To those who are true fans to the actual rules of the card game involving halving life points, and the many effects monsters have like in many other Yugioh World Championships, then this might not be your game. The Sacred cards has a different set of rules, not involving effects like waiting turns, special summoning (but some monsters have that effect), or any other complicated effect. The rules are simpler, which is something I enjoy more than complicated game play.
I do happen to enjoy this game since I know what Reshef Of Destruction (sequel) is like. Very similar game play, but the deck capacity increases by only 1 for each win and prize money is scarce.
The graphics when you're looking at all 5 cards in your hand isn't that great, but up close they are pretty detailed. The graphics of the characters are pretty well developed for GBA. The music is very catchy. The music for strong duelists and the duel machine are nice tunes in my opinion.
If you've watched the tv series of the Domino City tournament, then you will find the story to be very similar. The ghouls, Marik, Jean Claude, all of the strong duelists common known duelists are all present in the time line.
My only downer is that after beating Marik *spoiler alert*, the game doesn't save and when you load again, its as if you never beat him. So I usually just beat the game, and restart just to keep entertained.

The thing about this game is that the game is very easy to beat. Training to become better is a quick process as the game can be beaten within a week, or even just about 4 days.
I do recommend this game to do in free time just for fun