#why did this game give me rulue angst

[gren-arlio]

We are so back. Well, I somewhat am. Welcome to Episode 11 of (Waku) Puyo Extras.

(What a lovely image of Rulue and Minotauros as a team. Surely nothing bad will bestow him...seriously, this image is amazing.)

Hey everyone, Gren here, back from my break. It was a nice break, and I was able to focus on schoolwork. We don't talk about my Pre-Calc grade (just know I got a C) but I got an A in every other class. This episode is a little late because I was focused on the Splatoon 3 Splatfest (I was Team Handshake, GGS to all,) but it's here nevertheless.

As the year is slowly coming to an end, my workload increases. I think this'll be the last Extras episode until the NEW Episode of Waku Puyo Translations. Which means me dying to Kikimora text. Fun, yeah? Yeah.

So, with my absence, what game will we cover this time around? Well it's one I've mentioned a couple of times, which is...actually kind of nice, no researching history for me; Rulue's Spring Break of Fists...or Rulue's Iron-Fist Spring Break. For today, I'll use the first version.

This game is thankfully one of the easier ones to get footage of. Besides, the game itself is fairly interesting with its current casting, with people that you don't really see every day. And hey, this is the first time we've properly covered Rulue here, so there's a first for everything.

With this, I really hope you enjoy this and my derusting of my skills.

Oh, and random thing. My account turned 2 recently, though I began posting...in April of this year? Wahoo.

What's the Origins for the Game itself?

Similar to many games I've covered here (if only I had a good computer, I would probably make a funny YouTube series,) Rulue's Spring Break of Fists is a Disc System game released on Volume 14 of Disc Station Magazines in 1997.

(The opening to the game. Nothing amazing, but certainly an...opening?)

The game itself is somewhat of a Choose Your Own Adventure game, with you playing as the lady herself, Rulue. Here, you get to...choose your own adventure. There's three main things you can do:

Find the five divine treasures.

Explore the land. Or "The Wonderful Land".

Gather ingredients to cook.

It's interesting how the character most associated with fighting has a game where... you kinda don't fight unless it's a very specific circumstance, which I'll get into later.

Visually, I won't deny, it depends from person to person. If you like the 90s Moe eyes, then this artstyle is genuinely amazing, but if not, lotta characters look weird.

(This is a prime example, with Kikimora. Her eyes are huge, and personally I like them, but I can totally see why someone doesn't.)

So for this episode, I'll throw a question/poll:

This'll last a week, and I'm curious to see.

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How About Gameplay?

Something I want to note for this game is that in this... there's a LOT of different dialog choices. You're gonna have split paths all the time, though to my knowledge, they more just impede you until you guess right...or get a bad ending.

(Something like this. Also, rare Black Kikimora appearance, though...with an item Rulue gets, she transforms back into Kiki? It's odd.)

Whilst exploring and doing the routes, something you'll note is that there's a lot of quizzes, questionnaires, etc. Now why does this matter?

Because some of these questions are fucking hilarious man

What do I mean? Well, y'all know Momomo? Silly little shopkeeper? Well, they ask you a question for a quiz, and guess what the question is?

How much Yen will it cost to buy Disc Station Magazine Vol. 1 through 13 on their online store?

(This is Rulue trying to solve that question. Lowkey...I forgot the answer.)

This guy really thinks I know. And I think inflation has really made these prices seem cheap in the long run...

Oh, and another question, one I've mentioned before. You encounter Witch in one of the routes (oh boy), and she gives you a quiz also, albeit one that's...certainly biased towards her, asking stuff is "How cool am I?" And them sorta deals. Though, one question is literally "What is the size of my top?"

This game loves its odd questions.

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So, What's the Story? Well, Stories?

Well, simply put, apparently this game is after Chaotic Final Exam, and is MUCH calmer than said game. People from the game apparently have new personalities due to the events of the game, and Rulue...is delivering letters given via Masked Prince.

As stated prior, there's three routes in this game:

Characters that appear on all routes are Arle, Rulue, Masked Prince, and I believe Momomo.

Route A:

Rulue sets to find 5 magic items. Most notable characters here are Apparently Schezo, Serilly, Draco, Minotauros, and shockingly, Count and Vamp.

(Quite the shock, eh?)

This route...is certainly interesting. Between seeing Mino battered and bloodied by a fight, a literal possessed Arle by Count (or Vamp,) you FIGHTING Arle due to that, same deal goes for Schezo, he also got possessed, and a final fight with Count if he was overly buff...it's certainly one hellva route.

(This is...wow. What an experience.)

Route B:

Rulue, with envelopes given via Masked Prince, has one of them stolen by something, and she goes to investigate it. Getting sucked into a "Wonderland," younalso get some backstory about Rulue, notably hearing her grandmother. I'll tell y'all, I was given help by people who work on the Puyo Nexus and other Puyo Translations:

Rulue and her grandmother were very close, and she gave Rulue a music box when she was about 5 years old, under a Sakura tree. When she turned 6, her grandmother fell ill, and Rulue, upset that she wasn't spending time with her on her birthday, breaks the music box.

However, when Rulue sleeps, she has a dream about her grandmother, with her saying to not be upset with her...and when Rulue woke up, she felt like she'd never see her grandmother again.

(Edit:

Notable characters here are Kikimora and Black Kikimora, Serilly, Rulue's grandmother, and Demon Servant. Yeah, he's alive in this game.

I forgot to credit the main person who did this part, @klug. That's completely on me, my apologies. They did help quite a good bit for this, so thank them for the research and info. Wouldn't have gotten this without them. Again, apologies for not putting credit.

Here's their Puyo Nexus page. Go check em out.)

(YOU'RE ALIVE IN THIS GAME?)

So you know when I said this game was a lot more casual? I look real silly saying that now.

Route C:

Easily the most casual route, Rulue...is trying to cook. The grill calls for her name. I'm not joking when I say that the only characters here are Momomo and Witch. I guess Witch can cook?

This route is uh, odd. You spent most of the time doing quizzes and route splits because...I guess Witch and Momomo feel devious today. This route is notable for Witch asking that question in her quiz and only having 5 endings...Yep. 5 endings.

Something I've neglected is the ending to these routes.

There's about 30 of them.

Yeah. Good luck.

(Autism be damned, Witch can apparently cook. Just have fun on the quiz.)

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So, The OST and Final Verdict?

The games ost is honestly decent. I can't describe it well but a lot of the music is just flat out solid, with no real complaints here. I'd say check it out at least.

And the final verdict?

The game itself is honestly very fun to browse and look around. The game gives us Rulue lore RANDOMLY that I'll gladly accept, Demon Servant, Count, and Vamp make an appearance, and the game, while confusing, is really fun to watch.

I'd say for Disc Station, it's very solid.

With that...that'll be all for today. Next week I won't post due to Thanksgiving and spending time with my family, but next time we meet, we'll finally continue our Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon translations after SO long.

See y'all then. Hope you enjoyed the show.