Yu-Gi-Oh!: Forbidden Memoires (PlayStation) review "The Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise has been growing quite a bit, trying to become the next Pokemon in terms of popularity. The Yu-Gi-Oh! games have always been a mixed bag; some are pretty good, and some really, really suck. This game, in particular, is one on the bottom of the barrel. "

The Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise has been growing quite a bit, trying to become the next Pokemon in terms of popularity. The Yu-Gi-Oh! games have always been a mixed bag; some are pretty good, and some really, really suck. This game, in particular, is one on the bottom of the barrel.

First off, if you don't understand Yu-Gi-Oh!, you'll really have a hard time. Your character, Yami, is an Egyptian prince. Back in his age, a battle card game called duel monsters is extremely popular. You sneak out, and duel the townspeople around. Suddenly, a sorceror begins attacking your home, searching for powerful magic artifacts. You battle him with cards, and get defeated. But as the sorceror attempts to take your artifact, your servant seals your spirit in the artifact.You wake up in the future, embodied in a young boy named Yugi, and begin to help him duel to save the world.

First off, the duels here are totally screwed up. The rules are nothing like the real card game. For some reason, Konami likes to mess with the rules and gameplay. This time, they've gone too far, and as a result, the game is no more than a power battle to see who has better cards. The clunky interface of the game simply draws you through the game talking to people on the screen.

No freedom of exploration, just mindless screens of yapping and then a duel. Your cards at the beginning suck, and there's not much of a chance to get better ones. Duel someone, and hope you get a good card, that's it. You could type in the codes off the real cards and import them, but you need starchips, which you win when you duel. The probelm is, most of the cards that are decent are EXTREMELY expensive. How so? Well, in a good match, you get about five starchips. Blue Eyes White Dragon's cost is 99999 starchips. So, that about 2,000 duels, for one card. Sound fun?

If that's not bad enough, the boss's literally have the best cards in the game. If you can't match them with something better, you're screwed. Heck, if you have a really good card, then just throw it down, and kill something. On the next turn you throw another powerful card, and attack, then next turn you do it again and again. There are no cards that really affect gameplay in terms of strategy, just mindless attacking.

The graphics are just so-so for the game aswell. However, the only real graphical display is the optional choice to watch your cards in action. Other than that, it's just menu screens. The music is forgetable and annoying in some cases, which mostly consist of Egyptian style music. It may be fitting, but it still sucks. Ultimately, I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone. The high difficulty level and low strategy of this game is a complete turn off. DO NOT BUY. You have been warned. 4/10

Community review by heroofthewinds (July 12, 2004) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.