The new story mode in
Yu Gi Oh: The Sacred Cards is exactly what I was hoping to see in the
Worldwide Edition. You take the role of - well, you, as you compete in the Battle City Duel Monsters tournament. Just as in the show, the main thrust of the game involves trying to obtain the 6 locator cards which will lead you to the finals of the tournament. Locator cards are gained by dueling the characters from the show - such as Weevil, Mako and Joey. Eventually, you'll work your way to Kaiba's airship and face Kaiba, Yu Gi and even Marik. Along the way you'll also be able to increase your duelist ranking by challenging faceless competitors around the city. A few duels from the show also make an appearance, such as dueling the Rare Card Hunters (one of which uses an Exodia deck), Strings and Odion. A few other surprises pop up from time to time, but why ruin it for you? Oh what the hell, I'll be mean and tease you with the words: Egyptian God Cards.
The Story mode really helps to give the game a much needed extra dimension. Instead of just dueling people, the game now gives you a purpose and direction. However, this mode comes at a cost. The core Duel Monsters rules have been almost completely revamped for this version. As a result, much of the strategy that makes the game so appealing is lost. Although you'll face a few theme decks, such as an Exodia deck, most of the decks you'll build or face are little more than beat down decks. As an added twist, most decks are comprised of smaller creatures - so don't expect to see many Blue-Eyes Dragons or Dark Magicians in the game. In fact, don't expect to see many cards in the game since the card list is rather limited.
The new rules seem to fit more with the flow of duels in the show than the actual rules of the game. Elemental dominance seems to play more into duels than power and defense. This means that it is possible for a low power/defense creature to take out a high power/defense creature. I'm still not completely clear on how things work out - but even if I did understand it, I still wouldn't like it. Many cards have also been stripped of their abilities, making them useless fodder. As far as I can tell, this is a move to try and get the more useless cards a little more play time. Although it was fun to use cards I normally wouldn't use (I've been using the same variation of a Fiend/Magician deck since the first GBA game), I didn't like having to play within limitations. Except for a few cards, like Monster Reborn and the healing cards, most non-creature cards are useless since they activate themselves (instead of you choosing when to activate them). In short, duels are now demoted to contests of seeing who can get the most creatures out the fastest.
