This game might not be my first introduction to Puyo Puyo, but this game was a major stepping stone to my interest in this series overall. Released in 2003, Puyo Pop Fever remains to be the "Reboot" of the Puyo Puyo series after Sega bought the rights to Puyo Puyo and it's characters and story. While this might not be the first game they've made under the holder (Minna De Puyo Puyo/Puyo Pop on the GBA was the first that featured characters from Puyo Puyo Sun and was a mix of that and Tsu), this one is notable for the reason I've gave it but why am I offering to give this one the long review treatment? Well because of how much it helped me discover a bunch of things about this era of gaming that I wished that jt can just come back: The age of video games where very bright asthetics, good and fun characters, and a charming story that isn't too dark or too convoluted.

PPF keeps everything of Puyo intact with the Sousai/offsetting rule being implemented, just as any other Puyo game released after Tsu. But this one introduces a new, intense mechanic: Fever mode. Once you offset, you've add a point to  the fever meter and once you offset enough, you'll fill it up to enter this mode where it gives you pre set chains to put yourself on the opponent. This may seem like a cheap way to work with the skill of building a chain if the game makes it up for you, but in my honest opinion, it strengthens your knowledge of it. When you first enter the mode, it starts off small and one's that you can possibly pull off by yourself on a normal playthrough. But the more you spend time in this mode, the more complex the chains get, and without knowledge of how to build an effective chain, could put you out of fever mode or just to make you end the match sooner. Another good point of fever is that it's a good competitive way to play Puyo if you're too used to the original way of playing it. Instead of having to make a giant chain to go one on one with another player, the goal can be that you can either do this, or make a chain that had a bunch of Puyos within one, to make them down quicker. Usually what you see when watching a TAS of Puyo. Now I don't know if this applies to modern Puyo games, But the oppertunnity can still present itself when it's there.

And that's pretty much the gameplay for Fever. There's your usual multi-player matches, endless fever (playing in fever mode for as long as you can), normal endless, and mission mode, but the characters and the story is my most favorite part of the game. I know that it really isn't coherent but then again this is a Puzzle game regardless. They don't need to have a deep story because the genre of the game doesn't match with deep storytelling. The story is just that Mrs. Accord lost her flying cane and is setting the students in Primp Town to retrieve it again. In the Hara Hara course, you're just training Puyo. Waku Waku is Amitie making an attempt to finally get it after Popoi had it at the end, with her not wanting an award for some reason, and the Hara Hara course is Raffina getting it but uh... I honestly don't remember her story much because there was the point where she got whacked in the head by the teacher and then was told after Raffina knew the truth about the whole thing that she still managed to get it regardless. Her ending was  bit skewed, but eh, at least it's better than having the same thing, lol.

And that's it for Puyo Pop Fever! Well, for the game at least. There's not much else to day, but I did have fond memories playing the GBA port and finishing all three courses, and the soundtrack are all great on their own. The voice acting for both regions is great, despite most complaining about the English VAs. The reason i like it? For the style the game was trying to do along with the fact that the characters themselves felt good with the English Voice Acting, it's just too perfect and best of all, you've got Raffina saying a cuss word. Literally life changing. That's about it though for this review. Maybe  I could've gotten a bit more detail on how it affected my life, but i believe that PPT was the original days where it kickstated ny interest into Puyo Puyo in general.