Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon, a 1998 Japan-exclusive dungeon crawling spin-off to Compile's popular Puyo Puyo series of puzzle games for the Sega Saturn, has just got a new fan translation, as recently revealed on social media.
The patch is the work of the fan translator Maud, who originally started working on the patch back in 2019 and who describes the game on their website as "a cute dungeon crawler with a lot of fun banter between the Puyo Puyo cast".
It recently came to our attention, thanks to the video game researcher Gamevecanti on social media, and currently seems to only be available to download via Google Drive. However, its creator has expressed their intention over the next few days to submit it to various romhacking sites and make the release "Official", which they will do after they've observed whether anyone has any issues with the current patch.
Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon hearkens back to the series, Madou Monogatari — a collection of first-person dungeon crawling games that eventually inspired the Puyo Puyo series. However, instead of being a first-person RPG, it instead features a top-down perspective.
Players select from three characters, Arle Nadja, Rulue, or Schezo Wegey — all of whom have appeared in Madou Monogatari and Puyo Puyo games in the past — with the story focusing on their attempts to conquer a bunch of ever-evoling dungeons in order to win a magical prize. To do this, they will face off against a bunch of familiar enemies in turn-based combat, collecting items and treasure along the way to help them succeed.
In addition to being released on Sega Saturn, the game later received an enhanced version called Waku Puyo Dungeon Ketteiban in 1999, which again was only released in Japan for the original PlayStation.