YU-GI-OH : THE SACRED CARDS
Most fans of the anime would probably be excited by the addition of a story into the
card dueling game. Rightly so!- having something to add meaning to the endless battles can give that extra incentive to play.
The plot of Sacred Cards is based on the "Battle City" of the anime as Kaiba sets up a city-wide
tournament to draw out the rare card holders. So far so good.....so why then change the rules of the game??
Its not a dramatic overhaul but the addition of an elemental hierarchy to the cards (sort of
like in Pokemon where eg. water has the advantage against fire etc.) radically changes the tactics of the game.
Having your Blue-Eyes ultimate white dragon crushed by a 1-star squirt just because its a dark-type
or whatever is infuriating. It mightn't sound all that bad to those not used to Yu-Gi-Oh but it certainly doesn't add anything
to what was an already tight system of rules.
Wandering around the playing area triggering off the next sequence of events isn't all that
bad but the areas are quite small and bar dueling and collecting cards theres nothing else to do. The only real RPG element
is the way your character's abilities increase - allowing him to control better cards and more of them as time goes by. And
not really much time needs to go by as this game is rather easy and short. By the time you get your hands on the god cards
the game is over!
All in all its not the worst Yu-Gi-Oh title out there but it still fairly mediocre. If Konami
are going to include a story and exploring into this type of game atleast make their inclusion worthwhile. One only has
to look at the Pokemon games to see how side-quests and activities other than battling can enhance a game.
