Yu-Gi-Oh! The Sacred Cards

"Gives Dark Duel Stories a Run..."

I've reviewed my fair share of games here at GameFAQs.com. Half of the games I've reviewed have gotten some pretty lousy scores from me. Sometimes, I had second thoughts when I gave those games the low scores I did. They were tough choices. However, for the first time in my doing a review, I can safely say that Yu-Gi-Oh: The Sacred Cards deserves the low score it got without having second thoughts.

I'll touch on the main failures in a bit. But before I do, I'll hit on one of the things that Sacred Cards does do right: graphics. This is one of the better looking games on the Gameboy Advance. Fans of the show will have no difficulty in recognizing their favorite characters in their sprite forms, and their dialogue forms look marvelous. Some people disagree, but I've always been a sucker for the cartoony look in GBA games, and I know the kids love it, too.

But with all the beauty in Sacred Cards, there is a big-time failure: the card playing system. And this fails in two completely different ways.

First off, when you have your first duel, you'll start off with a deck that seems weak. In fact, most of your deck will consist of 3 Star monsters (in Yu-Gi-Oh, 1 Star Monsters are the weakest and the strongest monsters are around 8 stars and up). And while you may want to change your lineup ASAP, you'll notice something odd in your first duel: you win without much problem. And it'll be like that in the second duel. And the third. In fact, every duel before the finals is extremely easy, so customizing your deck is not really needed.

However, things'll change. When you hit a certain point in the game, you'll duel someone and you will be beaten...mercilessly. It's at this point where I hope you've raised your Duelist Level and your Deck Capacity (both determine how strong of cards you can use and how strong your deck can be, respectively), because if you don't stack your deck with strong 4 Star Monsters (the highest level of monsters you can summon without having to sacrifice monsters to summon more), you will be wiped out in every single duel. In case you missed what I'm saying, I'll summarize: this game goes from incredibly easy to painstakingly hard with no middle ground.

And if that wasn't enough, the rules regarding cards everyone is familiar with are gone. There's a limit to the amount of cards you can have in your hand, you have no option when you want to trigger trap cards, and you have absolutely no choice as to which monster you want to choose when using cards such as Monster Reborn and Brain Control. That's not to mention the fact that at seemingly random intervals, weaker monsters on the opposition's side will destroy your stronger monsters (thankfully, you won't see enemy Bats destroying Obelisk, but it does happen frequently with attack differences between 300-600, and no, it has nothing to do with elements, because that has been the same some of the times).

Miscellaneous points: I can't really judge the audio because the GBA is a car riding accessory, so the radio takes the place of the game's music most of the time. The game itself is just way too short. Honestly, you could beat this game (or get to the mind-numbingly difficult part) in about 1, maybe 2, hours. And for some reason, they took out some of the more interactive cards.

In the end, I'd steer clear of this one. At least purchase wise. If you're dead set on playing this one, rent it or borrow it from some poor sap who did buy it. This game is not quite as bad as Dark Duel Stories, but it's nowhere near as fun as World Wide Edition and Duelist of the Roses.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 11/16/03