Praising the game's 'good variety of brand new content, most notably found in five new classes', he stated that 'the class variety is awesome', but offered criticism of the mechanic, claiming that 'the depth and length of the game makes running multiple characters not all that fun'. He noted that, in the 12 years since the original game's release, 'similar genre-blending games have cropped up, but in a way, nothing has really matched or surpassed the complexity of Puzzle Quest'. Neal Ronaghan of Nintendo World Report rated the game 8/10 points, stating that while the game 'shows its age in its presentation, the combat still soars'.

Puzzle Quest: The Legend Returns received an aggregate score of 78/100 on Metacritic.