Yu-Gi-Oh! The Sacred Cards

"People just keep making more yu-gi-oh games..."

Well... Here is yet another yu-gi-oh card game. They just keep making them - probably because they know that fans will buy them anyway... At least, this time they made a story and a an RPG mode. Nice.

STORY: 9

It is a pretty good story, perhaps because it came right out of the show. It's not spectacular, but it'll keep you occupied. Basically, you go around duelling people, bosses and such. No puzzles or other RPG-elements whatsoever. There is basically a lot of freedom when going around, and you can go to more and more places as you get the locator cards. Nice concept.

SOUND: 7

Never expect anything worthwhile in this area with a GBA. The sound is just like the most games - a little repetitive but otherwise fine. You're better off listening to the radio while playing this game. Still, it's nice sometimes.

GRAPHICS: 8

The Graphics are great. The monsters are all nicely detailed, the RPG world looks cool, and the duels are quite awesome. The attacks, however, could have been a little more different - there is just one attack animation. Still, when you kill an opponent's card it burns down - giving you an enormous satisfaction.

CONTROLS: 10

The controls are very easy to use. When you go around, you use the D - pad like in most RPG's. You can talk to people by pressing the A button, and challenge them with the R button.
In duels, it's simple except one thing: checking a monster's stats. You have to press B, and that can get very annoying, believe me.

GAMEPLAY: 10

Awesome. The duels are, thank god, shorter than in other yu - gi -oh games, and quite varied, so you never should get bored. You can buy cards (THANK GOD! FINALLY!), sell them to get cash, and you level up constantly, giving you the option to include more and more powerful cards in your deck. So no complains here... except one thing. There are elements now, meaning one element always beats the other. Look at this example: I summon a cool dragon, 3000 attack.
The opponent summons some crappy thing, 100 attack, but because that thing's element is superior to mine, my poor dragon dies, leaving me crying over his grave. This is one aspect of the game that's more or less based on luck - you never know what element your opponent is going to play. Ouch, there goes my dragon again.
Another minor thing is summoning more powerful monsters - you have to sacrifice you weaker ones, and that's kinda sad. Though, I guess otherwise it would be too easy (If that is possible with this game...)

Replayability: 10

Since you always want the perfect deck, you can start the game over and over again, as you get different monsters when defeating people. There lots and lots of cards - about a thousand, I think, so that should keep you occupied for quite some time. Buying cards is cool - there MANY MANY of them, and they're pretty cheap. So you can try out different deck combinations.

Difficulty: 1

Sadly, this game is VERY easy. Too easy. There rarely is a good challenge, except a few bosses. Still, it's fun to smite you foes over and over again... Also, when you finish the game, it over. You start again from scratch. The easyness of the game, however, guarantees very quick duels, which is a great thing.

Overall: 7

If it wouldn't be for the difficulty, this game would get a 10. Still, it's fun, especially for the fans of the series. Buy it, fans. All others should rent it first. I think it is worth a try.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/10/04