Seeing as this is Part 4 of a very long review, I strongly suggest you go read the preceding three parts if you haven't yet: Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here.
Hello again? Yeah, still me. Still rambling on about a certain series and a video game adaptation that was made for it. Don't worry, it ends today. I've been re-reading what I wrote in the past two weeks and I came to a stunning realization: I know way too much about fanfiction. Okay, I've read a lot, I've also written quite a few – which is probably why I make fun of it so much; self-deprecation FTW! – but I'm also very able to write original stuff. And Heck, all my writing tips so far are about the don'ts of fanfic writing, which are just one step below the don'ts of real story writing. Okay, so... where was I... Oh, right! The finale!
Hello again? Yeah, still me. Still rambling on about a certain series and a video game adaptation that was made for it. Don't worry, it ends today. I've been re-reading what I wrote in the past two weeks and I came to a stunning realization: I know way too much about fanfiction. Okay, I've read a lot, I've also written quite a few – which is probably why I make fun of it so much; self-deprecation FTW! – but I'm also very able to write original stuff. And Heck, all my writing tips so far are about the don'ts of fanfic writing, which are just one step below the don'ts of real story writing. Okay, so... where was I... Oh, right! The finale!
This
is gonna be epic. I mean, really epic. Like, so freaking totally epic
that you won't believe it. You'll really see how far a card game can
go. That is, not THAT epic, actually...
Indeed, not so epic... |
What
are we waiting for? Let's go!
After “Marik”'s arrival at the finale, the eight finalists get aboard the blimp, as the quarter-finale is about to begin. Each time, two opponents are drawn out from a giant sphere, they duel, and the process is repeated. Duel one: Yugi VS Bakura. Oh hey, the wimp versus the shy.
Bakura, you're twelves flavors of screwed against Slifer the Execut- I mean, Slifer the Sky Dragon! ...What was I thinking... |
Then
again, if you've read the manga or watched the anime, you should know
that this ends very badly; Yami Yugi battles Yami Bakura, and it ends
with Yami Bakura being utterly vaporized by an attack coming from
Osiris the Sky Dragon (AKA Slifer in the anime; Before you ask, yes,
I have a social life). The original Bakura is still alive, but
comatose for a bit. Well, this also happens in this game. Glad to see that it
respected at least one aspect of the series.
The six that haven't dueled yet join again in the lotto room, and Nikorasu's number gets picked. I should
mention that in the original line-up, Isis Ishtar was one of the
eight duelists at the finale. But Nikorasu took her place here, which
led to most other duels in the finale to be switched around.
Therefore, “Marik” was originally fought by Joey, but here, it's
Orange Cap Boy who duels him. This “Marik” uses the same tricks
as in the series and can summon the same mighty creature. However,
he's not horribly hard to defeat.
Yep, you can also duel Bandit Keith again. At least HE is kind of hard to beat, compared to the others... |
I
mean, by this point of the game, the player's Duelist Level should be
pretty high. Over 250, that's for sure. And if it's still not high
enough, there's an easy way to increase it: All the major duelists
defeated over the course of the game can be found again around Domino
City and re-fought at will: Bonz, Esper Roba, Rex Raptor, Weevil
Underwood, Mako Tsunami... You can also fight the machine at
KaibaCorp, and you can also find Bandit Keith at the Pier... AGAIN!
Dammit, will you die already? I swear I'm naming my enemies after
you! There's still a ton of cards available at the shop, and if the
card you wanted isn't there, there's a handy little feature you can
use in this game. If you collect the cards (like I do), you might
have noticed an 8-digit number at the bottom left of the cards. If
the card pre-dates this game, you can input that code in the shop's
machine and the card will become available in the shop! This is a
very nice idea, and I must say it's a welcome addition, especially if
you, say, want to collect at least one of every card in the game and
you can go check the 8-digit number for each one of them...
Alright,
so, once “Marik” is defeated, he tries to call forth a false
Winged Dragon of Ra, but it backfires and sends him in a coma. Namu
reveals himself to be the real Marik. Who did Nikorasu battle, then?
...Namu's trusted servant and friend, Rishid? Really? Oh, crap.
Sorry about that.
You heartless. |
Well... It was good knowing ya, Joey. ...Not really. |
Duel
3 is between Joey and... and who? Rishid has been defeated! ...It's
Joey against... against Marik? Oh crap, once again. Since Marik is
the one with the real God card, he defeats Joey... easily, I must
add... and sends him in a coma. Why am I not surprised. I should
mention that this duel happens in the semi-finals in the original
story, not in the quarter-finals, which means it happened earlier this time. Oh right, I have to
show emotion. I had almost forgotten: Boo hoo, poor Joey and all this
kind of stuff.
So,
duel 4 is between Mai and Kaiba. Kaiba quickly beats her with his
three trusted Blue-Eyed White Dragons. Did I mention that the duels
occurred on top of the blimp, and to add more “epic” to the
story, while the blimp is flying towards the true destination of the
finale? After Mai and Kaiba's duel, the blimp lands on a wrecked
island on which only one tower rests: The duel tower! Everyone
arrives at the tower, amazed at its sight. Honestly, this is not an
architectural work of art, so I don't give a damn. Still, the semi-finales happen between these walls, and then the finale will be at the very top.
Who
does Nikorasu duel in the semi-finale? ...Take a wild guess. A wild
freaking guess. Our hero, a perfect nobody, is a friend of the
original Yu-Gi-Oh series' cast, has gone through both Yugi AND Joey's
storylines, he has saved Yugi's life, and now he's in the finale. He has only one step left to show that he's better then everyone else: He's dueling Yami Yugi. He is going against
the strongest duelist in the series, the REAL protagonist. Oh, and of
course, you have to defeat him.
WRITING
TIP #5: IF YOUR CHARACTER IS BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE, EVEN BETTER
THAN THE REAL HEROES, IT'S A MOTHER-FLIPPING MARY SUE! Screw you,
game!
At the cost of the last remaining thread of sense in this plot. |
So... *sigh*... I never thought I'd
write these lines myself... It makes no sense, and you know it, you
all know it... Orange Cap Boy, Mister “LEGO Brick of a
personality”, nicknamed Nikorasu for the sake of having a name, the
little nobody defeats Yami freaking Yugi and gains Slifer the Sky
Dragon. Yes, I just wrote
that. The continuity nut in me feels like he got stabbed by a bad
plot. But it happened.
"Game over, man!" |
...After
this battle, Kaiba duels Marik on top of the tower, where he opposes
great resistance for a while... but Marik easily defeats him with the
Winged Dragon of Ra. Also, guess what, Kaiba faints. He'll be in a
coma until Marik is defeated. Now that makes three characters who
pushed the game too far. You know, this card game is dangerous. Don't
those characters want a less.. um... risky pastime, such as flower
arrangement or macrame? Maybe collecting beer bottle caps or participating in dog shows? I heard that Magic: The Gathering isn't half
bad, either.
Everyone
goes to see Kaiba in his room aboard the blimp's infirmary, after
which it's time for the very last duel of the whole game. The player
VS Yami Marik Ishtar. I hope you're ready, because this is gonna be a
HARD battle. Because of the set Field, nearly all of Marik's monsters
have an ATK over 2,000, and it can be very easy for him to lead the
Duel and bring your Life Points down to 0. He's the final boss, of course he's gonna be hard to
beat.
But,
obviously, Nikorasu defeats Marik. I'll admit, if you know a good
strategy and you can use it from the start, you'll lead the duel
fairly quickly. I mean, the first times I battled him I had trouble, as he was really strong. But after a few times, he becomes a
lot easier to defeat. Once you know his strategy and you can counter
him in the first turns... Not to mention that this isn't the manga or
the anime; he isn't gonna pull out his God Card as easily, because we
all know that in the friggin' series, all the characters seem to pull
out the right card at the right moment, magically like it was meant
to happen; even the villains do that, which is why they always manage to make their combos come true before the dueling protagonist can fight back. I never believed in that “Heart of the Cards” bullcrap,
if you ask me. I prefer to put my beliefs in something more important
to mankind.
My God, another one in a coma? Is this Raise Comatose Awareness day? |
Okay,
so... When Yami Marik is defeated, he vanishes, reverting to Namu,
and the boy faints. After what the group goes to the infirmary, wait
by Joey's bed to see him wake up. Ah, so defeating the root of all
evil frees from coma those who succumbed to it? Good to know... I
guess... Mokuba also passes by to say they the blimp will land soon in Domino City... and he also thanks Nikorasu for saving his
brother. Kaiba woke up as well in the other room. And so did Rishid.
You
did inherit the Winged Dragon of Ra God Card after beating Marik, but
Isis Ishtar forces you to give all three cards back to her. Hey, no
fair! I didn't get to try my new card! And she won't leave
until you give them back. No way to progress further unless you do.
Which means you never get to try the final God Card. Unless you hack,
but would you really do that for a freaking Yu-Gi-Oh! Game??? So you give the three God Cards back. Next, back at Times Rectangle, Nikorasu, Joey and Yugi go home, tell each other goodbye, and that's
how it ends.
Hey! I want my God Cards back,, you little... Oh hey, I saved Marik? And everyone else? Hurray! |
What
a hilariously stupid piece of dumbed-down cheesy mother-loving
awesome crap.
No,
really: I kept saying that this is both one of my favorite AND most
despised games. I don't think I've seen a lot of games that gave me
such strong conflicting emotions. I love this game, but I also hate
it.
Come on, you're just awaiting for an idiot wearing an orange cap and a backpack. One who shouldn't even exist in this world. Give me the card, I'll beat Marik and vanish forever. Hopefully. |
The
plot is similar enough to what was in the manga, so I can say Konami
tried to be faithful. At the same time, they had to create a Player
Character for the plot to work, so they made Orange Cap Boy. He fits
more the description of a Pokémon protagonist than a Yu-Gi-Oh one.
He doesn't even have the wacky haircut! He has a cap covering his
head! (It's not “What's wrong with his hair”, it's “Why is his
hair NOT wrong?”) Also, since he plays both Yugi and Joey's
storylines, that makes him a Black Hole Sue, and this makes this
whole game's plot a cheap self-insert fanfiction. But at the same
time, it's freaking Yu-Gi-Oh! If you've even barely followed the
Abridged series, you know it's always been weird and absurd. It's
like everything revolves around card games. And in some cases, it's
really funny to see how things go. The player character defeats weakling, then normal duelists, then a bunch of Ghouls, and even major Yu-Gi-Oh
characters. Is it justified that he can defeat the strongest duelists
that were in the series? Not really, unless “being the Player
Character” counts. That's the sole reason he can do all that.
Therefore, the plot is still very interesting; I do kind of like how
both storylines were blended into a single one. It's some good Japanese cheese-fest, the kind of cheesy stuff you've come to expect from the sillier things that reached North America and gained a fanbase. But at the same time,
this really makes Orange Cap Boy a horrible character when you think about it.
The plot entirely revolves around him, not around the real
protagonists of the series. Does this game have
a good plot? No. Is it contrived in order to put all the importance on your character? Hell yes. This is flawed, horribly flawed, all in favor of your Gary Stu of a character. But damn, this power
fantasy is also kinda awesome.
The
pixel art looks very nice. The worlds are very pretty, and you can
easily recognize all the main characters thanks to their in-game
sprite. Then again, with such a colorful cast... Anyway, if you
didn't recognize them on first sight, you'll get a mugshot of the major characters on the screen; those close-ups are clear, so you will recognize them.
Woah, yeah, there was definitely some work put into this. Credit goes to user Kazushi of Sprite Database for this. |
That's just 100 out of the 900. Impressive, you can give them that. Picture from The Spriters Resource. |
Yeah,
like these. I think that's a nice touch. Even the unimportant
duelists, those weaklings who walk around the locations of the game,
each one has its own sprite, which is really a cool idea. Each person
in this game (Except the Ghouls, of course) has its own appearance. It's nice. Likewise, each screen
of each location is very detailed and has its own feel, which is
important for a game that is meant to be a re-telling of a story seen
in both a manga and an animated series. Also good to mention, during
duels, the cards are shown in tiny sprites, but are still
distinguishable from the others, as every card can still be
recognized by its sprite. However, when the cards battle and when you
look at a card's stats and description, you see a zoomed-in version
of the cards; they are just as detailed as the original cards! The art of all the 900 cards has been re-created in pixelated
form so that you would instantly look at one and say “I know that
one! It's __________!” If you're a geek like me, you might add: “I
know it because it's in my collection!” The music isn't too bad
either, you can go through the game and not grow tired of it, but
after the first playthrough you might find yourself lowering the
portable console's volume.
On the other hand, look at the cards you hae in the starting Deck. You'd almost want to cry. Good thing the opponents give Ante cards and money when you beat them, Or else... |
Now,
the second deal breaker: The gameplay. Turning a card game like Yu-Gi-Oh into a
video game is a long and tedious task, because there's hundreds of different
cards to put in there and dozens of computer character Decks to create. I understand that
Konami did the best they could with what they had. I've got to admit,
I felt like the first enemies (the first, um... fourth of the game,
say), were way too easy to defeat, and the last ones were either very
difficult or not difficult enough. Guess that's what happens when you
are playing against computer opponents a card game based on the luck
of drawing the right cards to make your combo. I'd say the game's
difficulty is just right. You will probably lose a few times on the
way, but if you save frequently, there should be no problem. The
enemies give good cards to help with your Deck when you defeat them,
and many major duelists give tremendous amounts of money so that you
can buy lots of good cards in the shop.
However,
I think it really sucks that the cards and the gameplay have been
changed so much for this GBA game. I mean, all those who grew up
with the cards are going to look at every single card in this and
say: “No, this monster didn't have an effect!” “This one HAD an
effect!” “What the Hell, this has never been a Ritual monster!”
“Since when is this not a Fusion monster?” “This effect is
overpowered!” “This one isn't, it's too weak!” “God, this
sucks!” Seriously, try to explain the cards in this game to someone
who has only played with the real ones, and he'll look at you like
you've been stranded on an island for four years.
Another example of a lame card that has a high Level just because its Defense is high. What the Hell. |
It
also sorta sucks that the game had to work with a Level system and
limitations to the construction of your Deck. I mean, the card game
was created with a very clear idea in mind; anyone can use any card
or combination of cards in their Deck. The whole point to the
Yu-Gi-Oh card game is that you can build a very strong Deck, given
that you have all the cards to create good combos. Here, any form of
creativity is halted, you can't do whatever you want in the game with
the cards presented to you, because you need to be above a
card's Level in order to use it, and you ALSO have to be able to fit
that card into your 40-card Deck, which is easier said than done
considering the maximum Deck value you can reach...
However!
No matter what I can say about these changes to the cards... oddly
enough, within this game, it actually kind of works. Listen to me
before you start punching! I know it's not the real card game. It
cannot be, as the limited programming space of a GBA cartridge
probably wouldn't have been able to get all the original effects of
the 900 cards available in this (By the way, you gotta admit that 900 is
still very impressive). My guess is that they made the card game
simpler for the newbies (which, admittedly, I was at the time when
this game came out), by removing the more complex effects. This
doesn't totally prepare them for the real thing, but it's a good
start, I guess, if you don't mind having only the basics down and having to re-learn the rest. Also, I think the Level and Deck space limitations
are there for a reason. They force you to start off with a Deck
barely stronger than the opponents, and as you progress
your Duelist Level increases, giving you access to better cards and
letting you face better duelists. The strength of your opponents increases
as you progress, but your own Level increases also at a steady pace
so you are always going to have a chance against the opponents, and
whenever you battle a strong duelist for the first time, their Level
is pretty close to yours, so the later duelists still offer a
challenge the first time you duel against them.
This
doesn't excuse one of the big changes that is having 11 Attributes in
the game (instead of 6), a modification that is just unnecessary. We could have done without it. Feels too much like they were
trying to give the game a bit of a Pokémon feel, and for the
Yu-Gi-Oh card game, it's just wrong. Not to mention the
arbitrary and silly way some weak cards were given an extremely high
Level that you must reach so you can use them, while even stronger
cards have a lower Level and are therefore accessible earlier on.
(Also, not being able to use the last God Card? Shame on you,
Konami!)
So
yeah. Is this game awesome? Well, being the protagonist sure is, even
if it causes so many plot contrivances and all sorts of other
problems. But aside from that, is this game really awesome? Well, not
really, but it's still a lot of fun, if you want to play a monster
card game but you don't want to think too much. Is it a good game? Uh... It offers the right dose of everything so that
most gamers should be happy. It also offers a healthy dose of cheesy to
everyone who loves that kind of thing from the Japanese series.
Those who grew up with the anime or with the cards will get offended
at the large amount of changes made, both in the story (as I did) and in the
gameplay, but if you look at this game like it's a beginner's first
steps, then yes, it's an okay introduction to the world of Yu-Gi-Oh. Not a great one, just an okay one; after all, it's still too different from the real stuff to make it a very good introduction, but it's sill fine. Take it as its own thing, not as a faithful adaptation; it's clearly not.
Another fun thing to mention: The game was packaged with three very good cards to add to your collection. I still got two of them. The other was lost. I couldn't use it anyway.
And
now, I declare my biggest review ever... Finally OVER! Not just my
biggest review ever, but the entire GBA era of Planned All Along,
too! This was officially the last Game Boy Advance game I owned!
Which means that I will not be reviewing Game Boy Advance games
anymore (or MAYYYYYBE if I do buy other GBA games in the future, but
that's not a certainty). How am I gonna fill up this spot, then? …I
know! I will review... Video game flicks!
But
not next week. The normal schedule will keep going, and then in June
you'll probably get the first video game movie review on Planned All
Along. Until then... See ya this Friday!
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