dimension, Amitie, who directly copies Arle's tomboyish personality in early appearances, meets her in Fever and appears as a main character alongside her and Ringo (who isn't an expy of either) in succeeding games.
  • The Face of the Sun: The Puyo Sun, sporting a huge pair of eyes. As seen in Puyo Puyo SUN, Madou Monogatari Saturn, 20th Anniversary, and Chronicle.
  • Falling Blocks:
    • The blocks are called Puyo.
    • The Trope Codifier appears in Puyo Puyo Tetris.
  • Fantastic Flora: In Sig's Secret, Amitie describes flowers being planted for the Primp Festival called "tsukimawari", a name derived from the Japanese word for "sunflower". They do act like sunflowers, only they grow facing the moon instead of the sun.
  • Flanderization: Certain character traits have become noticeably stronger as the series has progressed, notably: Arle & Carbuncle's love for curry, just how dedicated Rulue is to the Dark Prince, Amitie's need to restate her future aspirations constantly and, Sig's obsession with bug catching. It should be noted, however, that aside from some rare instances, such as the story mode of Puyo Puyo Chronicle, none of this is actually bad enough to consume their entire characters, as they are also given noteworthy Character Development aside from that. (For example, Arle and Sig have become more overall caring people starting with Puyo Puyo~n and 15th respectively, Rulue has forged a friendship with Raffina and Amitie has had more of her personal vulnerabilities shown, and Schezo making a sloppy but active attempt at reeling in his poor wording.)
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Fever ARS trio + Klug (who frequently hangs out with them) are a spot on example of this.
    • Amitie - Sanguine: Friendly, cheerful and optimistic, but also scatterbrained and disorganized with her life.
    • Raffina - Choleric: Short-tempered, rude and very haughty, but also hardworking and determined to prove her worth.
    • Sig - Phlegmatic: Gentle, quiet and compassionate, but his lack of energy and interest on most things make him come off as lazy and yielding to the will of others.
    • Klug - Melancholic: A rational and perfectionist genius student who's not afraid of harshly criticizing others, yet becomes easily embarrassed when he's proven wrong or made a fool of, which happens very frequently.
  • Furry Reminder: Ai, the S.S. Tetra's engineer, is an anthropomorphic dog. Whenever he gets frightened he begins whimpering and barking like an actual dog.
  • Game-Breaking Bug: In Champions, when playing on Ranked League mode, if your opponent disconnects right before the character selection screen shows up, you will find yourself in a single-player character selection, akin to an Endless mode. When you get to the match itself, you find yourself playing against a large, pitch-black Ringo, but without an enemy player. Since there is no enemy player, you can't win, and losing does not award any stars to the opponent. This effectively softlocks the game, forcing the player to disconnect or close the game to leave this match... and of course, since you've disconnected, you get a penalty. See this glitch in action here.
  • Game Mod: The PC versions of the Puyo games see opportunities for players to swap out characters for others. Behold, Hatsune Miku (predating the Puyo Puyo 39 minigame in Project Mirai, no less) and Haruhi Suzumiya in Fever, shown here. For more modern examples, there's the Squid Sisters in place of Jay & Elle in Puyo Tetris.
  • Gratuitous English:
    • A good amount of the called attacks use this. Most even manage to get out close-to-correct pronunciations.
    • Incubus lives for this and is known for his infamous "Oh, Shit!" in Sun.
    • Suketoudara also frequently shouts "Fiiiiiish!" and "Let's dancing!" in his cutscenes and introductions...in the Japanese games, at least.
  • Hammerspace: Due to having a limited number of sprites, characters will sometimes pull objects out of thin air, such as; an apple for Ringo, a chakram for Tee, or an umbrella for Ess.
  • Have a Nice Death: In addition to having defeat portraits, opponents in Tsu and Box celebrate your defeat as well.
  • Heinousness Retcon: Lemres goes through this during the installments despite not appearing until the sixth installment. In the fifth installment, Ocean Prince's transformation from a prince to a fish is first explained as the result of a curse against his will. However, when Lemres is introduced in the sequel as the wizard who did it, the prince says he asked to be transformed so he can escape his princely duties, lessening Lemres's responsibility (though he's aware that turning someone into a fish is not something that is praised). Later in the series, his backstory is expanded to reveal that he never liked being a dark mage, and seeing the prince happy with his transformation made him realize that he wants to bring happiness to others with his magic.
  • Hoist by Their Own Petard:
    • It's easy to accidentally clog your field if you aren't paying attention. Starting with Fever, the spaces that will end you are marked with X's in order to lessen the chances of this happening.
    • Thanks to the lack of Offsetting in Original rule, it is possible to make a chain that is actually too large. A 5-6 chain is enough to bury the opponent; going any higher gives the opponent a chance to finish their chain first, which usually means death.
    • In Minna de Puyo, there's a Nuisance Puyo type called Point Puyo. It functions like any ordinary Nuisance Puyo, but clearing it adds extra Nuisance Puyo (and points) to your attack or offset. You might get a rude awakening when your opponent digs out the pile you just sent to them.
  • Iconic Sequel Character:
    • Amitie and Ringo, who debuted 12 and 18 years, respectively, after the MSX / Famicom Disk System Puyo Puyo.
    • Sig, Lemres, and Feli debuted in Puyo Puyo Fever 2, one game later than Amitie (and the soft reboot).
  • Idiosyncratic Cover Art: Starting with 15th Anniversary, the box art for almost each game displays a bunch of Puyos (as well as Tetriminoes for the Tetris crossovers) in front of a simple background that's usually white in color.
  • Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels:
    • Goes as follows in Fever 1 and 2, being onomatopoeias for excitement.
      • RunRun: "euphoric", for the shortened Easy difficulty.
      • WakuWaku: "exciting", for the Normal difficulty.
      • HaraHara: "thrilling", for the Hard difficulty.
    • Additionally, setting the difficulty for VS play utilizes spiciness levels, going from "Very Sweet" to "Very Spicy". This goes back to the earliest Puyo games, where the cursor is even a plate of curry that turns redder with spice, and subtly alludes to it being a favorite dish of Arle and Carbuncle. It was even a high-power recovery item in the Madou games.
  • Image Song: Sega released Puyo Puyo Vocal Tracks, a CD featuring vocalized versions of the cast's theme songs. Volume 1note  was released on March 27, 2013, Volume 2note  was released November 14, 2013, and Volume 3note  was released on November 26, 2015.
  • Innocent Innuendo: When Schezo says "Be my desire!" ...he wanted something entirely different from what the other person was thinking. Notably, this only applies to the Japanese version of the games.
  • Instant Runes: Some attacks, but then again, these kids use magic.
  • Interface Screw: Both Tetris games have two unlockable skins, one of which turns Puyos into Tetrimino blocks, and vice versa. Nothing prevents you from using both in Fusion mode, where both Puyo and Tetriminos are in the same board. It's as confusing as one would expect... if not more.
  • It Makes Just As Much Sense In Context: Oh, boy... SUN, most of the plots, the reasons to fight, and Klug's... "magic magazine".
    Amitie: I never knew that you read this kind of book. (blushes) Gee...
    Klug: What, no! That's the wrong page!
  • Lame Pun Reaction: One 4-koma features Amitie attempting to cheer up a Blue Puyo by telling it a joke, leading to her getting attacked by a group of Red Puyos.
  • Large Ham: The higher the chain goes, the louder the character can get. Akuma, in some cases, starts screaming.
  • Laugh Track: One of the DiscStation shorts parodies the trope, having Suketoudara make movements in the corner of the screen to instruct viewers when to laugh. Suketoudara's movements are nevertheless accompanied by canned laughter played in the short. At the end, Choppun is shown laughing himself silly at the events of the animation.
  • Lighter and Softer:
    • Puyo Puyo was never particularly dark, but it became even softer starting with Fever. The original series, while still largely made for younger audiences, did indulge in some Fanservice and things that might be considered gross or strange like zombies and foot monsters. When Sega took the helm, they swept most of that away and introduced their own cuddly stable of humans and creatures. Sega can be edgy at times, but odds are that we'll never see pinup shots of Draco or a kid zombie losing his eyeball ever again.
    • Quest, being a giant The Bus Came Back moment, provides some insight as to where Sega stands on Compile's work. Most of the characters are kept, but the aforementioned zombies and foot monster (along with a few more characters) are completely absent, Succubus goes from a Dominatrix to something far less provocative, and the summer-themed Draco card dons a fairly-conservative beach top and shorts instead of going for the obvious Sun Call-Back.
  • Limited Animation: Spell animations tend to be short and snappy, but there are some cases where it's noticeably cut back.
    • 4-player battles in Chronicle and 8-player battles in the DS versions of 15th, 7, and 20thnote  minimize the actions to still images. Not necessarily a bad thing though, as attempting to fully animate eight players at once would not only be liable to framerate drops, but also might be hard on the eyes when everything is happening at once.
    • All over the place in 7. There are only about three sprites per character during their normal form, and two (some even only have one sprite with moving limbs) for each of their transformation forms. Carbuncle lacks any transformation forms and reuses two of his pre-existing sprites for his transformations (probably because he's an animal).
    • Champions solely uses still images for the chain cut-ins, and even those are kept to the sidelines. This is done to keep all the attention on the gameplay while keeping the visual distractions to a minimum.
  • Love Dodecahedron: A huge one. Minotaurus wants Rulue, who wants Dark Prince, who wants Arle, and Arle isn't interested. Some fans add another line by making Arle interested in Schezo, who has shown no (real, intentional) affection ever, but has gotten plenty of Ship Tease with a great deal of the cast. On top of that, Incubus wants Arle, though it's not clear whether it's for real reasons or just because he's an incubus. And in other games, Incubus has pursued Witch, who is Schezo's Implied Love Interest. Complicating matters even further, Arle and Ragnus are an Official Couple in the Kadokawa novels (Made by Yamamoto, not Kenji Oda), where Arle is the center of a harem.
  • Luck-Based Mission: Many, many examples throughout the series. Heck, the very nature of the game means that there will be times where the color that you need just won't show up.
    • "Nohoho AI" back in Tsu. Nohoho (and his Fever counterpart Donguri Gaeru) would stack Puyo to the brim on the three rightmost columns on the field, clear one group, and pray the pile would magically create a chain or two. It may sound impractical (competitively speaking), but it won't be a laughing matter if you get hit with a five or six chain. (Suketoudara, Harpy, and Yu & Rei use similar "gimmick" stacking patterns, but none of theirs are quite as effective.)
  • Lyrical Dissonance: Klug's cheery vocal track from Puyo Puyo Vocal Tracks (and the even more upbeat version from Chronicle) has lyrics that are about putting a lot of pressure on himself to be an amazing magic user with high intellect but ended up feeling burned out in the process.
  • MacGuffin:
    • Dark Prince's evil plot of the day.
    • The Lantern of the Stars and the Rock of the Moon in Fever 2.
    • The wishgranting medal of 15th.
    • Arle for 7.
    • Ecolo in 20th.
    • Marle in Tetris 2.
  • Magical Girl: Spoofed in the drama CD story "Chain Sentai Puyorangers", where Raffina refuses to wear a Super Sentai outfit as Amitie expected and instead dons a red frilly magical girl outfit while naming herself "Miracle Raffina".
  • Market-Based Title:
    • The series was originally localized as Puyo Pop. This held until SEGA 3D Classics Collection and Project Mirai DX, when SEGA suddenly decided to roll back the title and simply call it Puyo Puyo worldwide.
    • Puyo Puyo eSports kept the Puyo Puyo name but dropped the "eSports" subtitle in favor of "Champions".
  • Mascot: In-series; Primp Town has "Puyo" everywhere.
  • Mascot Mook: Puyo were the resident Slime equivalents in the Madou Monogatari series.
  • Match-Three Game: The "Match Four" variant. It's also the Trope Codifier. A lot of match-three games released after the first arcade Puyo Puyo would include a competitive multiplayer mode where characters send "garbage" objects to the opponent's screen to obstruct their movements and also make them lose (most multiplayer match-tree games either had no interaction between both players or, in the case of Columns, sent garbage lines a la Tetris instead), the possibility of making chain reactions to send even more garbage objects at the same time, and a countering mechanic, among other elements.
  • "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name: In Sig's Secret, Amitie tries to balance puyos on her head and proclaims "Balance is practically my middle name! ...or so I think."
  • Mini-Game: Not in the series proper, but it is one in Sega Superstars, Sega Superstars Tennis, Yakuza 6, Sonic Mania, Judgment and several others. And that's saying nothing of the other mini-games at Puyo Puyo Fever's websites.
  • Mirror Match: One of the potential opponents in Box's Scrambled Mode is the Puyo Puyo~n version of Arle. It's also perfectly possible in most of the games' Free Battle mode.
  • Multiplayer Difficulty Spike: Most definitely. The ability to perform a 5 chain is enough to carry you through the first three games' single-player modes, but you'll need a lot more than that to defeat an expert player. The spike is slightly lessened in the Sega games, as opponents in Free Battle can perform anywhere from 3 to 6 chains at will.
  • Musical Nod: The most recurring example is the Fever theme, which borders on a Leitmotif for Fever Mode. The main melody used in Puyo Pop Fever is referenced in 15th, 7, 20th, Tetris, Chronicle, and Tetris 2. Fever 2 double subverts it, using the secondary phrase instead of the main phrase.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • The "stuttering" audio effect used on the characters' voices at the end of large Fever chains references the damage-doubling Diacute spell from Madou Monogatari, which had a similar side effect. Just to drive the reference home, Arle does the exact same stutter on the spell after Diacute starting with 20th Anniversary.
    • Dark Prince's Affectionate Nickname for Arle, Arly, is a reference to how her name was pronounced in the English version of Puyo Puyo Fever.
  • New Work, Recycled Graphics: Champions borrows the vast majority of its assets and visuals from Tetris, while most of its character art is edited Quest artwork.
  • Nice, Mean, and In-Between:
    • A much more downplayed example with the 'A Trio'. Arle is the Mean, Amite is the Nice, and Ringo is the In-Between. Arle is by no means cruel, but she is still the most likely of the three to have a nasty habit of agitating her opponents. Amite doesn't have a single mean bone in her body. Ringo is much more considerate than Arle, but will still occasionally poke fun at her opponents.
    • The Primp Town Magic School kids also form this despite being a quartet instead of a trio. Amite is the Nice, Raffina/Klug are the Mean, and Sig is the In-Between. As stated above Amite is incredibly nice and kind to everyone. Raffina and Klug both have massive egos and tend to look down on others. Finally, while Sig is nice, his rather apathetic way of speaking makes him come off as rude sometimes.
  • Nintendo Hard: Several examples.
    • Most players agree that where there would normally be a learning curve, Puyo Puyo has a learning wall. With an incline of more than 90 degrees. The core concept of matching 4 same-colored pieces is simple enough, and new players can get lucky with chains by throwing pieces into random spots, but consistently and deliberately doing anything higher than 2- or 3-chain requires months upon months of practice, learning how to deal with the pieces the RNG throws out, balancing chain setup with opponents throwing garbage at you, etc etc. Even in a single-player vs-CPU game, if you can't do chains well, expect to meet a quick and hopeless end. Hit particularly hard by this trope were people going into Puyo Puyo Tetris from the Tetris side and playing through the single-player Adventure Mode.
    • The first Puyo game in particular didn't have the Offset rule, not to mention that the arcade version is played using one button.
  • No Fair Cheating: Like many Falling Blocks games, Puyo Puyo hides every piece on the screen whenever the game is paused.
  • Not Allowed to Grow Up: The Fever series has this thing: Anti-Aging magic. This allows the likes of Lemres and Ms. Accord to remain youthful regardless of how much time passes. Assuming Sega ever feels the necessity to explain why their original cast never gets to age (like how Compile did), they can always use this as a convenient solution.
  • Notice This: Nomi, a three pixel wide minor character, requires this in order to be noticed, being a flea and all. At least in Madou Monogatari ARS : “R” side (Rulue’s story) a magnifier was placed on Nomi to show the clearer appearance while encountering it.
  • Odd Name Out: O is technically the only member of the S.S. Tetra not to receive a Dub Name Change, making him the only crew member whose name is still one letter.
  • Oh, Crap!: In the first two games, Mean Bean Machine, and Kirby's Avalanche, a mugshot of the opponent is shown on the screen. As their side of the screen fills, they will gain a scared/frustrated look on their face, then start sweating, and finally start flashing. The games also try to invoke this in the player, as the enemy gains a happy/smug look when the player's field is more than half-full and panic music starts playing when there are only a few free rows left.
  • One-Letter Name: In the Japanese version of the game, the crew members of the S.S. Tetra and Ex have names that are only one letter long, for instance Ex is simply X. As stated above, O is the only one who does not avert this in the English translation.
  • Only Sane Man: This role is usually held by Arle, but as of Puyo Puyo 7 it seems to have been given to Ringo. In both Tetris games this role is given to Tee.
  • Only Six Faces: The series' artstyle as of 20th uses one head shape for every single humanoid, non-anthromorphic character, regardless of age or gender. Most of those characters have the same eye shape as well, resulting in faces that vary only in eye color and whether or not the character has Blush Stickers or "whiskers" like Arle, Amitie, and Ringo. Hairstyles and other accessories go a long way toward hiding this, but even then a few characters still stick out. (Quest's Rebecca essentially being an off-colored Witch, for example.)
  • Our Mermaids Are Different: Serilly, although she seems to believe in the eat-the-mermaid myth.
  • Our Monsters Are Weird:
    • Dark Prince and Ecolo aren't the only weird ones; you also have a gay skeleton, skeletons who drink tea, off-tune harpies, lovelorn minotaurs, acorn-frog hybrids...
    • Suketoudara is the weirdest of them all, though. "Can I fight a dancing human-limbed Alaskan pollock?", asked absolutely no one.
    • Even the Dolled-Up/licensed entries get in on the action. Haro no Puyo Puyo's True Final Boss is a sentient vase.
  • Palette Swap:
    • The N-Gage Puyo Pop features most of the characters from the first Puyo Puyo...except that they all have vastly different color palettes than the original sprites. A straighter example is Harpy; her sprite is used twice, with each opponent having different hair color.
    • Box gets a lot of mileage out of this trope. All of the Doppelgangers except Doppelganger Arle are palette swaps, while most of the Yon characters use blatant edits of their Tsu mugshots. And yes, there is more than one version of Harpy.
    • Arle's sprite on the Game Gear Puyo Puyo's title screen is an edit of her sprite from the MSX game's title screen, changing her clothes and having her hold the green Puyo closer to her body.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation:
    • Puyo Puyo games on mobile generally don't use the normal match-3 mechanics, with Puyo Quest using erasure of Puyo obstructing a line, and Puyo Touch using changing the one Puyo that ISN'T the right color by dragging the right color over it.
    • Notably averted by the 90s handheld Puyo Puyo games, which include real AI instead of resorting to the "fill a gauge while fending off random attacks" gameplay that was commonly employed by handheld ports of competitive puzzle games at the time.
  • Pun-Based Title: The "Tsu" in Puyo Puyo Tsu means "master" and is also the number "two" spoken with a Japanese accent. Likewise, the "SUN" in Puyo Puyo Sun means "three" and also references the new Sun Puyo. Finally, "yon" means "four", hence, Puyo Puyo~n.
  • Put on a Bus: Everyone except Arle and Carbuncle after the Changing of the Guard in Fever.
    • Commuting on a Bus: Panotty before Minna put him on the bus long-term. There's also the Sega characters mentioned under Demoted to Extra.
    • The Bus Came Back: Puyo Puyo!! Quest has almost every single character from both eras; additionally, Nasu Grave, Zoh Daimaoh, and Skeleton-T appear in exactly one "regular" Sega entry before disappearing again.
    • Long Bus Trip: The characters that have yet to show up in Quest, including Zombie, Mini-Zombie, Sukiyapodes, Nomi, and Choppun, are either on a long trip or flat-out Exiled from Continuity.
  • Quest for a Wish: Puyo Puyo On Stage features the characters on a hunt for the "White Puyo" that grants wishes. It winds up being subverted when it's revealed to be a normal Puyo that's been painted white.
  • Recurring Riff: Several, the most notable being "Theme of Puyo Puyo" from the first arcade game, "Area A" from Tsu, and "Fun Puyo Puyo Hell" from Fever.
  • Recycled Title: There's the MSX/FDS Puyo Puyo, and the Arcade/Mega Drive/Snes/etc Puyo Puyo. Outside of Japan, there's the NGPC Puyo Pop (localization of Tsu), GBA Puyo Pop (localization of Minna), and N-Gage Puyo Pop (semi-port of the first arcade game).
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: Doppelganger Schezo from Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon, who wears Schezo's black robes and trades in the latter's blue eyes and headband for red-colored ones.
  • Replay Mode: Most of the games have a feature in the options menu that allows the player to view any cutscenes from the game's story mode.
  • Restaurant-Owning Episode: The majority of the second Sega-era light-novel, Sig's Secret, is this, at least until the story shifts from that to saving Sig from Death of Personality.
  • Retool:
    • Sega tried imitating Compile with Minna before resorting to this trope. Fever wiped the slate clean from a narrative standpoint via a Soft Reboot; it introduced a new setting, new art style, and mostly new characters. Many of the new characters (especially the ones that survive the 15th Anniversary and 7 cuts) are human schoolchildren, creating an environment far different than the originals' strange take on fantasy RPG tropes.
    • The gameplay is also a mild example, with mechanics like 3- and 4-Puyo "pairs", continuous offset (Nuisance Puyo don't fall until the player misses a chain), and Fever mode making survival much easier, thus creating longer matches that emphasize Victory by Endurance. For a bit of reference, the Margin Time mechanic triggers at 96 seconds in Tsu rules, began at 128 seconds in Fever and Fever 2, and ended up increasing to 192 seconds for 7 and later implementations of Fever rules.
  • Retraux:
    • Puyo Puyo Box is visually based on the first two arcade games; the game even goes so far as to draw new, retro-styled portraits for the characters introduced in Sun and Yo~n. Additionally, the Original, Tsu, and Sun rulesets retain the choppy, grid-like vertical movement from their home games while Puyo drop smoothly in Yo~n rule.
    • The Anniversary titles gives players the option to change their Puyo's appearance. These alternate Puyo skins include the MSX game's Puyo, the same game's "Human" set, and the Puyo as they appear in the first arcade game. The games' "Original", "Tsu", and "Sun" rules also use the choppy movement described above, while the other modes use smooth-dropping Puyo.
    • The eShop logos for the international versions of Sega Ages Puyo Puyo and Sega Ages Puyo Puyo 2 are done in the style and font of the Neo Geo Pocket Color Puyo Pop, as the NGPC Puyo Pop was the first localized console/handheld port to retain the Puyo name.
  • Right Behind Me: In Sig's Secret, Amitie tells Arle and Ringo that she wants to ask Sig if he's okay, since he hasn't been acting like himself. Turns out Sig's right behind Amitie as she says this, which is pointed out by Ringo.
    Amitie: I quickly turned myself around. When did he show up? I didn't even notice him. Sure enough, Sig's just standing there doing nothing.
  • RPG Elements: Puyo Puyo Box featured a Quest Mode in which you fight monsters Puyo-style; equipment would boost attack and defense, and heavier equipment would make your Puyo fall faster. Heck, the Quest Mode itself has examples of tropes.
    • Heart Container: They're sprawled around the world and must be found.
    • Broken Bridge/NPC Roadblock: The bridge isn't broken, Schezo's sleeping on it!
    • But Thou Must! Not: You cannot say "Yes" to Dark Prince at the end of the game. Then again, would you want to marry him after all the trouble you went through to get that instead of something cool? I don't think so.
    • Said quest mode has a lot in common with the Nazo Puyo spinoffs.
    • Its successor in Puyo Puyo Chronicle is even more blatant, where you can recruit party members and accept sidequests. The battles themselves also use more RPG mechanics like enemy health and character skills.
  • Rule of Cute: ...But then Sega took that away and made everyone look really cute for no real reason...
  • Rule of Drama: B-But everyone's in love triangles, and in one game, Schezo's disembodied head fights you! And people are getting possessed, like Klug and Dark Prince himself! Twice!
  • Rule of Fun: Highly addictive game that invokes feeling pride about how much you can bury an opponent and how far.
  • Rule of Funny: Satan's here, too! He likes Hawaiian Shirts and loves his pet rabbit that shoots beams out of its forehead, Carbuncle! His sidekick is a female martial artist with a severe jealous streak and blue hair named Rulue who owns a pet minotaur and there's dancing fish and cleanliness-obsessed maids and dragon girls forming fanclubs within Satan's... house...
  • Running Gag: Many examples. Calling Schezo a pervert, Schezo causing Accidental Innuendo, Harpy's atrocious singing, Incubus trying and failing to flirt with Arle, Draco's obsession with beauty contests, Dark Prince's Carbuncle or Arle obsession, etc.
  • Screen-to-Stage Adaptation: Yes, a falling blocks game of all things has a stage play based off it. The play, called Puyo Puyo on Stage, was originally performed on May 2nd, 2015.
  • Serious Business: Everyone is determined to play Puyo to solve their problems. All of them. Ringo lampshades this a lot.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: In Puyo Puyo On Stage the characters are attempting to get their hands on the fabled "White Puyo" that will grant a wish. It's revealed early on that it's actually a normal Puyo that Rulue painted white in order to rile up Arle.
  • Shout-Out: One of the drama CDs has a story called "Chain Sentai Puyorangers" that spoofs Super Sentai by having Amitie and her friends be rangers.
  • Sigil Spam: Primp's Magic School symbol is a small wing, so naturally Ms. Accord and her students all have a small white wing brooch somewhere in their person (Amitie on her hat, Sig on his bag, etc). Lemres and Feli, who hail from another school, have their own version of this too (a small golden comet).
  • Songs in the Key of Panic: When the bottom two-thirds or so of the player's area is completely filled, the game switches to a frantic danger theme, fittingly titled "Warning of Puyo Puyo". Some Sega-era games start the theme early if the player has enough Nuisance Puyo waiting for them to create such a situation. The Compile-era version of the theme is the only Puyo Puyo song that is retained in Kirby's Avalanche; Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine changes the tune to a remix of Dark Prince's theme.
  • Sound-Coded for Your Convenience: In Champions, characters speak the current chain number when they pop Puyo, only using their "spell" lines on the last segment of a sufficiently large chain. This lets you know if you can safely continue to build or if you need to launch your counterattack now, instead of having to learn each character's spell names or count how many times they shouted their final spell once they reach 9 chains.
  • Spell My Name With An S:
    • Questionable romanizations are as old as the series itself, beginning with Sukiyapotes instead of Sukiyapodes or Sciapod in the first arcade game.
    • After years of calling Puyo Puyo's resident cute, horned genie "Jan", western fans discovered that most official romanizations render her name as Jarn or Jarnne. The fandom switched to Jarne...right after the 25th Anniversary Book rendered it as Jan. (It helps that said book is rife with examples of this trope, including Demon Sarvant.)
    • Serilly's name was romanized as "Seriri" for the longest time, and even appeared in Minna, a game that was localized. The Puyo Puyo Champions localization instead spells her name as "Serilly".
    • Similarly, the formerly named Lagnus has been retranslated as "Ragnus" in Champions. However, the non-English versions dialed back the change and named him Lagnus again in Tetris 2.
  • Spelling Song: Ringo does this quite frequently, especially when she's excited.
    Ringo: (in Sig's Secret) Puzzles in here♪ Puzzles in here♪ We got puzzles in here~ ♪ P-U-Z-Z-L-I-N-G! I challenge your test of wisdom~~~!
  • Spinoff: Puyo Puyo itself is a spinoff of Madou Monogatari. There's also the multitude of spin-offs mentioned at the top of the page.
  • Spiritual Successor: Compile's final game, Pochi & Nyaa, was an obvious attempt to recapture the Puyo Puyo audience. Unfortunately, Compile went under before the game was even published, forcing successor company Aiky to collaborate with other parties to release it.
  • Stalked by the Bell: If a match surpasses "Margin Time" (usually 96 seconds), the Garbage Puyo multiplier will steadily increase to ensure the match won't drag on any longer than it should.
  • Status Quo Is God: Between Puyo Puyo Tetris 1 and 2, Ringo and co. initially don't remember anyone in the Tetra crew, as if they've met for the first time. In addition, there have also been occasions where the Puyo cast has slight difficulty remembering each other between games. That said, Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 finally provides an In-Universe reason for this. To ensure the order between dimensions is sustained, Marle wiped their memories of their previous adventure. It's safe to assume that this memory-wiping has been the case for all games following 7, with Ringo being the only exception due to her intellectual honesty giving her a Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory.
  • Stopped Numbering Sequels: Inverted. Sega basically gave up on the Punny naming scheme by Fever 2 and especially 7.
  • Stylistic Suck: The ending of the MSX Puyo Puyo's Mission mode features a crude doodle of Arle and the Puyos.
  • Sudden Name Change:
    • The name of the titular slimes changed from "Puyopuyo" to simply "Puyo" deep into the Compile-era.
    • Inverted with "Puyo Puyo Hell", which was originally the In-Universe name of the game but eventually mutated to refer to the Dark Prince's dominion.note 
  • Super Title 64 Advance: Basically all of the Super Famicom Puyo games, as well as Puyo Puyo CD and CD Tsu for the PC-Engine CD and Puyo Puyo Sun 64.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
    • In terms of gameplay, starting with 7, new characters tend to borrow Dropset and Chaining Power stats (and sometimes the AI) from characters of previous games that are not playable (if both characters end up being playable in a following game, the newer one gets a new Dropset). Between the release of 20th and the introduction of Paprisu in Champions, no new character received new Dropsets. This is completely averted in Tetris 2 as the new characters Marle, Squares, Sonic, Legamunt and Rozatte all get completely new Dropsets.
    • Compile Heart resorted to this trope for Sorcery Saga. They basically gave the old characters new names and designs, but otherwise kept much of the original story intact.
  • Sweat Drop: A part of the series' anime-like art style, confused characters will sometimes have a sweat drop briefly appear near their heads during the cutscenes of certain games.
  • That Came Out Wrong: Every time poor Schezo tries to say something in the newer games, he blurts out "Be my desire!", and has to clarify just what he desires. (hint: it's never sex)
  • Theme Music Power-Up: Entering Fever/Henshin mode changes the music to a more up-beat song.
  • Theme Naming: More often than not, characters' attack chants are themed around something; Ringo's are based on mathematical terms, Risukuma's are based around love, and Tee's are based on Tetris terms for instance.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The standard Puyo Puyo board can hold up to 71 pieces without triggering a loss. However, not only is it possible to queue up more than that to your opponent's board, but unique symbols exist for attacks of 180, 360, 720, and even 1440 Nuisance Puyo. Yo~n takes it up to eleven with unique symbols for millions and even a trillion Nuisance Puyo. Of course, the whole point is to have your own big chain ready to counterattack with, but if you don't have one...You Are Already Dead.
  • Time Travel Episode: The fifth drama CD's first story, "Time Travel Space Tour", is about Ecolo overhearing Ringo saying she'd like to visit new places some day and granting it on the spot against her will. He takes her, Arle, and Carbuncle to different points in the past, such as the Stone Age and the Edo Period, where they meet ancient folks who are oddly similar to those they know in the present.
  • Title Scream: Present in most of the games. The first one is notably delivered by the Puyo themselves.
  • Trauma Button: Due to being abondoned by her real father at a young age, Ess has developed a phobia of being alone. In both Tetris games, she is shown to be a crying mess when left alone.
  • Two-Teacher School: In the original series, there was a preschool, but the rule seemed to have stuck.
  • Vague Age: In regards to the original series, it's averted. Arle is 16, Rulue is 18, Schezo is 180*, Ragnus is 10 or 17, and so on. The age for the post-Fever cast, however, is very ambiguous. The only real clues we have is their status in magic school. Lemres is a senior magic student, meaning he's the oldest when compared to the Primp Magic School students and is senior to Feli. Ringo and Maguro attend Suzuran Junior High, meaning their age is no older than 14 or 15. Risukuma, who attends the same school, has seniority over them, but never states how wide the age gap is.
  • Valentine's Day Episode: The third drama CD has a story called "The Valentine's Day That Overcame Space-Time". In it, Ringo is giving out chocolates to her friends on Valentine's Day, going as far as to make an altar so that Ecolo can have some chocolates too. Once Ecolo does come along, he asks Ringo how she still remembers him if space-time usually makes others forget Ecolo exists.
  • Vanity Plate:
    • From 20th Anniversary to Puyo Puyo Tetris, Arle, Amitie, or Ringo will imitate the classic "SE-GA!" call as the game boots up. After going through the Attract Mode at least once, the game chooses another character (this time from the entire cast) to say it.
    • In Puyo Quest the call formerly was done only by Arle. After version 10.0 went live, the Spacetime Detective Agency joins in as a group.
    • Compile's recurring jingle shows up sporadically in the earlier titles. It plays in Sun's arcade version when the player inserts credit into the machine, and becomes the All-Clear jingle in at least one of the handheld games.
  • Violation of Common Sense: Dark Prince’s final chain spell (Ascension), depicts him (a demon king) literally ascending to heaven.
  • Video Game Long-Runners: Puyo Puyo started in 1991 and has seen regular releases since, though at a slightly slower pace after Puyo Puyo 7.
  • Wild Magic: Apparently, casting spells in Puyo battles is way harder than it looks (and not just from a gameplay perspective); most of the cast often have little control over whatever spells they cast, with one wrong move potentially transporting them to a different location or dimension. And that's if they're lucky; if they're unlucky, they'll usually have to deal with an Omnicidal Maniac sooner or later...
  • Wingding Eyes:
    • Draco's defeat animation in the Sega games has her eyes turned into X's or spirals as she waves a White Flag.
    • Arle also has her eyes turn to X’s in the Sega games, this even extends to Dark Arle in 7.
  • Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: In the novel Satan's Space Amusement Park, Arle ends up winning the beauty contest even though she did not change up her appearance at all.
  • Wizard Duel: Puyo matches in-universe amount to this, according to ports of the first arcade game; the spell Owanimo is used to convert four similarly-colored creatures (such as Puyo) into energy that attacks the opponent. Probably best not to think too hard about how an Un-Sorcerer like Rulue can not only play the game, but be pretty good at it.
  • Wizarding School: Primp Town's Magic School.
  • Wizards Live Longer: Mentioned by Ms. Accord, saying that everyone uses anti-aging magic. This is especially true for Dark Wizard Schezo, who's been around for 180 years and hasn't aged a day past young adulthood. He doesn't even remember how old he is!
  • World of Technicolor Hair: While there are characters with normal hair colors (like brown-haired, later ginger Arle and blonde Amitie), there are also a wide variety of less realistic hair colors that can be seen on the many, many characters. Raffina has pink hair, the Dark Prince, Draco, and Lidelle have green hair, Maguro and Feli have purple hair, Rulue and Sig have blue hair...
  • Wrongfully Attributed: "Moo" Niitani didn't create Puyo Puyo. That would be Kazunari Yonemitsu, the man also responsible for Sting Entertainment.
  • You Are Already Dead: It's pretty much par for the course for one player to have so much garbage in queue from their opponent without a counter-chain ready that they may as well just hold down and accelerate their inevitable demise.

    Tropes Present In Spinoffs 
  • After-Combat Recovery: Zigzagged in Arle no Bouken; anything that survives a fight has its HP refilled, while anything that was knocked out stays down.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Depending on the routes you take in Rulue's Spring Break, either Arle or Schezo are subjected to mind control by the game's Big Bad, Count. They snap out of it once Rulue beats them in a fight.
  • Breaking Old Trends: Puzzle Pop is the first game in Puyo history to be primarily developed in America, as the App Store description credits Sega of America as opposed to every other game being credited to the Japanese-based Compile, the main Sega Corporation, M2, or Sonic Team.
  • Captain Ersatz: The Shroomy monster in Arle no Bouken is essentially a giant Super Mushroom without spots.
  • Downer Ending: In Comet Summoner, you can press F1 at the title screen to switch the character (Witch) to Dark Witch. One possible ending is for Dark Witch, a character similar to the Doppelgangers, to win and take over Witch's body.
  • Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: One of the animations in the Pachislot arcade game features Amitie entering a door that leads to the sky and staying in place for a second or so before realizing she's not standing on anything and falling.
  • Hero Must Survive: In Arle no Bouken, the player is eliminated once Arle goes down regardless of who else is still available to fight. Justified in that Arle is the one summoning and commanding the other monsters. Thankfully, this also applies to the enemy team.
  • License-Added Game: Haro no Puyo Puyo features characters from Mobile Suit Gundam.
  • Multiple Endings: Rulue's Spring Break, being an adventure game, unsurprisingly has several. By several, we mean thirty-five total endings, some of which are slight variants to each other. There's some bad endings where Rulue simply Rage Quits her adventure in frustration, failing to save a brainwashed Arle or Schezo, getting lost in a forest...
  • With Lyrics: The Japanese-only "Puyo Puyo Vocal Tracks" albums. This 3 volume collection has characters singing their respective themes (performed by their VAs). Arle's vocal track appeared as part of the Downloadable Content in Tetris as an alternative music track, and Arle, Amite, Sig, Ringo, Klug, Yu & Rei, and Dark Prince's are included in Chronicle's Wave 3 DLC.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Puyo Pop

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Puyo Puyo 2

Satan disguises himself by wearing a simple mask and changing his name to Masked Satan. Arle has no problem seeing through his poor disguise.

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