Full Review

It should come as no big surprise to those who know me that I would pick up the latest Yu-Gi-Oh game released on the GBA. Lately though, I've been losing quite a bit of faith in these recreations of the infamous card games. This is due in part becuase of Konami's incessant tweaking of gameplay mechanics. Yu-Gi-Oh The Sacred Cards proves that Konami doesn't have a good direction with the series, and had it not been for the release of Yu-Gi-Oh World Championship Tournament 2004 I probably would have given up already. Of course, I was hoping that Konami would let me forget all about the horrid system they invented for Sacred Cards, but horrible ideas never die down as they've proven many, many times throughout their career as a developer. This was proven moreso when I first caught wind of the latest installment in the Yu-Gi-Oh series. This installment is called Yu-Gi-Oh! The Reshef of Destruction, and it uses a slightly altered gameplay system as the horrible Sacred Cards. Could the Sacred Cards have ever turned out worse? Reshef of destruction proves to have made the system even worse, in ways I didn't see possible.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction marks Konami's sixth game under the license for the GBA, taking the offshoot Dungeondice Monsters into account. It seems tha Konami has made two base formulas for the Yu-Gi-Oh series, which includes that of the RPG variation Sacred Cards, and the duel by duel system that was first introduced in The Eternal Duelist's Soul. Most people looking for these Yu-Gi-Oh titles are looking for the game that plays most like the card game in real life and in the anime series. The RPG variation in Sacred Cards does not follow the real card game hardly at all and should be avoided by those looking for a close match to what the rules are like in the real card game. With that said, because Reshef of Destruction plays most like Yu-Gi-Oh The Sacred Cards, it should also be avoided becuase of the fact that it is actually pretty far from the real card game with new rules and whatnot.

Story
This game is directly based off of the Yu-Gi-Oh manga. This means that if you're a fan of the anime series, you'll recognize characters and locations throughout Reshef of Destruction. One mistake I made was playing through this game and then realizing that it's storyline actually fits into the anime series, and thus I have spoiled much of the rest of the anime for myself which is another bad aspect to this game. Basically the story of Yu-Gi-Oh tells of a teenage boy who, after assembling a mysterious ancient puzzle unleashes the power of an ancient pharoah's spirit trapped from within. This spirit takes over Yugi's mind, and helps him play the hottest new sensation in Japan known as Duel Monsters. Little does Yugi know that Duel Monsters has a much bigger role in his life, and that the fate of the world is resting on him and his friends. Ancient forces work to take over the world now, so it's up to Yugi and the ancient spirit to save it through the duel monsters game.

In the Yu-Gi-Oh storyline, Reshef of Destruction takes place after the Battle City tournament. The millenium puzzle has been stolen from Yugi, and the Egyptian God cards have been drained of their powers. It's up to Yugi, Joey, and your nameless character to travel around the world and recovering the millenium items to defeat the evil behind all of this; The Reshef of Destruction. As with the Sacred Cards, you control your character from the typical nearly overhead view in most 2-Dimensional RPGs. You still challenge duelists in the same way as before, by walking up to them and pushing the R button. One thing Konami actually did right was in re-creating the character personalities found in the anime series. Most of the characters seem right on par with their attitudes from when you see them in the series, though the North American version of the anime series does feature quite a few changes to the characters from how they originally act in the unedited Japanese version.

Gameplay
As I mentioned earlier, Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction plays out like an RPG in a similar vein to The Sacred Cards. The graphics have been noticeably updated from the Sacred Cards, and also the interface has been beefed up quite a bit. The storyline also fits more nicely as an RPG from the past, with more character interaction and more dialogue amongst heroes in the game. You play as a nameless duelist in this adventure, and this character doesn't fit into the storyline. I am actually glad that Konami didn't suddenly change this from Sacred Cards, because while Sacred Cards is in fact a horrible game, this was one of the elements of the storyline that I actually enjoyed. One of the developers problems throughout history is their lack of ear for the fans, and this holds completely true for their development of Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction.

Basically Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction is a modified version of the card game from the anime and manga series. Players take turns, each turn they draw a card from their constructed decks. Next, they can summon monsters to the field. Some of the more powerful monsters require sacrifices. Any monster you have out on your side of the field can be offered as a sacrifice to summon a stronger one. Monsters have two numbers on each card, the top representing attack power, and the bottom representing defense points. The position of the monster card (either attack or defense) determines which of the stats is the acting stat. If a monster attacks another with less attack points in attack mode, than the attacked monster is destroyed. If a monster attacks a defensive creature with a higher number of defensive points than the attacker's attack points, than the difference is dealt to the offensive monster. If the defensive points are lower in this scenario, than the defending monster is simply destroyed. The player with no monsters on the field can be attacked directly by the opponents monsters. Monster cards are the main card types in the game, so it will help much to learn how to play them early on.

There are two other card types included to keep the game interesting. These are trap and magic cards. Trap cards are usually only used during the other player's turn, and often times have a negative effect to the field, such as lowering attack or defense of a monster as an example. Magic cards are used during the holder's turn, and are often used to increase HP, attack power or defensive power, and maybe even have a more significant effect to battle. All three types of cards are essential to victory, and they can add a lot of possible turn overs during a card duel. The main strategy in this game is in choosing which cards go into your deck, and which ones best fit the theme you're trying for. Most of the time it's best to have mostly monster cards inside your deck, but it's never wise to completely leave out magic and trap cards.

So those are the basics, now it's time to talk about what I don't like in this game. Konami decided to re-include the ever so annoying duelist level limitation. Basically, you have a duelist level that increases as you progress in the game. This level determines which cards you can include in your deck. As you may have already guessed, the stronger cards in the game require you to be a higher level before you can use them. This adds a little frustration when you finally earn a card only to learn that you are not yet strong enough to use it in battle. This is an old element included from Sacred Cards, and also one of the aspects that I felt ruined the former game. This feature has not improved at all since the Sacred Cards, and needless to say it definitly isn't welcome. I prefer to duel with the cards that I worked so hard to earn right away instead of waiting until I am "strong" enough to use them.

The other old gripe, the deck capacity limit has also returned faithfully to Sacred Card's sequal. This further limits the cards you can use, and has really tested my patience since I first met it back in Dark Duel Stories for the Gameboy Color. Basically, you earn deck capacity points after each duel that you win. A major problem with this game though is that it seems to offer far less of these points after each battle compared to Sacred Cards. Many complained that Sacred Cards was much too easy, and Konami seems to have listened to these complaints by making it a little more difficult. They did a horrible job of toning the difficulty up, because it seems that they only lowered the amount of deck capacity points after each battle, and made cards cost much, much more money at the store. There is one more major attempt at making the game difficult added, and it is definitely my least favorite. In Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction you no longer recover your life points after each duel. This is whack, it's the equivalent to changing the card game's rules.

Another horrible aspect they've added to the game is in changing the card's effects, and sometimes even completely taking them away. One example of this is in the man eater bug, which would normally destroy an opponent's monster when flip summoned. By taking away this effect, Konami has rid this card of most of it's functionality within the card game. Also, another abomination that has returned is the elemental system. I despise the fact that my Blue Eyes White Dragon can be destroyed by any dark creature in the game, including the weak Kuriboh. As with many of the worst features, this was invented for the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise's first release across a handheld console in the form of Dark Duel Stories for the Gameboy Color. I actually refuse to learn the elemental difference because it makes the duels much too easy because you can easily swap your deck for a certain element to match the enemy's weakness. Konami has made one improvement since Sacred Cards though, and this one is a biggie. They actually included a card trading and link duel option, which was one of the most missed features in Sacred Cards. The problem though is that I can't find anyone stupid enough to own this game besides my own self.

Graphics, Sound, and Controls
Reshef of Destruction is a decent looking title. When not in a duel, you wander around from the normal 3/4 overhead perspective, and everything seems drawn nicely enough. It's done with a bit of a rendered look, but this is very typical for RPGs of this kind. Inside of duels the graphics aren't quite so good. The card art is beautiful, but the backgrounds and zoomed out cards look pretty awful. One thing I especially hate is the fact that at the beginning of each turn a sensor scans the field to check for effects, but it accomplishes this in a very annoying fashion. Overall I'd say you won't be disappointed with this game, graphically speaking of course.

The music is done in a decent enough fashion for this game. It's beyond the typical blips and bleeps from the early games under this license, but it doesn't manage incredibly well outside of battle. I found myself enjoying the dueling music very much, but despite this, the game is plagued by annoying sound effects. The scanning is definitely the most annoying of these effects, with repeated bleeping that I'd rather not hear. The music fits the Yu-Gi-Oh world quite well, and I'd have to say that if it weren't for the annoying sound effects I might would have to give this a good rating here.

Controls are nothing spectacular and pretty simple, but they manage to get the job done. The menu from which you edit your deck is a little frustrating to get the hang of at first, but learning through trial and error is not so difficult. Pretty much the only buttons you'll have to worry about are on the D-pad, but you'll also have to memorize the action and cancel buttons fairly quickly. Challenging a duelist is optional a lot of the time, and can be done by walking up to them and simply pushing the R button.

Final Recommendation
I'd recommend against purchasing this game even to those who are the most hardcore of hardcore Yu-Gi-Oh fans, especially because it could ruin the storyline for you. My patience was tested on many occasions, and I left this game frustrated. Not recommended.

Final Rating: 2.7