It is your duty as a citizen of the kingdom of Bartonia to uncover why the Undead have begun to spread all across the globe of Etheria. In this RPG hybrid, you’ll follow your character’s story as they rid Etheria of the Undead scourge and save Bartonia, complete sidequests for extra money, experience, items, and companions, craft your weapons and armor, capture monsters for use as mounts or to learn their spells, and even lay siege to neighboring kingdoms to add them to your empire. On the other hand, Puzzle Quest is an RPG with a twist. Everything is done with puzzles (as the name implies).
Puzzles are used to solve anything in Puzzle Quest. The puzzles themselves are similar in execution to Bejeweled, with a few minor differences employed for things like item creation and enemy capture.
When fighting an opponent (who can range from zombies to orcs and even castle strongholds, each with specific spells and abilities), you use the same board in turn. The goal is to lower your opponent’s hitpoints to zero, which can be accomplished directly by joining skulls in rows of three or more or indirectly by utilizing mana-required spells. To gain mana, simply connect three or more runes of the same color, much like the skulls. When you obtain mana, it is saved in your reserves until you utilize it (or are attacked by a mana-draining attack). Gold and experience are accumulated in the same manner, with gold coins or purple experience orbs that occupy the same board and can be linked in the same way as runes and skulls are.
When you consider elemental mastery (gaining extra mana by linking runes for a specific element), equipment (which can prevent damage, drain mana, and more), spells (which can poison, drain mana, stun, and so on), and linking up groups of four or more, the proper strategy of the game emerges. The importance of groups of four stems from the fact that every time a row of four-of-a-kind is formed, you gain an extra turn. While it may not appear to be significant, acquiring four runes in a row may provide you with enough mana to cast a powerful spell and allow you to perform it before your opponent can even move.
There is also a direct action option where players can practice their skills against varied opponents separate from the story mode and a wireless multi-card play where two players can square off using their campaign game characters.
