I’ve been gaming for some 25 years, and puzzle games have always confounded me. Thoughts of painfully trudging through the Adventures of Lolo trilogy on NES still haunt me, as did watching my girlfriend master PSN’s Super Stacker while I could barely get halfway through it. I really enjoy puzzle games; I’m just not very good at them. But every once in a while, a puzzler comes along – like the Professor Layton series – that clicks with me. Dokuro on PlayStation Vita is one such adventure, one that’s hard yet forgiving, fun and challenging, but rarely frustrating and annoying.

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In short, Dokuro is an enjoyable and rewarding handheld romp that every Vita owner should consider purchasing.The main character in Dokuro is a mere skeleton, a member of a devious army controlled by a frightening demonic monarch known as the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord has taken a liking to a beautiful (and equally nameless) blond princess who he promptly abducts in order to wed, much to the princess’s chagrin. But you, as that skeleton, will have none of it. And through the game’s litany of puzzles, you’ll help the princess escape the Dark Lord’s castle and his eager-to-marry clutches.Like any good video game, however, there’s a catch. This skeleton was once human, and using a mysterious power, he’s able to temporarily transform into human form. As a handsome prince, your character’s powers change markedly, but as the transformation is ephemeral, Dokuro becomes as much about mixing, matching and balancing your two forms’ powers as much as it’s about saving the princess in distress.When you begin playing Dokuro, what you’ll no doubt notice immediately is the game’s beautiful art. Its charcoal drawing-inspired cutscenes wonderfully complement the game’s gorgeous stages, character art and animations. Indeed, Dokuro’s visuals are decidedly stunning thanks to a color palate that changes depending on which form you’re in and a sectioned-off castle that's uniquely designed. While the game’s art direction revolves a great deal around a black and white motif, this simply makes the colorful characters and enemies pop that much more.But where Dokuro really shines is with its cleverly executed gameplay that artfully melds puzzle mechanics with side-scrolling platforming and occasional bouts of combat. Each stage in the game is 10 puzzles in one, and finishing each puzzle requires using all of the tools at your disposal to get the princess safely to the end. The princess will continue walking forward into many hazards, which can require decision making in realtime. But she’s not completely brainless. She’ll attempt to flee enemies (albeit unsuccessfully at times), she won’t walk into chasms or spikes, and she’ll practice at least some semblance of self-preservation. In other words, she’ll work with you in trying to save her, but only in a limited fashion.So a particular puzzle might play out like this. The princess will begin walking forward immediately towards a platform attached to a chain. Using a nearby lever, the platform can be raised to an area above, where the princess will keep walking. But there are airborne enemies ahead, and she recoils as they advance. Double-tapping the touch screen to turn into the skeleton’s human form, you can wield your epee and dispatch the enemies, allowing the princess to continue on her journey unharmed.But this is where things get complicated. Using a mixture of white and red chalk (toggled between using the left trigger), you must reattach a disparate box from its broken rope with the former and use the latter to connect a blazing fire to the unlit fuse of a barrel full of gunpowder. This is done entirely on the touch screen. That barrel will act as the explosive necessary to fell a wall, while the box attached to the rope will act as another elevator-like platform for the princess to utilize.At the end of the puzzle at hand, the princess will reach a drop that she can’t make on her own. That’s where the skeleton’s human form comes back into play. Using circle, you can scoop the princess into your arms and head towards the end of the puzzle in a flash, cradling her safely all the while.Like any solid puzzle game that doesn’t want to frustrate you, Dokuro does a really nice job of letting you restart puzzles instantaneously so that you’re never stuck without a way to progress. Likewise, you can skip ahead a limited number of times if you can't muster the skill necessary to complete certain puzzles (or even the game’s rather awesome boss battles). This simply adds to Dokuro’s emphasis on balance and accessibility. It sustains just the right crescendo in difficulty that makes it such a joy to play.Dokuro also comes packing a full array of Trophies – including a Platinum Trophy – for all of you hunters out there. And each puzzle has a (somewhat) hidden coin that gives each puzzle replayability beyond the fact that some puzzles can be completed in more than one way if you’re truly willing to use your noggin.