Puyo Puyo Tetris’ story is gloriously goofy

For many people, Puyo Puyo Tetris is an introduction to the Puyo Puyo series. As incredible as it is, there have not been that many installments released outside of Japan. Most entries remain trapped overseas, especially ones where the Puyo Puyo heroines and heroes feature prominently. You would think this would be detrimental to Puyo Puyo Tetris‘ campaign. Instead, Sega seized the opportunity to present a goofy and welcoming story for everyone to enjoy.

All you really need to know about Puyo Puyo Tetris is that it involves the merging of two worlds. The people from the Tetris realm, represented by the original characters Captain Tee and the crew of the S.S. Tetra, find themselves interacting with familiar casts from multiple Puyo Puyo games. While Ringo, Arle and Amitie are ever-present heroines, other folks flit in and out of the campaign as required. By keeping things light and airy, we don’t have to worry about accurate character representations, introductions and story progression. Instead, we can focus on having interesting personalities play off of one another and enjoy all sorts of hijinks.

Whenever characters meet in Puyo Puyo Tetris, it is an opportunity for fun quips. We have general ideas of what categories certain characters fall into. Ringo and Captain Tee and straightforward and reasonable people. Ess is haughty and spoiled. Amitie is energetic and ditsy. Arle is immature, but well meaning. Ai is intelligent, but easily scared. While it helps if you have prior Puyo Puyo knowledge, the campaign and encounters are handled in such a way that you can appreciate each altercation so long as you remember which tropes every character falls into. You don’t have to worry about people staying in-character; you enjoy the ride.

This benefits minor characters who only get a stages worth of screentime in Puyo Puyo Tetris. Take someone like Rulue. She only appears briefly, but Schezo and Arle’s interactions with her reveal worlds about her personality. We can tell she seems rather well-to-do from her character design. It’s Schezo’s teasing her with her love of the Dark Prince that shows she’s also quite devoted to a man who sometimes appears in the series as a villain. For Suketoudara, Sega relies heavily on the fish puns. He doesn’t really have any other place in the story to explain his motivations, so Puyo Puyo Tetris gives him a gruff voice, a love of dancing and clever quotes you may want to share with friends.

By abandoning any attempt to make Puyo Puyo Tetris serious, Sega has given people an opportunity to enjoy the game on a whole new level. The goofy storyline is rife with moments that beg to be captured and shared on social media. These silly moments offer an opportunity to introduce character quirks in an inclusive way. It gives life to people who might otherwise only receive a brief cameo in the course of the story. Most importantly, it makes you want to go through the campaign and play even more Puyo Puyo Tetris.

By the way, check out Michibiku’s guide if all of this has gotten you even more curious about Puyo Puyo!