Title: Yu-Gi-Oh: Nightmare Troubadour
Platform: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Konami
Multiplay: Yes, 2 player multi-card only
Basic Summary: A collectible card game and adventure RPG based on one of the more popular anime and CCG franchises on the planet. The first of it's kind for the Nintendo DS.
I've always been a sucker for the CCG-based games. In fact, one of the first things I got when I first bought my Gameboy Player was a used copy of the Gameboy Color classic Pokemon TCG that I found at EB for like $3 or something... it probably got more overall playing time than anything. Later I found a used copy of Dragonball Z: CCG for the GBA, which was another great time killer.
The interesting thing is, I've never actually played any of these card games outside of their video game variants. Its not that I didn't have interest in them, but I was just getting out of school when they started becoming popular. That and my agoraphobic tendancies have kept me from pursuing the games since (even though plenty of people my age seem to play these "kids games" on a competitive level).
Anyhow, I think it's important to review games like this in a different manner. A lot of the mainstream sites penalize these games for not having stunning animation, or for having a shallow plot (or in some cases no plot at all), or for being too complicated. To me, that misses the point of the game. It's like complaining there's too many plays in Madden, or that the teams are too unbalanced in NBA Live. These games are meant to simulate something real, and how well they replicate the "real thing" is to me the most important thing.
In particular, the Yu-Gi-Oh games for the GBA have taken considerable flak for not having any sort of tutorial mode. Since it's a fairly complex card game that has more than anything else kept me from entering the genre until now. I'd heard that there was supposed to be a tutorial mode for the DS game though.
There's not. I don't even remember where I heard this (some magazine maybe), but there is no tutorial mode in this game. What there is, however, is a puzzle mode, and playing through the puzzles, and a few trial and error matches, it is possible to learn how to play the card game. It's maybe not as straightforward a learning experience as it probably should be.
One other thing is that the visuals related to gameplay aren't great. The playing field takes up a whole screen, but it's such a big field that the individual cards are far too small to see clearly. The other screen shows a weird, zoomed in view, and also displays all the card data. 95% of the time this setup works just fine, but in one particular situation, there is a card which forces both players to show their hands, but only during their turn. Since you can't zoom around during the other guy's turn and look at these cards, unless you're familiar with what kind of deck your opponent has, its really hard to tell what he's showing you.
Conversely, the visuals outside of gameplay related to the "story" are superb. The characters are straight out of the anime and look every bit as good as they do on TV. One wishes they'd found a way to get as much detail off the cards, for instance, where it would've really helped the gameplay... but give credit where it is due, the NPCs all look fabulous.
And there is a story here... although it's not at all clear at first. Starting with what seems like a very generic story (you buy some cards and enter a tournament) I played a couple hours a day for three solid nights before I stumbled across the first cutscene of the storyline. The story finds you, but it appears to take its own sweet time sometimes, leaving you never sure if you're going to sit down to a night of card games, or a night of boss battles.
The card game is quite fun though. A whole level of complexity above Pokemon or DBZ's card games, it really involves a lot of planning and strategy. Luck is a factor (though interestingly enough you can design some decks which will turn the game into almost pure luck). Sometimes the battles only last a few minutes, and other times they can go on easily for a half hour.
Each character has his own distinct style of deck, and as I understand it they reflect the style of deck the character has in the anime. One minor gripe here: you don't generally choose your oppoents, you stumble across them while wandering around the city (you've got opponent radar, but it doesn't say who you've found until you confront them). This makes it hard to design your deck around your opponent. On the other hand, it does encourage you to make the most balanced deck you can (or at least the deck most like to survive an attack by one of the boss characters, should they pop up). I suppose with the ease of acquiring more cards, this was probably a necessary evil, since if you knew who you're fighting and what's in their deck it's fairly simple to build a deck to beat them.
And I think the number of cards is a nice touch. While I got hung up a few places in DBZ seemingly without the ability to make a deck capable of beating the next opponent, in Yu-Gi-Oh you still get a few KPs (damn few) even if you lose, so after 10-15 straight losses you can afford to buy a booster pack and maybe reclaim some of your dignity. Be careful though: your opponents don't sit on their hands either. As your collection grows and your skills improve, you may outgrow some of your opponents, but they continue to add to their collections as well, and you may well find that girl with the "Cute Sister" deck that you beat the tar out of the last week has some new cards herself, and that beating her this time will be a much more daunting affair.
The replay value in this game is really immense, if you enjoy this sort of thing. There are literally billions of possible decks to try out, and always new challenges to meet. The story is a bit disjointed, but that's not the real reason to play this game for most people, the card battles are.
The Good: Excellent use of touch screen control. Huge replayability, impressive levels of complexity and a great deal of strategic planning are required to get really good. Somewhat easy to learn, but very hard to master.
The Decent: NPCs aren't really animated, but they're drawn really well.
The Not-so-Good: Storyline is a bit fragmented and seems to move along at its own pace. Lack of a true tutorial mode makes getting into the game initially a little frustrating.
The Downright Ugly: No matter how hard you try, a whole play board doesn't fit well on a single screen.
The Unintentionally Funny: The translations are by and large spot-on. Every once in awhile though the player character will say something that's so poorly translated that it's laughable. Engrish phrases like "Lets already return" and "I will stop going out because slowness today" don't really detract from the gameplay, but they will have you doing a double-take every so often.
Conclusion: I give the game a B+. The replayability and the impressive depth more than make up for some of the games failings. There is an occasional lack of polish that makes you wonder what might have been. A game like this is tailor made for Wifi... hopefully Konami will figure that out and implement some sort of online multiplay in a future version.
Topic: Yu-Gi-Oh: Nightmare Troubadour (DS) (Read 4638 times)
