Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/stranger-things-puzzle-tales/id1633705525 Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales Netflix, Inc. Available exclusively for Netflix members. Battle the Demogorgon, embark on mysterious quests, collect characters and d… Free Buy Now Watch Media DetailsAvailable exclusively for Netflix members. Battle the Demogorgon, embark on mysterious quests, collect characters and discover new storylines in this Hawkins-inspired stylized adventure game. Join Eleven and the gang in this match-3 puzzle RPG adventure that reimagines the Stranger Things universe in the style of an '80s Saturday morning cartoon. Features: • NEW: Vecna has arrived! Join The Hellfire Club to take him down in this all-new game mode. Explore the fantasy world, complete daunting quests and take on sinister creatures. Succeed and be handsomely rewarded for your bravery. • NEW: More than 40 new story missions! There's something fishy afoot at the lake. Fishermen are ominously disappearing and destroyed boats are washing ashore. Uncover the mystery behind what's lurking in dark waters in this new lakeside story mission. Plus, explore other all-new stories. • NEW: More levels, new characters and rewards! Dig even deeper with a brand new monthly challenge, new lab floors and more. • Quest your way through battles against the Demogorgon, the Mind Flayer and many other creatures from the Stranger Things universe. • Discover new, exclusive Stranger Things storylines enriched with match-3 puzzle RPG gameplay. • Collect dozens of different versions of your favorite characters as they have grown and evolved through the seasons. • Collect and upgrade your gear and tools as you complete mysterious match-3 puzzle RPG quests and earn rewards to enhance and master your new supernatural capabilities. • Recruit your own gang, strategically based on their supernatural abilities. Level them up with new powers to build an unstoppable team. - Developed by Next Games, a Netflix Game Studio. Information Seller:Netflix, Inc. Genre:Puzzle, Role Playing Release:Nov 06, 2022 Updated:Oct 01, 2024 Version:25.0.5 Size:400.7 MB TouchArcade Rating:Unrated User Rating:Unrated Your Rating:unrated Compatibility:HD Universal Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Mercurial Well-Known Member Apr 17, 2020 52 19 8 Male #2 Mercurial, Oct 26, 2021 Nah, freemuim and to add insult to injury it requires network connection to play. L.Lawliet and Son of Anarchy like this. vic11con Member May 31, 2021 9 1 3 Male #3 vic11con, Oct 26, 2021 As a stranger things fan, I would definitely give it a try. squarezero Moderator Staff Member Patreon Silver Dec 10, 2008 13,716 1,240 113 Male Chief Strategy Officer Salem, Massachusetts, USA #4 squarezero, Oct 26, 2021 It’s a very polished take on the match-3 RPG with interesting combat mechanics (for example, you need to target your matches to hit the enemies on most attacks) and a simple but engaging story. I’m sure once the shop opens, they will give you plenty of reason to spend money, but by Chapter 2 you don’t need a leg up quite yet. Compared to the other two Stranger Things games, this feels very “mobile,” but that’s not always a bad thing in my book. aussiepaul and Anotherkellydown like this. ShinHadoukin Well-Known Member Feb 20, 2015 972 143 43 #5 ShinHadoukin, Oct 27, 2021 I like it. Issues: 1) game freezes when a call comes in. 2) doesn't save where you left off if in a level when game is exited 3) cannot turn off "match suggestion" 4) level up & character draws never go away if they are available (so, if you have enough gems for a 1-character draw but want to wait for a 10-draw the notification exclamation will not go away. Same with leveling up charcters.) Boardumb Administrator Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold Apr 14, 2009 8,964 880 113 THE BOSS Sacramento, CA #6 Boardumb, Oct 27, 2021 Instant deal breaker for me aussiepaul likes this. ShinHadoukin Well-Known Member Feb 20, 2015 972 143 43 #7 ShinHadoukin, Oct 27, 2021 I did send to "support" and they responded saying they are taking in all feedback. I will respond to this thread if an update "fixes" any of the issues I see. In particular, the match suggestion. aussiepaul likes this. Skvar Active Member Mar 26, 2014 44 8 8 #8 Skvar, Oct 27, 2021 As far as I can tell, chapter 3 is the first soft paywall. You get into battles that you cannot win then have no way of continuing to level your team without either money, waiting for the XP to slowly idle trickle in or wait on Portals to respawn so you can run them for XP. Wicked8146 likes this. aussiepaul Well-Known Member Aug 18, 2013 130 36 28 #9 aussiepaul, Oct 28, 2021 I agree. I hate match suggestion. Stronsay Well-Known Member Aug 6, 2015 987 230 43 #10 Stronsay, Oct 28, 2021 Play faster! For me that’s part of the challenge - beat the ‘suggestion’. aussiepaul likes this. aussiepaul Well-Known Member Aug 18, 2013 130 36 28 #11 aussiepaul, Oct 28, 2021 I like to relax with my match 3s Stronsay likes this. Stronsay Well-Known Member Aug 6, 2015 987 230 43 #12 Stronsay, Oct 28, 2021 That’s understandable. Now to the next challenge. Complete chapter 3 without any expenditure! aussiepaul likes this. squarezero Moderator Staff Member Patreon Silver Dec 10, 2008 13,716 1,240 113 Male Chief Strategy Officer Salem, Massachusetts, USA #13 squarezero, Nov 1, 2021 I’ve put in a significant number of hours on this already (kind of an obsession, really). Obviously, I’m enjoying it, but I do have some mixed thoughts about it. First, for the positive: There’s a significant amount of depth to the gameplay, both in the RPG aspects and in the combat. To start, the game different but interrelated modes, including a rogue-like “card” RPG and a tower challenge. As to the actual combat, like all puzzle RPGs there’s more than a little luck involved, but overall this is a very tactical system — not at the level of Puzzle Quest, but definitely no slouch. The art was a bit off putting at first, but once you get the Saturday morning cartoon vibe, it’s very enjoyable. I love the approach to grinding here — basically you don’t. Instead, you use the idle mechanic to load up on the leveling up materials; you can even level up the idle resource production through gameplay. This system is not without issues, but it beats reading stages just to level up to deal with a tough boss (or paying cash for the same) I’m in the middle of the fourth episode and I’ve spent about $15 so far — my limit. The money has been spent exclusively on gacha resources. I’m playing with 3 ultra characters and a fourth that can get there. The fact that you can use duplicates to upgrade character rank (except for 1 rank ones) takes some of the sting of a bad pull. All in all, there are in-game ways to expand your roster, including a mechanic that guarantees ultra characters. So, from my perspective, this is a pretty fair system so far. The story is fairly bare bones, but there’s a nice sense of humor on display and the writing is fairly clever. The game leans less on the horror aspects of the show and more on the Amblin Entertainment kids-on-a-mission vibe. I’m more than fine with that. There are a few negatives… There are some serious difficulty spikes here. The weird thing is, they don’t seem to encourage you to spend money; in fact, it’s sometimes hard to see the logic for them. I would say that there’s probably some balancing that needs to happen. The one issue with the idle mechanic is that sometimes you simply have to wait to make progress. There’s one leveling up resource that you can only get by beating stages or through idling — you can’t even buy it with premium currency. If you run into a difficulty spike, the best approach may be not to play the game for a while. I find that kinda silly. The one healing character I’ve been able to find is a scrub otherwise; I feel like I wasted a bunch of resources leveling him up because once you get up there, he’s taken out pretty quickly by powerful enemies. More variety in the higher ranked characters would be appreciated. There’s no way to save in the middle of a stage, and that’s bitten me in the butt several times already. The game tends to quit when you get a phone call. All in all, this is a lot better than I expected. It’s not going to change the mind of anyone who is dead set against free to play and always online games, but if you are willing to give it a chance, I think it’s a rewarding experience. aussiepaul and Stronsay like this. Stronsay Well-Known Member Aug 6, 2015 987 230 43 #14 Stronsay, Nov 1, 2021 An excellent review @squarezero. Spot-on with everything there. I was also pleasantly surprised at how well designed this is. There are enough different elements to keep things interesting, without it being overwhelming. Replacing the usual grind mechanic with the idle resource gain is something I’ve not seen before, and very welcome. I see the devs are already making changes based on community feedback so that bodes well for continued development. squarezero likes this. anthony78 Well-Known Member Nov 13, 2015 3,128 704 113 #15 anthony78, Nov 6, 2022 Relaunched without IAPs via Netflix games. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/stranger-things-puzzle-tales/id1633705525 Son of Anarchy and ste86uk like this. ste86uk Well-Known Member May 9, 2012 6,774 1,003 113 #16 ste86uk, Nov 6, 2022 @anthony78 thanks for the heads up, may take a look at it this time then. Rocco SE Well-Known Member Jun 16, 2020 267 258 63 Male Modern Mime Artist Austria https://silentrocco.net #17 Rocco SE, Nov 7, 2022 Finally this game is fun to play! Production was already great, but I hated the gated free-to-play currency grind. Now the grind is fun and it‘s all about the game. Immediately one of my fav match-3 games now. squarezero likes this. squarezero Moderator Staff Member Patreon Silver Dec 10, 2008 13,716 1,240 113 Male Chief Strategy Officer Salem, Massachusetts, USA #18 squarezero, Nov 7, 2022 I hit a wall with this for exactly the same reason. Glad to give it another chance now. (You must log in or sign up to post here.) Show Ignored Content Share This Page Tweet Your name or email address: Password: Forgot your password? Stay logged in
It’s a very polished take on the match-3 RPG with interesting combat mechanics (for example, you need to target your matches to hit the enemies on most attacks) and a simple but engaging story. I’m sure once the shop opens, they will give you plenty of reason to spend money, but by Chapter 2 you don’t need a leg up quite yet. Compared to the other two Stranger Things games, this feels very “mobile,” but that’s not always a bad thing in my book.
I like it. Issues: 1) game freezes when a call comes in. 2) doesn't save where you left off if in a level when game is exited 3) cannot turn off "match suggestion" 4) level up & character draws never go away if they are available (so, if you have enough gems for a 1-character draw but want to wait for a 10-draw the notification exclamation will not go away. Same with leveling up charcters.)
I did send to "support" and they responded saying they are taking in all feedback. I will respond to this thread if an update "fixes" any of the issues I see. In particular, the match suggestion.
As far as I can tell, chapter 3 is the first soft paywall. You get into battles that you cannot win then have no way of continuing to level your team without either money, waiting for the XP to slowly idle trickle in or wait on Portals to respawn so you can run them for XP.
I’ve put in a significant number of hours on this already (kind of an obsession, really). Obviously, I’m enjoying it, but I do have some mixed thoughts about it. First, for the positive: There’s a significant amount of depth to the gameplay, both in the RPG aspects and in the combat. To start, the game different but interrelated modes, including a rogue-like “card” RPG and a tower challenge. As to the actual combat, like all puzzle RPGs there’s more than a little luck involved, but overall this is a very tactical system — not at the level of Puzzle Quest, but definitely no slouch. The art was a bit off putting at first, but once you get the Saturday morning cartoon vibe, it’s very enjoyable. I love the approach to grinding here — basically you don’t. Instead, you use the idle mechanic to load up on the leveling up materials; you can even level up the idle resource production through gameplay. This system is not without issues, but it beats reading stages just to level up to deal with a tough boss (or paying cash for the same) I’m in the middle of the fourth episode and I’ve spent about $15 so far — my limit. The money has been spent exclusively on gacha resources. I’m playing with 3 ultra characters and a fourth that can get there. The fact that you can use duplicates to upgrade character rank (except for 1 rank ones) takes some of the sting of a bad pull. All in all, there are in-game ways to expand your roster, including a mechanic that guarantees ultra characters. So, from my perspective, this is a pretty fair system so far. The story is fairly bare bones, but there’s a nice sense of humor on display and the writing is fairly clever. The game leans less on the horror aspects of the show and more on the Amblin Entertainment kids-on-a-mission vibe. I’m more than fine with that. There are a few negatives… There are some serious difficulty spikes here. The weird thing is, they don’t seem to encourage you to spend money; in fact, it’s sometimes hard to see the logic for them. I would say that there’s probably some balancing that needs to happen. The one issue with the idle mechanic is that sometimes you simply have to wait to make progress. There’s one leveling up resource that you can only get by beating stages or through idling — you can’t even buy it with premium currency. If you run into a difficulty spike, the best approach may be not to play the game for a while. I find that kinda silly. The one healing character I’ve been able to find is a scrub otherwise; I feel like I wasted a bunch of resources leveling him up because once you get up there, he’s taken out pretty quickly by powerful enemies. More variety in the higher ranked characters would be appreciated. There’s no way to save in the middle of a stage, and that’s bitten me in the butt several times already. The game tends to quit when you get a phone call. All in all, this is a lot better than I expected. It’s not going to change the mind of anyone who is dead set against free to play and always online games, but if you are willing to give it a chance, I think it’s a rewarding experience.
An excellent review @squarezero. Spot-on with everything there. I was also pleasantly surprised at how well designed this is. There are enough different elements to keep things interesting, without it being overwhelming. Replacing the usual grind mechanic with the idle resource gain is something I’ve not seen before, and very welcome. I see the devs are already making changes based on community feedback so that bodes well for continued development.
Relaunched without IAPs via Netflix games. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/stranger-things-puzzle-tales/id1633705525
Finally this game is fun to play! Production was already great, but I hated the gated free-to-play currency grind. Now the grind is fun and it‘s all about the game. Immediately one of my fav match-3 games now.
