Puyo Puyo Chronicle

Puyo Puyo Chronicle
Puyo Puyo Chronicle Box Art (Standard boxart)
Developer	Sega
Publishers	Sega
Platforms	Nintendo 3DS
Players	1-4 players
Release date	Nintendo 3DS December 8th 2016

Puyo Puyo Chronicle (ぷよぷよクロニクル, Puyopuyo kuronikuru) is a game for the Nintendo 3DS as part of a celebration of Puyo Puyo's 25th Anniversary. Barring spinoffs, this is first Puyo game to be presented with 3D characters as opposed to 2D portraits.

This game is followed by Puyo Puyo Champions.

Story

Intro

Arle and Carbuncle were enjoying a peaceful day at Primp Town, having some time for themselves together. As Carbuncle was dancing about, a book with a moon and sun fell out of the sky and in front of the duo. As they approached the book, the cover flings itself open, revealing a portal that draws them into a world inside the book. As the book shuts its covers, Arle and Carbuncle come crashing down into the middle of Grimp Forest like shooting stars. This draws the attention of Ally, who was taking a leisurely walk with her pendant glowing upon their presence.

As Arle regains consciousness, she is confronted by Satan to be informed that she is the heroine of the world she's transported to. However, before Arle could admonish him, Satan tells her to head for the tower before he gets spirited away. After Satan is whisked away, Arle and Carbuncle encounter Ally, who describes the prophecy of the hero which fits Arle perfectly. When the three are suddenly attacked by the forest creatures, Arle, Ally, and Carbuncle Puyo battle to defend themselves.

After learning how to Puyo battle, Ally tells Arle and Carbuncle that the Color Tower at the center of her world had suddenly been taken over by a demon king, which was causing all sorts of strange things to happen throughout the land.

Grimp

In Grimp, the village chief requests Arle and Ally to investigate the strange things going on, starting with a strange girl wearing a Puyo on her head, which turns out to be Amitie. After reuniting with Amitie, the four find Draco and trigger the first stone in Grimp. Releasing the first star from the stone weakened the mysterious power enshrouding the area, allowing the four of them to journey to the next village, Bleuo.

Bleuo

In Bleuo, Arle and her party find the village empty, with Lidelle standing there alone. She had been talking with Sig before being suddenly transported to a snowy road near Bleuo. Arle suggests that Lidelle wait for them in Grimp where it's warmer while the rest of them search for Sig.

After searching the snowy road Lidelle directed them to, the group finds Sig sleeping in the snow. After waking him up with a Puyo battle, Ally suggests traveling to Bug Haven to cheer him up. In Bug Haven, Sig returns to his usual self, but wanders off ahead of the group when he notices that bugs that don't usually live in different places can be found near each other. Once the group catches up to him, he finds Donguri Gaeru eating bugs, which prompts them to Puyo battle.

Once the two finish Puyo battling, Donguri Gaeru joins the team since he wants to go back home, and Lidelle manages to catch up to the group. She explains that the people in Bleuo finally came out of their homes and requested that Arle and the rest of her party come back. Once the party returned to Bleuo, the village chief asks them to investigate a singing monster that was making people dizzy at Chilly Glacier.

While following the song of the singing monster, Arle, Ally, and Amitie suddenly collapse and are found by Ringo, who revives them with a Puyo battle. After determining that Ringo was the source of the singing, she joins the search party for the cause of the dizziness. After they make their way further into Chilly Glacier, they find Maguro whose bangs have been frozen stiff, revealing his exceedingly beautiful face which has been causing passersby to become dizzy and collapse. After melting the ice with a pocket heater, Ringo playfully scolds Maguro through a Puyo battle. After Maguro joins the party, the group frees another star from the pedestal and returns to Bleuo to make their way to the next village, Retty.

Retty

In Retty, the village chief requests Arle and her group to investigate the Courageous Heroine. While looking for her, they encounter Raffina who was investigating something on her own. After returning to the village to confirm the description of the Courageous Heroine, they set out and find Raffina again, whose characteristics seem to match that of the Courageous Heroine's. This title suddenly makes Draco jealous, and she challenges Raffina to a Puyo battle. After the battle, Raffina explains that she was doing some investigating into the strange events on her own because she heard she could relax in a special hot spring if she solved it.

After returning to the village, the chief asks them to investigate a pair of monsters that have been terrorizing the townsfolk. During the search, the group finds out that the monsters are in fact Yu & Rei, much to Ringo's dismay. To calm her down, the party fights the twins in a Puyo battle, which alleviates Ringo's fears. After defeating the twins and wondering if they can release the star at the volcano now, Rulue suddenly appears and tells the group that she'll get her hands on it before they can.

At Warm Volcano, they encounter Rulue again, who wants the stone because she believes it's a clue to finding Satan. The group fights her to get the stone, which manages to calm her down long enough for Arle to tell her that Satan is at the Color Tower. After releasing the star from the stone, Rulue joins the party so she can meet Satan at the tower herself. With Retty's strange events wrapped up, Ally suggests they all head to the next village, Yellome.

Yellome

In Yellome, the village chief and townspeople have worked together to keep the stone safe from anyone that might want to steal it. The chief requests that Arle and her party investigate a magician in the desert that has been spiriting people away, so the group sets out to search for them. While searching, they encounter Witch, the magician from the rumors, who has been giving samples of her potion to any passersby. She runs off before they can invite her to join them, so the group heads back to Yellome to report their findings.

The chief then requests Arle and the party to find someone in the desert that is dressed entirely in black. While searching, they find Lemres who is faint from the desert heat, and lack of sweets. After restoring some of his vigor with a Puyo battle, he explains that he was searching for Feli after they got separated.

The group decides to go back to a blocked off road where they find Risukuma. He tells the group that he spotted Feli near a rock wall, but she didn't seem to hear him when he called out to her. After they find the rock wall that Risukuma described, they continue down the path and encounter Feli, who seems to have stolen the stone from Yellome. After battling her to calm her down, they find out that she just bought a Clandestiny Stone from the village to assist her in her divination.

With Feli in tow, the group decides to backtrack to where they met Risukuma, and they find that the path has been cleared. While making their way through, they are ambushed by Witch who was aiming for Yellome's stone to use it as a potion ingredient. After Arle explains that they don't have it and that the stones break anyway, Witch elects to join the party so that she can follow them to Purplune.

Once they reach the pedestal, they find that the stone has been returned by Ecolo. Before Ringo can properly interrogate them, they escape and leave a riled-up Risukuma to fight in their place. After fighting him in a Puyo battle, Arle and the rest free the star from the stone and head back to Yellome to explain what happened to the townsfolk.

Purplune

In Purplune, they find the four released stars floating above a pedestal. With the Color Tower in sight, Witch attempts to fly towards it, but finds that she couldn't reach it no matter how long she flies for. Arle concludes that they must need the stone from Purplune in order to reveal the path to the Color Tower.

The village chief requests that Arle investigate someone who was swimming in the river, and while investigating, she finds out that the person seen by the villagers was Schezo. Schezo explains that he just fell in the water and was resting in a treasure chest while waiting for his clothes to dry, but suddenly he acts strangely desperate for love, leading to a Puyo battle. After regaining his composure, Schezo decides to tag along with the party when Arle proposes that solving the strange events in Purplune should restore him to his usual self.

The strange sensation, dubbed the "Love Ache" by Arle, continues and begins affecting Risukuma in Smoky Maze. Schezo and Risukuma battle to calm down the Love Ache, and Ringo proposes that the air of the maze may have also helped to calm their symptoms.

After returning to the village and setting out to investigate more, Arle encounters Accord, who tells her that it wouldn't be good for them to hang around for too long or they might lose their memories. Ringo accepts Accord's challenge to a Puyo battle, and the party wins against her. She agrees to join them on their quest, but she quietly converses with Lemres about noticing something strange about the group before they carry on.

The group finally encounters Ecolo again, who tries to scare Ringo which begins a Puyo battle. After losing, Ecolo points out Ally, who is feeling sick and exhibiting symptoms of the Love Ache like Schezo and Risukuma were. Ecolo mentions that they know where the stone is, then joins the party as they venture further into Purplune Waterway.

While venturing deeper into the waterways, the party encounters Ragnus, who proclaims to be the hero that will defeat the demon king. He challenges the group to a Puyo battle, then loses and laments not being able to grind experience points. After Arle recommends that he goes back to Grimp to fight lower leveled enemies, he runs off and allows the party to venture all the way into the waterways.

In the depths of the waterways, the party encounters Satan, who provokes Arle into fighting him in a Puyo battle. Before they can truly defeat him, Satan tells them that he will be waiting at a more suitable venue for the final battle before vanishing. Arle and the rest finally reach the stone and release the star from it, but Ally's condition still shows no signs of improvement.

At the road to the Color Tower, the party encounters Satan yet again, who congratulates them on opening the path to the tower. He explains that he has done all this so that he could experience being saved by Arle, which just angers her and exasperates the rest of the party. Satan says he would also like to experience being defeated by her in a special place, so the party Puyo battles him once more beneath the night sky of Purplune. After being defeated, Satan joins the party and promises that the way back home lies at the top of the Color Tower, and all Arle would need to do now is scale it to return home.

Color Tower

In the Color Tower, the group's first obstacle is a group of Onion Pixies, the first of which Satan defeats for causing Arle and Carbuncle to cry. After Onion Pixie explains that they have to defeat the strongest Onion Pixie to progress in the tower, he joins the party.

While scaling the tower, the group begins to hear a mysterious and unfamiliar voice that even Satan does not recognize. The group shrugs it off as part of the setting for the climax and continue onwards.

Ragnus appears again to show off his newfound strength. When he sees Satan, he takes him for a demon king that he must defeat and challenges him to a Puyo battle. He loses this battle and retreats, leaving Arle and her party behind. Later, he ambushes the party but loses a second time. This time, the supposedly friendly gazes of Arle and her party motivate him to finally join the team.

The party hears the mysterious voice once more, and Satan explains that unexpected things keep happening one after the other after he messed with the book's plot to fight Arle earlier than planned. Ally's condition also seems to be worsening as they approach the tower's peak, which causes concern for everyone, but they decide to keep pressing onward.

At the top of the tower, the party finds an empty room. Even though it's empty, Arle senses a dangerous presence in the room, and Satan can sense a great amount of magical energy amassed in the room for some reason. Ally suddenly grows weak and a light glows from her pendant, spontaneously creating Rafisol. Ecolo is surprised but pleased with this outcome, which prompts them to confess that Ally's pendant is something that they obtained from another world and gave to her to make Satan's story more interesting. The pendant absorbs the power of love from its wearer and creates an evil being. Since Ally loves everything, Ringo concludes that Rafisol would be able to truly take over everything. Satan explains that the gate connecting them back home is also in the room at the top of the tower, so Rafisol might not just stop at the world of the storybook, but to all the connected worlds. Ally attempts to stop Rafisol by telling her that love must exist within her because she was born from Ally's love, a notion that Rafisol refuses. Arle, Amitie, Ringo, and Ally decide to defeat Rafisol in a Puyo battle full of love.

After defeating Rafisol, she stops absorbing magic, but she resists by trying to absorb Ally's power. As Ally begins to lose herself in the process, Arle, Amitie, and Ringo remind her of the prophecy of the hero and how Ally is able to use power of love to tackle any situation. As she is brought back to her senses, she resolves to fill her world with love, the power of which proves to be too much for Rafisol to control. After Ally is released from Rafisol's control, she explains that she also wants to fall in love with Rafisol because she could feel Rafisol's desire to fall in love when her power was fading. Rafisol says she is unsure of what she wants, as she is just an evil existence meant to make everything disappear. With her powers deprived, Rafisol says that she'll vanish into nothingness, which saddens Ally.

Satan suddenly steps in and explains that Rafisol won't disappear since he has shared a piece of his magical power with her, which should allow her to exist without absorbing everything into herself. Ecolo decides to join as well and returns Rafisol into Ally's pendant, as it would be better for her to preserve her strength. With Rafisol defeated and safely in the Luwa Pendant, the group prepares to say their farewells to Ally. Arle, Amitie, and Ringo, are all sad to say goodbye to their new friend, but Ally explains that as long as they have love, their feelings will still connect them across worlds. They promise to meet again someday, then Arle and her friends return through the gate back to their original worlds.

After the credits, Ally is seen walking through Grimp Forest when she looks down at her pendant and smiles at Rafisol, who smiles up at her.

Overview

Puyo Puyo Chronicle, similar to past anniversary titles Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary and Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary features multiple options for multiplayer both for local and online (Unavailable since 4-8) play, which includes the return of the Tsu and Fever rules. However unlike the past anniversary titles, it contains a new RPG mode. This RPG mode has players take on the role of Arle and Carbuncle as you're tasked with finding a way back home, with the assistance of a new character named Ally. This mode contains battles against monsters where players play Puyo Puyo in order to inflict damage, and a level up system where stats like defense and attack increase to make characters deliver and receive damage better. Along with Arle, other characters can join your party, for a maximum of 3 characters at a time. In addition, this game features over 60 side quests with NPCs that will reward the player if completed.

The game also features different multiplayer modes, a total of 17 from Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary, Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary, and (in the case of Big Bang) Puyo Puyo Tetris, and a new mode called Skill Battle.

Characters

Main article: List of Puyo Puyo Chronicle Enemies

Playable Characters

• Arle
• Amitie
• Ringo
• Carbuncle
• Ally
• Sig
• Klug
• Raffina
• Satan
• Draco
• Lidelle
• Ocean Prince
• Yu & Rei
• Maguro
• Risukuma
• Suketoudara
• Rulue
• Lemres
• Feli
• Witch
• Schezo
• Ecolo
• Accord
• Rafisol

Skill Battle exclusives

• Donguri Gaeru
• Onion Pixie
• Harpy
• Serilly
• Ragnus

Modes

Puyo Puyo

Based on Puyo Puyo (1992). There's no offsetting, margin time, double rotation, or All Clear like other modes. However, 4 colors are used by default instead of 5 like the original arcade game.

Tsu

Based on Puyo Puyo Tsu. This includes offsetting, margin time, double rotation, and All Clear that was missing from its predecessor.

Sun

Based on Puyo Puyo Sun. The fundamentals are the same as Tsu rules, but it introduces Sun Puyo. Sun Puyo spawn on the player's field when the player offsets a chain, and when cleared it increases the power of the player's chain. However, Sun Puyo act like Nuisance Puyo, so they may occasional obstruct a chain.

Fever

Based on Puyo Puyo Fever. Utilizing unique dropsets and chain strengths, the player is tasked is trying to beat the opponent. Offsetting behaves differently, with Nuisance Puyo only dropping if the opponent fails to create a chain. If a player manages to offset 7 times, they will enter Fever, where the player is tasked with clearing preset chains.

Mission Puyo

Loosely based on the Nazo Puyo games. Instead of trying to knock out the opponent with Nuisance Puyo, players are tasked with completing a set amount of objectives first.

Excavation

Players are tasked with digging through Puyo in order to reach the star on the bottom screen. The strength of chains by default are pathetically weak.

Mini Puyo Excavation

A variant of Excavation that uses Mini Puyo instead and three colors. All other rules are retained.

Mega Puyo Rush

Players use Mega Puyo in order to create chains. The objective is to clear out the Nuisance Puyo in the player's cache before the opponent does, and knock them out with Nuisance Puyo.

Foursight

Based on the Tsu rules, but now players have a preview of 4 Puyo pieces instead of 2 like normally.

Active

Based on the Tsu rules, but players still have control during the middle of a chain animation, making it possible to extend a chain.

Quartet

All the players use dropsets, however every piece counts as 4 Puyo at a time.

Blocks

Each match is randomized with a different pattern of blocks that cannot be cleared.

Big Bang

Players are tasked with clearing away preset Puyo Chains within a time limit. After the time runs out, the chain powers are calculated and inflicted onto whoever had the weaker chain.

Spinner

Every 10 seconds the players boards flip over 180 degrees. In addition, any chains caused by this flip with have a power bonus.

Non-Stop Fever

All players are permanently in Fever, with the objective to clear away all the player's Nuisance Puyo in the cache and dump them onto the opponent first.

Mega Puyo

All Puyo are Mega Puyo. To compensate for the cramped space, 3 Puyo connected count as a chain instead of 4 like normally.

Ice Blocks

All players have access to character specific ice block dropsets. When a player attacks the opponent, they will receive frozen over Puyo in a specific pattern. After 3 intervals, the Puyo will thaw.

Skill Battle

Based on the RPG mode. The goal is to knockout the opponent by draining their health bar. Every player selects 3 characters, each one having two different skills that influence the match.

New Puyo Skin

Gummy Puyo

This Puyo skin is first featured in this game. This kind of Puyo skin will continue to be used in Puyo Puyo!! Quest prior to the redesign of its logo.

Because of the redesign of Puyo Puyo!! Quest's logo, the Gummy Puyo skins will be used instead of Aqua Puyo skins from now on.

History

Development

Little is known about the development of Puyo Puyo Chronicle, but visual development of the game seems to have begun in March 2016 according to concept art of Ally shown in Puyo Puyo Artwork Collection.

Pre-release

Puyo Puyo Chronicle was first announced on September 8, 2016 at Tokyo Game Show 2016. A special demo of the game was available to play at Sega's booth for the duration of Tokyo Game Show.

Three themes based on Puyo Puyo Chronicle were distributed for the 3DS prior to the game's release.

Reception

Puyo Puyo Chronicle received mixed to average reviews.

The game's modes and presentation were well received. SEGAbits praised the 3D models in the game, stating that the artstyle "still [has] that familiar colorful charm like past games". The four reviewers of Famitsu also praised the game for its 3D artstyle. Writing for JRPG.moe, Griffin praised the "good mix of modes here", as well as the inclusion of the Sun rule.

Strong criticism was directed at the game's RPG mode and story. The four Famitsu reviewers stated that the RPG mode was tedious and that the game felt geared towards children. Griffin disliked the story mode, as it felt "very formulaic"; and that the quests were about finding a Puyo character, fighting them, then moving on to the next area; claiming that it was "cute but repetitive". SEGAbits claimed that the RPG mode felt "more like a distraction than a full experience", stating that adding strategy contradicts the nature of Puyo Puyo. Free-log reviewer NAO criticized the walking speed as being too slow, and that the RPG mode was neither a good nor fun way to practice Puyo Puyo.

In 2021, Netlab sent a survey asking players what their favorite Puyo Puyo game was, ranging from Puyo Puyo (1991) to Puyo Puyo Tetris 2. Out of 1523 responses, Puyo Puyo Chronicle received 25 votes and was ranked 13th favorite out of the 14 main categories (excluding the "Other" category), placing it between Minna de Puyo Puyo (ranked 14th, 13 votes) and Puyo Puyo Champions (ranked 12th, 35 votes).

Sales

During the first week following release, it sold 13,873 copies in Japan. In terms of lifetime sales, Puyo Puyo Chronicle has less than 22,000 known recorded physical copies sold; this is less than 1/5 of the known sales of Puyo Puyo Fever 2. In an 2021 interview with Red Bull, it was confirmed by series director Mizuki Hosoyamada that the game had poor sales.

Number of total game sales

Game	Release Date (earliest)	Sales (Copies Sold)	Citation(s)	Date of Citation(s)
Puyo Puyo Fever 2	November 24, 2005	Around 120,000	Source 1, 2	August 31st, 2024
Puyo Puyo 15th Anniversary	December 14, 2006	649,869	Source	May 1, 2013
Puyo Puyo 7	July 30, 2009	493,196	Source	May 1, 2013
Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary	July 14, 2011	325,832	Source	May 1, 2013
Puyo Puyo!! Quest	April 24, 2013	At least 26,000,000	Source	February 28, 2022
Puyo Puyo!! Quest Arcade	November 7, 2013	At least 1,500,000	Source	July 11, 2016
Puyo Puyo Tetris	February 6, 2014	Over 1,400,000	Source	November 19, 2020
Puyo Puyo Chronicle	December 8, 2016	21,451¹	Source	July 22, 2021
Puyo Puyo eSports/Champions	October 25, 2018	N/A
Puyo Puyo Tetris 2	December 8, 2020	500,000-600,000²	Source	July 22, 2021

Note: 400,000 is generally considered to be the minimum amount for a mass-market game to be considered "successful" in Japan.

See footnotes:

¹ Physical sales only (excludes digital sales)
² Total sales derived from ([Puyo Puyo Tetris 1 & 2 (over 2 million)] - [Puyo Puyo Tetris 1])

Cheats

Unlock All

At the title screen, hold L + R and press the buttons in the following order: ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ → → ← ← X X B B Y Y A. The bell chime sound effect will play if the cheat is entered correctly. Unlike the past Puyo Puyo games, this cheat will not unlock the cutscenes from the game's story.

Harder CPU in Free Battle Mode (Core AI Cheat)

Hold L while selecting the CPU character.

Set Player as CPU in Free Battle Mode

Hold L while selecting your handicap. The player's AI level will be set based on the highest AI level of other CPU players.

Trivia

• The full version of the game's ending credits "I Love, Love, Everyone!" was released through a special video released for the series' 30th anniversary.
• The game's concept title was Puyo Puyo Adventure according to concept logos from the Puyo Puyo Artwork Collection.
• The files of the game reveal dialogue cut from the game's RPG mode for unknown reasons. Summarized translations of these lines can be read on Precise Museum's website.
• Harpy, Serilly, and Ragnus from the classic Puyo Puyo series are the returning characters in this game.
  • However, these characters are only available as Skill Battle-exclusive characters in this game. They were not fully playable until the release of Puyo Puyo Champions.
• Despite this game being part of Puyo Puyo’s 25th Anniversary, in this game, Arle reuses some of the old lines from Puyo Puyo Tsu.
• No full soundtrack of the game has ever released, instead a commemorative album was released as a bonus with certain editions of the game that included select songs from the series history. Certain songs exclusive to Puyo Puyo Chronicle have had their official names revealed, but not that of the entire soundtrack.

Gallery

In-game artwork

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  World map

Promotional Artwork

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  Desktop wallpaper
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  Mobile wallpaper

Concept art

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  Early title screen
• 
  Early title screen
• 
  Monster concept art
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  Early Logos