Trivia / Puzzle & Dragons

• Cash-Cow Franchise: The game has raked in more than $8 billion and spawned a franchise.
• Follow the Leader: Let's just say many mimic App games pop out to the field after this game's success. Especially in Asia.
  • Japanese PAD players discovered the Chinese Dragon Attack was not only a clone but a shameless ripoff of the entire PAD app engine. The only thing that was different was monster art, but every monster was the same. While some monsters in Dragon Attack looked nothing like the original PAD ones, whoever was doing the art just gave up and just basically made fanart; however, all of the female characters ended up with larger breasts and smaller clothing. Dragon Attack also has collaborations which are even more of a copyright violation than the game itself, featuring blatantly lifted characters from Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece, Fate/stay night, Sword Art Online, Code Geass, and Attack on Titan (pre-dating the actual Attack on Titan and Yu-Gi-Oh collab in PAD). Dragon Attack also became Dragon Crush in Thailand and Xếp Rồng Soha in Vietnam.
  • The Lost Palace actually saw release in English speaking countries, while still being a shameless ripoff of PAD.
  • Battle Camp has been seeing a lot of advertisement on Tumblr professing that it is the "Lovechild of Pokémon and World of Warcraft" along with some artwork that would probably get someone sued for copyright infringement (there was one that was obviously a ripoff of Ash and Pikachu◊). It turns out it's just a PAD clone with Gaia Online-esque avatar customization and guilds. Their multiplayer predated PAD's by months.
  • Three Kingdoms Puzzle Wars was a Chinese-made PAD clone featuring Chinese historical figures that gained popularity in Taiwan and Japan. Aside from all original characters, there is a unique difference in mechanics such that the tiles cascade upwards like an advancing army instead of dropping down and the play board is 7×5.
  • Tower of Saviors, produced by Hong Kong company Madhead, is a PAD clone with a mechanical difference in which if you line up more than 5 orbs, it produces a reinforced orb. Everything else, from the characters to gameplay, are almost identical to PAD. Unlike the aforementioned examples above, Madhead blatantly proclaimed that their game was original, which led to a protest. Somehow, it is still going strong, and has had crossovers with Big Bang, Pili, PAD's rival Monster Strike, Disney movies, and even The King of Fighters months before PAD had its own KOF event.
    • And later on MADHEAD develop the new level of difference in their own mechanics ,Including leader skill which allow player to match three (not in line also do) to dissolve or skill(in both types) which allow player to dissolve with "two" or more matchs for devastating skyfall&combo.
  • Puyo Puyo!! Quest can be basically described as PAD with a Puyo Puyo board and Puyo Puyo characters. Everything else is nearly identical.
• No Export for You: It would be easier to list which games did make it outside of Japan:
  • Several collaboration events have not been seen outside of Japan due to licensing rights. Dragon Ball Z Kai, the Monster Hunter Felynes, Final Fantasy Crystal Defenders, Dragon's Dogma, Hunter × Hunter, Saint Seiya, Ghost in the Shell: Arise, Bikkuriman, Duel Masters, Attack on Titan, Shonen Sunday, Crows, Ace Attorney, Weekly Magazine, and Fullmetal Alchemist are currently Japan-only. However, most rebalances and major additions (new god pantheons, new ultimate evolutions for existing pantheons, etc.) will arrive to the West after a month or two, thus averting this trivia trope.
    • The international editions have, however, gotten some fairly obscure collabs such as Shinrabansho, Kapibara-san, and Taiko Master, and they have received Bleach, Final Fantasy, Fist of the North Star, and Rurouni Kenshin^note except for the 3rd installment due to the author's arrest so there is some hope for some fairly recent acquisitions.
    • The Puzzle & Dragons Battle Tournament collab was for a long time a Japan exclusive, despite it being a spinoff of PAD, but the end of the arcade game's service in Japan led to all of the formerly collab exclusive cards to enter the regular gacha lineup and its related dungeon was made a permanent addition to the Coin Dungeon lineup (the same fate which befell the "collaborations" for GungHo, Emil Chronicle Online, Taiko no Tatsujin, Gunma Prefecture, Groove Coaster, and Takaoka City; Ragnarok Online and Poring Tower are mysteriously absent, while RO Ace is in the regular descend rotation) which eventually made its way internationally.
    • However several of these collabs have also been absent in Japan for a while. Hunter × Hunter, Dragon Ball Z, and Saint Seiya have all been absent in 2016, despite Hunter × Hunter returning from hiatus, the premiere of Dragon Ball Super, and Saint Seiya having its 30th anniversary (which was celebrated in rival Monster Strike instead).
  • Both the Android and iOS versions are unavailable in several countries. Like, say, Russia. This follows GungHo's policy from their PC games where regional distributors and/or publishers with exclusivity agreements would have to handle such a release.
  • Battle Tournament. Unsurprising, given the decline of arcades and arcade games outside of Eastern Asia, especially games with network functionality or card systems.
  • The international versions have never gotten the addition of the PADW side game. Then again, PADW hasn't had a proper update in 2 years.
  • An odd inversion involves PADZ and PazuMari, which are part of a Compilation Re-release...but only in North America, Europe and South Korea (and as the only way to get either game), while in Japan both games remain separate, full-price purchases only.
• Portmanteau Series Nickname: パズドラ (pazudora) amongst Japanese speakers. In English, the series can be called "PuzzDra", although in practice most Western fans call it "PAD" instead.

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