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gren-arlio · 10 months

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I did it. I finished translating Schezo's storyline in Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon...for the most part.

So why don't we do a story, gameplay, AND character retrospective?

Hey everyone, Gren here.

As the story ends, my work doesn't. Schezo's route as a whole (as of July) isn't FULLY done. I'm still missing some stuff like small differences in talks, minor talks I missed, menus, etc. However, the main story route is about finished, minus the things I mentioned.

Which is why I'm posting this huge blog today. Finished it much earlier than I thought.

For those who don't wish to read post after post, I thought it'd be a decent idea to just throw it all neatly into one ultra large post that, while a long read, is simple enough to understand and gather. (Trust me, there's like 70+ paragraphs of this stuff.)

The game was pretty fun to translate, I won't deny it. Learning about the characters and more about what they are was super fun.

This post will cover the following:

The story of Schezo's storyline itself, and the gameplay revolving around it.

Some characters that properly got screentime. So characters like Mamono, Cockatrice, and all characters who basically say a single word and such won't be included. Some mentioned will be the ARS Trio, Draco, Witch, Succubus, and Satan.

Atmosphere of the game itself. The tone that's given usually and how the games OST (which spoilers: Is really good,) helps.

Hopefully, this is both enjoyable to read and helpful. For the people who've been here for a while, have fun reading the THIRD super large pinned post, easily the longest I've done.

Welcome to the Story, Gameplay, & Character Retrospective of Schezo's storyline of Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon.

This'll be a very long one, so take your time with this. Hope you enjoy.

Story of the game:

The story itself, for Schezo's story, is fairly simple all things considered. It begins with Schezo clearing a Dungeon, telling us that the layout of the place changed every time he went outside, forcing him to retry several times. All of the work was worth it though, as he acquires the Space-Time Crystal, a powerful item that'll make Schezo all the more stronger. However, the crystal instead absorbs his power, and Schezo gets warped away.

Woken up by the encounter, Schezo notices he can barely use his magic, questioning why this happening. However, Fufufu, a traveling merchant, comes up to him to talk about the new amusement park in the area; Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Land, a place said to give a special item for magic if all 6 attractions are completed. Schezo wonders if he can regain his powers from doing this, and after getting a map by Fufufu to go to Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Land, Schezo heads out to regain his powers.

(The map itself.)

Schezo runs into Arle first, who's not even there for the treasure itself, and is there to enjoy herself and have fun with Carbuncle. Schezo realizes that she's telling the truth, as she's unaware of a treasure to start, and after getting teased, leaves.

Then he runs into Rulue, who's accompanied by the guy we only remember for Quest, Minotauros. Schezo and Rulue begin arguing right off the bat, and Rulue says she's here to get the magical item to get magic, to beat Arle with it, and to win over Satan. Schezo calls the plan stupid because it overlaps with HIS plan, and he gets chased off by Minotauros. Schezo then laments that he has to deal with these two women again.

Throughout the journey, Schezo meets various characters we know and love, and keeps hearing a voice, a mysterious one who never tells their identity, yet explains where each magic orb (the Macguffins of this game.) is, leaving Schezo confused.

After collecting all 6 orbs and defeating Satan, the owner of Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Land, a huge tower appears from the sky, The Ultimate Tower, a gauntlet of every single area in the game. There, he meets the real main antagonist, Doppelganger Schezo, who mentions that he was both the Space-Time Crystal and the mysterious voice, and the two duel.

In the end, the real Schezo emerges victorious, as the doppelganger's body begins to crumble. Doppelganger Schezo explains how he was behind all of this, much to Schezo's shock, before Schezo himself tries to steals his doppelganger's powers.

Yet Doppelganger Schezo says otherwise. Schezo has gotten much stronger, so much so that absorbing Doppelganger Schezo's powers won't do him any good, before The Ultimate Tower begins to collapse due to Doppelganger Schezo's lack of power.

(Doppelganger Schezo admits he's the Space-Time Crystal)

An explosion occurs, destroying the amusement park. Schezo stands in all the destruction, unhurt from it all, thinking about his final fight, realizing he's become stronger and better than his formal self.

Arle and Co. appear, all seemingly okay from the blast. Schezo deduces that everyone was okay because of Doppelganger Schezo saving them all, much to his surprise.

However, they're not exactly happy with the real Schezo as a whole. In fact, they're really upset at the fact that Schezo destroyed the amusement park, especially Satan and Arle, and chase him down for various reasons. Overall, it's a fun, simple, but occasionally serious story that's easy to grasp.

Now of course this isn't the entire game, there's a ton to explain for that section. For a lighting round of things that occur:

At the start of the game, Skeleton-T goes from a Boss to working at shops before getting evicted by Succubus. This changes when you beat her.

Draco is still pretty dumb at times, not even checking if Schezo has the tickets to enter. He just says "Yeah I have em lmao" and she let's him into the dungeon.

Serilly is supposed to be a boss, but can be completely avoided if you become her friend.

Kikimora plays a semi-big role as the usher guiding Schezo around. She also kinda dislikes Succubus.

Witch chases Schezo after she meets him for one goal: To get his clothes. One track mind does wonders to people.

There's obviously a ton more, but I'm picking the interesting stuff. Like most Madou/Puyo games, it's not serious at all besides a few scenes with Doppelganger Schezo. Madou games aren't exactly serious, contrary to popular belief. It's full of light hearted and goofy fun.

So what about the gameplay?

I mentioned this in an older post, but it's similar to Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. (Best game I could relate it to.)

Every move and action you do is considered a "turn" and as such, the enemies move with you. As such, you can use this to your advantage, or die because Witch decided to do a long-range attack. As of typing, the menu translations aren't really...done, yet, neither are the moves the bosses do. Might have to do those someday for Extras.

(Witch doing Firestorm, decided to translate this one on the spot because it's convenient.)

Schezo is unique in this game because he's the only one to run solo. In the other two routes, Arle runs with Carbuncle, and Rulue goes with Minotauros. As such, you're on your own, and have no one to help ya out, but Schezo himself is quite strong, so don't worry.

Floors are obviously a big thing in this game, and they can range from 5 floors at the start to 100 at the final place. With places that have 10 floors, you fight a midboss who get their own dialogue with the protag of the route. At the 10th floor, the boss appears, usually with very comedic dialogue before the fight. Or be Serilly and just not fight if you become her friend.

Speaking of characters, time for my favorite part:

Character Personalities and Changes:

The characters are most of the time quite different from what we're accustomed to in the more modern Puyo games, but they're also fairly different from their older Madou counterparts. It's a fairly balanced mix of both sides, leaving to either well rounded characters to pretty one note characters.

So let's begin with the ones we all know and love: The ARS Trio.

The good ol' Arle Nadja, Schezo Wegey, and Rulue.

This'll only cover their versions in Schezo's Route, so please keep that in mind. They may be different in the other routes. If they are, lemme know.

With that, let's start with the man himself:

Schezo Wegey:

Schezo starts off as the Madou version we're used to, a man trying to make himself even more powerful by absorbing power, though this time the plan backfires pretty badly. He's cold, not wanting to get a partner because he thinks they'll slow him down, reflecting his gameplay. However, throughout the game, he slowly changes into a more caring person, but still the Schezo we know in Madou.

Take when he first meets Kikimora, for example. Schezo asks her a question that she couldn't answer, and he immediately calls her useless, causing her to get very upset. However, midway through the game, a similar scenario happens, leading Kikimora to cry, but Schezo apologizes and says to stop crying. It's a small, yet noticeable change.

The same goes for his friendship with Serilly if you choose to be her friend. At the start, Schezo's already hesitant to fight her, as she doesn't exactly seem like an enemy. After giving her advice, she happily leaves, but Schezo questions why he even cares about the girl to begin with.

At the Endgame, Schezo can meet up with Serilly again, and they have a genuine conversation about how Schezo has changed since they've last met, and Schezo questioning himself about how much he's changed. After Serilly herself gives advice, albeit in her own way, they can talk one more time, and Schezo properly thanks her for the advice she gave, even if Serilly feels like Schezo's being more distant. In a surprise twist, Schezo actually tells her that he's here for her before internally realizing he's changed drastically. While it's a major moment for Serilly herself, it also shows the huge changes Schezo went through.

And the last change is with him and Arle. At the start, it's the typical, Arle teasing him and him defending himself while trying to get her power. Hell, he tries to after a whole misunderstanding and gets blasted by a beam from Carbuncle. However, you can meet with Arle at the Endgame, before entering the Ultimate Tower. After Arle teases Schezo yet again, he snaps and properly yells at her, prompting her to call him a jerk and leave. Schezo, shocked at his own reaction, asks for forgiveness from Arle, and that he shouldn't have been so ticked off by a few words. It's unusual of Schezo to apologize, let alone to Arle, yet it's a defining moment in his route. He's even glad that she and everyone else is okay from the explosion from Doppelganger Schezo.

However, he's not perfect. He still very much bickers with Rulue, gets annoyed with Arle and many of the midbosses, and gets annoyed at Witch at every moment she's around. He's still very much Schezo, but he grows a lot throughout the game. In my opinion, it's one of the best written Schezo's out there.

Arle Nadja:

Arle isn't too far from most of her older and even newer iterations. In Schezo's route, she's only at Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Land to play around, unaware of the treasures hidden in the park until the end of the game. In a weird way, she's blissfully unaware of what's going on, merely there to enjoy her day and have fun.

However, like stated in Schezo's bio, she can still be snarky and angered. When Carbuncle blasted Schezo, Arle was surprised, but said Schezo deserved it for being a pervert. She openly insulted Schezo on an occasion or two because he was internally thinking that all of his issues begin with women. (Yes. This is real and is an actual piece of dialogue.)

Rulue:

As per the usual for the R of the ARS, Rulue kinda got shafted in Schezo's route. Lot of her talk is with Minotauros, and she's fairly stagnant as a character. Her goal is simple: Get the magic item before Schezo so she can beat Arle and win over Satan, the classic.

She does it decently, but besides that and arguing with Schezo and/or Minotauros...she doesn't exactly do much in his route, which is fairly unfortunate. But what can ya do, really? She's still the Rulue we know and love today.

Side Characters:

With the ARS Trio out of the way, we may as well speak about the other side characters who got a fair bit of screentime. For this, I'll be going in the order the videos I translated went through. Be warned though, when I say "Endgame," I mean "Yeah the videos I saw kinda went through them all at the end of the game," so if they're not exactly AT Endgame, you know why.

With that out of the way, the first character is...

Kikimora:

Yeah. Not kidding. She plays a fairly big role in the game itself, as she works usually in the Information Booth, giving tips and tricks as an usher and leading the player (I say player because she's in all routes.) around Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Land. Later in the game, she teaches Schezo how to see traps with a certain scroll, which is invaluable to the player. Fun fact: She isn't really a boss in Schezo Route. Dunno about the others.

Schezo meets her where she usually is and talk about the amusement park as a whole. When Kikimora can't answer a question Schezo asked, he's quick to call her useless, much to her sadness. However, she still helps Schezo out.

Kikimora is fairly honest, giving the same advice to everyone she meets, though is prone to being upset by people making fun of her, which can lead to her crying at times, to being annoyed at the fact Succubus was running amok and luring guests in. She even admits when she doesn't know the answer to a question, which is commendable. She's surprisingly well developed as a character, and I've grown to like her a lot more. She really doesn't speak about cleaning much, if at all, contrary to the Nexus. You learn something new every day.

Draco:

Draco is about the same from all of her other renditions, without the obsession with beauty that we usually see from her. In her first encounter with Schezo, before even the dungeon she's supposed to guard (Fire Mountain), she asks Schezo if he has tickets to enter the place. Schezo says yes without showing them, and Draco flat out believes him and leaves, making Schezo confused on how easy it was to do that. He did have the tickets, but even I'd be flabbergasted.

The boss fight encounter is fairly goofy. Draco is glad Schezo arrived, and waited for him. Schezo's flustered, trying to say that "Women..." Before getting cut off by Draco saying who cares if it's between man and woman, and that she's ready, making Schezo more embarrassed. Finally, she mentions that she's ready for the match, making Schezo feel stupid for thinking of "That". Absolute lunacy.

You then run into her after the fight, training to beat you next time, which I believe you can in the Endgame via a place I forgot the name of. Battle Palace I think?

Speaking of Endgame, you run into her again, telling Schezo that if he didn't look so moody all the time, he'd be even more popular with women, a statement kinda backed up in-game and in the manga, where Honey Bee kinda had the hots for him. Schezo says he's not really interested in women, causing Draco to ask if he's into men, which he quickly denies. She ends up confused, asking how a good-looking, popular guy like Schezo doesn't understand women, leaving as Schezo is surprised that he's popular. She's funny in this game.

Serilly:

Serilly has the current award besides Kikimora as the most well developed side character for absolutely no reason. At least in Schezo's route, she has such a large character change, least in Puyo standards as a whole.

Schezo first meets Serilly at Water Paradise, before entering the dungeon. Seeing Schezo, she's the version we know for the most part, afraid of Schezo and asking if he's there to bully her, which mostly confuses him more than anything. However, Suketoudara comes around (he's the exact same guy we know,) and asks her to dance, and she agrees, both leaving Schezo more perplexed.

She appears as the boss, thinking that Schezo was there to bully her, but Schezo surprisingly says otherwise, that if she doesn't want to fight, he won't fight either. Serilly takes this as Schezo wanting to be her friend, and asks him the all important question.

Schezo (In the run) said yes, why not. Serilly is genuinely baffled by him saying yes, like anyone would, really, and asks if he really wants to be her friend. Schezo says to quit not caring about herself and that the life she's living isn't exactly fun or happy. He mentions that if Serilly decides to walk (or swim) the path she's currently going, her life will never be happy, and if she's able to change, then Schezo will be her friend. In shock, she agrees and just...leaves the dungeon. Yeah, no boss fight. Nuts. Schezo then questions why he even cares for her, which is more a Schezo thing.

He runs into her again at the Endgame, and Serilly asks if he's there to see her, which Schezo replies with no, but he's here to ask a question: Is she afraid of him still? Serilly says no, she isn't anymore and has no reason to, leaving Schezo in a midlife crisis about how much he's changed, and to most likely the players and I shock, SERILLY gives advice to Schezo, telling him that the way he's thinking now isn't the way he usually thinks, before apologizing. Schezo takes the words to heart and thanks her for telling him that.

And with the final encounter, Serilly worries that Schezo is going to go far away, and she begins to cry about it. Schezo tells her that he's literally right there in front of her, and that he's not planning to go anywhere, and tells her to stop crying, which she does with her new confidence...making Schezo question why he did that and he really has changed.

She changed...quite a good amount compared to the usual Serilly. And I adore it, easily the best written Serilly we've gotten.

Succubus:

Yeah, if this post taught you anything, it's that for some reason she of all characters get development. Can't believe it myself, trust me. Besides the obvious change of how she looks compared to her Puyo self, her role in the game...is kinda odd tbh.

She starts off not named yet, mostly coming from a poster saying that she'll "Take people into a world of pleasure," that Kikimora really doesn't like at all, asking who in the world she is and why is she even trying to this, but Schezo is...let's just say curious, about her, and goes to see her.

Meeting her, Schezo is for some reason surprised to see her there, and Succubus is saying what she advertised, which in reality is becoming her servant, which Schezo says no to, even when she adds "benefits". Take that as how you will.

An odd thing to mention is that she appears in the (not released yet) Extra episodes as a boss, once again trying to get Schezo to become her servant. Thought I'd throw this here.

After that, you meet her again at... you guessed it, Endgame. But what she's doing is quite different; She's an usher now like Kikimora, guiding guests to attractions. Though she does take this opportunity to tease Schezo and such before explaining what she does. It's a small change, but it's...certainly a surprise to me and maybe a few others.

Black Kikimora:

Unlike her original counterpart, Black Kikimora doesn't exactly get a lot of screentime compared to Kikimora. She gets introduced in a pretty unique way compared to everyone else, even though she's a midboss. She gets introduced by Kikimora... kinda showing her off via giving Schezo a VIP pass to somewhere after beating Succubus.

Black Kikimora leads Schezo to a special room, where they... learn how to use traps to their advantage. Schezo completes this, and quietly remarks that she looks kinda ugly (gotta disagree,) and gets smacked by a broom.

Schezo then sees her again at the Horror House, trying to enter, and tells Schezo that he can enter. Before trying her best to open the doors and...not doing well. Sadly her midboss isn't too special, just Schezo asking why she's here and her not exactly answering it.

However, like many others, Schezo sees her again at Endgame. This time, she's quiet again, like usual, before Schezo AGAIN calls her ugly before getting yelled at. And their final talk? They're quiet until she yells "Say something!" and Schezo says he won The Quiet Game, before she gets salty, leading to Schezo asking why.

Overall, while it's not much, she still has something going for her. I like it.

Witch:

Witch... My third favorite character in the series behind Lagnus and Lemres. You're definitely a weird one in this game. She's first mentioned by Skeleton-T in the Horror House inside the dungeon itself, saying she had some of his tea, leading Schezo to ask who the hell she is.

When Schezo meets her as a boss, she's...fairly happy to see him, saying she'd "Love to have it," while saying "Ah, you..." and the I Want You shenanigans. Schezo, as expected, is perplexed, smeckledorfed, even confused on what Witch even means. She's starts to beg Schezo for "It," and she finally says what she wants from him... His clothes. And if he doesn't give them, she'll just rip them off. I can't make this lunacy in my dreams.

HOWEVER. Even though I haven't released it yet, in the extras, you find her after fighting Succubus... again. And after giving Schezo not one, not two, but THREE hearts in 3 different text boxes, what does she want this time? Take a wild guess.

His cloth-

Nah, for once its normal. A grimoire. But the clothes would be nice too. Schezo gets upset, saying he's NOT stripping for her, but gives her the grimoire she wants, the Meteor Grimoire, her unique spell and stuff. What does she give?

The fucking Areiado Grimoire. Schezo's signature spell before leaving while saying she'll get the clothes later. Even Schezo's shocked.

Like every boss, you can see her at Endgame, but she's in a unique spot. She's hanging around Arle, Rulue, and Satan like she's part of the team. Draw your conclusions as to why.

Schezo runs into her again before entering The Ultimate Tower, and she STILL thinks Schezo is cool, giving him another one of those hearts in text boxes, saying that the treasure and his clothes will be hers, and she'll be working extra hard for it. Schezo... doesn't really want that, though.

And at the final encounter, Schezo literally says, "Here we go again..." but instead, she asks if he's looking for the treasure too, which he says yes. But this time, Witch says that everything that's beautiful is hers, from the treasure to his clot- Are you kidding me

One track mind and STAYS committed to that goal? ...I have to partially respect it. It's absolutely ridiculous yet hilarious. I know Schezo's a pervert on accident, but at this rate, I think Witch might be genuine. Or is stupid committed to a goal.

And finally, Satan:

(Just hit the 10 image limit.)

Satan is honesty kinda similar to how he is in the other games. Which is quite shocking, I thought he'd be a little more goofy in this game considering how everything is in Schezo's route. However, he's fairly well written in this game, which is always a pleasure to see.

You don't ever see him until near the end of the game, as Schezo assumes the mysterious voice he keeps hearing is Satan, when in reality it's Doppelganger Schezo. Satan acts pretty grandiose in his fight, saying that he's glad Schezo got this far and is ready for their fight to be the final event of Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Land, and from the gameplay, he goes one hell of a fight.

After defeat, he stands back up pretty quickly, shocking Schezo, who thinks he's a monster when in reality, he's just the Ruler of the Underworld. Differences, folks, they matter. They start to bicker about the magical item, which Satan genuinely had zero clue about, but tries to say that he totally knew about it.

After the Ultimate Tower rises, Satan is about as surprised at Schezo that it exists, and Schezo asks if he even knew what was here. Satan tries to explain, but he obviously can't, being left behind.

However, this moment is fairly interesting. You can meet him at the start of the Ultimate Tower, and speak to him. There, he genuinely wishes Schezo good luck and not to be super confident, as that'll make him slip up. Like I was, Schezo was shocked that he's hearing this from SATAN of all people, the guy he hates, and thinks he's gone mad.

Satan is at the final scene as well, along with Arle/Carbuncle and Rulue/Minotauros, incredibly upset that Schezo basically blew up the entire amusement park. Like any sane man would be.

In this game, he's fairly goofy like his modern self but is occasionally serious. Honestly, it's a solid version of Satan.

Finally done with characters. Time for the final section of this, Atmosphere and the OST:

Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon has a very...fun atmosphere, owing to the fact that its a literal amusement park. Each area is incredibly vibrant, so full of life, colorful even. The colors pop out, when in places where it's supposed to be more gloomy, and I think COMPILE did a fantastic job with it. I won't go into complete detail of every area but a few highlights:

(...That I can't show due to the 10 image limit.)

Water Paradise is incredibly pretty, the water itself looks really good, the paths taken pop out, and the boss stadium itself is incredibly pretty, with all the water around the bridges while Serilly...floats? Swims? One of those things.

The Horror House probably has my favorite look in the game. It goes from a graveyard to inside the actual house, all ending up in the boss stadium, an almost church-like area with seats scattered about.

I like the look of Fire Mountain. It looks like you're genuinely inside of an volcano, lava basically everywhere but practically useless because you can't go on it.

The game knows when to look good, when to give you that visual quality. But that's only half the battle, really. Music is another majorly important part on what makes a mood. And they nailed it.

Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon has one of the best OST'S I've heard for a Madou/Puyo game. Most of the songs are genuine bops.

To give a few:

(Puyo Puyo Dungeon Still Never Ends:)

youtube

(Hi, Honey:)

youtube

(What A Lucky Find:)

youtube

(The Final:)

youtube

(And finally, Fiend Empire:)

youtube

If I could drop the entire Playlist, I would, but we'd be here for a while.

So, all in all:

Translating this game and learning a ton about it was a blast, even if it was difficult. The game itself is very good, besides the Ultimate Tower taking forever with 100 floors and such. The artstyle and look of the game is charming, you get to learn about some other characters for once, and along with an amazing atmosphere and one of the best OSTS in Madou/Puyo, I'd say...

Yeah. Try it out. Just hope the translation makes sense.

Few quick things before we're done here:

This doesn't mean I'm done translating. Quite the opposite, even for Schezo's route, I got a lot to do. I'll be making "Extra" episodes to show off the things I missed, starting most likely next week of the release of this post.

If you want something translated, like a scene or the sort, lemme know. I'll try to help.

Most of the character talk is my opinion, it's fine to draw your own.

With that ending, that'll be all. Thanks for reading.