Dragon Puzzle Review

Very much like Puzzle & Dragons, Dragon Puzzle is an ok combination of genres, but one that suffers too greatly for sticking to its inspiration.

Part trading card game, part RPG and part Match Three puzzler, there's a lot to take in. At first, Dragon Puzzle offers some basic tutorials to guide players in, but broken English means it's not quite as clear as it should be. For the most part, players are participating in a series of missions in order to level up and accrue new monster cards. These missions are conducted through a series of Match Three battles, as players find themselves having to inflict damage upon enemies with carefully arranged gem based combos.

Early stages are pretty easy but later bosses prove quite the challenge, with it wise to line up attacks as part of a string of combos. It's relatively easy to do this, fortunately, given that gems can be moved anywhere on the board, not just to adjoining spaces. Once a mission has been completed, a series of cards are gained which can then be used to share with others, inflict further damage on new enemies and watch evolve.

It's enjoyable enough but it takes a little while to really click and the interface really isn't as clearly laid out as in Puzzle & Dragons. Cards can be used with other monsters to enhance their abilities and level them up, plus players can join together with other people and use their cards as followers. Once it does click, it gets a little too repetitive too. Plus, there's the major issue that it has been done before, quite a few times, with Puzzle and Dragons costing even less than this. Clones aren't inherently bad, if they offer something better than their inspiration, but this isn't the case here.

Dragon Puzzle is ok and passes the time, but compared to Puzzle & Dragons, there's little reason to choose it above the superior offering.