ぷよぷよSUN Puyo Puyo Sun Contents 1.Introduction 2.Translation Guide 1.Introduction Released for the N64 in Japan only on Halloween in 1997, Puyo Puyo Sun is an arcade port of Compile’s classic puzzle game. It is the third title in the Puyo Puyo series, hence the pun in the title. Three in Japanese, san, sounds like Sun in English. The original arcade game was also ported to the PC where it was given an English and Korean translation. The game was listed in the Japanese magazine, Game Machine, as being the 5th most successful arcade game of 1997. Due to the limitations of the cartridge format this game is missing a lot of the story dialog that was present in the Sega Saturn and Playstation releases. The game is compatible with the rumble pak. The game was reviewed well by the British publication, N64 Magazine who awarded it 80% saying “You didn’t buy your N64 to play this but it’s still rollicking fun. So if you’re rich, try it on for size.” I distinctly remember this review as it was the first time I had seen anime art styles as the art form was only starting to enter the UK at the time. I remember being totally baffled by the game at the time. Its strange to think that I am now somewhat fluent in Japanese and am writing a translation guide for it 20 years later. Puyo puyo is an onomatopoeia which means “jelly like”. The player must rotate falling sets of coloured jellies to form groups of four or more of the same colour which then “pop” and disappear. If the third column from the left completely fills up with Puyo, then you will get a game over. The player can create chain reactions when Puyo fall into each other, this then send Nuisance Puyo to your opponents screen. Nuisance Puyo can only be erased if other Puyo are popped next to them. The number of Nuisance Puyo created is dependent on the length of the chain. The rules of Puyo Puyo Sun are essentially the same as Puyo Puyo 2 but the new feature of this game is the Sun Puyo which appears when you clear your screen. It can be used to chain like a normal puyo, but when it disappears more Nuisance Puyo will be sent to your opponent than normal. The bigger the chain the more damage the Sun Puyo will do, so winning in this game comes down to effective use of the Sun Puyo. Sun Puyo fall randomly but can be predicted by the rays of light that appear at the top of the screen. Sun Puyo can only be erased by popping Puyo next to them. Sun Puyo will also always drop before Nuisance Puyo, a fact that annoyed many players. This means that if you sent your opponent a lot of Nuisance Puyo, but they also triggered a Sun Puyo, they will get the beneficial Sun Puyo first and some time to get ready for your Nuisance Puyo, effectively making your Nuisance Puyo worthless. These changes make the game much faster and make it much harder to comeback from a single well placed Sun Puyo. The required number of chains for victory is also much less in this version, so matches are pretty short. The title screen has the following heartwarming message; Act Against AIDS 勇気と愛気 (Courage and Love) COMPILE Act Against Aids is a Japanese AIDS awareness campaign that started in 1993 and only finished operations last year on July 20th 2020. It was supported by hundreds of musicians and companies including Studio Ghibli, Namco, Capcom and Sega. Many of Complies games contain support messages for the campaign. Story After reading a tourism magazine, Satan (Dark Prince in English) wants to experience a tropical island where “The sun burns your skin a dark brown and the girls dance”. Rather than going on a trip to a tropical island, he uses his powers to enlarge the sun so that he can get a sun tan. The sun continued to shine day and night. Arles decided to fight back, saying "Let's restore the world." In another place, Shezo, who was robbed of the dark night that he loves more than anything else, set out to take revenge.. On the other hand, Draco was in a good mood because of the sudden good weather and was eager to go out to sunbathe. 2.Translation Guide Controls 3D Stick / D Pad - Move the Puyo A Button - Rotate B Button - Rotate C Buttons - Rotate Start Button - Pause Game Modes From the title screen you can select the following modes, from left to right ひとりでぷよぷよ – Single Player story mode ふたりでぷよぷよ – Two Player Puyo Puyo とことんぷよぷよ – Tokoton Puyo Puyo おぷしょん - Options かちぬきぷよぷよ – Knockout Puyo Puyo とことんなぞぷよ – Puzzle Puyo ひとりでぷよぷよ – Single Player story mode The game features three main characters which also double as the games difficulty setting. From left to right Draco’s Holiday – Easy, a 3 stage practice mode Arle’s Adventure – Normal, 14 stages Shenzo’s Counter Attack – Difficult, 9 stages Here are the characters you will battle across each difficulty Draco’s Holiday 1 Skeleton-T 2 Harpy 3 Choppun Arle’s Adventure 1 Draco Centaur 2 Incubus 3 Walleye Pollock 4 Kikimora 5 Nohoho 6 Kodomo Dragon 7 Witch 8 Great Demon Elephant King 9 Honeybee 10 Lagunas Bishashi the brave 11 Leroux 12 Shenzo Wiggy 13 Satan 14 Carbuncle Shenzo’s Counter Attack 1 Kodomo Dragon 2 Witch 3 Great Demon Elephant King 4 Honeybee 5 Lagunas Bishashi the brave 6 Leroux 7 Arle Nadje 8 Satan 9 Carbuncle Please note that the secret last battle against Carbuncle only occurs if you beat the game without using continues. The characters from story mode can also be used in the two player and tournament modes. Aside from their appearance and voice acting the major way in which they differ is unintentional. Each character has slightly different animations for Puyo’s disappearing, this actually affects the speed at which you can chain Puyo if you are able to use it to your advantage. Most of the characters were voiced by Compile employees and are gathered from many other games in the series. The president of Compile, Masamitsu Niitani actually voiced Satan in this game. Perhaps this was a joke about his management style? ふたりでぷよぷよ – Two Player Puyo Puyo The multiplayer mode とことんぷよぷよ – Puzzle Puyo Puyo Various puzzles to play with Puyo. おぷしょん - Options This screen offers the following options Controller Layouts 1p – set the rotation direction for each button. Controller Layouts 2p – set the rotation direction for each button. Difficulty Number of Rounds Colours Character Choices Remove Effects Cutscene Options Chain Animations On or Off Exit かちぬきぷよぷよ – Knockout Puyo Puyo This is a multiplayer mode for up to 16 players. Select the number of rounds from 4,8 and 16. とこんなぞぷよ – Puzzle Puyo This is a puzzle mode that gives you Puyo Puyo based problems. It has the following options. れんしゅう – Practice Clear a problem within the set number of steps. The N64 version has 64 puzzles. じっせん – Battle Clear the problems one after another, there is no time limit. たいせん – Competition A 2 player mode, where you compete to clear the problem faster than your friend. You cannot send Nuisance Puyo to the other screen in this mode. This has no CPU support.