The storyline essentially just assumes that you’re intimately familiar with the anime, and if you happen not to be, very little effort is put into giving you any context to character relationships or conflicts. The narrative mostly focuses around the similar tales of either Taiga or Ryuji, two hopeful, competitive Puzzle & Dragons players that are looking to win big in a sweeping competition that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Pokémon league.

The story of Puzzle & Dragons Gold is kept to almost a complete minimum, while borrowing heavily from the anime series that has sprung up in the wake of the franchise’s success. What we’ve been given is not a sprawling and addicting RPG to keep you hooked for hours on end, but rather a stripped-down and disappointing take on the beloved gameplay that made the original release such a hit. It’s the sort of thing that could’ve been a slam dunk, but unfortunately, Puzzle & Dragons Gold just isn’t all that good.

Now, it seems that GungHo wanted to repeat its past success via the release of Puzzle & Dragons Gold, a brand new entry in the series that was designed from the ground up with the Switch in mind. Edition for the 3DS a few years ago, showing off what the series could look like as a more fleshed-out and traditional affair.

Most notably for Nintendo fans, this expansive reach led to the creation of the excellent Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros.

Even today, the series still routinely pulls grosses well into the billions, which has naturally led to a whole slew of spinoffs and other multimedia elements popping up to grow the franchise’s reach. The Puzzle & Dragons series has been a juggernaut in the mobile gaming space for close to a decade now, due in no small part to its distinctly satisfying blend of RPG elements with match-3 puzzle action.

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