Yu-Gi-Oh! The Eternal Duelist Soul

"Finally, a GOOD Yu-Gi-Oh game!"

Fans of the card game, ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'', rejoice! A game has come out that has redeemed the former attempts at a Yu-Gi-Oh game. Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Eternal Duelist Soul(EDS, as it will be referred to for this review) is out for the Gameboy Advance!

Gameplay/Control Figuration: 6.5/10
Unlike its predecessors, EDS uses the rules for the real TCG, making the gameplay incredibly easy for those who have played the real card game, but frustatingly hard for newcomers. The controls are also fairly easy to pick up for anyone, though. But this is not one of those games where you can skip the instruction manual and just play. There are certain buttons that take some time to get used to, such as the B button being used to bring up a menu listing the various ''phases'' of your turn to go through. At first, you may end up skipping your turn by accident. But after an hour or so of duels, it'll become as instinctive as breathing. Thankfully, every other button is easy to memorize, such as the A button bringing up options for monster cards and set cards, and some things happen automatically. But gameplay suffers as if you have a set card that can be activated at anytime, after every single move you'll be asked if you want to activate it. It won't come up too often if the card has a requirement, but it still makes things slow. Speaking of which, the duels move pretty slow as well. Each card takes about 2-3 seconds just to be played, not including their their effect or attacks. You'll be thankful to know that holding the B button down does speed things up a bit, though.

Sound: 7/10
Suprisingly good for a GBA title, but still at par. Some music will drive you crazy after awhile, but some music will have you dueling a character repeatedly just to hear it again. The sound effects are also at par ranging from explosions for when cards are destroyed, the sound effect for when ever a card is drawn, played, and/or activated, and...that's about it. But what did you expect?

Graphics: 8/10
The graphics shine suprisingly bright on this game. It doesn't look like much at first, but when you look a character you're about to duel or the picture of a certain card, they look like they're taken straight from the show and the TCG. Some will also recognize that the card info is layed-out like the japanes cards, having the flavor text(which can't be read, literally) squeezed to the left and the ATK above the DEF on the right. But there are no flashy visuals for card effects(except for Exodia), and the details are all there is graphic-wise.

Story: 0/10
What frickin' story? Unless you count dueling to get to the next stage a story, there is none. But if you want a card game for a story...let's not get into that...

Playability/Replayability: 8.5/10
Everytime you duel an opponent, they develop new tactics to counter your cards and tactics. There also is a wide assortment of duelists from the show and some that haven't even been shown yet, and each require a noticeable amount of dueling to get to. While you can unlock all the stages in about 13-15 hours, certain opponents from each stage require nearly 20 hours to unlock, not to mention the amount of booster packs to unlock that take even longer. But when you unlock everything, you won't want to replay it too much. After a week or so, though, it's a great game to play again.

Overall: 8/10
This is a great game to pick up, for veterans and newcomers to the card game alike. Veterans will have fun collecting new cards, and newcomers can gain good cards and learn the game quickly.

BUY or RENT:
Definitely buy this game. A rental barely lets you touch the tip of the iceberg of this game.

I hope this review helped you! It's my first.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/21/02, Updated 11/21/02