Puzzle & Dragons 0
iOS & Android, free – remove ads £9.99, unlimited stamina £9.99 (GungHo Online Entertainment)
Puzzle & Dragons featured a compelling blend of match-three puzzling and combat, your match-ups and the resulting combos triggering damage to colourful assailants.
Puzzle & Dragons 0 retains most of the original’s look, feel, and mechanics but removes its gacha elements. Now you add new monsters to your team using the crystals you win by completing dungeons.
It’s just as monumentally complex though, the interlocking sets of skills and team buffs taking a great deal of time and instruction to even start getting the hang of. You’ll also need to watch a fair number of ads to stay competitive, although none are forced on you.
It’s not easy reviewing games designed to be played for literal years, because they tend to change qualitatively as you master skills and inch your way up their mountains of content, but in this case the intricacy, level of polish, and only two options for in-app purchases are promising signs.
Score: 7/10
