"Puyo Puyo meets Pokemon..."

First off, I'm just going to say just this... Arle's Adventure may be of the Pokemon-like genre, but it is MUCH better than Pokemon! Well, that is mainly because the game features my favorite Puyo Puyo characters, but the game acts more like a real RPG than a monster training RPG.

Gameplay- 7

I'm not so sure about the Gameplay. The game IS lots of fun, but the game does have a few problems involving the gameplay itself. As I've said, this game uses the monster-training idea, and it adds a bit of a twist to it. You see, you don't catch the monsters with balls or lure them with meat, you just have to beat them, and hope that they join you. It can be a pain if you are wanting a certain kind of monster. When you do catch a monster, you'll notice that the monster is really a card, and the card will have a certain number of holes in it. You can put gems in those holes, and you'll find the gems while on your adventure. The gems can do certain tasks to your monster, such as evolving it, raising HP and MP, boosting up stats, or learning stronger attacks. This is pretty tough to figure out if you don't know any Japanese, but once you get the idea, you'll go far until you get stuck on those dang puzzles...

The challenge of this game is pretty great if you ask me. The battles are of decent challenge, but the puzzles are just WAY too hard at some times. This is where I lower to the Gameplay rating down. What is even worse is that you constantly run into battles while you try to solve these puzzles, so you may forget what you are tring to do after you get through a long battle.

The play control is actually pretty good here. Arle's tools are easy to use (But you still have to know where to use them!) and she walks smoothly too. You won't turn left if you press up... Or something like that...

Story- 9

Well, this has to be one of the greatest storylines I've ever seen in a video game! It is funny, full of surprises, and it won't bore you like a bunch of those other RPGs out there...

It all starts when Arle and her pet, Kaa-Kun, are in the woods. Suddenly, an explosion occurs from the direction of Satan's castle! Something has gone wrong! All of the Puyos have been turned into cards! Arle must go and collect all of the cards so she can turn all of the Puyos back to normal! When she gets her first four cards, she notices that the cards are of a blue mouse, a mushroom, a fire swordsmen, and a broken mop. What can these mean? And who is this cloaked person who suddenly appeared in Satan's castle? You'll find out once you start the game...

Audio/Video- 8

The graphics were very nice. The large artwork pieces in the game reminded me somewhat of the artwork seen in Pocket Puyo Puyo~n. Arle's outfit and skin color being the same as in Pocket Puyo Puyo~n and such. Each character in the game has their own face, which usually has a few expressions as well, depending on the character. The monsters in the game were nicely designed too. Nothing too cute and nothing too ugly, they are JUST RIGHT! The graphics you see on the overhead view are decent. Nothing too special, but they do look nice.

The music is catchy too, even though the tunes haven't been heard in previous Puyo Puyo games, but the sound effects... Ehh... They aren't too memorable, except for that one obnoxious squeaking sound when you change Arle's tools.

Replay Value- 7

Replaying the game probably isn't much of a good idea, but if you want to go through those strangely difficult puzzles to see how good you've gotten, then by all means, play again! The thing I really like about this game is that your monsters don't raise levels. Arle only raises up levels, so this is good when you are fighting against a friend, it will be a fair fight just as long as you placed your jewels in the right places.

Buy it or not?

Buyer beware, if you don't know too much Japanese, expect to be stuck... A LOT, and it isn't because of the puzzles in the game either... You'll have to do a few tasks for certain characters now and then, and Icubus' quiz won't be easy for you either, but if you've gone through many other Japanese RPGs before, and you don't know Japanese, then this won't be too different. If you like monster-raising games, you'll like this, but the game can be fusterating at times, so decide wisely.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/28/01, Updated 06/30/02