What could have been an ok game turned into a abomination so bad, you'll return it in a few short days.
The rules are different and some have changed, yeah ok, I can deal with that, it's still Yu-Gi-Oh! right? I had no idea at first how some of this worked, such as fusing monsters or when monsters randomly gained a power boost. And it was sort of fun figuring it out, learning only certain attributed monsters could fuse together forming new ones and the power boosts were from the symbols you choose to put on the cards battling other mosters with the weakness symbol or whatever (I know how it works trust me). However, one thing that absolutly ruined it was the fact that you didn't have to tribute, sacrifice, release, whatever you want to say, to summon certain monsters. This rule may sound awesome, but it's quite unfair, because you start with no powerful monsters at all, so you have to rely on fusing. Here is an example: You fuse your monsters so you can kill a monster your opponent summoned to the field, then he just summons a powerful monster like a blue-eyes white dragon or something (if you know the series you know what i'm talking about) and kills your monster, just like that, you're back to square 1. You worked so hard to fuse your monsters and then your opponent just brings 1 out of his hand and you may have just lost the duel, because you don't have a monster that can beat it (plus you may not have a dark hole magic card, your deck is just randomly made in the beginning of the game with weak monsters and possibly good magic cards, I know because I've started over a few times).
One good rule they made however, was that you draw cards in your hand until you have 5, each of your turns, this can make it to where you can throw cards away until you get what you need, but wastes your deck away. This helps me a lot in the game, but also it doesn't matter, because they can either summon a more powerful monster, or just play a magic card to kill your stratigy.
One bad rule they made that makes me REALLY dislike the game (that a lot of people don't mention in their reviews), is that trap cards activate on their own as soon as they are able to. I'm not even kidding about that. It's forced upon you to activate a trap card as soon as it's able to be activated, I would rather save my good traps for my opponents stronger monsters, but NO you can't. I don't know if it's different in other people's games, but it happens in mine.
Fusing monsters is a guessing game (which is manditory for beating some of the duelists don't forget), and if you mess up with the fusion it will often cost you the entire duel. Why? Because all of your opponents are too strong, except the first 3 duelists! So you also have to memorize them, or write them down, which is annoying. So I went on the internet to look at all the fusions and I realized something, almost all the fusions are the same. I only counted a few monster fusions (I didn't bother with the magic fusions because I didn't have any of the cards to fuse) and none of them were strong enough to take on some of the really powerful monsters that you can just wip on out of your hand. You probably think "why not just get those powerful monsters then?" well that brings me onto the next problem, and I just hate getting started with it.
Getting new cards is an absolute pain, you only get 1 card per win (and it's often a very sucky card you don't need) and a certain amount of star chips (which is money) depending on how well you dueled and how fast you beat them. Sense you can't depend on beating duelists for good cards you have to buy the cards. This is where it goes totally wrong, the cards are SO expensive. Card prices range from like around 50 to 500 possibly more star chips. THEN there are cards you probably NEED in the game to make it farther. But guess what? Those cards are for the low, low, price of 999,999 star chips, EACH. I really wish I was kidding, I wish I was exaggerating, but that is really the price from some of the manditory cards that a lot of your opponents have. So what is the most amount of star chips you can earn in a duel you ask? The answer to that question is 5. You could spend months, possibly even years, YES YEARS, trying to get 1 measly card to add to your deck. That is one of THE most outragous things I have EVER seen in a video game. So, getting good cards all depends on the luck of the draw with beating opponents, which will also most likely take a long time. If you've read other reviews, you'll know how to buy cards. Just look at the card numbers online and it's no big deal.
Back to rules for a second, a lot of people don't notice that you can also only play 1 card per turn. Yes only 1. That means you can't summon a monster and then set a trap, or play a magic card and summon a monster to attack. This rule really sucks when your opponent has you pinned down.
Now then, I've finally finished talking about the gameplay elements. I'll talk about some of the other parts of the game.
The only thing that kept me playing was the story, although a little mediocre, there is still enjoyment out of it, even if it's totally different from the anime. I can't really say too much because I only made it to where I had to beat the forest and wasteland guardians (I think that's what they were). Thinking about it, this is the first game I've ever reviewed without beating first and if you know me well, I beat games before I review them so I can give a full detailed oppinion, but you can't blame me if you played this game for yourself, unless your someone who actually did spend all that time to beat this game. Oh and 1 more thing, even if you challenge your allies in the story mode, who don't threaten to kill you in any possible way, if you lose to them, you get a game over. That doesn't make any sense what-so-ever.
Moving from one place to another is just like a point and click game so nothing special here. You can't expect a Yu-Gi-Oh! game to have moving around and jumping in it.
The music and sound effects are ok, they are not generally great.
The graphics are also ok, I can't really say sense I haven't played too many PS1 games.
In conclusion the game is bad because there are no effect monsters, very little magic and trap cards, and monsters can be summoned without tributing. This takes out so much stratigy the card game is known for. If you take the good stratigy card playing aspect out of a Yu-Gi-Oh! game, what do you have left? There is no tutorial on how the game works so you have to find it out for yourself. Card prices are outragous! The Card Shop is just a save point, why didn't they make a pack option so you could buy random cards for a low price? The music, sound effects, and graphics don't balance out the god awful gameplay. Your opponents are too strong making every single duel a struggle. As you try harder and harder to beat the game it laughs at your feeble attempts trying to beat some of your all powerful opponents that have every single possible advantage. The only way to have fun with this game is if you use gameshark or something, so if you have that your in luck. You start off too weak, and your opponents get too strong too fast, and I just don't like it!