{"id":53691,"date":"2013-10-23T09:36:01","date_gmt":"2013-10-23T07:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/?p=53691"},"modified":"2025-07-02T01:04:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T08:04:44","slug":"puzzle-dragons-the-next-candy-crush-saga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/puzzle-dragons-the-next-candy-crush-saga\/","title":{"rendered":"Puzzle & Dragons: The next Candy Crush Saga?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Puzzle & Dragons<\/strong> is a mobile game that’s currently sweeping Japan. Why is it so successful, and are we looking at the next Candy Crush Saga<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Recently, Puzzle & Dragons won the \u201cMinister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award\u201d from the Japan Game Awards at the Tokyo Game Show 2013<\/strong>. This decision marks quite a milestone \u2013 it\u2019s the first time a smartphone game has won the award, which certainly says something about the game.<\/p>\n

Puzzle & Dragons has now reached close to 1 billion downloads globally<\/strong>, although most come from Japan, where the game was created. So, what\u2019s the secret to its success? Let\u2019s try to figure it out!<\/p>\n

More than a puzzle game<\/h2>\n

In the mobile market, there are hundreds of puzzle games like Candy Crush Saga, most having been inspired by the popular\u00a0Bejeweled<\/a> series. Puzzle & Dragons gameplay is exactly like these games, but with added incentives that have managed to hook millions of iOS, Android and Kindle Fire users.<\/p>\n

In Puzzle & Dragons, the gem-based puzzles in the bottom half of your mobile screen work as a pretext to completing the challenges in the top half of the screen. These challenges, which have a Japanese RPG<\/strong> style <\/strong>(role playing games), are actually battles against enemies with different powers and properties. When you eliminate all the gems in a particular color, you unleash your allies\u2019 magic powers, weakening your enemy bit by bit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"The puzzles are a pretext for battling enemies
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Basically, playing Puzzle & Dragons is like playing Bejeweled in order to take part in Pok\u00e9mon-style battles<\/strong>, during which you can eventually build up new allies.<\/p>\n

With this model of play, Puzzle & Dragons brings together two beloved genres. On the one hand, you have a puzzle, a simple format that’s proven to work well on tablets and smartphones. On the other, you have an RPG, a firm favorite from the country which has given us big RPG names like Final Fantasy<\/a> and Pok\u00e9mon.<\/p>\n

Color and kawaii<\/em> factor<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s hard for a mobile game to really grab your attention if it\u2019s not visually appealing, something that the game’s creators at Gung Ho Online Entertainment took into consideration when designing the game. Puzzle & Dragons is a colorful breath of fresh air, with perfect anim\u00e9<\/strong> characters taking center stage, just as they should in a good RPG.<\/p>\n

The game also has something really important in Japanese culture: the kawaii<\/em> factor<\/strong>. Both the good guys and the baddies are \u201ccute\u201d<\/strong>, like in Pok\u00e9mon or the well-known Disgaea<\/a> series. You want to defeat the bad guys, but there’s no denying that they’re also pretty adorable.<\/p>\n

This makes Puzzle & Dragons easily recognizable. In Angry Birds<\/a>, for example, you only have to see one picture of a bird to know that it\u2019s part of the Rovio universe; the same goes for the witches, monsters and warriors in Puzzle & Dragons<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Colorful anim\u00e9 aesthetics are Puzzle & Dragons\u2019s secret weapon<\/em><\/p>\n

To pay or not to pay\u2026 it\u2019s up to you!<\/h2>\n

The free-to-play model<\/strong> is widely accepted by mobile gamers: you play for free, and if you want more, you pay a small fee. Puzzle & Dragons is a good example of this model, and while many users enjoy playing without paying, others can spend a good part of their savings without batting an eyelid. We can see proof that this model works in the game’s 2012 stats: it was the top paid app in the Japanese App store<\/strong> and number one globally in the same category in Google Play.<\/p>\n

So why do people pay if you can play for free? Paying means that you can play for longer<\/strong> without having to wait, or to get power-ups that otherwise would take longer to get. It might not be the cheapest system, but for many users who only play games like Puzzle & Dragons, it doesn’t seem like a bad deal when they get hours of fun in return.<\/p>\n

\"\"Even though it\u2019s free, many users get hooked on Puzzle & Dragons and end up paying<\/em><\/p>\n

Will it break over here?<\/h2>\n

So, will Puzzle & Dragons make it big outside Japan?<\/p>\n

At the moment, the signs are good: since launching in the U.S. at the end of 2012, it reached the million-download mark this past August<\/strong>. It\u2019s nowhere near the numbers downloaded in Japan, but with a bit of patience and people tiring of its rivals, Puzzle & Dragons could quickly climb its way up the charts.<\/p>\n

What’s more, Gung Ho Online has announced that the game will be released in Europe and Australia at some point this year. Could this be the start of a global runaway success?<\/p>\n

Download Puzzle & Dragons for Android<\/a><\/h3>\n

Download Puzzle & Dragons for iOS<\/a><\/h3>\n

Will you give Puzzle & Dragons a try?<\/h3>\n

Original article written by Maria Baeta<\/a> for Softonic ES<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Puzzle & Dragons is a mobile game that’s currently sweeping Japan. Why is it so successful, and are we looking at the next Candy Crush Saga? Recently, Puzzle & Dragons won the \u201cMinister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award\u201d from the Japan Game Awards at the Tokyo Game Show 2013. This decision marks quite a … Continue reading “Puzzle & Dragons: The next Candy Crush Saga?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2040,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[],"tags":[2801],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-53691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-app-subdomain-redirectioncandy-crush-saga"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2040"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331936,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53691\/revisions\/331936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53691"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=53691"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=53691"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=53691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}