Genre Spotlight 45: Parquet (Puzzles 308 and 309)

Today's puzzle is a shading genre from Inaba!  It's called Parquet, and while it usually tends to result in easier puzzles, it's a cute genre overall.

Rules: In each bold region, entirely shade one subregion and leave the others unshaded such that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area with no loops. No 2x2 area may be entirely shaded.

          

Small note: this is actually a substantial generalization of Inaba's original type for two reasons.  For one, he restricted his grids to a common theme (see below).  Additionally, this generalization allows for more than two subregions in any big region, whereas Inaba restricted to exactly two.

Genre Spotlight 44: Deity Loop (Puzzles 306 and 307)

Today's genre is an old one, I think.  Again unsure of the origins, though I suspect it's Japanese.

Rules: Draw a non-intersecting loop through the centers of all cells. Every visit to a particular region must occupy an equal number of cells. A clue in a region indicates the number of cells occupied each visit.

           

Genre Spotlight 43: Irunuri (Puzzles 304 and 305)

Wow, it's been two months since we last had a non-snake shading genre!  Let's celebrate with today's type, Irunuri.  Just like last genre, I don't know the origins of this type; please let me know if you have any information!

Rules: Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. Numbered regions must contain the indicated amount of shaded cells. Within a region, the shaded cells must have 180° rotational symmetry around its center. No 2x2 area may be entirely shaded. 

            

Genre Spotlight 42: Passage (Puzzles 302 and 303)

Today's genre is Passage.  Like a few other types in this series, Passage is relatively common on PuzzleDuel but uncommon in other places.  I'm unaware of the origins of this genre, let me know if you have any information!

Rules: Shade some cell to create a 'snake' - a chain of blackened squares which doesn't touch itself even diagonally. The start and end of the snake are marked with gray circles. The snake should pass straight through all cells with numbers (i.e the snake cannot turn on a cell with a number). Numbers represent the length of the corresponding straight segment of the snake.

           

Genre Spotlight 41: View (Puzzles 300 and 301)

Today's genre has been on puzz.link for a while but is still somewhat niche.  View is an old Nikoli type that feels like Sukoro in many ways.

Rules: Place a number into some cells so that all cells with numbers form one orthogonally connected area. Numbers represent how many numberless cells are connected to them in a straight line horizontally or vertically. No two orthogonally adjacent cells may contain the same number.

                    

Genre Spotlight 40: Double or Nothing (Puzzles 298 and 299)

Back on the Inaba train for today's genre: Double or Nothing.  Like other Inaba types, this genre has seen a small resurgence in recent years, though not quite as strong as Guide Arrow or Territory.  It's a bit tough to construct but has some interesting interactions.

Rules: Draw two loops, each passing through the centers of some cells. Every empty cell must be visited by a loop, and the loops may not intersect themselves or each other in empty cells. Cells containing a circle may either not be visited at all, or may be passed straight through by both loops in perpendicular directions.

          

Genre Spotlight 39: Balloon Box (Puzzles 296 and 297)

We return to the wondrous world of Nikoli Omopa for today's genre.  Balloon Box is a recent type introduced in PCN 189 which combines Shikaku-style rectangle packing with Numberlink-style connectivity.  This fusion results in a unique feel that isn't seen in many other types.  (Though, admittedly, I've said that phrase a lot, so maybe it doesn't mean much.)

Rules:  Divide the shaded cells into rectangular balloons, and connect each balloon to a number with a string so that all cells are used by strings or balloons.  Strings cannot branch, cross, or overlap each other.  Every balloon is connected to exactly one number with a string, which indicates the size of the balloon.  A string cannot loop back on itself and visit a cell that's orthogonally adjacent to a cell it has visited before.

          

Nikoli afficionados may notice that, as of Issue 190, the last rule is no longer in effect.  I decided to keep it for puzz.link compatibility purposes and because it made uniqueness easier to satisfy with sparse clue layouts.  The downside, though, is that constructing one of these becomes way harder with the extra restrictions on the balloons.  But they're similar to the complications arising from Numberlink construction, so I'm used to them 🥲.