Recently I played a game called “Zero Escape: The Nonary Games” which is a compilation collecting the first two games of the Zero Escape Trilogy. These games are visual novels where you proceed from room to room and solve puzzles in order to escape from them. As I played through them, I remembered how the satisfaction from puzzle games feels different and unique compared to other game genres.
It is true that many games make use of puzzles within various genres. Quite often these are simplistic where you move pillars to determined spots or direct beams of light. These puzzles can make a good break from the normal gameplay but are typically easy to complete as the game doesn’t want to slow you down too much. My question to you is when was the last time you played a game that you had to take notes to solve a puzzle?
That moment of eureka when you are pouring over notes is a truly incredible feeling and, in many ways, feels similar (but not quite the same) to when you defeat a truly hard boss such as from the Dark Souls series or a certain Undertale boss. When done well, however, these moments of eureka can be quite rapid with many rooms in Zero Escape granting me 2 or 3 of these moments before I escaped.
There are plenty of great puzzle games that have been created but I find myself drawn more to story-based puzzle titles rather than titles that are more abstract with their stories. Think of Danganronpa, Portal, The Turing Test or many of the LucasArts point and click adventure games. I feel more driven to complete puzzles when I have a well written story as a motivator.
However, there is a danger when it comes to playing puzzle games. I have found getting stuck when playing puzzle games to feel worse than getting stuck in other genres. To clarify, I mean unable to figure out an answer to a puzzle for an extended period of time. Occasionally I have a eureka moment while doing something else but quite often I feel forced to look up the answer rather than waste any more time.
I mostly associate this feeling with older puzzle adventure games such as those made by LucasArts or by Sierra Entertainment which required some lateral and unorthodox thinking. I have, on occasion, become stuck in modern puzzle games and feel this desperate need not to waste time. True puzzle enthusiasts would probably take as long as they need to in order to figure it out but I feel that, if I have given the puzzle my best effort, I can look up an answer or two in order to not use up precious time.
I feel like not enough attention is given to puzzle games and there are plenty of excellent ones to choose from. If you have yet to dive into the world of these games, hopefully this article has helped give you some starting points. Let me know what type of puzzle games you enjoy and if you have any memories, positive or negative, of playing these games.
Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.