Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Falsebound Kingdom is
basically the GameCube’s equivalent to the PlayStation2’s Yu-Gi-Oh! Duellist of the Roses and the
Xbox’s Yu-Gi-Oh!: Dawn Of Destiny. It
also is one of the few Yu-Gi-Oh! games that
(shock, horror!) doesn’t use cards. It is different, to say the least, but keeps with
the general theme of the Yu-Gi-Oh! games.
This game has a refreshingly different story  compared
to other Yu-Gi-Oh! Titles we’ve seen in the
past, and features more plot twists than the telitubbies have hate mail (I’m now on
TinkyWinky’s hitlist…), but unfortunately it takes a turn towards predictability
towards the end. It also has the added bonus of 3 different characters, 1 of them you have
to unlock so it also has a high replayability factor. The plot for the Yugi story mode
sees Yugi and chums called to SIC labs to test out some new Duel Monsters Technology
called Kingdom basically a digital world that
the Duel Monsters exist in - not exactly dissimilar to the matrix - when suddenly
something goes horribly wrong (surprise, surprise) and you remain trapped within Kingdom. The Kiaba story is basically the same -
except that they call him in to invest in the company.
The game has some quite good sound but also
has Yu-Gi-Oh!’s patent “text opposed
to voice sampling” policy, but with this as an exception the sound is very realistic.
It also has my favourite type of back ground music, the type of music that doesn’t
distract you from the game, but remains fully effective for the atmosphere of the game.
The graphics are probably the hardest thing
to evaluate in this game, the  main
reason for this is the fact that they are inconsistent. Some of the graphics are brilliant
(just look at the Silverfang’s howl or the attack in the screenshot to the left to
prove my point) but then the clothes and wings are terrible, they are just blank sheets
with some pictures pasted over them with minimal animation. Also a lot of the monsters
attacks are similar; the Dark Magicians attack is the same as the Rouge Doll, the Dancing
Fairy and many more. It’s almost as if they got a team of designers who are talented
and incredibly skilled to do about one eighth of it and then got a bunch of typewriting
monkeys to do the finish-up.
The game can take a bit of effort in getting
used to but once you’ve mastered the basic’s it’s very rewarding. In
battles each one of your monsters receives a certain amount of action points, which are
used to attack and defend, or use an item. Every time you attack you cause damage to your
opponents’ monsters – but the game seems reluctant to tell you exactly how much
damage is caused by each attack. Also whenever you participate in a battle your monsters
gain a level, the higher the level the high the attack, defence, live points and action
points your monsters have. However, battles are not all you do. You actually have many
different teams at your command, which you can position on the battle field in order to
take control and fortify settlements.
Being a Yu-Gi-Oh!
title, it’ll obviously be missed by many a-gamer reluctant to be seen with the title
resting upon his/her shelf, which I feel is unfair to such a solid piece of work. All in
all I think this is an above average game, with its strengths out-weighing its flaws.
Mr.
Timmy
Reviews
Score Table Interpretation.
08/01/05
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