Yu-Gi-Oh: The Sacred Cards is a GBA video game made by Konami based on the Battle City Tournament arch of the Yu-Gi-Oh anime. The plot itself is more or less a
Self-Insert Fic of the Battle City Tournament arch, with the player character replacing Yugi as the main protagonist. (Yugi himself does appear in the game, albeit with a much smaller role.) The game uses unique rules only vaguely similar to the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG; the most major difference is the addition of
Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors, in which a monster whose type is strong against another's can kill it regardless of Atk/Def points. (For example, a Dark monster of 300 ATK can kill a Light monster of 3,000 ATK, but does no damage to the opponent's Life Points.)
The game it's self is pretty fun, although it has the nasty tendency to introduce difficulty spikes at points in the game. The game also has a 'deck capacity' limit in order to keep players from adding a bunch of game breaker monsters to their deck and breezing through the entire game, so grinding will be required at certain points through out the game. Overall, it's a pretty fun experience if you can forgive the above.
The game got a direct sequel in
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Reshef of Destruction, which is
much,
much more difficult.
This game provides examples of
- Adaptation Induced Plot Hole: Okay, so, in the manga/anime, Yugi gets Slifer by defeating Strings. In this game, the player is the one who duels Strings. You don't get Slifer from your victory over Strings, and Strings is never heard from again. During the finals, Yugi's deck has Slifer. How on Earth did he get that card if he never dueled Strings?
- Alternate Continuity
- Big Bad: Marik, of course.
- Boring Yet Practical: The weaker Tribute monsters for much of the game, since they may only have 1800 ATK for one Tribute, but your normal monsters at best have 900.
- Doron. You start off with one, and it has a low deck capacity cost, and an ATK of 900. More importantly, it has the ability to duplicate it's self when played, which is really useful for tribute summons. Later, you can win a Revival Jem, which has the exact same attributes as Doron, but has 600 more ATK at the cost of a bit higher deck capacity limit.
- But Thou Must: In the ending, you have to turn all three Egyptian God Cards over to Ishizu, never getting the chance to use Ra even once.
- Death by Adaptation: With you in the finals in place of Ishizu, you're the one who duels Odion, and in the semi-finals Yami Yugi. This leaves Joey and Kaiba to duel Yami Marik, and it goes as well as you'd expect.
- Demoted to Extra: Yugi. A painful example since the story still revolves around Marik seeking the God Cards and destroying Yami Yugi, yet you're the one who faces all the Rare Hunters and Yugi is basically not in the game until the finals begin.
- Joey, too, since you defeat all of the players that he dueled in the manga/anime.
- Doppelgänger Attack: Strings is a shining example. Numerous monsters summon other monsters into play, two — Doron and Revival Jam — directly summoning another copy of themselves, and Strings specializes in such monsters.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors
- Eleventh Hour Superpower: You get Slifer the Sky Dragon immediately before the Final Boss.
- NPC Roadblock: Many areas will be blocked off by KC guards or Ghouls until you have passed a certain point in the story. Most notable is the Museum, the outside of which is accessible at the start of the game, but which is blocked off until shortly before the finals.
- Level Grinding: The easiest way to get your level up quickly in the final levels is to stack your deck with Shadow and Fiend monsters when it comes time to duel Ishizu, curbstomp her Light and Dream monsters for 30 deck points and a rare card, then lose to Kaiba on purpose. When you return to the museum you have to start over with Ishizu again, giving you 30 deck points each time. This method was notably Nerfed to the point it's unusable in Reshef of Destruction.
- Self-Insert Fic: The easiest way to sum up the plot is that basically the player character combines the roles Yugi and Joey played in the manga/anime during the Battle City Tournament arc, with Yugi and Joey themselves basically reduced to supporting characters.
0 reviews