[ indie navi ] GungHo Reveals P&D Follow-Up Puzzle & Dragons W

GungHo Reveals P&D Follow-Up Puzzle & Dragons W

Posted 17:27 EST on 20FEB2014 by: indie navi news staff in news, previews » gungho, puzzle & dragons

To celebrate the two-year anniversary of the release of Puzzle & Dragons, GungHo held an event in Tokyo and released information regarding the future of the tremendously popular series.

GungHo CEO Kazuki Morishita and Puzzle & Dragons producer Daisuke Yamamoto took the stage to release details about the biggest story of the day: Puzzle & Dragons W, the semi-follow up to Puzzle & Dragons.

gungho kazuki morishita and daisuke yamamoto

From left: GungHo CEO Kazuki Morishita, Puzzle & Dragons producer Daisuke Yamamoto

Image source: 4Gamer

Not exactly a sequel, P&D W is a combination of two play modes. The original P&D will be available as a play mode from within P&D W, and GungHo will continue to introduce updates and collaborations as it always has. The second mode is less dragons, more puzzles, stripping away the dungeon exploration to focus on puzzles.

GungHo’s press information refers to this mode as Tamadora Mode, in reference to the monsters that will serve as player avatars. By beating puzzles, players are awarded “avatar items” of three categories: head, arm, and (given the tamadora‘s anatomy) “egg”. These pieces of armor can be combined to customize the player’s avatar, changing the appearance of the tamadora and granting skills to help the player solve progressively complicated puzzles.

GungHo’s official Puzzle & Dragons W site claims players can combine avatars, presumable to form a party, which will likely play a role in overcoming increasingly difficult puzzles.

Images source: 4Gamer and the official Puzzle & Dragons W site

4Gamer had people on hand at the demonstration, and describes the game play demonstration given by Yamamoto:

Players collect “hearts” to prevent a time gauge from reaching zero while lining up same-colored tiles three or more, either lengthwise or vertically, to make the tiles disappear. When the player has succeeded in removing the number of drops indicated on the tree stump in the image above the playing field, the egg will crack open and players will receive an avatar item.

Among the panels, special panels will appear according to the armor the player’s tamadora has equipped. One of the armor effects we saw caused every one of the tiles of a certain color to disappear when the special tile was activated.

puzzle and dragons tamadora mode game play demo shot

Images source: 4Gamer

Morishita explained that this new game mode was aimed at people who enjoyed the puzzles in Puzzle & Dragons, but who weren’t interested in collecting and raising monsters. Since Tamadora Mode uses a time gauge that amounts to “stamina”, the mode will be monetized by allowing players to spend “magical gems” (in-game currency) to regain stamina and purchase continues. These magical gems can be shared between Tamadora Mode and the classic mode.

GungHo is keeping mum on what updates classic mode will receive, saying only that they’ll be an “evolution” for the series.

For classic mode, GungHo stuck to announcing upcoming collaborations with the Evangelion films and Taiko no Tatsujin, as well as a tie-in with McDonald’s.

The update turning Puzzle & Dragons into Puzzle & Dragons W is slated for this spring. GungHo promises further details of the update are forthcoming.

News and images source: 4Gamer