Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction

"A medicore sequel."

''Introduction''

Reshef of Destruction is the sequel to The Sacred Cards, the first Yu-Gi-Oh! RPG game for the Game Boy Advance. The gameplay of RoD is very similar to its predecessor, with some changes and additions. This game doesn't support the rules of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, but Monsters, Traps and Spells still exist. There is a Graveyard, but only one monster can be there at one time and traps/magic can't be seen there. The game's difficulty level sharply contrasts with that of The Sacred Cards, as useful cards now have a high Duelist Level and Deck Capacity, making this game very hard to complete.

''Gameplay''

The gameplay revolves around summoning monsters to the field attack your opponent's Life Points. If you can decrease them to zero, you'll win the duel. You can use Magic Cards and Trap Cards as well to protect your monsters and destroy your opponent's. You can also play a Summon monster that is superior to your opponent's monster. For example, a Light-Summon monster, such as Blue-Eyes White Dragon, can be destroyed by a Dark-Summon monster, such as Kuriboh, despite the fact that Kuriboh is a weak monster.

Konami have removed the effects of all Flip Summon Monsters in this game, so Effect Monsters, such as Man-Eater Bug and Cyber Jar, are now Normal Monsters. In addition, certain Normal Monsters, like Fiend's Hand and Mystical Elf, are now Effect Monsters. Also, some cards mirror their functions in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. For example, Jinzo can destroy all Trap Cards on your opponent's side of the field instead of negating their effects. Fusion Monsters are now classified as Normal/Effect Monsters, since it is impossible to do fusions in this game.

Before a duel begins, you can choose whether to bet an Ante Card. If you do this and win the duel, you'll receive your opponent's Ante Card as a prize. When your turn begins, you can only draw one card from your deck and place it in your hand. If you already have five cards in your hand, you cannot draw any more, as you can only hold five cards. You can discard any card from your hand. Cards are always placed on the field in face-down position, regardless of their Attack/Defence positions. Magic Cards can no longer be activated at any time; you can only use them when your turn starts. There aren't a lot of Trap Cards. Most of them just destroy or stun your opponent's monster. You can't do any chains either, except with Anti Raigeki, Bad Reaction to Simochi, Reverse Trap, and Goblin Fan. Your Trap Cards are set off automatically when your opponent's monster attacks. You can't decide when to activate them. Most of the Magic Cards just increase your Life Points or power up your monsters.

Effect Monsters can be annoying to use in this game. Slifer the Sky Dragon is a good example of this. When you or your opponent make a move each turn, the game will explain Slifer's special ability. When you or your opponent make another move each turn, the game will explain Slifer's ability again. This can get frustrating if your opponent plays
Swords of Revealing Light and you're left waiting 3 turns to attack. If both you and your
opponent summon these Effect Monsters, the duel will last for a long time and there's nothing you can do about it. In The Sacred Cards, you just had to activate your Effect Monster's ability once. The only downside to this was if Silfer's ATK/DEF was 6000, it couldn't get any higher. The effect is good for Jinzo, since you no longer have to activate its ability to destroy all Trap Cards on your opponent's side of the field.

You can't use a card with a Cost higher than your own Duelist Level. For example, if you have a DL of 100, you can't use Spellbinding Circle, since its Cost is 150. The total Cost of the 40 cards in your deck cannot exceed your Deck Capacity. For example, if you have a DC of 3084, the total Cost of your cards cannot exceed that amount. When you are progressing through the game, duelists that only challenge you once will give you 3 Deck Capacity, while the others will only give you 1 DC. This makes the game very hard to complete, since the useful cards have a high Duelist Level. Therefore, you must challenge duelists repeatedly for hours, days or even weeks to get enough DC.

Your opponents will always summon monsters that are stronger than yours. In
addition, they will typically have powerful Trap and Magic Cards at their disposal. It takes a lot of skill and luck to defeat them. Towards the end of the game, the duelists will start using 3 copies of Limited Cards against you, despite the fact that you can only put 1 copy of each Limited Card in your deck. You can purchase good cards at Grandpa's Game Shop, but they are very expensive. For example, Blue-Eyes White Dragon's sales price is 3784. Although you can receive money from duelists, the majority of them only give you small amounts of Domino, so it's better to sell their rare Ante Cards instead for cash. If you use the Password Machine to obtain a card, you'll have to pay 1,000 Domino to put the card on sale at the shop. You then have to pay Grandpa to receive that particular card.

Your Life Points aren't automatically restored after each duel in this game. You must return to your house to restore your LP. At first, this isn't too bad, but later on in the game, you will have to battle multiple duellists in a row and you'll probably be dueling them with low LP.

''Story''

Joey is organising your deck for the new Duel Monsters Tournament when Yugi arrives on the scene, explaining that Yami Yugi and the Millennium Puzzle are missing. Ishizu Ishtar informs you that the seven Millennium Items have vanished. An unknown entity has commenced a fusion ritual, which re-released Reshef the Dark Being into the world. The Egyptian God Cards were turned to stone. Ishizu predicts that the world will be engulfed in darkness if nothing is done soon, so you must recover the Millennium Items to resurrect the God Cards and seal Reshef away.

''Graphics/Sound''

The graphics and sound are very good. The music suits the countries that you visit. The characters have different expressions when they talk. The pictures on the cards are identical to the ones from the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game.

''Play Time/Replayability''

Since the game is very hard to complete, it can take up to a month depending on your deck restrictions. There's no real reason to play through the game again, other than picking different choices in the cutscenes.

''Final Recommendation''

If you thought that Yu-Gi-Oh! The Sacred Cards was too easy, this game should be more challenging for you. If you haven't purchased The Sacred Cards, I suggest that you buy that game first since it has a reasonable difficulty level. The Egyptian God Cards are in this game, but you can only use their special abilities when they're face-down. In conclusion, I advice purchasing Yu-Gi-Oh! Nightmare Troubadour for the Nintendo DS, because the special abilities of the Egyptian God Cards are much better in that game and you can activate them at any time you want.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 08/22/05, Updated 09/09/07

Game Release: Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction (EU, 08/13/04)