No, seriously. This isn't a joke. What is it about the game that all of two of the games based on it that I've reviewed have anything to do with the actual card game? And only one of those games have actually gotten it right? For some reason, the thrilling fourteen episode-long card game matches are just not appealing enough to children of the early 2000s, and thus we come to yet another game The Falsebound Kingdom.
In the beginning, you get two protagonists to choose from - the two greatest super special awesome mega maxi awesome badass duelists ever to duel their way around a Duel Disk, Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba. However, much like the end of Season 1 and the Virtual World arc in the anime, victory shall not be determined by bullshit main character powers to give them exactly the right card at exactly the right time...but by their skills in video games!
...actually, it's more like Capsule Monsters. Anyone remember that?
I mean, besides LittleKuriboh?
Trapped in the virtual world by the totally not evil Scott Irvine...who is definitely not being controlled by the evil DarkNite (who is totally not the dumb mask-wearing former Hogwarts roommate of Voldemort), either Yugi or Kaiba must gather together the greatest forces that they can muster in the form of the iconic monsters from the game. But rather than the traditional dueling, as was previously described, they put to use the monsters...in a style similar to Pokemon. But it's triple battles galore here, with Yugi, Kaiba, and all of their cartoon pals controlling up to three monsters in various scenarios.
And yes, the plots for both Yugi and Kaiba start out differently, but end up in the same endgame of fighting their way into the heart of the virtual world and facing Scott Irvine and DarkNite...and claiming either Silfer the Sky Dragon or Obelisk the Tormentor depending on which campaign you picked! But that's not even the fun part! Finishing one campaign is one thing. Finishing two campaigns is another...because then you unlock a special mini-campaign with Joey Wheeler as the lead!
...oh. Goodie. Joey. Because that's who we want to play as. Joey.
Beating Joey's game unlocks the Winged Dragon of Ra.
My Pokemon comparison isn't without merit. Beyond just the style of battle, the monsters have their hit points, attack and defense stats, and even action points. Monsters who have a color closer to the color of the character who commands them will be stronger as well, although a monster's color will change if they're used repeatedly by a certain character. Along with these, there are also RPG elements like settlement fortification, the characters working across a map in each scenario and either besieging or taking over fortresses of all sorts to fortify their position.
That's right, it's a real-time strategy game. My faaaaaaaaaaaavorite...
Seriously, can't I just challenge him to a children's card game?
Mechanically, the game isn't bad. It does what it sets out to do. But for the Yu-Gi-Oh! series, it just feels like an odd duck. This is really the most not at all Yu-Gi-Oh! product that I've ever reviewed for the series thus far. It's understandable why it didn't get good reception upon release, IGN in particular only giving it a 3.5 out of 10.
While I respect what Konami was trying to do, I really don't understand why. It's not really for fans of Yu-Gi-Oh!, and making it exclusive only to the Gamecube couldn't have possibly helped matters, either. It's...an odd duck. Give it a different name, make it a new IP, it might have gone somewhere. As it stands, it's just...confusing.
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom was developed and published by Konami.
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