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Honestly, how many more card
duel games can we get? Pokemon, Digimon, Yu Gi Oh, Magic, etc, etc, etc. This
isn’t a complaint really, it’s just that I can’t keep up with all of the new
titles that keep hitting the shelves (or the ones that enter the house thanks to
my 10 year old). Well, here comes another one that I haven’t played until now …
Duel Masters for the GBA handheld. While it was a new venture for me to learn a
new card game, the good news is that it was pretty close to Magic (which I used
to play frequently), so it was a little easier to get into. Also, I have to say
that I liked the layout of the game altogether, so off I go to tell you
potential owners all about it to see if it is a good fit for you as well.
Duel Masters is laid out
more like an RPG kind of game versus your standard card battle game for the GBA,
which was a nice change. The story revolves around the main character who gets a
rare card for his birthday (and in his town, the Duel Masters game is ALL the
rage), and it seems to be a pretty valuable one to boot. Lo and behold, a
no-good thief wearing a mask simply donned with an “X” sneaks in and steals his
brand new card for his birthday. He wakes up just in time to see the thief
leaving, and off he goes on a journey to complete quests which will hopefully
lead him to his card’s captor so he can get his prized possession back.
OK … let me stop for a
second since many of you may be parents who have no clue what Duel Masters is
all about (like I was), so let me explain the concept. Basically, each player
has a deck of 40 cards consisting of spells and creatures from the elements of
fire (red), nature (green), water (blue), light (white) and dark (black). Some
of these creatures can attack, and some can defend, and they are used to either
take an opponent’s five life points away (one per attack) or defend the life
points to try and ensure that the player remains alive. Creatures and monsters
are brought into play by using mana, which is generated by sacrificing a
creature or spell into the pool. Sacrifice one of these cards, and you gain one
mana of the color that the creature or spell was (one red creature = 1 red mana,
etc). So, a monster that takes 5 mana to bring out needs at least one of it’s
own color, then four of whatever color. Kind of like “Magic: The Gathering Lite”
is a good way to look at it.
The RPG element that I
mentioned comes into play by the overall way that the game is set up. As you
journey out, you will have objectives to complete (meet with so and so in this
town, find this item), etc., and you even have a handy map that pops up to help
you locate where it is that you need to go next. In addition, you will actually
get into random battles along the way from town-to-town, which consist of you
getting into duels with perspective opponents or running away rather than
fighting monsters. Winning duels gets you booster packs of single cards, which
in turn can be added to your deck to make it stronger, rather than getting
experience points or gold. There are also tournaments to get into from town to
town, and you have to meet certain criteria to enter (like beat five people in
the town first), and as luck would have it … these need to be done to continue
progressing through the story.
Other than the overall
layout, I also was happy to see that losing a random battle does not mean that
you are “out” or that you have to start all over again from a certain point.
When you get into an encounter, losing simply adds a loss to your overall game
score total and gets you a snide comment or two from your winning opponent, but
you can just keep on going about your happy way. This also comes in handy with
the “save anywhere” feature that was added into the game, so you can always go
back and try again if you want to try and keep a perfect record.
Another cool thing about the
game was that thankfully, deck creation is pretty easy and really doesn’t take a
lot of time to figure out. Of course, the game is all about strategy and playing
one card to boost another (like playing a card to return a monster back into
play that you sacrificed to bring another one out), which is the most difficult
aspect of it … but anyone who has played a card-battle game before should be
used to this and should have enough material from the five elements to put
together some really cool decks. Thanks to the fact that you can also play a
two-player game with two GBA’s linked together, you can even test out your
ability against a buddy.
Graphically, Duel Masters
does a pretty good job in the overall game visual presentation as well, and the
animations and backgrounds for the RPG part of the game were done well and had
some good, vivid coloring which looked sharp. The duel part of the game didn’t
fare quite as well unfortunately, and while it wasn’t horrible, the animations
were usually monsters doing a one-frame movement. In addition, they were pixeled
and a little outdated looking, and compared to the in game graphics while
wandering around I think they could have come out a little better.
The sound to Duel Masters
was also so-so for the most part, with music that did OK in just being fill in
noise versus really adding into the game itself. Monsters simply made whooshing
and cracking sounds when they would hit each other or get destroyed, and when a
player lost a life it sounded like glass breaking. Again, not horrible, but just
nothing that really stood out or made it more impressive.
Overall, Duel Masters Sempai
Legends was an enjoyable game that was easier for me to get into than others
thanks to the close resemblance to MTG. Also, I found it to be a little better
in story and overall presentation thanks to the RPG style of gameplay, and out
of the card battle games that I have played it’s been my favorite so far. So …
for you Magic or card game fans looking for something to pop into the GB Player
or take on the go this is a decent one to get that will keep you entertained for
a while. If you’re not much on card battle games … you probably haven’t stuck
around this review to get to this point so you more than likely won’t be getting
it anyway.
Gameplay: 7.4
The mechanics to
the game worked well, and it’s pretty easy to pick up and get used to. The
battles are, of course, turn-based and consist of laying out mana, then
summoning creatures or spells, then attacking if you can. There are 180 cards to
find and win, so there was a good amount of deck possibilities to put together.
Graphics: 7.0
The graphics
during the RPG aspect of the game were well animated and colorful, but the
battle graphics looked a little outdated and kind of acted as a counter to the
good stuff. While nothing could really be defined as horrible, it could have
been a little better.
Sound: 7.0
Also kind of
in-the-middle overall, since they were simple things like whooshing noises or
the smacking sounds of something getting hit. The looped music tracks weren’t
bad to listen to either, but really did little more than provide some background
noise.
Difficulty: Medium
As my friend and
cohort Aceinet used to say while we were playing MTG … “it’s all in the
shuffle.” The game mechanics are easy to get into, but as with any card-battle
game, strategies working or not working most of the time depend on what order
the cards come out.
Concept: 7.5
While there are a
ton of card-battle games to get into or try out, Duel Masters was done well in
my opinion due to the fact that it gives gamers a little more than just dueling
all the time. The RPG aspect helps in giving a decent storyline to follow in
addition to the battle scenes that are encountered, obviously making it more
interesting to play.
Multiplayer: 7.7
Any game is more
fun when played two player, and opponents can square off in the car or on the
porch or whatever provided they both have a copy of this game and a GBA. Who
better to test ultimate deck strategies on than someone else testing theirs on
you?
Overall: 7.5
Overall, as I
stated before, I really have to say that I liked this card-battle game more than
other ones that I have sat down and played. There was a better story, which game
you more to do, and it seemed to make the duels more fun as well since I knew
that there was a reason behind me doing it. If you like card battle games, give
it a whirl.
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