"Yugioh, without Cards!"

~Intro to Yugioh:Falsebound Kingdom~
One day, Konami decided they'd had enough of calling their various games ''Card battling RPG's'', and decided to actually make an RPG that was not a clone of Dark Duel Stories. This is that game, and it is a beautiful thing. Simply put, Falsebound Kingdom is a squad based tactical RPG with the monsters and characters from the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, anime, and CCG. You choose the Role of either Yugi or Kaiba, and journey through a Virtual Reality World battling with your squads of monsters against opponents, generic and Anime/Manga derived.

Gameplay:
At first, the gameplay seems pretty vague and difficult, but once you play for about 1-2 missions, the interface is much more user-friendly. You have 3 ''phases'' of gameplay: A screen where you setup your squads, which is preceeded by a series of text messages continuing the story. You can also save on these screens, as well as configure A/V options. Once prepared, you go into a mission with your setup, and are shown the area map, which has towns and terrain, and a minimap showing you which towns are controlled by whom. Your objective is to take over the area, typically. Finally, the third phase is when your monsters engage other monsters in battle, and looks remarkably like the Final Fantasy style turn-based combat.
After battles, one gets EXP for the creatures' controller, and the creatures as well - nothing beats seeing a high level Kuriboh beat on a Blue Eyes or Summoned Skull.

Story:
Well, it has a story, but it is still a story only made plausible if one considers that one is playing in a virtual world. In other words, don't be expecting anything beyond mediocre. However, depending on which character you pick, you do get to see/do different, correlating things, so I'll give points for that.

Graphics/Sound:
Well, the graphics on the overworld map are a little iffy, but otherwise, they blew me away - the 3D renditions of 155 monsters is incredibly accurate, and thus far, I have yet to mistake one monster for another. Furthermore, each monster's attacks are, at the very least, pretty to look at. Some, like launcher spider's missile attack, are really nice looking. In terms of sound, I'd give it a 5/10 - I didn't really notice the background music, and the monster attack noises very from well done to making you go ''what in the hell was that?''.

Playability:
All of the character's quests take about 36 hours or so to do, completely. Assuming you aren't a superhuman or didn't buy the strategy guide, you will miss many things, and need to go back to get them later. You can do the quests over and over again, and keep all of your monsters EXP and items from game to game, which is nice. Also, you can forgot about having weak enemies to pick on - they get stronger as you do, which keeps the challenge fresh.

Final Recommendation:
Definitely worth a rent - I'd caution against buying it outright, as it is not the next final fantasy, and is not for everyone out there. It is certainly something that is a fresh, new way to play Yu-Gi-Oh. Give it a shot, and if you don't like it, sell it back to gamestop/EB/wherever, but send me the promos before you do ;)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/09/03