[PS2] Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses Review

A NEW YU-GI-OH! FOR A NEW GENERATION!

Or so they say...this is without a doubt one of the worst Yu-Gi-Oh! titles on the market. Konami decided to turn a Trading Card Game into a Chess Card Game, who could have imagined!?In this game the player is taken back through time into a fantasy Medieval Europe where the "ancestors" of Yugi and Kaiba are in war for the fate of world. After you start a new game a "Prologue" will start playing, once it's finished you are asked if you wish to run the tutorial, if you are like me and like to play through tutorials if it's your first time playing a certain game, you will find out that it's a big mistake, the tutorial runs for over an hour, you will be bored of the game even before you start playing it and the worst thing about it is that you can't quit the tutorial without resetting the console, but do not fear the bad news doesn't stop there!!! It has also on of the most boring storylines ever in a  game, this story makes no sense at all and the soundtrack will bore you to death. 

The worst feature of the game is the duel game system; the traditional game mat was replaced by a board that features various different landscapes and the gameplay took a huge twist as you play with chess style rules, the chess pieces being replaced by duel cards. Your deck leader plays the part of the King and your objective is to move your cards to "take out" your opponent's deck leader and whatever he throws at you while setting trap cards, spell cards and summoning monsters, besides this the rules to putting the cards into play are pretty much the same as the original game.

The game's only good sides is the not so bad artwork, the monster battle videos, which unfortunately get a little repetitive after a while, the fact that you can choose to play on Yugi's or Kaiba's side gives the title some replay value and the 800+ cards that where included in the game will allow you to set up your own strategic style of play.

In the end this Yu-Gi-Oh! title is hard to recommend even to the most hardcore of fans especially since it brings very little from the actual card game.

SCORE: 3/10