YMMV / Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses

• Awesome Music: Has its own page.
• Badass Decay: This game saw the debut of the Immortal cards, which serve as a set of Infinity +1 Swords. They have powerful and unique effects, even aside from the natural benefits of being Immortal (immune to Crush terrain, and create it upon death, likely killing any opponent who beats them). Unfortunately, when they were released in the actual game, they mostly lost their awesome effects or were just plain not very good — only Slate Warrior and maybe Rigorous Reaver were still sorta playable. How bad was it? One of the Immortals was Shapesnatch. Yes, that Shapesnatch.
• Breather Boss: T. Tristan Grey, for the Yorkist route. His monsters are all quite weak and his A.I. often has him doing stupid moves, such as constantly trying to move his cards behind your cards. He calls it his "crab-walker" strategy. Huh. Either way, it's a welcome breather after the grueling first encounter with Téa and her horde of buffs and Fairy monsters.
• Common Knowledge: There was a persistent rumor that Nitemare was the True Final Boss of the Japanese version but was removed from the localized versions for being too hard. This was later proven to be false.
• Contested Sequel: Some prefer Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories' detailed story, basic gameplay and strategies, lack of abundant game-breakers, and intense difficulty making wins satisfying, while others prefer Duelists of the Roses' unique gameplay, historical bent, better card pool, easier difficulty, and more intricate strategies, seeing it as a Surprisingly Improved Sequel. There are also fans who enjoy both games equally.
• Critical Dissonance: The game got mixed to negative reviews, but it still became a Greatest Hits title with over a million copies sold.
• Critic-Proof: It was one of the first Yu-Gi-Oh! video games for home consoles released in the early 2000s at the height of the franchise's popularity — it was going to sell no matter what critics said.
• Designated Villain: The Yorkists are supposed to be the bad guys, but if you play both campaigns, it's pretty clear who's offering the better deal. If you side with the Lancastrians, Henry VII gets crowned King and takes the credit for winning the war, to the point where you, who did all the work, aren't even mentioned in any recorded history, and it's unclear if you even returned to your own time. Meanwhile, siding with the Yorkists leads to Seto treating you as an equal, even planning to share the the Guardian's blessing with you. When the summoning doesn't work out, he gives you a pendant that guarantees his family's debt to you, and gladly returns you to your own time. Furthermore, we're told that the Yorkists have the Lancastrians pushed into a corner, but a quick look at the actual map shows the Lancastrians being everywhere and equally strong as, if not stronger than, the Yorkists. On top of that, regardless of what side you choose, Henry becomes king anyway and Seto steps aside.
• Game-Breaker: Lots.
  • Darkness Approaches. It flips everything on the field face-down, meaning flip effects can be recycled. A good number of cards power themselves up when they're flipped face-up, such as Wood Remains and Mystical Elf. Not only that, Fiend Reflection #2 lets you play another card the turn it's flipped, and — even worse — Magician of Faith and Mask of Darkness can recycle Spell Cards. Including Darkness Approaches, which then flips them face-down, creating an endless cycle. Even though you can't actually cast the recovered card on the same turn, reusing flip effects every turn is still ludicrously good. Admittedly, this is a card you need to be very lucky to obtain without cheating but you can get it.
    • Should you have two Spell Card recyclers out, you can get back two spells. This lets you cast a second spell very turn. Darkness Approaches is not the only spell that's useful to cast every turn.
  • The easiest ones to obtain and work with are Zombies. The archetype runs on two principles: Multiple copies of Dragon Zombie, Armored Zombie, and Clown Zombie, three monsters with extremely low cost for their attack power and low Level (they exchange this for Defense, which you rarely need), and the ability to summon multiple copies of Pumpking the King of Ghosts (through normally summoning him or through fusing a Zombie and a Plant together, when one of them is at or above 1000 attack). Pumpking by itself is a Game-Breaker, as its ability (raises the ATK and DEF points of all of your Zombies permanently by 100 every player turn) allows for insane ramping of power even with only one on the field (getting five onto the field, all in face-up Defense Mode is not out of the question with fusions). Throw in Wasteland to set the terrain, a few more cheap Zombies, and just a few more cheap cards into the deck and you have an easily obtained deck that can beat 90% of the game without modification. Add in Call of the Haunted and/or Blue-Eyed Silver Zombie to change all your non-Zombie monsters into Zombies to get pumped. One of the possible starter decks has Call of the Haunted, and another has Blue-Eyed Silver Zombie, and a few Plants already. Even the low deck cost enemies that force you to swap out most of your other game-breakers can be pwned by a Zombie deck.
  • Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth is nasty. It has the ability to lower your opponent's attack and defense on every creature (even face-down) permanently every turn as long as it stays in face-up Defense Mode. A few duels with Weevil can get you the Cocoon of Evolution and a Petite or Larvae Moth to fuse with it to create Pupae of Moth, which turns into Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth next turn, and goes to the Graveyard. Where it can then be resurrected with a card to get you another Moth (Mimicat is commonly used for this). Then it goes to the Graveyard again. You can use these cards in your already game-breaking Zombie deck. Humiliation doesn't even begin to cover it.
  • Once you get Mirror Wall (obtainable with a password at the start of the game if you know it), you've practically won the duel. It's an incredibly powerful continuous Trap Card that blocks all of your opponent's attacks and cuts their monsters' attack in half. However, due to Artificial Stupidity, the A.I. will simply keep attacking as if the trap didn't exist, weakening their monsters and allowing you to do whatever you like unimpeded. Combining it with Aqua Dragon or Roaring Ocean Snake, which change the terrain they battle on to Sea when attacked, and it becomes unfair.
  • Muka Muka. Though it starts with 600 ATK, when flipped up, it gains 300 for every single monster in your Graveyard. Play it in the late game, and it'll probably have something in the range of 4800 ATK, and even in the early game, simply discarding your hand is enough to make it fairly strong. Pair it with the aforementioned Darkness Approaches combo, and it'll usually have enough ATK to OTK the opponent while attacking their strongest monster. And if you don't like reincarnation, Swordstalker does the same thing but better in some ways (2000 ATK, 100 for every monster) and can be found through a password or dueling Seto and Pegasus.
  • Gate Deeg and Berformet instantly max out your summoning stars, neither have especially high costs, and the former can be played on the first turn. This makes summoning strong monsters insultingly easy. First turn: Gate Deeg. Second turn: Blue-Eyes. Third turn: Red-Eyes, or one of its fusions if you're lucky. Even if you don't use Darkness Approaches, Gate Deeg basically gives you up to four turns' worth of summoning stars, and your opponent won't keep up.
  • Greenkappa's stats change to match that of the strongest monster on the field when it flips up. Depending on the situation, this either just lets you copy your opponent's ace for a possible Taking You with Me at worst, or it gives you two of yours to stomp the opponent twice as hard.
  • Aqua Dragon has fairly high attack power already at 2250 ATK, but when it duels its effect changes whatever space it's on to Sea terrain, giving it even more of a power boost. Roaring Ocean Snake is much the same, being only slightly weaker at 2100 ATK. Combine either with Mirror Wall and the only tough fights will be the final bosses.
  • Mimicat has a fairly high deck cost, but can fetch any card from either Graveyard. Including ones that are considered too good for you to ever actually get in your deck.
  • Any monster type that can be buffed by multiple types of terrain, such as Beast-Warrior (Sogen and Forest) or Thunder (Mountain and Umi), can make battles ridiculously easy. All you need to do is have more than one copy of one or both of the terrain cards that benefit you, and most matches become a breeze, especially as changing the terrain normally debuffs your opponent (who is usually playing on terrain that benefits them).
• Heartwarming Moments: Going by real-life history, Yugi and Téa will get married after the game. And for bonus points, most historians believe that Henry VII and Elizabeth of York's betrothal led to a Perfectly Arranged Marriage. When you duel Téa, she fights for her own sake and to protect the man she loves.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: A Strategy RPG where you have to choose between two sides, one clearly being heroic with the other one being morally shadier, and at the end of the game, there turns out to be an Eldritch Abomination responsible for the events of the game. Hmm...
• Low-Tier Letdown: A number of types get the short end of the stick in this game. Dinosaurs are by far the worst, with only thirteen Normal Monsters to their name and nothing stronger than 2200. Reptiles and Pyros aren't much better, with thirteen and eleven monsters, respectively, but they at least have one or two okay cards, even if getting them is an ordeal. Conversely, Zombies, Machines, Insects, and the Fish/Aqua/Sea Serpent trio tend to dominate.
• Magnificent Bastard: C. Seto Rosenkreuz, leader of the Yorkists, is a brilliant tactician who aims to combine his army's White Rose Cards with the enemy Lancastrian's Red Rose Cards to summon a godly being and rule the world for eternity. When the Rose Duelist is summoned to aid the Lancastrians, Seto presents them with a compelling argument to join his forces and calmly works in the Rose Duelist's decision, regardless of whether or not they take him up on his offer. Dismantling the Lancastrian forces if the Duelist joins the Yorkists, Seto succeeds in his goals to summon a spirit but instructs the Duelist on how to return it, realizing it is not the one he seeks. If they side with the Lancastrians, Seto summons the spirit even after they best him in a duel, and escapes once it's beaten as well. Seto continues seeking the true Card Guardian, honoring his promise to send the Duelist home and remains the single most intelligent, charismatic character regardless of which campaign the player chooses.
• Older Than They Think: Seto and Yugi's battle themes are remixes of tunes from Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Capsule Breed and Battle, a Japan-only game about Capsule Monsters that predates Forbidden Memories (which also featured arrangements of Seto's theme^*one for Priest Seto in Ancient Egypt and another for Kaiba in the finals of the modern-day KaibaCorp tournament, the former serving as the basis for Seto's theme here) by over a year.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The inability to duel someone you have a higher Deck Cost than. It makes sense to maintain difficulty that you have to beat them the first time with a deck of equal or lower cost, as it prevents you from beating the game by just grinding your way to a deck that can just overpower everyone with little strategy, but for subsequent replays, it's just annoying to be restricted like that when you've already beaten them. Be prepared to constantly shuffle around your deck to get a lower cost in order to reduel people. Even after you beat the game on both routes and have everyone unlocked to duel, and thus have overcome every challenge in the game and are only playing at that point for fun and to get more cards, you still aren't allowed to duel people you have a higher Deck Cost than.
• That One Boss:
  • Pegasus is blocked from immediate approach by the Labyrinth squares ahead of the player, which gives him time to set up some rather nasty spells and traps such as Change of Heart or Brain Control, though most of the time he'll just spam Tremendous Fire and deal 1000 points of damage, baiting you towards him before he snuffs all of your LP from a distance. His deck also makes great use of the surrounding Toon spaces while practically every other monster doesn't. Thanks to his Millennium Eye, he doesn't fall for most of your tricks and bluffs. He is quite possibly the hardest duel in the game aside from Deck Master I or the final bosses. His card set is designed to abuse his Millennium Eye too. The fact that he can cast Change of Heart and takeover a facedown to hit you or suicide a weak monster against your strong one to force a ton of LP damage is bad enough. The fact that he knows when he can get a direct attack in with Brain Control (takes over your strongest) even when that monster is facedown is unforgivable.
  • Bakura is just plain mean. Not only is his Deck Cost the lowest of all the duelists (meaning you're forced to line your deck with only the weakest monsters, Trap and Spell cards available to you), but his field is covered in Crush terrain — even if you manage to play a monster with over 1500 ATK, it goes bye after stepping or playing on one of those spaces. The game itself is aware of this, as Bakura will mockingly ask the player if you think him a coward should he win.
  • Jasper's Deck Leader is protected behind Labyrinth tiles much like Pegasus'. Said Deck Leader happens to be Exodia, so in the time it takes for your monsters to make it all the way to his Deck Leader, he may have already summoned the four limbs and won. Naturally, he compliments this strategy with spellbinding monsters.
  • Yugi may not have as straightforwardly powerful a deck as Seto, but he is the cruelest offender of Destiny Draw in the game. When you have him low on Life Points and you think that you have the duel wrapped, Yugi will set some facedown cards that he will use later. These cards typically end up being Mirror Force, Spellbinding Circle, Swords of Revealing Light, Monster Reborn, or Raigeki — all of which will ruin your advantage somehow. If you are really unlucky, Yugi will then Ritual Summon Black Luster Soldier while you are still busy recuperating. Without Magic Jammer or Royal Decree in your deck, duelling Yugi can be harder than the final bosses. Even in video games, Yugi can get whatever cards he wants when his back is against the wall. Heart of the Cards, yeah!

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