Puyo Puyo Chronicle - The Unlocalized Puyo RPG

[@KewlNerd20X6]

I didn't find Ally that annoying in PPT2. It helps that her definition of love (wanting the best for someone else) was actually correct.

[@shadou1234567]

Risukuma in ppt 1 showed me what is love, and he is my favorite love based character

[@kelvindean]

The English version of Ally debuted in Champions along with the Grimp Forest BGM from Chronicle. In Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, the Grimp Forest background appeared, but the BGM was replaced by Tropical Resort Act 1.

[@technospyform1578]

Ally's pretty fun! But part of me's like "This s*** could be taken out of context..."

[@GlitchanBlack]

@@kelvindean Because Sonic music is based.

[@jestfullgremblim8002]

She is awesome

[@GaelPuyo2424]

6:24 That location is actually from Puyo Puyo Fever 2. It appears a few times during the story. From what I know, it’s called the Museum in that game.

[@SchoellScrub]

Very late but have to give credit where it’s due, that’s a super cute detail.

[@estiriaz]

really great video!! another fun fact since you mentioned the gummy puyo skin, there's actually a mini puyo game in the vocaloid game, hatsune miku and future stars: project mirai 2, which uses the same 3d art style and a similar gummy puyo skin colored to match the vocaloid characters. it's really charming, but unfortunately also wasn't localized!

[@zero123alpha6]

Does project Mirai dx not have this? I thought it did?

[@EKURAIN]

Wait it wasn’t? I think it is bc i have the physical version of it

[@katieg1071]

Project Mirai DX also has it, yes; it's an enhanced version of Mirai 2. And don't forget that there's Arle and Satan costumes, the former of which makes Miku use Arle's spells when worn!

[@snailtrashx2]

In Mirai DX too, I was actually just playing that.

[@gratedparmesan_]

Another thing about Project Mirai in relation to Puyo Chronicle! The same people who worked on the models for Project Mirai worked on the models for PPC, which is very cute to me. As well, it's theorized that the Puyo minigame in Mirai was actually sort of a test run for the 3D animations in Chronicle, as there's a dummy file left over in Chronicle with Len's face on it.

[@Joe_334]

It's only fitting that Sonic would be in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2. Both Sonic and Arle just love showing up in unfamiliar places...

[@EvelEyee]

I honestly heard of the translation but didn't actually expect it to be finished. Massive respect to him!

[@Nenilein]

*her. Our main translator, Ingu, is a woman. I, the other translator in the group(didn't work much on this specific patch), am also a woman. We appreciate the praise tho! ~ a Precise Museum translator

[@EvelEyee]

@@Nenilein sorry for the mistake, but your welcome though!

[@Mr.Kirby_]

This was quite the watch. That being said this was pretty good for it being a different kind of video!

[@__agent3]

SCHEZO IN THE CHEST WAS SUS LOL Such a great and informative video! The hard work you put into the video is amazing👏👏 Enjoyed watching very much!!

[@Armm8991]

6:24 They are actually in the museum of Primp Town! This is a location from Fever 2 and i think it's a pretty cute touch Oh i just noticed someone else mentioned it lol

[@SchoellScrub]

It is a super cute detail honestly. It does beg the question though on both how and why Arle and Carby are both in Primp. Also saw your name in the credits for the graphics asserts for the patch so thank you and the rest of the team for the excellent work you’ve put in here!

[@Armm8991]

@@SchoellScrubThank you! Your review was spot on! pretty much how everyone on the team saw the game lmao A mixed bag of missed potential...

[@personita2.733]

@@SchoellScrub Didn't she get yeeted into primp from "a puyo battle" in puyo puyo fever (the excuse they use for her being in the game" and then just lived there through puyo puyo fever 2 battling because "maybe this time I will get yeeted back into my own world" untill puyo puyo 15th anniversary happens where rulue, Satan, Schezo, suketoudara, nasu grave and Zoh Daimaoh get yeeted into primp too, then puyo puyo 7 happens where there are some more compile characters like skeleton T that just kinda appear (I haven't actually played seven so I don't know what happens) Thing is that since none of puyo puyo 15th anniversary's plot lines are canonical because 24 characters cannot simultaneously win a tournament arle's wish to be able to switch between her world and primp probably never happened so she's been stuck in primp since 2003

[@pocketartist6491]

I'm honestly super sad that PPC ended up being as mediocre as it is. :C I adore the concepts, the art styles, the music, and I absolutely love Ally and Rafisol's potential... but they just didn't *go* anywhere. I've basically dedicated my life as a Puyo fan to make the world of Chronicle like 10x more interesting by adding lore to the world, lore to the inhabitants, and lore to the monsters. Like... I've straight up decided that the world is inside a book because there was once an evil shadow that almost destroyed it, but two Goddesses, one of the Sun and one of the Moon, used up all their magic to seal the world inside of the book to protect it, sacrificing themselves in the process. That's why the Tower of Color was built, so it and its immense amount of magic could honor the fallen Goddesses. Come on, SEGA... just give me the rights to the PPC world I'll work wonder with it lmao

[@SchoellScrub]

Honestly just anything like that would have been nice. Just anything resembling world building would at least make the mode interesting. Just the sheer amount of nothing was super disappointing. Will say, cute head cannon scenario though, it gives just a little bit of flavour to the area!

[@pocketartist6491]

@@SchoellScrub Ahhh, thanks mate!!! I got tons of more headcanons, and lots for Suzuran, too, just because they're so barren when it comes for lore... Goodness I need to start posting videos of my own just so I can start infodumping my hcs on whoever will listen lmao

[@SchoellScrub]

Heh heh! As long as you’re having fun with it!

[@MilkshakeVA]

I've never played any other puyo game besides Tetris and Champions... this was a cool insight! well done! ❤️

[@CaptainStage]

I really couldn't have said it better myself. A Puyo RPG with Puyo battles instead of traditional turn-based battles is an awesome idea that I think has so much potential, Chronicle just didn't push it far enough or have any interesting ideas. But hey, there's still Puyo Box. One day it'll be in English and we can see for ourselves how that mode pulled it off.

[@luiss428]

this is old but with the recent, ahem, shut down of the eShop, i scrambled to finally be able to play this unofficial eng patch first few moments and MAN nothing felt off. worth noting that japanese can be longer or shorter than their english translations, so its amazing that they kept the pacing of the words consistent

[@cornycomments8762]

Now I’ve seen Klug with no eyebrows… I just realized how much of a *MASSIVE* forehead he has

[@technospyform1578]

Out of him, Ally and Ringo, who's biggest forehead?

[@deadchannel294]

8:45 best carbuncle expression

[@enlov3863]

What an excellent video, well edited and very well paced, really well done here schoell!

[@jestfullgremblim8002]

The characters did look super cute in that 3D chibi version. Reminds me of the old art style that the first Puyo games had in the cutscenes

[@redhead2985]

Wow, Schoell’s review on chronicle is pretty different kind of video, but it’s nice to see someone playing probable the least played Puyo side games.

[@horizontalpilotcommand]

coming back to this video after the investigations localization has been announced gives me too much hope

[@cmyk8964]

As a Japanese Puyo Puyo fan, I personally have zero emotional attachment to Chronicle because _why?_

[@GlitchanBlack]

This is your first video game review, and you already gave Scott the Woz competition. We really don't get reviews on Puyo Puyo or Madou Monogatari games on KZbin (closest I've seen is Charriii5's Everything Wrong With on the Puyo Puyo Tetris games), so it's nice to see THIS kind of content.

[@omegakrome3931]

Scott the Woz? More like Schoell the Scrub.

[@SchoellScrub]

Based

[@jestfullgremblim8002]

Hahaha

[@zellasteria]

i was saving for chronicle until i checked it wasnt on my platform and had to buy champions instead sadly *champions is still amazing though*

[@AmethystLeslie]

I never played this, but I remember watching the cutscenes from Precise Museum's channel and it was just endless, endless dialogue of nothing happening, even for like 40-minute long videos that have 6 minute long cutscenes, it was a slog to even WATCH them. Look, I love the characters, I love seeing them interact, and it's entirely possible I overlooked some actually fun interactions cuz all I could think about how bored I was, but I think what you said was put best, that there's no character development, nothing happens for most of the game, and overall was just... not good. From my understanding of the postgame, Rafisol's 2 more cutscenes (out of a grand total of 4 in all of Chronicle) pretty much cement her as the best character in the game because she is the one character who gets character development. On a side note, where the hell is this kinda content in my recommendeds? This is great stuff. My recommendeds just give me Puyo matches in English and Japanese and i have like no interest in that side of Puyo.

[@SchoellScrub]

I deliberately avoided those videos as I knew the translation patch was coming and wanted to experience the story first hand... and yeah. It was pretty dissapointing and dull outside of a few moments. Admittingly once I hit the credits sequence I dropped the game and haven't touched it since so I haven't seen Rafisol's Master Quest sidequest. I've only done Maguro's during the story and was left pretty non-plussed so I just decided not to do them. May be worth playing her Master Quest in which case if there's some decent dialogue or just viewing it on Precise Museum's channel. Either way thanks for pointing that out. Also, Thank you so much for the feedback! I really enjoyed workiing on a video of this format and I do agree the puyo games could use a bit more content of this style, rather than just the surplus of matches and clips. The algorithm wasn't especially kind with this video particularly, but the overwhelming amount of positive reception I've read is more than enough for me, so thanks a lot again

[@Zack54]

Dude, incredible video. I liked a lot

[@kirbymongerr1771]

Can confirm that when you're not a beast at Puyo, Chronicle can be tough. I had to retry a lot of bossfights and I got stuck on Rafisol since I didn't have the stats to survive (I was handling the garbage fine but my health was running out much faster than hers)

[@nuggetpotato5471]

0:11 That localization report is outdated, Your honor.

[@SchoellScrub]

Honestly would be down to kinda remake this video a long way down the pipeline, I’d do a lot of things differently haha. Really looking forward to AAI2 (please gives us Mother 3…..)

[@MagillanicaLouM]

This video is my first time seeing ocean prince at all and he's majestic

[@abramhale6477]

I don’t know why it took me so long to find this video. I’m glad I did though. I really enjoyed it and I would love to see more videos in this style.

[@lamenwatch1877]

5:38 The instant the water puyo mode popped on screen, I thought "wow, that looks cool! I wanna play that mode!". Whatever your opinion, I'm sure I'd have a blast XD.

[@Random22]

25:31 Man, I hate when that happens

[@FloofPuppy]

You should make more of these review type of videos!

[@SchoellScrub]

I really should haha

[@blackhoggaming]

Such a great review!

[@johnmanfreda2738]

Loved this video Schoell thanks

[@nostalgianinja]

By the wayyyy... The eyebrow rendering was fixed recently (and my github issue on the game has since been closed and marked as done)

[@Maroony_Yt]

This is just schoell talking about how chronicle is unique from 20th anniversary.Nonetheless,Great video!

[@Maroony_Yt]

Speaking of 20th anniversary,What(if any) emulator did you use for it?

[@SchoellScrub]

Citra, with the games dumped from my own Custom Firmware 3DS. Same as I used with Chronicle, I tweaked a couple of render settings to get it to work. It wasn’t ideal but it worked for the purposes of this review.

[@Maroony_Yt]

Ok thx

[@squish9146]

Oh wow! I'll start off by saying I really like the way you did the review :D. it's a good kind of style that not many people use anymore, and it really fits your kind of commentary! But moving forward from that. I never really had that much faith in this game from when I first saw it, so knowing how bland it was doesn't surprise me very much. I guess that's just my vision of Puyo as a whole, but I've never liked the way the series had told it's stories. It's so childish, in a way that's almost derogatory. It's the kind of childish that thinks it can get away without having a story just because no children can pay attention to stories like that. (20th anniversary not included, as until the end all the stories were separate and mostly small.) But really, I just kinda expected this. But I'm still glad you gave it a chance! For what it's worth, it's a cute game, and the models and animations are nice. (Aside from the Ocean Prince, and Raffina's damage animations that make me utterly uncomfortable.) It's cute, and the fluid animations really make me wish some of the 2D gamed had more of a fully animated style instead of the paper puppet style they went for. Buuuuut on the other hand, one doesn't have a modern Puyo game without some charming paper puppet animation. At the end of the day, it's a charming game, but there's really nothing of worth in it unless you just want to see the models. Thanks for the awesome review!

[@SchoellScrub]

Alright... first Speed of Doom now this? Now I have to honor this in full! Thank you very much! Honestly this style of video was one that I kinda always wanted to do since they're my favorite to watch. It was really fun to make (more so than the actual game >_>), but good lord I can see why this syyle has died down a bit. This took forever to make, but as I said I enjoyed making this! As a first go at it I think I'm kinda alright with the end result! At fist I was pretty excited and kinda bought into the Chronicle hype as I honestly thought the RRPG mode cross puzzle gameplay was a very interesting concept, but I think that may have lost its lustre after PPT2's Skill Battle, and that game had the more impressive version of Skill Battle (Even though I don't really play it much these days). As for the story, I don't think there's much "too" wrong about the Puyo games having childish stories, as a lot of enjoyment from them for me comes from their comedic moments, but yeah not many scenes in Puyo games have much that goes beyond surface level comedy. This game is probably the most egregious of them personally though, at least to what I've played. Like there is so little substance that's here, and the game's length really overstays its welcome. I really expected more due to its association as an RPG, but honestly it has less meat on its bones than pretty much any other Puyo story I've experienced which is... impressive... I tried giving it fair chance, I went in wanting to like game but man the tedium was uh... not fun. I like the overall presentation and its cutesy aesthetic (again for the most part). Full on hand-drawn animation would be absolutely amazing for the series, though the paper puppet/skeletal deformation animation style I think has been working pretty well for PPT2 which is still really good looking. Chronicle's unique art style is one of its strengths and as an overall Puyo package its actually pretty decent as a "25th Anniversary" title with fully functional online, but personally I just prefer 20th anniversary for casual modes and the current titles for the online experience. Glad to hear you enjoyed it! ^-^

[@solipsplosion]

Haha I enjoyed your review quite a lot !! I appreciate you taking the time to play even though the game is very okay

[@s07195]

I bought the game a long time back near release for my JP 3DS because I heard Arle was the MC again, but I forgot how bad I was at Puyo XD

[@alexandru18]

10:22 hey it reminds me of ice age the meltdown well the gba version of game

[@ZeBanded]

man i cant wait for everyone to suffer from sweat falling straight into their eyes

[@beachedking]

No, the volcano was so annoying I just wanted to talk to Raffina

[@beachedking]

I’m not finished with the game but goodness that was hair pulling

[@conicthehedgehog9166]

You should try other versions of citra and play with the settings of the emulator till it looks perfect, i have some versions in my phone (citra mmj, citra enhanced) that don't give that type of graphic errors

[@ninjoewd4900]

its out! yeeessss

[@incorrectzak3496]

Wow, it's been long since I've seen a proper review of something Puyo Puyo related. I'll say that it's quite disappointing that Chronicle turned out to be more underwhelming than I thought. I've been already hearing about how um "not that good" to put it lightly that Chronicle is from folks in the Eng fandom and having seen this I can safely say, yeah the game itself isn't worth getting, which is a huge shame as it could've been so much more being *THE* 25th anniversary that was attempting throwing back to the Compile days and as especially it is the debut for two characters who are semi-fan favorites.

[@SchoellScrub]

Yeah... I really wanted the game to be good and was pretty hyped up from what I initially heard, though I don't remember hearing many negative things about the game in the English community, though might have just missed that. I thought the throwback was really interesting but execution wise it just flopped for me.

[@Gamergogetaedits]

18:40 can i pls get the name of the music 😅

[@kjl3080]

holy shit, i played chronicle like 5 years ago but couldn't understand any of the dialog lmao

[@alextucker3249]

yeah, gust being good... sure, keep telling yourself that.

[@thetreyceratops]

I dropped this game during the volcano world because of how boring it was, glad to know I wasn’t missing out on much

[@jimmjimms]

Puyo Puyo Da! used 3D models too. amd I belive it came out first.

[@Galacticstarsofthegalaxy]

will there ever be a puyo puyo tetris 2 shenanigans?

[@Galacticstarsofthegalaxy]

so is that a yes or........

[@Epicman33456]

Wow

[@matiasgomez8651]

hey, schoell, how could you find a puyo puyo and kirby crossover to be

[@matiasgomez8651]

and, yer answer

[@SchoellScrub]

It would be cute if that were to happen! I’d love Kirby to be a guest character in the games because of Avalanche, if the crossover were to be another game entirely rather than just Kirby characters coming to Puyo, I’d have no idea what it’d be but sounds interesting.

[@matiasgomez8651]

@@SchoellScrub i mean, the reason the dream land crew could go to the puyoverse, is because puyo invasion in dreamland.... OR A SECRET, ANCIENT TO BE REVEALED, AND A VENGEFUL WORLD CONQUERING POSSESOR RETURNING FOR VENGEANCE

[@matiasgomez8651]

@@SchoellScrub also, which kirby villain could give the puyo crew, a hard run for their money? also, who do you think as the crossover's final boss

[@matiasgomez8651]

please, answer if you can

[@AvaMakeTheMusic]

You know what is funny I just played against you on PPT i was Cat-Earther

[@mrwizzardknight]

I suck at puzzle games and fighting games! :( I really wish an actual human being could teach me how to play the games properly at home!

[@giberish4]

Good now do a review of champions --gonna be real short :skull:--

[@nayvex4470]

Ocean prince oh no! (I've always hated that character)

[@JaxCoolKartunes]

Carbuncle looks gross here.

[@zafool4997]

Maybe they’ll start modding the game?

[@davidvaldez1093]

People where fighting the code to even get the translation to work

[@PopFrogYT]

I NEED to challenge you in PPT2. I’ve been training to beat you in the UK leaderboards on PPT1. Can you give me any support?

[@SchoellScrub]

I mean I mostly hang around in my own community if you wanted to play, or in PuyoGB where I'm a member of staff there. My own community: discord.gg/3xYVKA3 PuyoGB: discord.gg/nYUAmrr

[@goeasyonme9648]

no eyebrows

[@someoneusedtobeknown2645]

23:23 Average puyo puyo story

[@Alexs23743]

Puyo Puyo Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl. I swear, this game has almost the EXACT same artstyle as the Generation 4 Pokémon remakes! D:

[@jinifysfbiagent3452]

I have a few issues with this review, it being "too bland" is probably on purpose because puyo puyo is a children's game, they've made it easy to progress through on purpose so that children wouldnt have trouble with playing the game or they'd have enough time to learn the mechanics until the final section, which is where more skilled, story and map appreciating players are accomodated. You also complained that ecolo was a twist villain because "of course he had to be", i'm confused on what the problem is since previously you complained that the game is bland? Also, the post game is probably good, as seen with puyo puyo champions' puzzle mode or whatever it was called

[@SchoellScrub]

Honestly, I think this video could use a remake at some point in the future. Not one of my projects I look at the most fondly if I'll be honest in terms of my script, but I will still defend a couple of points here. Being bland is not an excuse, there are plenty of games designed for children and players of all skill levels that don't fall into the pit trap of being "bland". Chronicle's issue of blandness is that it's boring and the gameplay loop never really changes, go into a dungeon, reach a specific point, then get out. The only way this changes are the obstacles which do not impede your progress in the slightest. It's uninteresting, do not confuse this with being easy. This applies to the dungeons and overworld. If anything regarding the battle system, if you aren't a very proficient Puyo Puyo player the game is extremely grindy as the game doesn't give you a lot of skill points to use initially. The experience points you get is kinda poorly paced, requiring a large amount of grinding to get to the levels the game expects you to be at (using the levels that you receive new characters as a point of comparison). If you're very proficient at it though, you basically skip the challenging part of the game, so there's that I guess? It's hard to calibrate an RPG system into a puzzle game and have it work for players of all skill levels, but the way I see it the game design itself bland and the level curve makes it a bit inaccessible to newer players. Regarding the twist villain thing, it's just underwhelming. I feel there wasn't enough build up or interesting moments in the story and I just feel the finale kinda fell flat when they pulled in the "surprise final confrontation". Subjective stuff. Most people aren't going to be interested in the side content stuff, but if it is good, then it probably should be talked about. My line of reasoning here is that if I stick with the game all the way up to what is considered to be the end credits and I don't enjoy a majority of the experience, I cannot in good faith recommend the package as a whole rather than wasting hours and hours on a game I consider to be very mediocre to get to a post game one MAY enjoy. This would however be a talking point if I were to remake it, among other minor aspects that I think Chronicle does better than most other Puyo games.

[@EdmondDantes224]

15:35 - Okay, why do KZbinrs keep doing that stupid blink-and-you'll-miss-it text that you can't read unless you slow the video down and pause on an exact frame? If you think its important for us to read, leave it up for a REASONABLE amount of time. Otherwise just don't include it. This is one KZbin trend that needs to just freaking die.

[@SchoellScrub]

Thanks for the criticism and feedback. The idea with it was just to make a slight joke that a lot of pretty good Puyo players at the time called themselves terrible at the game and severely undersold themselves, so I wanted to include something like that in, but it didn't really add much to the point I'm talking about the game's difficulty so a relegated it to that blink and you'll miss it moment since it wasn't that important. In hindsight I should have rewritten this part entirely. Apologies for the annoyance.

[@EdmondDantes224]

​@@SchoellScrub Honestly, I would be happy for more reviews like this, especially of Puyo games that A) never came out in the west and B) aren't easy to emulate (anyone could fire up a Game Gear emulator and play Madou Monogatari, but a lot of PCs even today can't handle Nintendo DS emulation--or even if they can I bet its a pain). Just.... don't do blink and you miss it text. That's a youtube tradition that needs to die. Oh, and do more Shenanigans videos! That's how I found this channel, a year ago when I was really into Puyo Puyo and Tetris.

[@SchoellScrub]

I really do want to do more projects like this one. I desperately want to cover 20th Anniversary although I’m saving that for when the Precise Museum translation patch is fully out. I also do kinda want to get my 3DS Capture modded for them if possible without having to rely on emulation. There are also a lot of other games in the series I’ve yet to play but am really interested in covering when I get to them. As for Shenanigans, I also really want to do a video of that style again, though circumstances of getting another recording session like that going have been a little… rocky, however I may be able to make another one sooner or later! Just depends on the projects that I want to take on at a given time.

[@notaripspiderman]

This is a very basic, barebones RPG. Character interactions are good, but you need a plot(good or bad) to keep your player hooked

[@dried_anchovy_69]

Alrighty! Took me two years to stop at the right moment at 15:35, time management is my thing!