Overall 8.8 Graphics 7.6 Sound 8 Addictive 7.8 Story 7.3 Depth 6.6 Difficulty 4.8
8.5
A great Yu-Gi-Oh game for all fans noobpwner59
As a kid, I loved the Yu-Gi-Oh TV show, it was very fun to watch, and I loved to see the monsters pop out of the cards. Now as an adult I discovered the depth and fun that comes from playing the card game, and as a fan of both the card game and the cartoon, I can say that this is a great game made for anyone who enjoys any aspect of Yu-Gi-Oh.
The game plays like a RPG type game, where you explore a RPG hub world, and grow stronger from each battle. This works for Yu-Gi-Oh, you start off with incredibly weak cards, fighting pathetic opponents, but next thing you know you have a Jinzo and you are battling Kaiba in a fierce battle. As for how the actual duels play, they play like any other Yu-Gi-Oh game, you just play the cards in your hands, and you attack until the life points drain, there is lots of strategy, however since everything in this game is automatic, (such as traps activating) it does take some of the strategy away. However the automatic battle system does make it more accessible to the younger Yu-Gi-Oh fans, and I think that it was a necessary sacrifice to make this game appeal to all fans, although a feature to limit the amount of what is automatic might be nice. It still feels great and I can get into a battle really easily and enjoy myself very much. The story in this game is based off of the Battle City story-line from the show, and it adds your own character into the story, fans of the show will probably love to be part of the story and it does it in a way that works very well. Its not a deep story by any means, and it doesn't follow the show 100%, but it works well in this game and is great for fans of the show. The music and graphics aren't quite as well made as the rest of the game, the music is boring and forgettable, and the graphics aren't really very good. Some character photos look pretty good for GBA, and the sprites are ok, but the backgrounds looks blurry, and can sometimes make the sprites look out of place, also some card pictures look blurry and it can be hard to tell what card it is. The game is still great though, it is very long, and there are many cards to collect, battles aren't always re playable, but when you can it is fun because you can change your strategy and change the way the duel plays.
The game is fun for younger fans of Yu-Gi-Oh who just likes the show, and for hardcore fans of the card game, since the dueling portion is well done and has some depth to it. The game can also get pretty hard, which will offer some challenge to hardcore fans, but the game does have good progression, so casual fans can get to the point where they can beat powerful opponents as well. It is a great game and a good choice for any Yu-Gi-Oh fan looking for a good game to duel.
8.5/10
Graphics 6 Sound 6 Addictive 9 Story 8 Depth 8 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 4.4/5
Submitted: 08-01-14
Review Replies: 2
6
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Sacred Cards - Skilled Review Skilledtree
Yu-Gi-Oh - The Sacred Cards: ReviewPre-ReviewTo start off this review, I wanted to share with everyone that this play through was the first time I had ever touched Yu-Gi-Oh: The Sacred Cards. When judging all aspects of the game, I took into account the year of release and what other games were doing at this time. I believe that this will make the following review fair and honest. For a video version of this review, please check the Vizzed Videos section of Yu-Gi-Oh: The Sacred Cards.
GraphicsThe graphics presented in this game are interesting. The game world is small, and so I expect a bit more detail than a larger game. To start off, the sprites used while walking around are above average. The game world textures are well done. I really liked the animated cut scene-ish dialogue where the character you are talking to is shown. They do really neat things like the character blinking. During the dueling sequences, I found it to be a mixed bag. The detail of the playing field, card background, and UI to be somewhat unappealing. However, the card portrait were of high detail when you zoomed in on them. The many different card types and subtypes are easily distinguishable though, so credit must be applied there.
SoundI noticed many different background music being played at different times in-game. The background music was different, fitting of the situation, and most importantly it was good. The sounds may be average, but the music was just really good. Most notably, I really liked some of the "boss" type music played. It really added to the immersive feel - which is impressive being I am usually very hard to impress with sound and music.
AddictivenessThis is where things get complicated for me. The game starts out noticeably easy, and for about 10-15 duels you have virtually no trouble winning. Luckily, the game ramps up in difficulty, but not in the way you'd expect. The game fails to inform you that there is a weakness system in place, giving you quite the curve ball when you're wondering why a weak monster just totally wrecked your obviously superior awesomely amazing monster. Then you learn the system, and all of a sudden it's back to the start of beating everything. Then they get very good cards, which leads you into checking out the card shop. You'll eventually buy those trap cards you totally ignored, and realise they are 100% game breaking. You will win about 95% of your future duels just off of using trap cards. So, with all this being said, the broken trap card system makes the game way too easy, and makes you think about almost nothing. It makes for a dull, checkers like experience in what is supposed to be an interesting, chess like experience.
DepthIn-terms of story related depth, the game breaks up the story a bit too much, and because of such it really doesn't have too much depth. Game play depth however is of a large amount. The game, even though it never tells you basically anything in terms of anything, does have a lot of different things to think about. One of the early things you may run into is that you have a duelist level. I strongly feel that this should never have been implemented - it just doesn't seem to fit into a card game. The duelist level is a variable that goes up whenever you beat an opposing duelist and allows you to use higher cost cards. On top of this, another thing that may catch the newcomer off guard is the deck limit system. When you defeat duelists, you will also be rewarded with more deck limit points. This variable allows you to put more good cards into your deck. I sort of see why this was implemented to prevent insanely over powered decks, but at the same time trap cards require a very small amount of cost to use. Balance in this regard was not done well at all, and it becomes more annoying than anything. I can only come to the conclusion that these systems were implemented to artificially boost play time by convincing the player to repeatedly duel the same person over and over - which is largely unappealing when you can just use their weakness and destroy them in about two minutes with no chance of losing.
In a possibly more positive light, the curve ball weakness system was pretty fun once I understood what was actually going on. There are many different types of cards that will instantly destroy a certain other type of card. It's not a small boost, or even a big boost, it's just a flat-rate instant destruction system. I personally think they should have done something like +500/-500 for strength/weakness, but they chose to go all-out destruction. Once you get the hang of it, you start to realise that the weak cards you start out with can potentially destroy anyone if you correctly guess what they will use. The system, although extreme, is fun and could have been a very strategically impressive asset. The problem is, you learn quick that after a certain point in the game, all you need is Light and Thunder cards, and maybe a few spell casters. Since the opponents never change their decks, overall replayabilty is limited, and deck construction leans less toward your creativity, and more toward winning potential of weakness/strength. Plus, trap cards are still going to be better than anything else, and you'll end up stuffing your deck with at the very least nine.
StoryOkay, so let's talk about the story. If you're playing for the first time and you don't know where to go, who to duel, or what specific thing to do - the story becomes split and hard to follow at times. Essentially, you and your good pals Yugi and Joey are trying to make it into the tournament being sponsored by Kiaba. You must find 6 Locator cards by defeating main characters from the Yu-Gi-Oh TV series. Along the way you'll run into a few mysterious bumps in the road, and you'll ultimately end up going on to make it with both Joey and Yugi. You'll learn of the origins of the duel monsters, and will figure out who the mysterious bad guy is. That's about as far as I can go without spoilers, and there's not much more than that. The story is pretty mediocre. It's not bad, but it's nothing to write home about. Perhaps a little more meat, and maybe less confusing direction overall, would have helped the story really shine brighter.
DifficultyThe difficulty of this game is honestly way too easy. I came into this game expecting a thinking game, and was disappointed to learn that a few things are very easily abused. The penalty system for losing a duel is to lose the card you gambled (Which you learn early on that a card with 500+ ATK gives you high ante). It doesn't feel all that penalizing, all told. The hardest part of the game was learning things that shouldn't be hard. For instance, learning the controls, learning where to go for the story, learning the weakness and strength system, learning that there even was such a system, figuring out that you can't use that card because the game said so until you duel your heart out against easy-to-beat opponents, learning how to navigate the duel interface when starting the game, and accidentally stumbling upon the fact that you can sort cards to make your life way easier.
Basically, the hardest part of the game should have been the easiest. The trap card abuse makes the dueling entirely too easy, and a no-thought-required situation most times. The only trouble I truly had after getting trap cards was the final duel - because he used a card that wiped all my trap cards. I came back two minutes later and destroyed him quickly though, so basically it was luck that had defeated me. When the two hardest things are the User Interface and the Luck system, you're either playing XCOM or you're being slightly disappointed.
In Conclusion: Summarization and RatingsLet's brush over some of what I said and what I rate each of these categories.
The graphics presented above average sprites and well done textures. The battle screen is slightly unappealing, though the card portrait detail felt good. The minor animations on the sort-of-cut-scene scenes was a very nice addition. So, with that being said, though I found the battle graphics a bit lacking, the other things mentioned really pull the weight and land a nine out of ten.
Graphics: 9/10 The music in-game was fantastic. I'm hard to please with music, and I felt that they did an excellent job. The non-music sounds were about what I expected, but the immresive and overall mood-boosting music delivers this game a sound score of ten out of ten.
Sound: 10/10With a nine out of ten and a ten out of ten, I'm sure we both were wishing that the happy-train couldn't end. Sadly, it has, and it starts with the addictiveness just not showing up at the train's boarding station. The game had a large amount of potential to deliver a highly addictive battle system. It falls short with the unbalanced card types and forced artificial time boosting mechanics. I simply do not think I could convince myself to do another play through, knowing that trap cards destroy all. Seriously, it's that game breaking for me, and this probably won't be the last time I talk about it in the closing of this review. Due to these reasons, I'm a little upset that I have to rate the addictiveness a five out of ten.
Addictiveness: 5/10To summarize the depth, there's a lot more bad depth than good depth. We can start positive, though. The strength/weakness system, although unexplained and surprising, is pretty cool once you get used to it. It adds more of a thinking element into the game. Well, at least it could have, if you didn't always know what you were up against. Artificial time boosters, easy-to-abuse strength/weakness system, and the balancing of trap cards are entirely too difficult to overlook. The story related depth wasn't anything worth bragging about either. For these reasons, I would hover anywhere from a four to a six out of ten. Since the trap cards really do break all thinking involved, it's landing at a four. It possibly could have gone lower, but I appreciate the attempt at a strength/weakness system enough to not go any lower.
Depth: 4/10The story is confusing. Not because it was written bad, but because of the poorly designed way of actually advancing in it. The first half of the game has not much meat on the bone in terms of story. Collect locator cards, get into the tournament. The second half begins to spice up the game though, and offers some lore on the cards. The well done animated cut scene-ish scenes and music really boosted the immersion into the story though, so the good graphics and music successfully boosted the truth-be-told mediocre story from a six to a seven out of ten.
Story: 7/10The game is easy. Not by design, but because of the broken trap card system, and predictable opponent decks. I highly recommend against using a guide, as it would most likely make the game even easier than what I have come to find. If you choose to not use trap cards, or not use the strength/weakness system to your advantage, then you may actually find a bit more challenge! Dominos, the in-game currency, felt like it was given away like candy. I don't know how you could spend it all. With all this being said, and staring straight at trap cards while I say it, I rate the difficulty a two our of ten. It truly breaks my heart to say that, because I full-heartedly wanted it to be a thinking game, not a go-through-the-motions game.
Difficulty: 2/10So what did I think overall? I think trap cards ruined the game for me. I respect an easy game when its intentions were clearly to be easy. This game was not intended to be easy, and therefore I am upset that it is. The story is decent, maybe even above average compared to other games in this time frame. The game's good amount of depth is entirely erased by the abusable systems. The sound and graphics are great, and I loved that they put the effort into those. Let's be honest, this game deserves a higher score than what I'm about to give it, but it ultimately failed to balance the card system - and in a card game that's obviously not a good thing. I give the game a six out of ten, and I hope that if I review the other Yu-Gi-Oh games that they will offer better balance.
Overall: 6/10 (All scores combined: 6.2 - I deducted .2 due to game breaking balance issue)If you plan to play this game, resist the urge to fill your deck with trap cards. Avoid guides telling you what every duelist will use, and you may still find enjoyment. I'd say the game is worth playing for a play-through, but I don't think it's a game you will play for maybe two play-throughs. Thanks for reading!
Graphics 9 Sound 10 Addictive 5 Story 7 Depth 4 Difficulty 2
Review Rating: 4.3/5
Submitted: 09-23-15
Review Replies: 5
9
Creative twist on Yugioh port753
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
Graphics 9 Sound 10 Addictive 8 Story 8 Depth 4 Difficulty 4
Review Rating: 4.1/5
Submitted: 12-16-12
Review Replies: 0
9
I loved this game sp7132
This was a game I have been dying to play. I was not too disappointed by it.
The background sounds were not all that great but they could have been worse.
The plot was quite interesting. I enjoyed being able to play as a main character along side of the characters from the show. I was a bit disappointed by the ending. However, I was quite stoked at being able to use Obelisk and Slifer.
The graphics were excellent and I liked how the monster cards were projected at certain times throughout the game.
This game is very addicting, I played for three days.
Graphics 9 Sound 6 Addictive 10 Story 6 Depth 9 Difficulty 4
Review Rating: 4.1/5
Submitted: 03-22-12
Review Replies: 1
8
I thought it would be fun, and it was. Miryafa
I've played Yugioh DDS and Forbidden Memories before, so when I approached this game, I thought it might be more of the same. And it pretty much was. It had the fun, easy-to-pickup (for me) gameplay, and I got addicted until I could finish the game several hours later.
The frustrating part is that it kept the arbitrary max-deck-value where you can't put good cards in your deck after you go through the trouble of purchasing/winning them until you fight 50-100 more battles per card. As for collecting cards, I used the machine at the card shop to buy the ones I needed for my deck, because I didn't feel like engaging in a ton of duels just to have a chance to get useful cards.
The good part is that it wasn't so much of a hassle that I had to grind to build a playable deck, because removal-based trap cards are both cheap and inherently better than most of the monsters (Dark Necrofear being one of the exceptions), which also cost 10x as much as the traps. So I beat the game with Change of Heart as the one card with a cost over 180-ish, and it could've been a Mind Control for all the use I gave it.
I only gave it a 2 for addictiveness because now that I've beaten the game, there's nothing else to do. I replayed the final boss a few times, just to see if he could put up a challenge, but that was it. I gave it a 1 for story because it was just a self-
insert into the Battle City plot of the show, and I felt it was badly written.
Overall it was fun.
Graphics 9 Sound 8 Addictive 2 Story 1 Depth 5 Difficulty 5
Review Rating: 4/5
Submitted: 07-03-14
Updated: 07-03-14
Review Replies: 1
9.5
awesome game 7654hg
I love this game it'sone of my favorite RPG games. I highly recommend it if you love RPG games but now about the game. The graphics are not perfect but what did you expect from a gameboy advance game. I think the sounds are really nice and almost all sounds fitt in the scene in which it plays off. The story is great (exept the end) but in the game you can play with many cards and they look almost the same as they look in real life and there are many characters you can battle also there are characters from the anime on TV you can battle. This game is not very difficult. Overall I think this is a great game with a great story and great sounds so I give this game a 9.5. This was a review of 7654hg and i think you will see more from me in the future.
Graphics 7 Sound 9 Addictive 9 Story 9 Depth 7 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 3.8/5
Submitted: 06-17-12
Review Replies: 0
9.3
Yu-Gi-Oh the sacred cards Ryan the ssg
Graphics
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The graphics for areas can be good although sometimes can make certain things confusing. for characters sprites they are pretty good although some can be odd, although the character portraits are a nice touch.
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Sound
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The songs in game are okay, but can get repetitive. They are well made but there isn't enough to keep it going. Although they aren't very memorable.
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Addictiveness
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The game can be extremely fun similar to the actual card game. The major thing i found myself doing is working towards making a personal deck, the game does give a great amount of variety and types of card. The game has tons to do like, perform all the rituals,see how much you can power up one card, beating certain characters as fast as possible, although it does have a lot of grinding and that would majorly affect its score but because of a ingame exploit it isn't to bad.
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Story
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Now the story is hard to explain, its essentially the second season of the anime. Like i said its mainly just the animes second season the only real difference is that your character takes yugi's place in the story. It has very little change form it the only real changes happens when your character does something that a character from the anime would have.
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Depth
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It keeps most of the card games main mechanics. Not much change from the card game, the only real change is that abilities stop a monsters turn. The main thing it did is the whole deck capacity and deck cost gimmick. Capacity is how much card points you can have, each card has its own amount of points and all of them combined must be at or below your capacity. Cost is act's as a levels it grows after every battle and every card has a minimum cost and if that cost is higher then yours than it cant be put in your deck.
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Difficulty
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Early game it can certain place's can be a challenge (namely the aquarium). But once you get to the exploit i mentioned earlier and choose to use it the rest of the game can be pathetic. But if you don't then the difficulty stays at a consistent level with it being alright but sometimes a massive curve ball.
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Graphics 7 Sound 7 Addictive 9 Story 7 Depth 8 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 3.7/5
Submitted: 11-01-14
Review Replies: 1
10
Easy Game Deadend136
This was my first time playing this game on here. The game is actually very easy as long as you constantly change your deck according to the next area/main characters you face. This game is not a game to be played just for the graphics and sound. The main idea of playing this game is to just say that you beat it and it was not difficult. However it can become highly addictive and you could find yourself replaying the game over and over again if your a fan.
This game does not offer a very good story but goes directly with the show for any fans out there.(Except some minor changes since your now the main character and not Yugi) This game's story and depth is not as good as other games on this console but it is a popular game that many players have gotten their hands on and beat.
So as long as you match up correctly and change your deck around to fit the next part of the story this game should not have a difficulty level of higher than a 3 or 4. If your trying to speed through I suggest at the next area or major battle to go to the card shop and buy cheap cards that could destroy your opponent's cards just from the type. So that is why the difficulty is so low in my opinion because you do not need to train anything you just need to make a few small adjustments.
This is a game with rules and if you are not familiar with how to actually play the card game you will run into some difficulty.(Very easy to learn). I recommend this game to fans and those who only have a few hours to spare to play a good game.(Could take less than 3-4 hours first run through if you know how to play and what types/summons beat what types/summons and have a good game plan).
I being a fan became addicted to this game because once you beat it the first time around it actually goes by much faster afterwards. One of my recent play through it only took about 2 hours.(Mostly because I forgot what exactly to do and where to go in some parts)
Graphics 6 Sound 7 Addictive 10 Story 7 Depth 3 Difficulty 1
Review Rating: 3.5/5
Submitted: 04-26-13
Updated: 04-26-13
Review Replies: 1
10
yugi edwards95
This is one of the best yugioh games iv ever played on the GBA. its links in with the TV show and lets you get right in the action while you try and collect the best cards in the game to be able to win yugioh in the final battle.
Graphics 10 Sound 10 Addictive 10 Story 10 Depth 10 Difficulty 1
Review Rating: 3.3/5
Submitted: 05-23-13
Review Replies: 1
2.5
Read Before Assuming the Rating Reason BeingThree
I would have given this game a 7.5 if it weren't for one thing- the ending, and what's before it. See, I was having fun. I played for about a week straight to beat it. What happens? It ends and the siblings you pretty much met just 'leave forever'. Who cares about friendship, right?? Well, evidently I do, and found that part really stupid. Let's truen the now 5 to a 2.5 because, where you end up after beating it where you still have the option for final boss, the only people left to duel are only a few and they haven't even trained up to be stronger. I could punch the screen. So, that's all I have to battle? And, the card shop won't let me buy two more Time Wizards and one more La Jinn Jeanie lamp?? I was mad enough that the stupid boss and you in that battle have set cards. That's right- what cards you get in the beginning and he gets are set from the beginning to the end. How much more stupid can this get?? I loved this game. It ruled until the end.. then it pissed me off so bad you can bet I'll be skeptical of any Yugioh from here on out. A shame, too. I really liked it at first.
Graphics 5 Sound 10 Addictive 10 Story 10 Depth 7 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 2.6/5
Submitted: 11-05-11
Review Replies: 8