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I wrote that essay back in 2021, and three years later time proved all of it correct. This game straight up killed the series.
What a great article!!
So, I'm a huge Game Boy fan. I'd heard about how good Puyo Puyo is, so I got a Japanese copy of Puyo Puyo Tsu. From what I can tell it's a great port. But I struggled so much getting into it! And then I read your comment...
Puyo Puyo Tsu is hard. It’s really damn hard. I’ve witnessed many new players struggle with even basic 3- and 4-chains, nevermind making the real big chains the game mode demands of you. And unlike Tetris where casual players do not need to know fancy T-Spin setups just to get started and play, you really can’t get far at all in Puyo Puyo Tsu without at least some understanding of chaining fundamentals.
...and I feel justified. 😅 What do you recommend is a good way for a new player to get into the game? Something to read, a video, or something else?
There are some old English-language resources available on the wiki. But I've never quite liked the way we try to teach the game by just showing pictures of an idealized chain built in a frictionless vacuum, it's a very "draw the rest of the owl" approach. Nor do I know what a better approach looks like for a game this abstract.
At one point I was working on a video where I'd build a chain step-by-step and overexplain my thought process on each piece. But that sits on a large mountain of unfinished projects and ideas. I'm retired from the game now because, well, I can't continue justifying my competitive energy towards a game that just has no future as long as its publisher hates it, so it's never going to get finished.
As somebody who likes Tetris but essentially had no idea about PuyoPuyo until I came across that comment, that was a brilliant yet depressing read. I'm currently busy with life but wishlisted some PuyoPuyo games for this winter, just because that article outlined such an interesting game. It's kind of hard to find something for current platforms in Europe though...
If you want functional online, the Switch version of Puyo Puyo Champions is the only title worth bothering with. Specifically Switch, other platforms are ghost towns.
If you want singleplayer content, 15th Anniversary, 20th Anniversary, and Chronicle are all peak. None of these games were released outside of Japan and they're older titles you'll have to emulate, hence all my salt about the state of things today, but at least they do have fantranslation patches.
