Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom

"Not a Bad Little RPG"

Yugioh The Falsebound Kingdom was released on November 4, 2003 as the first Yugioh game for the Gamecube. This game is not bad at all, and it is great for people who like strategy games. This is what this game is basically.

Story
This game offers three different stories you can play as. You have the Yugi Campaign, where you join the resistance and fight the empire. The Kaiba Campaign is where you start off working with the empire and then become a member of the resistance. There is also the Joey Campaign, where you are the leader of a group that resists the empire. The stories are fun to play as, but the Yugi and Kaiba Campaign has the same ending which is a little repetitive after a while.

8/10

Controls
This game had very easy controls that weren't that hard to learn. You are always told your options from a control bar displayed in the screen. You will never find yourself not know what button to push. On the field, you will mostly be using the A button and the control pad to move your way around. In battle, you will utilize the entire controller, but some of the buttons have optional commands you can do in battle. The C stick allows you to make the enemy information vanish from the screen. While the buttons are easy, you'll sometimes find yourself pushing the wrong button which is highly annoying in battle.

9/10

Graphics
The graphics aren't too bad. You basically have a lot of field terrains such as forest, plain, mountain, etc. The towns and forts that you are supposed to be liberating from the empire all look the same, but it is still good graphics. I just wish they could have juiced up building design a bit more. However, the battle animation is surprisingly good and will really highlight the battle and make it more exciting for you.

8/10

Gameplay
We now move on to most important aspect of the game. This game actually plays quite well. You basically have a set number of missions to do, in which you liberate towns, battle enemies, and try and spread your influence. Throughout the game, monsters will join you, and you will have people join your quest to make your army more powerful. Even though it is a pretty good game, it has a few flaws that can make this game tedious.

First of all, you are given three ways to fail a mission. If the character you playing as is defeated, the town you are in is captured, or you run out of time, you will fail the mission and be forced to start over. Sure that makes the game more challenging, but it can get annoying because some of these missions take like an hour. And if you die, you have to do it all over again. Another thing I don't like is the time limit itself. It is there to make the game challenging, but when you do end up running out of time, it doesn't do anything. It's like what's the point in it being there if the penalty you are given for it doesn't even work? It shouldn't even be there if it doesn't work. This game is not bad, but there are a few tedious bits that can frustrate you.

7/10

Replay Value
This game has tons of replay value. This RPG averages to a total of about maybe 7 hours in one sitting if you have powerful monsters. There are three stories you can do, collect all the monsters, and try a challenge mode. You will find that you will be able to play this game over and over again without it not getting repetitive once.

10/10

Overall
I am giving this game an 8 because it is not a bad game, but the few flaws that it has makes it tedious and can actually make this game horrible for you. Most people don't like this game because it isn't like real dueling, but I think the new system is better. You should definitely pick this game up, and if you are a Yugioh fan, you should definitely get this game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/06/08

Game Release: Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom (US, 11/04/03)