14 DAY TRIAL // Puzzle Quest is a mix between a role playing game and a match-3 developed by Infinite Interactive and published by D3 Publisher that arrived on platforms like Xbox Live and the PC, with a version for the PlayStation Portable handheld also in development.
In the first Puzzle Quest players were able to gather experience points and gold, both very useful in the game, from the battle board, making it very important to actually farm lesser enemies to make sure that you were prepared for the tougher ones.
Puzzle Quest 2 eliminates gold and experience but adds gauntlets, which add like a sort of action points that can be used to power equipment, and it times during the progression of the game is seems that the enemies are overpowered and there's no way to increase the abilities of my own character to tackle them.
Actually Puzzle Quest 2 is a much more tactical game, with the battles often not won by looking out for possibilities to harm the enemy character but by simply actively denying any chance they have to get the mana needed to power their special attacks (which are often very damaging).
I found out the denial is the best strategy while facing a Gelatinous Cube early in the game.
The enemy was a sickly green color and it was a subtle hint on the part of the developers that the biggest damage from this enemy would come when it could get his hands (rather tentacles) on a large number of green gems.
Fifteen of them (if I remember correctly) would lead to a tentacle assault which does both damage and does not allow the player to use abilities and weapons for a number of turns.
It's a brutal power mainly because it creates a self feedback loop where the Cube uses his ability and has a few turns when he can, undisturbed, match more of them in order to power his next attack.
The only way to take out the gelatine monster out was to actively seek out all green gems and take them for my own, even if they were pretty useless to my build, so that I could then proceed to destroy the cube at length as it could not use its most powerful weapon.
We also have a review of Puzzle Quest 2 on Softpedia, offering more information about the game.