Yu-Gi-Oh! The Sacred Cards

"Konami just played their card of Franchise Butchering..."

Okay, before I get to the real reviewing, know this. I am a fan of the YU Gi Oh TCG, so if there was any bias, it would be in favor of this game.

Okay, on to the actual reviewing.

Graphics: I'll start with the good things about this game (few as they may be). The graphics are smooth and colorful, and give you a good feeling of being a part of the anime. The character sprites are very well done, as are the different fields when in a duel. Another bonus is that they used the original Japanese artwork for some of the cards, like Gemini Elf, for example.

Graphics rating: 7/10

Storyline: The storyline was pretty decent, in that it takes places during the Battle City arc from the series. You don't play as a main character from the series: Instead, you are the the friend of Yugi and Joey. It adds an interesting element, in that it's like putting yourself into the show.

Storyline rating: 6/10

Gameplay: This is what really drags down what could have been an otherwise great game. Let's start with the deckbuilding.

First off, what the hell is with the Duelist Level thing? This is not Pokemon, you should not have to level up at all! Allow me to explain. The Duelist Level is what dictates what cards you can use. A card with a cost higher than your duelist level cannot be used. Which means that many of the best cards in the game are off-limits until much, much later in the game.

Second, there's the horrible Deck Limit mechanic. The card costs I mentioned before? Well, they add up. And if the total is higher than your Deck Limit, you can use the deck, and you'll have to tweak until it's under limit. "Oh, that's not too bad," some might say, but I simply shake my head and explain. It's going to take you more than three quarters of the game to get your Deck Limit up past 2000. The best monsters, things like Vorse Raider and Gemini Elf cost nearly 300. Do the math. Konami, what were you thinking?

Now, on to the actual duels.

When I started playing, I almost cried at the way the duel system was completely butchered. The system has been simplified beyond recognition. There are no options to set monsters instead of summoning them. Most monsters are missing effects (like Man-Eater Bug) and others have completely different ones (like Trap Master). Trap cards activate automatically, regardless of what you want. Your hand limit is FIVE cards. Period. One your hand has five cards in it, you can't draw anymore. You can't look at your graveyard, you can't see you deck, field cards no longer have their own spot, and instead count as regular magic cards. And they do not stay on the field. You activate them, they change the field for the rest of the duel, and then they disappear.

Probably the most irritating thing about the duel system in this is the elemental weakness system they introduced. I beat Mako using a Lightning Conger (It has an attack of 450, FYI), simply because his monsters were automatically destroyed when I attacked them with it, regardless of how powerful his monsters were. This means that you can simply build a deck to take on whoever your challenging by exploiting this elemental weakness system.

When not in a duel, however, the interface is standard RPG fare, walk around talk to people, but new cards (which are usually unusable until later) at the card store, etc.

Gameplay rating: 1/10

Replay: Nonexistant. When you beat the game, that's it. It's over. You can't continue using that powerhous deck that you spent hours to raise your Deck Limit high enough to use.

Replay rating: 0/10

This could have been a great game. But Konami had to go and eviscerate the fundamentals of the deckbuilding and dueling that made the other games in the series (Eternal Duelist Soul, for example) so playable.

If you're looking for a good Yu Gi Oh game, this ain't it. Even if you're a diehard fan who can't get enough of Yugi beating down on his foes with his uberdeck, you shouldn't bother with this game.

Sorry Konami, but you lost this duel.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 08/29/05