Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories

"No Heart of the Cards in this Game..."

Alright, I'll start by saying that I always have considered Duel Monsters to be a more childish ccg. This game took that idea one step further by removing the elements that gave it some remote complexity and strategy.

You can only have 1 trap card out at a time. It gets immediately discarded at the start of your next turn if not used. Magic cards have been reduced in power and some of my favorite monsters were stripped of their abilities. Even worse, fusions are counted as normal cards now (although most still remain pointless).

The tacky deck restrictions are used to cover for the poor A.I. Your opponents often have multiple restricted cards (sometimes even more than 3 copies of them!) in their decks and don't follow those restrictions. These deliberate disadvantages still aren't enough to make duels challenging or even remotely entertaining.

When you start off, the opening restriction only allows pure crap to go into your deck, making use of the uselessly weak cards in the ccg. This makes the early duels absurdly long. The irony here is that a 'code' system allows you to have tier 1 cards from the start but their in-game cost doesn't let you put them in your deck! The only way that you get get them into your deck is by fighting repeated, annoying, pointless battles to expand your deck's point value.

The card design option allows you to have even more absurdly powerful cards to annilate your pitiful A.I. opponents with. The element system reeks of pokemon, allowing even the weakest monsters to destroy monsters of the element that they're strong against. This feature is a sheer nuisance, making the game even less enjoyable.

The duelist commentary will only infuriate you further. Their witless banter remains only slightly less annoying than the fact that their playing style is completely devoid of all strategy!

The controls are annoying at first but it doesn't take long to get the hang of them. Most of the annoyance deals with the magic/trap rules, the pesky hand-size limit, and all of the changes on the cards (for instance, the M-E Bug has been stripped of it's useful ability). In terms of graphics, there's nothing special here. The in-battle graphics are weak at best and the out-of-battle graphics are mostly just face shots.

If only they would allow you to wander around on a real landscape... They could have added extra replay value if cards were hidden there and you actually had to search for duelists as opposed to running into them in a linear ''defeat everybody in this block to reach the next'' pattern. The fact that there aren't a good deal of opponents is irrelevant since their strategies really don't change. The only thing that does change is that the duelists use different cards (although most don't have their trade-mark cards).

The only conceivable replay value is used to fill your card binder and expand your card limits. You can't stop in the midst of a battle and resume it later.

Buy, Rent, or Avoid like the Plague

If it's possible to die of disappointment, this game can kill you. Even the strongest opponents are pitiful, contributing to the timeless, pointlessness of this game. If there was ever a game to be avoided or tried before buying it, this is it.

In conclusion: Your opponents can cheat, you're stuck with loads of restrictions, and this game is just as challenging as solitaire but not half as fun

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 12/27/02, Updated 12/27/02