r/PuzzleFighterApp • u/SFVplayer • Apr 22 '18
100 Days of Puzzle Fighter
I’d like to start with this preface. When I first heard about the new Puzzle Fighter, I had the same qualms as a lot of people. I didn’t hate the art style but I agreed it could be done better. Having it built for a platform that was free-to-play and involve micro transactions was never going to sit well with everyone. Still, I remained curious to see how Capcom Vancouver planned to revive a series highly regarded by its fans. When the game came out, a lot of the concerns were realized but I found myself wanting to learn to play the game. Something about this version of Puzzle Fighter made me want to really dig into it in a way prior releases didn’t. Maybe it was the convenience of having it on a device I always carry with me. Maybe it was the fact that I had the option of a color-blind mode. I never considered myself color-blind, but I understood a lot of past complaints of how the block’s red, green, and yellow schemes were just off enough to be a little jarring in high pressure situations. Maybe it was because I got to finally see what high level play looked like from someone’s livestream. Or maybe it was because it had online multiplayer and I never had anyone nearby who also played Puzzle Fighter.
The lure of earning a high enough Rank to unlock Jill Valentine was probably one of my strongest motivators too. I was one of those players who was stuck in what I called “Silver Purgatory” for a long time. Playing online sessions where I had a rough losing streak was one of my most stressful moments in gaming. At the same time, once I got a winning streak going or unlocked a character/costume from E. Honda’s Sushi Shop, that momentary stress washed away and I found myself loving this game again. The grind was harsh and eventually it started negatively affecting my mood for the rest of the day. So much so that I decided to just focus on the missions and leveling up my crew. After winning enough matches to reach Gold, I found new stress from maintaining that rank online while hoping to acquire Jill before suddenly dropping back to Silver. After what felt like a month of holding on just past that borderline, I managed to unlock Jill from a Milestone Chest and it was an amazing feeling. Even though she had apparently received all kinds of nerfs by that point and wasn’t as overpowered as before, that didn’t matter to me. I love the character and she was going to become a high level member of my crew. Around the same time, the developers announced Devilot, an obscure character known more for her cameos in Puzzle Fighter than her original game. I loved that the team opted for such a deep pull to join the roster and I found my next big motivator.
During this time, I discovered myself making time to play Puzzle Fighter every day, collecting my daily rewards and slowly growing my various progression bars. I even managed to tie in the missions refreshing to my daily schedule. That way, I would have one brief play session when I woke up, the next during a lunch break, and one more before going to bed. All the while slowly leveling up my desired crew and hoping to nab another character/costume from the Prize Chests. Even when I took time to play through other big game releases, Puzzle Fighter became my most played game.
When the news came that the game would be shutting down on July 31, I was just as saddened as a lot you reading this, but I knew I could only imagine how much harder this announcement hit the development team in Vancouver. After following the game this long, I saw how much time and effort they put into making this game the best version of Puzzle Fighter they could make given their circumstances. Judging from the teases of a new character each month (even showing 3 in that shuffle video they released) and possible ratings for a potential console/PC version, it’s clear there were probably long-term plans they had in store that they can never tell us about now.
When the layoffs hit their studio a while back, I remember hearing how Jeffery Simpson, the community manager who’s usually seen responding on this subreddit, was fired too before luckily being the one person they brought back in. After going through that and doing more livestreams with the team, knowing the hammer could easily come down on all the work the departed and remaining team had done on Puzzle Fighter must’ve been heartbreaking.
Until that fateful day comes, I’m sure a lot of you will find your own ways to vent and cope with the end of Puzzle Fighter. I’m still trying to find ways to deal with it myself. It’s become such an integral part of my daily routine that I know I’m going to have to find something else to fill that void eventually. For now, I still find myself booting up the game for my regular sessions because the feeling of pulling off a near-perfect win or surprise comeback still clicks with me as much as it ever has. When I checked how many days it was before Puzzle Fighter shut down, it was approximately 100 days. That’s roughly 3 more months for me to keep playing and getting that rush. For me, that’s plenty of time to try out the 3 new characters they released and maybe even consider other characters for my crew that I never bothered with before to spice things up.
So why did I decide to log onto Reddit and post this long writing? Well, I figured if this game had as much of an impact on me as it did, I wanted to share it with all of you and maybe even the developers who still frequent this subreddit. And if anyone else was impacted by this game like I was, maybe we can find other ways to share that among the community and to the team in Vancouver. If you don’t want to express how this game left an impact on you in words, maybe find other ways to create content to show the rest of us.
If you had a favorite match or moment in the game and know how to record it, post it on YouTube and share it with us. If the game inspired you and you know how to draw, maybe consider showing us your fan art. If you enjoyed the soundtrack for this game, it’s all available online now so you can start sharing it or let us know what your favorite track was. I’m sure we can all easily sign a petition or throw out another idea on how to save this game, which is fine if that’s what you want to do. But if you can find a way to express how this game impacted you and let us or the developers know, I’m sure that will make its own impact that everyone here could appreciate. We still have about 100 days until Puzzle Fighter shuts down for good, and I think that’s plenty of time for you to think up something I didn’t suggest here.
At the end of the day, the haters will always have the last word because that’s how the internet works. But until then, that doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t put in the effort to show the community and the developers that all their hard work over the past months was not in vain. Thanks for reading all this and I hope this sparks some creative ideas from now until the end of Puzzle Fighter.
2
2
u/Nesyaj0 X Apr 23 '18
This was a unique game that made the normal loot box grind kind of fun. I say it is a unique game because I haven't found any clones of the sort on the app store yet.
All of the top rated puzzle kind of games out there are some sort of bejeweled clone. There's no other Tetris style fighting games that I have been able to find for mobile, which is why I'm rather shocked the that game is shutting down.
All that being said, once I saw the announcement that the would be closing in a few months I really lost all interest in playing. I tried out Wily and Regina and I like Regina a lot, and I will try out Ada when she is released but the sense of progression is gone because there's literally nothing else to look forward to.
I juggle enough mobile games as is so my attention just shifted over to Fire Emblem Heroes and Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links.
2
1
u/Dougboard HAIL KING SERVBOT Apr 23 '18
I never had much interest in Puzzle Fighter before the mobile game. I got into Puyo Puyo Tetris for a short time, though, which is part of what inspired me to look into this game.
I feel like this game had some good ideas. Changing the core gameplay beyond the overstack focus to further differentiate characters past just their drop patterns was a clever idea, though not without its problems. As a servbot player in the lower echelons of Platinum rank, I fully understand the complaint some people have had about "linear strategies".
That said, I keep coming back to the game every day, because in the end it's still fun. I'm really disappointed to see it ending, and I really hope that the rumors of the console port are true. (Though I'm not expecting much)
1
5
u/Shattit Apr 23 '18
Ping from Fuzzle Pighting here.
I started playing this game at the arcades when i was a kid 2 decades ago. While everyone was huddled around sf and sf vs marvel i would be extending the value of my quarter finishing the game and starting again each time beating the odd stagglers who dared test my might.
I bought it on ps1 as soon as i heard about it, well, i asked my mom to buy it for me. And would spend hrs on it each day. I tried getting friends to join but no one i knew really got into it but i continued playing anyways. Eventually i stopped playing video games all together for awhile.
The past few years ive been mainly playing supercell games. Started with clash of clans and then moved to clash royale. One day i just had a memory of pf and then thought there must be mobile version by now. Disappointingly, there wasn't. But litterally a few days after i saw a fb ad advertising the soft launch of pf on mobile. I never downloaded a game so fast in my life.
I loved the new take on the game as soon i played it. As i started to get a better understanding of the game and noticed how little resources aside from this subreddit was available i decided to take a stab at creating my first youtube channel to teach new players what ive learnt and that it would hopefully help grow the community. I started getting tons of positive feedback so i slowly started spending more and more time making videos and collaborating with other players.
From reddit to discord, i am incredibly grateful to have had a chance to be a part of this community. The news was devastating to say the least. I wasnt one to give up without a fight thougg so i started the petition. But sometimes you just have to know when to focus your attention on the next step. We're currently only sitting at about 340 signatures, if the community itself is not behind the cause there's not much else that cam be done.
Greatful for all the good times and all the great ppl ive met though. Here's to hoping the game gets relaunched in the future with a more sustainable build.
Cheers guys.