Block Puzzle: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:strength.jpg|link=Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire
{{quote|''The block puzzle is the cornerstone of gaming, or at least it will be once you pull it out of the corridor, rotate it so the sun emblem is pointing up, drop the water level and hit the switch that activates the crane that moves the bus that allows you to push said stone into said corner.''
So you're storming the [[Temple of Doom]] in search of the [[Big Bad]]'s [[Cosmic Keystone]] that is the lynchpin to [[The Empire]]'s [[World Domination]] plans. And the mightiest force that the [[Precursors|Ancient Precursors]] and [[The Legions of Hell]] can produce to stop you is... blocks.
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That's right. Blocks.
Well, there's the whole "[[Everything Trying to Kill You|hordes of monsters]]" thing, but the real stumbling, um, ''blocks'' in your journey are roomfuls of fiendish
Sometimes you can pretty much push them wherever you want, in which case the puzzle is how to get the blocks to their goal without other blocks getting in the way. Other times, the floors are covered with [[Frictionless Ice]] or some other slippery substance and whenever you push the block, it keeps moving until it hits a wall. In those cases, you have to bounce the block in a convoluted path around the room, hitting various pillars set up in the middle to get the block to its goal. If they really want to be nasty with these, they'll have more than one block in the puzzle, only one of which actually needs to get to the end; the rest have to be pushed to create additional walls for other blocks to hit. There are also dark rumors of block puzzles so fiendish that they actually require ALL blocks to get to the end, ''while using each other as walls to get there'' and [[Bottomless Pits]] that eat the blocks and/or you, forcing you to start over.
Other variations on the formula include:
* Blocks with different properties, such as Destroyable blocks, [[Frictionless Ice]] Blocks, [[Light and Mirrors Puzzle|Mirror or Prism]] blocks, or blocks that interact or react with each other
* Enemies that pursue the player and must be trapped or crushed by the blocks
* The ability to ''[[You Have Researched Breathing|pull]]'' blocks as well as push them.
The
This occasionally crosses over with [[Solve the Soup Cans]], when the block puzzles really don't make any sense, and coupled with a particular variety of [[Unexpected Gameplay Change]]. With the push towards realism in environments, the
Named after the infamous block puzzle mechanic in ''[[Vagrant Story]]''.
Also see [[Klotski]]. Not to be confused with [[Falling Blocks]].
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== [[Action Adventure]] ==▼
== Video Game Examples ==
* ''Zelda'' games have them in spades, even in places where it doesn't make sense -- such as the blocks on ice in ''[[The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'', the giant granite blocks in the Spirit Temple of ''[[The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]'', the picture block puzzle in the Forest Temple of the same game, and the floating crate puzzles in the Tower of the Gods in ''[[The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker]]''. Evidently the ancients enjoyed lugging thousand-pound blocks around to negotiate their temples. Strangest part? In some games, Link can also ''pull'' them where they need to go (despite the lack of any visible features to get a grip on).▼
▲=== [[Action Adventure]] ===
▲* ''Zelda'' games have them in spades, even in places where it doesn't make
** And in the Tower of the Gods, you could control 3 of the blocks, just in case the point wasn't clear enough.
** Not to mention the Cane of Somaria in ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
* ''[[Legacy of Kain]]: [[Soul Reaver]]'' was stuffed liberally with these. For a vampire/ghost being, Raziel spent a remarkable amount of time shoving blocks around.
** Legend has it that the developers were told to come in with a different puzzle design each week or so. Everyone happened to show up with some kind of block puzzle, and the rest is history.
* ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' was fairly dependent on these. Some were extremely, extremely tricky nightmares of the [[Guide Dang It]] variety.
* In ''[[Little Big Adventure]]'', Twinsen needs to arrange a bunch of crates in a storeroom, which looks exactly like the first level of ''Sokoban''.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* This was easily the ''worst'' bit in ''[[Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance]]''. It was part of the ''mandatory'' quest. Hatreeeeeed!
* ''[[Lost in Shadow]]'' enjoys having block puzzles that span both the shadow and living realms.
* ''[[Legacy of the Wizard]]'': Xemn and Meyna have to deal with these in their areas. Lyll can just break blocks once she finds the [[Powerful Pick|Mattock]].
=== [[Action Game]] ===
* ''Sanity: Aiken's Artifact'' is half action game, and half block puzzle. To its credit, most puzzles are more complex than just pushing rocks around. Still, it's perhaps the best example of [[Guide Dang It]] game, as finishing it without external help is a real test of patience.
* One of these shows up in the Japanese freeware game ''Guardian of Paradise'', with a slight twist in that it's the blocks that are ice instead of the floor. It makes no conceptual difference in the puzzle, though.
* ''[[God of War (
=== [[Adventure Game]] ===
* ''[[
* ''[[
* This is the real point behind ''Dawn's Light''. ''A Christmas Tale'', one of the games in this series consists almost entirely of these.
=== [[First
* ''[[Half-Life]]'' is chock-full of puzzles with the traditional non-descript metal blocks. Its sequel, ''[[
* Some of the last few levels in ''[[Star Wars: Dark Forces
* ''[[Nitemare 3D]]'' required you to push blocks and tombstones around occasionally to clear a path... or block one.
=== [[Platform Game]] ===
* ''[[
** In Cape Claw, one room locks you in and some blocks move, releasing poison gas in. The "challenge" is to move the blocks back before the gauge empties, or you start losing health. Once you do it, the door opens, and the air becomes breathable again. (And the point of that exercise? {{spoiler|It also releases the Queen Cloudrunner, who is needed to forward the plot.}})
** The Ocean Force Point Temple has two block puzzles in which you must maneuver a block by Fire Blasting it. If it hits an exterior wall, you have to start over; getting it where you want it to go involves making it run into the internal walls.
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* ''[[Kirby|Kirby & the Amazing Mirror]]'' has instances of "use your allies to move a block". There are large, gray, stone blocks that need multiple Kirbys inhaling in unison to pull them out of the passage they're blocking. These same blocks can also be shaken out of position by using Stone or Hammer to shake the ground, but in some cases this moves the block in the wrong direction, hence the need to inhale. The ease of getting the CPU Kirbys to cooperate varies, though...
* ''[[Prince of Persia]]: The Sands of Time'' has some simple ones. Usually just dragging a single crate or statue onto a pressure switch, or under something you can't reach.
* To complete Flower Tower in ''[[Something|Something Else]]'', Luigi has to push giant pots around obstacle-filled rooms in order to reach the end of the level.
=== [[Puzzle Game]] ===
* The [[Puzzle Game]] ''[[Sokoban]]'' (some versions of which have been released as ''Boxxle'' or ''Boxyboy'') consists entirely of this sort of puzzle; gameplay consists entirely of self-contained box puzzle levels, where a warehouse worker had to move shipping crates into specific places to complete each level.
** As does the now-forgotten [[Game Boy]] game ''Kwirk''.
* The ''[[Professor Layton]]'' series loves this type of puzzle. The early one aren't so bad, but by the end of the game they get pretty difficult, but still doable. But then, you get to the postgame puzzles. The worst offender is [[Final Dungeon|the very definitely last puzzle]] of Diabolical Box, which is named [[Exactly What It Says
** The final puzzle of Curious Village is a version of the Klotski, which takes ''eight-three'' moves to be completed!
** We're just getting started. The final puzzle of Last Specter is a {{spoiler|two-part [[Marathon Level|Marathon Puzzle]] in which the goal is to get two blocks into two corners. Do it once, and Layton points out that the player isn't done yet, and the player is taken to a second puzzle to do it again, with no breaks and no extra hints.}} Altogether, under the best circumstances, the whole puzzle will take at minimum 178 moves to complete, but unless one looks at a guide, it will take more. Hope you didn't make any plans tonight. (Or you feel like keeping one DS plugged in and unable to play anything else until you finish it...)
* The ''[[Eggerland]]'' series (which includes the ''[[Adventures of Lolo]]'' trilogy) is a series of Sokoban-style block-puzzle-and-collection games.
* These make up about a third of ''[[
* ''[[Kickle Cubicle]]'' was largely based on turning Noggles into ice blocks and pushing them around. It helped that your character could create temporary pillars to push them against.
* The ''Private Garden'' series are block-puzzle echi/hentai games.
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* In ''Flappy'', the player is immune to gravity, but blocks aren't. Each level has a blue block which has to be shifted onto the goal pedestal. There are also brown blocks for other blocks to be pushed over, which can also be destroyed if they get in the way.
=== [[Roguelike]] ===
* The ''Sokoban'' [[Mini Game]] [[Sidequest]] in ''[[Nethack]]'' consists of pushing boulders around to plug up holes in the floor which are otherwise impassable.
** Well, a wand of digging can destroy the blocks for you, but you get penalised for that. Cheater-pants.
*** A wand of digging has no effect on boulders (wand of striking works on the boulders, or any method of digging DOWN) , but yes, in Nethack, they try to make any attempt to 'think outside the Sokoban box' get a luck penalty
*** Also, you cannot fly over the holes in Sokoban, or move diagonally (unlike in the rest of the game), so if you destroy to many boulders, you cannot get to the end of the side quest and its juicy reward. Well, you can, by using scrolls to create more boulders, but then you have extra boulders in you path on the way back, and you may need to destroy them, thus getting another penalty.
=== [[Role
* ''[[Vagrant Story]]'' is notorious for the prevalence of its block puzzles, in which nearly every other room has some block-pushing that needs to be done to traverse it. It even keeps records of how fast you can clear each room. To their credit, the developers pushed the block puzzles to their limits, with blocks ranging from boxes you can pick up and chuck around to heavier crates you can only push, rocks you can only roll, and more complex versions like magnetic and frictionless blocks. One's [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief|suspension of disbelief]] wavers a bit here: A world that probably doesn't have toilet paper has frictionless blocks. Another editor assumes this must be something to do with the ''city of magic'' that said blocks inhabit.
** As an aside, this troper had a friend who adored the game, but nonetheless nicknamed it "Crate Story".
* The ''[[Baten Kaitos]]: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean'' dungeon [[Scrappy Level|Tower of Zozma]] is entirely composed of this type of puzzle. To get to the top of the tower, you have to solve five increasingly difficult 3D block puzzles. Just to top it off, this is the only place in the game where you're going to have trouble with the camera. And if you do Mizuti's sidequest near the end of the game [[It Got Worse|well!]]
* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne]]'' has one as a [[Game Within a Game]]. As per company tradition, [[Nintendo Hard|it's not particularly easy]].
* ''[[
* In every ''[[
** Moreover, several areas featured multi-level block puzzles, where you had to push rocks through holes to land in the level below. But here's the catch - if you didn't correctly push all the necessary rocks through the holes before descending to the next level (say, by accidentally falling through the hole after the rock you were pushing), the puzzle reset itself.
** In the Generation 4 games, the sliding block puzzle in the ice-type gym is [[That One Puzzle]]. This section is easily the hardest, puzzle wise, in the entire game.
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* ''[[Lufia]] II'' featured an enormous amount of block puzzles, ranging from "push the same-colored blocks together" to "push every block into a particular position, then bomb them in a very specific order while pressing certain switches". Surprisingly, these were almost never cases of [[Guide Dang It]], and perfectly workable on your own (if a bit frustrating at times).
** Until you got to the one that was actually (correctly) called the Hardest Puzzle in the World by an NPC. (Fortunately, it was optional.)
* ''[[Paper Mario (
* Pretty much every dungeon in ''[[
** The worst part of one of them in the sequel, ''Lost Age'', is that it's random by cartridge leaving most [[Walkthrough
* In the ''[[Wild
* ''[[Rogue Galaxy]]'' employed what has to be [[What Do You Mean
* ''[[
* ''[[
** At least in ''[[
* In ''[[
* Subverted in the free RPG from Sensible Erection. At one point the party encounters a block puzzle in an ancient Pyramid. The pirate character of your party proceeds to whip out a bazooka and mutter: "I hate block puzzles."
* A few times in the ''[[Avernum]]'' series, most irritatingly in the second game's aptly named Test of Patience. Good thing they could almost always be skipped.
* ''[[Light Crusader]]'' LOVES this trope!
* ''[[
* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series isn't known for these, but ''[[
* It appeared in ''[[Icewind Dale]] II'', out of nowhere (in a classic western cRPG).
* Loudly subverted in ''[[Okage]]: Shadow King.'' You're presented with one with much fanfare and warning about how hard it is... then it's solved for you in a cutscene the moment you actually try to interact with one of the blocks.
* Double subverted in ''[[
* ''[[Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]]'' had a series of increasingly difficult ones of these in one optional dungeon. The catch? The blocks moved along set paths (traced out in their color), and of course occasionally you needed to block one of those paths with, you guessed it, another block. Also, there tended to be several exits from one block puzzle, and often also treasure chests within the puzzle that you might have wanted to get to.
=== [[Shoot
* ''[[Bangai-O]] Spirits'' has the "False Treasure" stage, found in the Puzzle Stages set. You need to fit a bunch of Boxes into Box Frames. If you push one into a corner, trap yourself, or otherwise render a Box unable to be moved into a remaining Box Frame, [[Unwinnable
** Later in that set you encounter a different kind of Block Puzzle, where you must bounce your shots in a maze to get it to a target. You use the boxes to alter the shots' trajectory.
=== [[Simulation Game]] ===
* ''[[
== [[Survival Horror]] ===
* ''[[Resident Evil 2]]'' has one statue-moving puzzle with no logical reason to do it and another, more reasonable section where some crates must be moved to make a bridge to cross some water. Swimming might be out of the question if that water is sewage.
** Ditto for ''[[Resident Evil 1]]'', its remake, and ''[[Resident Evil
* There are many levels in ''[[Disgaea 3]]'' and ''[[Disgaea 4 a Promise Unforgotten (Video Game)|Disgaea 4 a Promise Unforgotten]]'' that require the proper placement of Geo Blocks, to be used as steps, and/or to manipulate the [[Geo Effects]] in a way that allows you to win the map. Some of them are also timed, and will either make the map unwinnable, or give you an instant [[Game Over]] if you don't get the blocks into position quickly enough.▼
===
▲* There are many levels in ''[[Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice]]'' and ''[[Disgaea 4:
==
=== [[Alternate Reality Game]] ===
* ''[[Perplex City]]'' manages to have a block puzzle card.
===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081016063932/http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0164.html Block puzzles] [
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{{quote|
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Older Than the NES]]
[[Category:Stock Puzzle]]
[[Category:
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