「灼熱のファイヤーダンス、星空まで全て手に入れた。」
Played during the Backloggd’s Game of the Week (Apr. 4 – Apr. 10, 2023).
The late 1990s saw both the rise and almost immediate collapse of the Compile financial empire. Their Puyoman manjū with the Puyo Puyo image made a lasting impression and, thanks to their popularity, served to reassure investors that the company's portfolio was diversified enough to avoid bankruptcy with more profitable activities than game sales. The very competitive nature of the Japanese market, which remains insular and attracts little foreign investment, forces such strategies, especially in the case of Compile. It was a successful venture, but the aggressive expansion beyond video games drained the company's financial resources. The failure of POWER ACTY (1998), a kind of productivity application for businesses, due to questionable marketing, finally shattered Compile's hopes and forced it to declare bankruptcy, along with other failed projects. It was in this context that Puyo Puyo DA! was released, after SEGA had already acquired the rights to the franchise's characters.
Based on the concept introduced in Broadway Legend Ellena (1994), Puyo Puyo DA! is a surprisingly brief experience. The player can compete against the computer or another player in an asymmetrical rhythm duel; instead of playing at the same time, the opponents alternate between active and passive phases, repeating the same musical phrase. The title loosely follows the concept of Puyo Puyo with a Chain mechanic, which allows Garbage Puyo to be sent at the opponent to lower their life bar, but which struggles to be anything more than the reskin of a combo mechanic. Unlike Broadway Legend Ellena, which tests the player's memorization skills, Puyo Puyo DA! focuses on fast sightreading and staying in rhythm. This is not helped by the choice of controls, which were better suited to a less intensive experience like Broadway Legend Ellena. On the hard difficulty, having to chain notes together in very quick succession with the thumb alone is not very pleasant.
The fundamental problem, however, is that the required inputs have nothing to do with the music. If the player is just beating the rhythm of the song, this is generally harmless, but the situation quickly becomes chaotic when the title asks the player to pulse on eighth notes, as the music does not follow this rhythm at all. In the duel between Rulue and Satan, some phrases shift slightly from the last notes, distorting the natural rhythm heard for no good reason. This lack of overall vision tends to paint Puyo Puyo DA! as an offhand translation of the Broadway Legend Ellena concept to a more traditional rhythm game. The small number of songs – only a dozen or so – is also unfortunate, even if some of them, drawn from the franchise's legacy, evoke a strong city-pop nostalgia: Shakunetsu no Fire Dance, used for the TV commercials of Puyo Puyo 2 (1994), is a particularly catchy tune. It is a shame that it, like the rest of the music, is so poorly exploited.
Puyo Puyo DA! is Compile's final original attempt to exploit their franchise. Unfortunately, the title struggles to conjure up the charm of the series, and Masamitsu Nītani's message in the game's manual rings oddly hollow, as does his optimism. Admittedly, Puyo Puyo Box (2000), Compile's last game, is a well-made compilation, but Puyo Puyo DA! sends Compile out without fanfare. The game over theme, Heartbreak, is sung by Nītani himself; somewhat ironically, his plaintive tone is probably a very fitting expression of the end of the company's prosperous years.
Played during the Backloggd’s Game of the Week (Apr. 4 – Apr. 10, 2023).
The late 1990s saw both the rise and almost immediate collapse of the Compile financial empire. Their Puyoman manjū with the Puyo Puyo image made a lasting impression and, thanks to their popularity, served to reassure investors that the company's portfolio was diversified enough to avoid bankruptcy with more profitable activities than game sales. The very competitive nature of the Japanese market, which remains insular and attracts little foreign investment, forces such strategies, especially in the case of Compile. It was a successful venture, but the aggressive expansion beyond video games drained the company's financial resources. The failure of POWER ACTY (1998), a kind of productivity application for businesses, due to questionable marketing, finally shattered Compile's hopes and forced it to declare bankruptcy, along with other failed projects. It was in this context that Puyo Puyo DA! was released, after SEGA had already acquired the rights to the franchise's characters.
Based on the concept introduced in Broadway Legend Ellena (1994), Puyo Puyo DA! is a surprisingly brief experience. The player can compete against the computer or another player in an asymmetrical rhythm duel; instead of playing at the same time, the opponents alternate between active and passive phases, repeating the same musical phrase. The title loosely follows the concept of Puyo Puyo with a Chain mechanic, which allows Garbage Puyo to be sent at the opponent to lower their life bar, but which struggles to be anything more than the reskin of a combo mechanic. Unlike Broadway Legend Ellena, which tests the player's memorization skills, Puyo Puyo DA! focuses on fast sightreading and staying in rhythm. This is not helped by the choice of controls, which were better suited to a less intensive experience like Broadway Legend Ellena. On the hard difficulty, having to chain notes together in very quick succession with the thumb alone is not very pleasant.
The fundamental problem, however, is that the required inputs have nothing to do with the music. If the player is just beating the rhythm of the song, this is generally harmless, but the situation quickly becomes chaotic when the title asks the player to pulse on eighth notes, as the music does not follow this rhythm at all. In the duel between Rulue and Satan, some phrases shift slightly from the last notes, distorting the natural rhythm heard for no good reason. This lack of overall vision tends to paint Puyo Puyo DA! as an offhand translation of the Broadway Legend Ellena concept to a more traditional rhythm game. The small number of songs – only a dozen or so – is also unfortunate, even if some of them, drawn from the franchise's legacy, evoke a strong city-pop nostalgia: Shakunetsu no Fire Dance, used for the TV commercials of Puyo Puyo 2 (1994), is a particularly catchy tune. It is a shame that it, like the rest of the music, is so poorly exploited.
Puyo Puyo DA! is Compile's final original attempt to exploit their franchise. Unfortunately, the title struggles to conjure up the charm of the series, and Masamitsu Nītani's message in the game's manual rings oddly hollow, as does his optimism. Admittedly, Puyo Puyo Box (2000), Compile's last game, is a well-made compilation, but Puyo Puyo DA! sends Compile out without fanfare. The game over theme, Heartbreak, is sung by Nītani himself; somewhat ironically, his plaintive tone is probably a very fitting expression of the end of the company's prosperous years.
3 Comments
Seeing such a cute key art makes me sad this game is apparently quite bad.
PasokonDeacon
1 year ago
I'm less down on Puyo Puyo DA! since it's still just a mediocre PaRappa-like with very charming presentation, but it's also a waste of any potential that Broadway Legend Elena could have had. This definitely seems like a case of needing to use the Puyo-Madou cast before losing them to SEGA, hence its lack of content.