Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction

"It doesn't follow expert rules, but still it's actually pretty fun!"

INTRODUCTION
Reshef of Destruction (Duel Monsters 8 in Japan) is the sequel to The Sacred Cards (Duel Monsters 7 in Japan). The Sacred Cards has a style of gameplay different from the expert games. No multi-player and no expert rules were the cons, the pros were a nice story and the RPG-ish element of walking around, which didn't compensate the downsides. Reshef of Destruction is pretty much the same, this time with a more original story and link option (this includes dueling AND trading). The passwords are back this time, but you have to pay to use them (more on that later). You no longer start with 8000 Life Points at the beginning of every duel, they start at the same number of Life Points you had when you won the last duel. You'll have to go back to the computer at your house to recharge them back to 8000 and save. Like its predecessor, Reshef of Destruction will have you staring at a "The End" message until your patience runs out, and you will start off from where you last saved when you load your game. No replay value here.

STORY - 9/10
Seto Kaiba has started another tournament and being a friend of Yugi and Joey, you're going along with them. Don't worry, you get to name your character unlike the expert games. Joey talks to you about the tournament when Yugi shows up distraught, his Millennium Puzzle is missing and its spirit is gone with it. Tea finds out and Ishizu overhears their conversation. Just as she had feared, the reshef has woken so the Millennium Items and Egyptian God cards are gone. You'd better get them back before Kaiba or Bandit Keith and his "Neo Ghouls" do, or else you're screwed. Congratulations, you must now save the world using cards!

GAMEPLAY - 7/10
No expert rules here, but you already knew that. To save the world, you must travel around it (no joke). You will go to Canada, Italy, Egypt, and China with Yugi and Joey following you the whole way like Pikachu. You will duel every major and minor character from the Anime with the exceptions of Tea, Ishizu, Marik, Odion, Bakura, and Yugi's grandpa. Some duelists don't even appear in the Anime. Conversations are long and you don't get to say anything except what the game lets you, kind of like Golden Sun. Konami still doesn't let your character walk diagonally, not that it matters much because most of the game is about dueling. Dueling is no fun in this game, you start with a weak deck mostly made of monsters, and winning a duel means receiving Domino (money) and an increase in Duelist Level and Deck Capacity. Domino can be spent on cards in Yugi's grandpa's shop or passwords for 1000 each. Duelist Level is the game's way of restricting better cards from being put in your deck until you're strong enough. Better cards also have another value, the Deck Capacity. The combined deck capacity of your deck's cards cannot exceed your own Deck Capacity. As a result, your deck will be improving very slowly.

GRAPHICS - 6/10
Nothing impressive here but the card art. They look just like their real-life counterparts. Everything else is the same style as The Sacred Cards. During a duel when you're not doing anything, the cursor will move around a lot. This gets really annoying after a while, you'll have to get used to it.

SOUND - 6/10
Still very similar to The Sacred Cards. The music isn't something you'd hum along to, and it doesn't change much when you visit different parts of the world.

REPLAY VALUE - 2/10
There's no point of finishing this game except to see the end. You'll just start back where you last saved if you restart. You can link with another player, but the game doesn't even count records, against the CPU or another person.

RENT OR BUY?
The story is interesting and worth a rent, otherwise wait for Nightmare Troubadour if you're rich and patient or buy World Championship Tournament 2004 if you don't fall into either category.

OVERALL SCORE - 7 (not necessarily an average)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/04