Nazo Puyo Arle no Roux (なぞぷよ アルルのルー; also mistakenly referred to as transliterations Nazo Puyo: Aruru no ruuu and Nazo Puyo: Aruru no Ru) is a puzzle game developed by Compile for the Sega Game Gear and released exclusively in Japan in 1994. Despite being the third game in the Nazo Puyo subseries, it is drastically different from its prequels, taking a combined RPG/puzzle approach to its (now existent) storyline. It would receive two sequels, both on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super Nazo Puyo Rulue no Roux, combining a retooled version of this game with a new story mode focusing on Rulue, and Super Nazo Puyo Tsu: Rulue no Tetsuwan Hanjouki, a new game focusing exclusively on Rulue).
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I first learned about this game during the unveiling of the Game Gear Micro a few months back, and then I was happy to discover that it's also on the 3DS eShop's Virtual Console. This month's Together Retro was a good enough excuse to finally use the credit I had sitting in my account to pick it up and play through it. I ended up being very pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it, and I'm very happy with the sort of weird train of events that led to me learning about it and eventually playing it XD . It took me 7.5 hours to beat the game on the 3DS.
At its core, this is basically just another Nazo Puyo game, which were a series on the Game Gear and Master System that are preset puzzle versions of Puyo Puyo. Stages have requirements, and you have only so many pieces to meet that requirement (things like "get a 5 chain" or "match 4 colors at once" or "erase all red puyos"). There are more than 100 levels in the game, but you only need to complete 100 to complete your adventure, as there is a "pass" feature on each stage you can choose from the pause screen if you're just so stumped you wanna move on (although I believe it does cost you a life). There is also (usually) a hint on the pause screen that'll give you a kick in the right direction if you need it. One level I saw had a "hint" that was just "This is a trial. There is no hint.", and one or two levels had hints that just didn't help me nearly enough to actually beat the level, but I'm pretty proud of myself for actually managing to beat the whole thing without looking up any puzzle solutions~.
The game does use a password system to return you to the last opponent you beat when you run out of lives, but I wanted to keep retrying puzzles, so I used save states at the start of each puzzle to effectively give me infinite lives. Life mechanics don't usually add that much to the experience of a game, in my opinion, and in a puzzle game that is even more so the case as far as I'm concerned.
The thing that differentiates this game (and its Master System counterpart) from the other Nazo Puyo games is its presentation. It's not just a notebook you flip through to get to puzzles. It's a sort of adventure game where you play as the protagonist of the Madou Monogatari series, Aruru, as she is on a quest to go to town and get ingredients for her curry for dinner. That's it. The "Ruu" in the title is a Japanese approximation of the word "roux", which is also used to refer to curry mix. Despite the fact that Satan (the big bad of the Madou Monogatari games) himself tries to get in your way to steal your food at one point, the only stakes here are Aruru getting to make the dinner she wants X3. You go through different market squares and then a long path home, talking to different NPCs to either let you pass through or to give you the ingredients they have. They'll only oblige if you beat 5 of their Nazo Puyo puzzles, though, and 20 NPCs makes for 100 puzzles you'll need to get through. The writing is lighthearted and silly, and Aruru's interactions with the NPCs, albeit always brief, are cute asides from the puzzles.
The presentation on the whole is very good, and it looked and sounded great on my New 2DS XL's big screen. There aren't a ton of music tracks, but those that are there are pretty darn good, especially the one that plays during the "boss" fights of the last two NPCs you "battle". The graphics are also very pretty, and the character designs are nice, as the Puyo Puyo games always do.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. This is a really great little puzzle game! It doesn't require any knowledge of Japanese to play aside from knowing the hints, but you'll need to look up/trial and error to figure out the level objectives, I suppose. It gave me the same kind of "I FINALLY did it!" rush a game like Baba is You has in the past, and if that's what you're looking for on your Game Gear/emulation box, then this is a great game to look into~.
At its core, this is basically just another Nazo Puyo game, which were a series on the Game Gear and Master System that are preset puzzle versions of Puyo Puyo. Stages have requirements, and you have only so many pieces to meet that requirement (things like "get a 5 chain" or "match 4 colors at once" or "erase all red puyos"). There are more than 100 levels in the game, but you only need to complete 100 to complete your adventure, as there is a "pass" feature on each stage you can choose from the pause screen if you're just so stumped you wanna move on (although I believe it does cost you a life). There is also (usually) a hint on the pause screen that'll give you a kick in the right direction if you need it. One level I saw had a "hint" that was just "This is a trial. There is no hint.", and one or two levels had hints that just didn't help me nearly enough to actually beat the level, but I'm pretty proud of myself for actually managing to beat the whole thing without looking up any puzzle solutions~.
The game does use a password system to return you to the last opponent you beat when you run out of lives, but I wanted to keep retrying puzzles, so I used save states at the start of each puzzle to effectively give me infinite lives. Life mechanics don't usually add that much to the experience of a game, in my opinion, and in a puzzle game that is even more so the case as far as I'm concerned.
The thing that differentiates this game (and its Master System counterpart) from the other Nazo Puyo games is its presentation. It's not just a notebook you flip through to get to puzzles. It's a sort of adventure game where you play as the protagonist of the Madou Monogatari series, Aruru, as she is on a quest to go to town and get ingredients for her curry for dinner. That's it. The "Ruu" in the title is a Japanese approximation of the word "roux", which is also used to refer to curry mix. Despite the fact that Satan (the big bad of the Madou Monogatari games) himself tries to get in your way to steal your food at one point, the only stakes here are Aruru getting to make the dinner she wants X3. You go through different market squares and then a long path home, talking to different NPCs to either let you pass through or to give you the ingredients they have. They'll only oblige if you beat 5 of their Nazo Puyo puzzles, though, and 20 NPCs makes for 100 puzzles you'll need to get through. The writing is lighthearted and silly, and Aruru's interactions with the NPCs, albeit always brief, are cute asides from the puzzles.
The presentation on the whole is very good, and it looked and sounded great on my New 2DS XL's big screen. There aren't a ton of music tracks, but those that are there are pretty darn good, especially the one that plays during the "boss" fights of the last two NPCs you "battle". The graphics are also very pretty, and the character designs are nice, as the Puyo Puyo games always do.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. This is a really great little puzzle game! It doesn't require any knowledge of Japanese to play aside from knowing the hints, but you'll need to look up/trial and error to figure out the level objectives, I suppose. It gave me the same kind of "I FINALLY did it!" rush a game like Baba is You has in the past, and if that's what you're looking for on your Game Gear/emulation box, then this is a great game to look into~.