Puzzle Party is a puzzle horror video game by Krispy Animation, the creators of The Bedfellows and CatGhost. Gameplay consists of the player routing different-colored pathways into same-colored boxes, and needing to make use of the environment, items, and timing to ensure the pathways reach their respective boxes. Once all boxes are lit up, the level is complete. The game has 92 levels in total.
The story follows the player as they play the titular multiplayer puzzle game, logging onto a server and coming across the developer himself, Amid. He accompanies the player through the game that he created along with his girlfriend Cassandra, and relates how he made the game and the kind of relationship he had with her, until it was one day tragically ended by a bus accident.
But as you and Amid venture through the game, it begins to glitch in places, and a mysterious and dangerous red figure begins hijacking the game...
This game contains examples of:
- Advancing Boss of Doom: Cass will chase you in certain levels, and you must complete the puzzle to escape. Exaggerated in Cass Mode, where Cass chases you for the entire game.
- Big Bad: Cass is the red humanoid figure that haunts the titular in-universe game and chases down the player. However, it is revealed that Cassandra is alive and “Cass” is a part of Amid himself representing his anger at Cassandra dumping him.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: Amid used to mix hotdogs, macaroni and cheese, and would use Tabasco instead of milk. Even he admits it's weird.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: In Ending 4, Time To Move On, Amid tells the player that he has finally gotten over Cassandra and realized the truth. He then says that she was not right for him and thanks the player for helping him realize that she was a terrible person so he can find another girl, completely missing the fact that the breakup was his fault for being a Crazy Jealous Guy, and any relationship he has is likely doomed for this reason.
- Deceptively Silly Title: Puzzle Party sounds like a lighthearted puzzle game but is actually a horror game revolving around a relationship gone wrong.
- The Ending Changes Everything: The plot concerns the in-universe developer, Amid, and the relationship he used to have with Cassandra before she died in a bus accident- his grief and memories are explored thoroughly both through his exposition and in developer logs. Meanwhile, a red ghost girl shows up periodically to chase down the player and Amid. These two seemingly unrelated events are connected in the ending, but not in the way one might think- Cassandra isn't a digital ghost haunting the game because she never actually died. Amid has been lying to you from the start to disguise the fact that she dumped him for being a Crazy Jealous Guy, and the ghost is Amid's unhappiness at the outcome of their relationship.
- Foreshadowing:
- Amid describes his relationship with Cassandra as being happy and says nothing but good things about her, but some of the developer logs reveal that they fought somewhat frequently and had some problems. Turns out the relationship was happy only in Amid's mind, and it ended when Cassandra dumped him.
- Amid will ask you in level 52 if you have someone special in your life and if they love you back. If you say no, he will say “They never do, do they :/“, only to take it back and say “Uh, nevermind...”. This sounds weird, since it clashes with the account he has given the player of his relationship with Cassandra, which according to him was loving and happy. And that's because, as later revealed, he's lying.
- In level 57, Amid admits that his friends got tired of him talking about Cass once the relationship ended. This hints towards him being unhealthily obsessed with her.
- Misbegotten Multiplayer Mode: In-Universe, Amid expresses this about the multiplayer mode for a puzzle game.I think multiplayer might feel tacked on. But hey, I mean it works!!
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Nintendo Hard: While it starts off easy, some of the later puzzles can get really difficult and require a lot of thinking. But it really gets turn up in Cass Mode, wherein the titular antagonist chases you around for the whole game meaning you have to solve the puzzle of every level while avoiding Cass, and it is especially bad in the smaller levels where you have very little room to avoid her. - Red Herring: Throughout the game, it's implied that the red ghost girl is the spirit of Cassandra, who died in a bus accident. The ending reveals that Cassandra never actually died- she dumped Amid for being a Crazy Jealous Guy and he lied because he did not want to face reality, with the ghost being a manifestation of his frustration.
