PixelLinkr #178: The Story Behind the Puzzle
Spoilers ahead: for the puzzle and the movies/games
This post assumes you've already solved the puzzle. It reveals all categories and their connections, and discusses plot details, endings, and spoilers for featured movies/games throughout.
Live A Live opened eight separate stories on the Super Famicom in 1994. It was doing the shared-universe assembly trick before half the entertainment industry developed a corkboard.
🟢 Easy: RPGs split their opening among several protagonists
Games: Octopath Traveler · Octopath Traveler II · Live A Live · Suikoden III
Both Octopath games offer eight starting heroes and let the player choose where the journey begins. Live A Live separates its leads by setting and era before drawing its structure together.
Suikoden III uses three principal viewpoints, each revealing a different side of the same conflict. These openings make perspective a playable choice rather than a cutscene decision.
🟡 Medium: Rhythm inputs drive combat or action
Games: Theatrhythm Final Bar Line · Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure · Rhythm Heaven Megamix · Mad Rat Dead
Theatrhythm turns Final Fantasy music into taps, holds, and directional triggers. Rhythm Heaven Megamix is more willing to make the player keep time for a bizarre tiny job and then judge them with devastating cheerfulness.
Rhythm Thief wraps timing challenges around an adventure story. Mad Rat Dead makes movement and attacks obey the beat. Missing the rhythm is not cosmetic. It is how the game informs you that the floor has won.
🔵 Hard: Former enemies can join the player's army
Games: Unicorn Overlord · Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia · Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance · Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia
Tactical RPGs love a named opponent with one foot already inside the recruitment menu. Fire Emblem has made an institution of talking to the correct enemy before an ally deletes them.
Unicorn Overlord and Disgaea 5 turn former opposition into roster depth. Brigandine allows some knights from defeated nations to become recruitable. Conquest is apparently networking with worse catering.
🟣 Tricky: Titles explicitly contain playing-card ranks
Games: Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown · The Jackbox Party Pack · Queen's Quest: Tower of Darkness · The King of Fighters XV
Ace. Jack. Queen. King. Each rank sits openly inside a title, but the surrounding genres work hard to keep the deck from looking assembled.
Once Jackbox registers as Jack plus box, the row collapses quickly. No suits, no hidden-letter surgery, just four ranks face up on the table.
Today's CineLinkr puzzle takes the same literal approach to titles, then swaps the card table for teachers, beekeepers, bricklayers, and one tailor in Panama.