Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Capsule Breed and Battle is a Yu-Gi-Oh! game for the PlayStation. Based on Toei's Yu-Gi-Oh anime and featuring their voice actors, it's notable for being the very first video game based on the franchise, though it never left Japan. It is a mix of a Raising Sim and Turn-Based Strategy.
The game focuses on Capsule Monster battles, much like successor games Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Capsule GB and Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monster Coliseum, and has similar chesslike gameplay mechanics in battle. Where it differs, however, is the raising system. Instead of getting strong monsters right off the bat, you raise them from eggs, watch them grow, and evolve them into various types. Once they're strong enough, you can enter them in tournaments against Yu-Gi-Oh cast members and win your way to becoming the champion. Most monsters are Capsule Monsters, though a few Duel Monsters are thrown in, such as Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Mystical Elf.
This game contains examples of:
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Bakura's hair was light blue in the Toei anime but is light indigo here, and Mokuba's hair was dark green but is blue here. Several outfits they wear are also different colors than in the anime, and several eye colors were changed to match their hair colors.
- Curtains Match the Window: Every character's eye color matches their hair color, leading to a few cases of Adaptation Dye-Job.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Most Yu-Gi-Oh games are based either on the manga or the Duel Monsters anime, making this game's focus on the Toei anime stand out. Focusing almost entirely on Capsule Monsters is also an early oddity, as later Capsule Monsters games use many more Duel Monsters than Capsule Monsters.
- Guide Dang It!:
- The raising system in general is very complex, much like Digimon World, including hidden stats and almost every potential action raising or lowering those stats, including object placement and ways to cancel the first evolution and make a secondary evolution possible. Even something as simple as hatching the eggs has hidden values attached to it, with what button you press determining which stats, if any, are increased from the base stats.
- Rare monster eggs can be found in battle arenas, but good luck finding them without a guide.
- Fusing monsters also requires a guide, as they can come out completely different than what you intended depending on their stats and attributes.
- Last Lousy Point: The only probable way to get Dark Master Zorc is via hacking, as it only has a 1% chance of evolving from a Blue-Eyes.
- Raising Sim: The bulk of the game involves you raising Capsule Monsters to become a champion, which they can only do if trained properly.
- Superboss: If you beat the campaign mode twice, on the third try Yami Yugi will use Dark Master Zorc as his ace monster.
- Victor Gains Loser's Powers: Winning a tournament match allows you to swap one of your Capsule Monsters for an opponent's.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: While Yugi and Jonouchi can be defeated without too much trouble, Anzu's monsters are not only stronger, they synergize well and have added effects, making training to get around them and targeting specific monsters first a necessity.
- A Winner Is You: Beating Yami Yugi gives you a Congratulations screen and the credits, and nothing else.
