Puzzle Quest 3: Match-3 RPG

I've been playing this game for over a year now and I made it through the dev change a while back. Nothing was lost - the gear values changed (like when Warcraft did the gear crunch) and as far as I can tell it has changed back to what it was. I have made steady progress as a free to play player and while I would love to progress faster, the system feels fair to me. I finally spent 20 this last season cycle as a thank you. I'm not paying to win either. I find this game fun because my free time is scarce and I can play this casually and enjoy it. The previous seasons and grinding is not a grating experience. I love the monster and character designs and the art style overall. The UI changes for the better and for the worse depending on what the devs are trying to do and I don't fault them for that. I am very happy to have this game avaiilable. Kills my iPhone battery though - fast. So I play on the PS5.

The Dev’s hook you, then get you to expend a lot of time and energy to gather your strengths and playing style, the “upgrade” the game without warning and leave you with worthless gear. Previously, before the spell book change, you could pick and choose what set of spells you wanted to work on, and upgrade those spells first. Gone with the update. Now you upgrade a “Book” at 1000x the previous cost and can only gather the required upgrade pieces randomly. Very randomly. Then along comes the gear “update”. No longer can you choose a specific piece to upgrade. It is all random. This game has turned itself into a roulette wheel. You can spin it, but you have no control over the outcome. Finally, you hard time and money turned gear got wiped out as the Dev’s, without warning but the again they care not for you, the quality of the gear gets re-done and you lose your entire playing power. Sending in support tickets just elicited a Dev’s ire, and responses that are uncaring. Just spare yourself, send them your money and do not play the game. That outcome will happen whether you play or not.

I rarely ever write reviews, but for this terrible followup to one of my most beloved puzzle games, I felt compelled to. PQ started out with a lovely rpg feel - that is, it felt like a proper game (and it was, for that matter). This feels more like a feckless cash grab with pretty, if generic, graphics intended to milk the last drop of what goodwill the original PQ earned. PQ2 failed to meet the original mark as well, but it too was a proper game, if notably lesser. This third entry lacks any semblance of the original soul of the series. If you have any measure of love for the original, make a hard pass on this one. There’s no character customization, it varies much too wildly from the original formula, and strives with sickening desperation to sell $8 limited time item packs using gross levels of fomo, without making even the basest of attempts to imply these goods are able to be freely earned at great effort, primarily via sinking time into the game. It’s honestly so far from what I would consider acceptable that I struggle to come up with constructive criticism. If anything, I implore the devs to take a long, hard look at the original and rethink this whole line of development. You can make a ton of money and still make an amazing game, devs - please don’t forget that.