I didn’t expect to love Puzzle Quest: The Legend Returns as much as I did. At first glance, it was a game I figured belonged with other match-3 mobile games that usually had microtransactions, cool-down times, and other frustrating “features” that tend to plague the genre. Imagine my surprise when I found myself setting aside other games and even forgoing sleep just to play one more round, defeat one more enemy, or complete one more quest. Like Civilization’s “just one more turn” at 9 PM becoming “just one more game” at 4 AM, Puzzle Quest: The Legend Returns is bound to keep you happily tapping away until the wee hours of the morning.
Puzzle Quest: The Legend Returns
Infinite Interactive · Sep 19, 2019
About
The Original Match 3 RPG is back and better than ever before! Experience the game that started it all, now for the first time on Nintendo Switch™! The totally remastered Puzzle Quest: The Legend Returns features the original Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, the expansion Revenge of the Plague Lord, and a whole bundle of new quests, spells, classes and items created exclusively for this version! Puzzle Quest: The Legend Returns combines the classic match 3 puzzle game with deep level role playing. Match 3 or more gems of the same color in a row to gain mana used to cast spells, battle opponents, collect items and rewards, and advance in the quests!
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Critic reviews
- 8.0The game shows its age in the visuals department, and the presence of difficulty spikes is bound to frustrate some. However, those willing to look past The Legend Returns' flaws are in store for a rich and rewarding experience. And for 15 bucks, where else are you going to get a sprawling RPG/puzzler like this?
- This remaster for the Nintendo Switch includes the original Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords and the Revenge of the Plague Lord expansion, as well as new quests added specifically for this release (nearly 250 in total). It also offers new HD graphics that look pretty good on both the TV and in handheld mode, although some of the text can be hard to read on the Switch screen. The game plays well both ways, too; you can tap and swipe the gem you want to move in portable mode, and just select the gem you want and move the control stick in the direction you want it to go while playing docked.
- While the series may not be anywhere near groundbreaking by this point, Puzzle Quest still returns to its roots in strong fashion with all the previous content and more on the Nintendo Switch, making it great for prior fans and newcomers alike.
- There is certainly a lot to love about Puzzle Quest’s remastered return on Switch. The RPG-meets-puzzle battle system is just as deep and memorable, but almost everything else feels like something straight out of 2007. On the whole, that’s fine, but I can’t help but be dismayed by the bland visuals and presentation. But even failing that, you can just pick one of the 13 classes and romp your way through excellent and distinct battles. Purely based on its battle mechanics, Puzzle Quest is excellent, but it’s held back by the forgettable flourishes.
- 7.0More than a decade after its initial release, Puzzle Quest: The Legend Returns is a worthy upgrade of a solid match-three RPG. It adds new quests and new classes for both veterans and newcomers to enjoy, and manages to resist the ‘freemium’ business model that plagues a lot of games in the genre these days. It falls down a bit on graphics and presentation, with the artwork particularly showing its age, but if you’re after a surprisingly deep puzzle adventure to get lost in, then look no further.
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