Puzzle & Dragons

About Puzzle & Dragons

I first heard about this game from my grandson, who was visiting last Thanksgiving. He showed me his phone and I thought it looked like a fancy puzzle game. I downloaded it because my old matching game kept crashing on my Pixel 7 after an update. Puzzle & Dragons has been around since 2012, which is ancient in phone terms. It mixes matching colored orbs with collecting monsters and going through dungeons. You drag your finger across the screen to match orbs, and that makes your monsters attack. There are hundreds of these little monster characters you can collect and evolve into stronger forms. I have to say, the artwork is really nice and colorful, easy on my old eyes. The music is okay, not too annoying. I usually play while sitting on my porch in the morning with coffee. The game has a lot going on under the hood, maybe too much for a casual player like me.

Features & Highlights

The main thing you do is match orbs on a 6 by 5 grid. You have five colors plus hearts for healing. Matching three or more of the same color makes your monsters of that color attack. Matching more gives you bigger combos and more damage. You build a team of up to six monsters before entering a dungeon. Each monster has a special skill you can use once it charges up. Some heal, some do big damage, some change the orb colors. There are tons of dungeons to go through, from easy ones to ones that will wipe you out in one hit. They have daily dungeons for special materials to evolve your monsters. I really like the weekend dungeons for earning coins. There are also collaborations with movies and other games, like Final Fantasy and Street Fighter. I don’t know most of them, but my grandson gets excited. You can play with friends by using their leader monster as a helper, or do real multiplayer where you both move at the same time. I haven’t tried multiplayer because I don’t want to mess up someone else’s game.

User Experience

Honestly, the first few days were rough. The tutorial throws a lot at you. There are menus inside menus inside menus. I had to look up a beginner guide on YouTube just to figure out how to evolve my first monster. The home screen has buttons for everything — dungeons, teams, shop, mail, missions, and more. It took me a week to realize I had unclaimed rewards sitting in my mailbox. The orb matching itself feels good. Dragging your finger is smooth on my Pixel 7, no lag. But the timer on harder dungeons stresses me out. You only have a few seconds to make your move. I prefer the endless mode where you can practice without pressure. The game saves your progress automatically, which is nice because I often forget to do that myself. One thing that bugs me: there’s no way to speed up the monster evolution animation. You have to watch this little cutscene every single time. For a retiree with patience, it’s fine, but I can see younger folks getting annoyed.

Pricing

The game is free to download. You get a good amount of premium currency called Magic Stones just by playing through dungeons and logging in daily. I’ve gotten maybe 50 stones over the past month without spending a dime. These stones let you roll for new monsters in the rare egg machine. The problem is, there are dozens of different machines with different monsters available. It’s confusing which one to roll in. You can buy stones with real money, and the prices are what you’d expect: a few dollars for a small pack, up to $80 for a big bundle. I hate that some special dungeons require stones to continue after you die. I lost a boss fight and had to either pay up or lose my progress. That feels a bit unfair. But you can play the whole story without spending anything. I haven’t bought anything yet and I’m having fun. Though I did see a $1 starter pack that’s tempting.

Updates & Support

This game gets updated like clockwork. Every Monday there’s a new event rotation. Thursday is usually for special descended dungeons. Friday brings new collaborations. The developers are still adding content after over a decade, which is impressive. I haven’t contacted support because I haven’t had any technical problems. The app runs stable on my Pixel 7, no crashes or weird bugs. I did read the app store reviews to see if others had issues. Most complaints are about the difficulty spikes in later content or the confusing menus. A few people grumble about the gacha system being unpredictable. But the developers seem to respond to big bugs quickly. There’s also an in-game notice board where they announce fixes and upcoming events. It’s all in English, which I appreciate since some games only have Japanese support.

Security & Privacy

You have to sign up with an account or link to Google Play or Apple. I used my Google account since I’m already on Android. The game asks for permission to access your device’s storage, which I assume is for saving data. It also asks for internet access for the online features. I haven’t noticed any weird ads popping up or strange permission requests. There are no third-party ads in the game itself, which is a relief. You do see promotions for the in-game shops and special events, but that’s it. The privacy policy is the typical long legal text. I skimmed it and didn’t see anything about selling your data to other companies. For a free game with no ads, I think it’s fair. I feel safe enough playing it. My grandson also plays it on his phone and hasn’t had any issues either.