@Kinburn: I believe you are correct, as that's what I was thinking a well. Note that it says "eagerly awaited FOLLOW UP" to Puzzle Quest, not sequel to it.

dhelor

NO DAMNIT! There goes another 50 hours of my life.

Gloibin

@BornToFlail:
I actually use the griffon as my main mount. How does a leveled up griffon skip fights? Because it is a fast mount so it can evade better?

Naia

@Bluecell:

Hmm, I have every city seiged and am still running out of money. Did you buy up every skill you could?

I also hate those enemys that gain +5 to all stats every time an enemy casts a spell. I thought that was a real kick in the pants to spell casters.

quyrean

@Zhabin: That's why you train a griffon Mount to high level, you can skip most fights

BornToFlail

I look forward to playing it. :)

If possible, please make it so that the puzzle doesn't (almost) always start out the same. My character is currently level 47 on the DS, and I think it has locked up maybe a total of... 5 times? Is that considered good or bad?

Naia

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Shimmergeek

Wow, I was having an awful day but this changes everything! I have to specifically avoid having my Puzzle Quest DS game anywhere near my DS because everytime I put it in, I lose a month of my life.

kingofallcosmos

I'm so excited now! I loved Puzzle Quest! I can't wait for the new one now!!!!

Xeneizes

Considering I almost bought the same game twice for more character slots... PUZZLY!!! <33

June

ref the play balance. I've heard they modifield the spells on later platforms (360, ps2) so the "opponent doesn't get a single turn" play style isn't possible. I've only played the ps2 version so I don't know how it differs from the earlier ones.

Here's the quote (from a interview about the Wii release of puzzle quest)

> Also, the latest and greatest gameplay additions and changes like the spell cool downs and the re-balancing of a few of the over-powered abilities that the XBLA version had were included in the Wii and PS2 versions of the game.

artki

@Zerozaki Ishiki: No, admittedly I didn't, but a large part of it was due to the aforementioned grinding needed to get anything substantial, it seemed. There wasn't much indication that items were going to get better (unlike traditional RPG's the shops didn't sell better items as you quested further...), and the runes were difficult/annoying to get plus there wasn't much info as to what they would do - well, at least I couldn't find the descriptions.

I'm sure the items you're talking about make your character substantially powerful; I just don't like the idea that by the time you grinded (ground?) enough get the item you've leveled to the point where you no longer need it. Should I revise this assumption?

Datheron

@Zerozaki Ishiki: I have an item that increases my damage for every full mana bar and an item that increases damage based on my red mana count, and I can get it to the point where matching 3 regular skulls does about 40 damage. Which is retardedly strong.

Bluecell

I hope they spend a lot of time on this because while the first was an awesome puzzle rpg It did have its downsides. Hopefully they will spend a lot of time balancing out everything. online multiplayer would be awesome!

SwordandSorcery

@Datheron: Did you try making rune weapons? The weapons in the shops were mostly terrible, but you could make some obscene weapons with the right rune combinations.
Weapons that automatically heal you when the enemy takes damage, weapons that do damage to the enemy when you take damage...
But the best item in the game was actually one some late stage enemies had, which generated +5 skulls when they soaked more than 10 points of damage. You could use a spell that made them lose a few turns, hurt them a lot, and then just chain their skulls together indefinitely.

Zerozaki Ishiki

Drool***
OMG
Puzzle Quest....
Drool***

openedge1

They announced Galactrix forever ago. Where've you been?

LeChuck

Hmph, I suppose now that they've found a successful formula, it'd be too hard *not* to capitalize on the Bejeweled + RPG crowd, and it's pretty low budget to boot.

Hopefully, they won't take the cheap cash-in route and provide just a expected more monsters + more spells sequel. The interface (for the DS version at least) was subpar, and relied entirely too much on the Bejeweled gameplay for practically EVERYTHING in the game. AI was especially annoying - it tops that helpless feeling of getting pounded by a 200+ hit super combo in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and that's a pretty high bar. =p

And while I'm dreaming, I'd like to see better balance of classes + spells + purchasable items. Actually, the entire item system seemed tacked on and not worth the time spent to get the items' weak enhancements. Same with the castle towers, which made no sense to me at all.

Git wit' it!

Datheron

ZOMG! This news made my day. I played through Puzzle Quest three times. God I love that game. Here's to more balanced multiplayer goodness, and spells.

ThisCharmingMan

I just bought the first PuzzleQuest for the DS two weeks ago. I am stoked about this news, especially if it's a sci-fi themed quest.

The first game hasn't left my DS yet and it's quickly becoming my favorite game for the system. I'm just sad I'm so late to the party on this one!

MattMN

Puzzle Quest! :D Can't wait to have more of that, I love the first one.

WHOO! :D

Tsuzu

@WalletMan: God, that is a fantastic idea. I'd love it if there were different varieties of puzzles for different battles!

ajay42

@Zhabin: You didn't sound like you were bashing the game. No worries.

I just loaded up the game to get my info and facts straight, and here's what I see.

My character is a level 50 Wizard with a level 36 Wolf mount. Leveling mounts, IMO, is second hardest in difficulty to capturing new enemies.

"having to play through 20-30 minute long puzzles at the higher mount levels just to level them up got a little too much for me too I guess"
Granted, it did take a while to get him to this level and I can see where people might find that tedious, but for me this was the most challenging and fun part of the game because of how it plays. As you level the mount you have less and less time per turn before you take 5 damage and you lose your turn. At this point, I have 3 seconds to take my turn. And what I usually end up doing is using a spell for direct damage because it's just not enough time to look at the board. Very challenging.
Also, to skip fights, you just click Cancel. If you can't skip it, you'll be forced back to the last waypoint, but if you can, it'll let you pass through. There's no new option presented to you. At level 8-10 you should be able to skip the enemies in the starting area at least.

I have another gripe but it ties into my first gripe of the game being too easy =D

I currently have 7000g. That's waaay too much. In the same way it's now easy for me to kill enemies, it's easy for me to siege a city. So every city I pass gives me money, which I don't spend because the items available to buy aren't nearly as good as the items I made myself through crafting.
That said, it may be because I chose a Wizard (which unbeknownst was uber-EZ mode) with the Flaming Skulls skill which I mentioned in my last post. Essentially a win button.

Anyways, I've only played through once so far. I'll play through again as a different class and see how that goes.

Bluecell

@JustJake:
You should play Poker Smash on XBLA. Similar in style to Tetris Attack, only with... uhm...poker. The developers for the game mentioned that the inspiration for it came from incessant Tetris Attack battles at their offices.

StickNutzman

Sweet, another Puzzle Quest. I was so hoping for this. However, those bastards better play test it more this time. I swear the PSP version glitches pissed me off so much. Especially when it froze when you learned too many skills. GAH! But I still loved playing the game.

Pinuyasha

@Mr. Fap☆Fap!:

Well that buzzing noise just means you're not moving the gems in the proper direction, you just have to learn how the gems move and how the game works. Maybe just practice a bit with it and you'll get the hang of it. If you like RPG's it's definitely a pretty good one and enjoyable. Especially if you have any down time where you're not doing much, that game knows how to burn time! =D

Zhabin

More PQ and Civ on the DS, well I suppose I can give up doing anything productive in 2008.

Randomeis

I hope it's a Scifi Puzzle Quest

Fabrice

This is the only reason I want a psp slim, to play this on my big screen.

kyosuke9999

an online version on PSN would be cool, but it'll end up like super puzzle fighter; no one EVER ONLINE PLAYING! EVER!!

i'll get it on PSP. it's still fun. breaks up the stranglehold that lumines and tekken 5 has on it.

jfx316

Hopefully you can customize characters and classes more. Would make the use of abilities so much better.

Project Thanatos

Hopefully they have, I don't know.... DIFFERENT PUZZLES? When I heard about how great this game Puzzle Quest was, I imagined a bunch of different puzzles, but it was not so. Just Bejeweled. Makes the title a bit misleading.

WalletMan

I wonder if the sequel the press release is talking about is the already announced Galacctrix. [en.wikipedia.org]

Kinburn

@Zhabin:

That's what I was doing (or so I thought) but it kept buzzing at me and taking away my life.

Mr. Fap☆Fap!

@JustJake:

It's Bejeweled gameplay with basic (yet good) RPG elements tossed in. Doesn't sound that great based on that but it's extremely well done. I hated Bejeweled but I love Puzzle Quest to death.

iamnotdryad

@Bluecell:

Yeah, that's what I thought too. I got my character up to about lvl 25 and I had a mount at about level 8-10 (having to play through 20-30 minute long puzzles at the higher mount levels just to level them up got a little too much for me too I guess), but I was still fighting way too often.

I did keep it in mind once the game told me I could pass through monsters, but I was not able to (maybe I was screwing something up, but all I remember is having to fight every monster I ran into, even while on my mount. I just figured I was doing things right because my brother has the same issue with too many fights as well and he's got a lvl 30+ character with a lvl 10+ mount).

Maybe we're just wusses, but I just recall too much fighting for my liking. I also don't think I sounded like I was bashing the game, I certainly wasn't trying to sound like that and sorry if I did. I did enjoy the game for as much as I played it (up until about lvl 25 or so, which certainly isn't a short amount of time).

Zhabin

More Puzzle Quest but but but... I just got over that addiction and I almost have the first game finished. Though I almost bought the 360 version yesterday just to play it with a huge board on my TV instead of the tiny DS screen. Hopefully we'll get more details soon. If you want to skip battles between quest just level up your mount then just hit cancel when you enter a battle.
I'd want this on the DS and 360 again.

Kinburn

Oh man, more puzzle quest is just what I like to hear. Four of my friends at college and myself had some epic battles once we were all deep enough into the game.

SpishackCola

My feelings can only be described by one word: "SQUEE!!!!"

For good measure- (poing! poing!)

HootieMac, The Very, Very, Very, Very, Very Angry Twins Fan

@Zhabin: You can SKIP all non quest related fights as the game progresses. It's been a long time since I've played but I'm pretty sure you did this by training your mount. Get your mount to the approximated level of the enemy and you can just choose not to fight him.

And I think there was already news of the sequel not being set in the same theme. I think it's a space theme.

The only problem I had was with the difficulty. I progressed through all the quests and story line so quickly and easily because I had such powerful spells. Most monsters didn't have enough resistance to even phase me. My main spell was the ability to turn green gems into skulls and blue gems into reds. So, I'd wait until there were an order of 2green and 2skulls or 2red and 2blue somewhere on the board before using it. And I would therefore get 4 gems in a row, giving me an extra turn. And with all these gems made similar, it was easy for me to have 5 or 6 or 7 or more turns in a row. I killed a few bosses on my first turn just because I went first, used the spell and chained all the way through without giving the boss a turn. The spells and classes seemed unbalanced.

The real difficulty in the game was in the other modes. Capturing enemies, training mounts and creating items.

Bluecell

This news comes as an unexpected surprise. I can only wonder why they would opt for a full-fledged sequel as opposed to a large expansion instead. The game is simple enough and the addition of extra quests, classes, enemies, skills, mounts, items, etc. would be a fairly simple thing to manage. What I fear is that we will get an expansion at a retail price.

Hiero Glyph

Oh wow. After I beat the first one, I was actually a bit depressed. No DS game would suffice after beating it. But Puzzle Quest 2? This is amazing.

SageofAnacostia

Shaun the Sheep! Whoo!
Oh, and that other Puzzle hybrid thing that bored me. NEXT.

Pombar

I'm in. Played through the DS game twice. If they make the game a little less linear and add in a cool new type of combo system or something, they will strike gold.

n/a

*blinks and rubs eyes*

That's GREAT NEWS!!

Caduceus

I'm hoping the new one comes to XBLA also, cuz thats where I played it.

Ryan Saotome

I think I just wet myself.

This is the best news I have ever heard.

I just went from being depressed to jumping on my rooftop.
In my underwear.
In 30 degree weather.

Eeeeek! =)

hop3less

I am down for another Puzzle Quest. More story depth this time and no lock ups on the DS please.

EnigmaNemesis

Hmmm... Would I prefer a new version of the same budget priced game (puzzles and text) or would I rather pay more for a more full featured RPG/Puzzler with 3-d towns and animated characters that I can customize with armor and whatnot.

I'm leaning toward the former.

Ess

Bleh, I'm convinced my copy was defective. With so many people liking the game, there's no way freeze-ups every 3-4 battles could be normal. Not to mention the countless other graphical glitches I encountered constantly.

brello

YES!

Struct09

As long as they fix the multiplayer, I'll be more than willing to pick this up. If multiplayer ends up being more "Whoever goes first wins" then forget it.

jasu

@Mr. Fap☆Fap!:

It's not too difficult. Basically you just have to switch two "gems" around to make 3 or more of the same colored gems line up. In Puzzle Quest they have skulls that you have to line up also in order to damage your opponent. And all the colored orbs give you that color mana (example: yellow orbs = yellow mana). So when you line up 3 or more yellow orbs, you gain yellow mana. It just basically works like that.

And since it's an RPG you get experience and stat points and special attacks that your use up the mana you're earning from destroying gems.

Zhabin

I've only played a demo of the XBLA puzzle quest, but it was pretty amazing.

KingDavid73

I finished it 3 times on the DS then played it on x360.
I thought I was getting better...
I could see light at the end of the tunnel!
My life is over again...

Automageddon

I hope they come up with some kind of way to mix up the gameplay. Game kinda got old for me after 20 levels or so. They could also differentiate the enemies more so every fight doesn't seem the same.

the-hypnotoad

Is it anything like Tetris Attack? I loved that game back on the SNES and have been waiting for a game that has the same gameplay.

JustJake

More Puzzle Quest will ruin my life...And just a suggestion but how about they put the new Ben 10 game on hold and get to work on a new Earth Defense Force game? I need more insect destroying co-op action in my life.

n/a

I couldn't figure out how to play Puzzle Quest worth a crap. It made no sense.

I've never played Bejeweled, either, though.

Mr. Fap☆Fap!

How about some classic Warlords turn-based while you're at it? This hero needs to find some relics in a cave!

SuedeGopher

Maybe we'll get to see what's going down on the other 2/3rds of the map.

shipwreck

&%$#, and i just got over my withdrawal symptoms from the first game. :(

Chainrxn

@Zhabin: Their isn't anything in the game except text and fighting lol. Brilliance in simplicity.

Seruza

Ahem. Sci-Fi Puzzle Quest with full Infrastructure multiplayer on PSP? What?

Seruza

I enjoyed this game for a while, but wow...you have to fight every other minute. The game doesn't let you do anything except fight. I go to a castle to complete a quest, get the new quest, have to fight five monsters on the way to the new quest completion location, have to fight a boss there. Yay I killed him, now to return to the castle......And I have to fight 15 more monsters.

It's a good game, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed many aspects of it. But when each puzzle fight takes anywhere between 5-15 minutes to complete and you have to fight so often, it just gets a little old a little fast. At least for me. I just didn't enjoy fighting so often.

Zhabin

Yeah, more puzzle quest :D I hope it comes out for the DS and the PSP at the same time. I don't have a PSP anymore.

Irenicus-the one and only

Hey, maybe they'll make sure the DS version isn't a broken, ugly piece of crap this time.

tvandlust

Hey some good news for my brother. Was trying to get him to play something and I suggested this as a last resort. He couldn't put it down for the longest time.

Dudemeister

I've never owned one of those games so I'll make sure to pick up the second one. I always liked getting into games like this on their second title, where it's better than the first. Well.. other than with KOTOR, which I'm glad I never did that with.

MichaelR

It is indeed a fun topic. =)

Naia

SHAUN THE SHEEP!!!

Now I have the theme song as an earworm.

Evil Tortie's Mom

I thought this post was about Galactrix but the release date of that game was previously unannounced. Now we know it's coming this year, no? I'm confused now.

@quyrean: I really didn't need to. I'm already too strong.

@Naia: The speed of a mount does not determine how well it skips fights, the level does. To skip a fight, your mount has to be approximately the same level as the base enemy level. I say base level because enemy levels scale according to your level, but they all have a level they start at. You can also turn that scaling option off.

However, speed does help because the faster you travel, the less likely an enemy will pop up during your route. I stuck with a wolf because it's fast, it increased my blue mana and I didn't need the extra spell. If you would like to use the spell that comes with your mount, choose one that plays to your strengths.
Here's an indepth FAQ on mounts [www.gamefaqs.com]

This is a fun topic.

Bluecell