1. This forum is in read-only mode.

[NDS] Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's World Championship 2010: Reverse of Arcadia- Xakota

Discussion in 'Review Submission' started by xakota, Feb 26, 2010.

  1. xakota

    xakota Well-Known Member

    For a long time now, Konami has released video game counter parts of their popular trading card game, "Yu-Gi-Oh!". Each year, one with a "World Championship" slapped on its title was released on a handheld. The first World Championship game for the DS came about in 07, followed by (you guessed it) 08 the following year. The fan response to these games were unanimous. They wanted something new! Every single game released was almost exactly the same as the previous.

    That all changed with 2009: Stardust Accelerator. It completely revamped the card game interface, and added story mode, where you could explore the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's as your own customized character. It also added new duel modes, including tag duel and turbo duel.

    And now, we're back to square one. While 2009 was a great game, 2010 is exactly the same, except it has a different story line, new cards, and isn't quite as difficult. No new mechanics have been introduced, the card battle interface is exactly the same, the story mode plays exactly the same, etc. The only things that ARE different are, in my opinion anyway, downgrades.

    [​IMG] [​IMG]
    WC 09 duel (left) compared with a WC 10 duel (right). Note the difference in point of view.

    World Championship 2009 contained two different gameplay modes. One was Story Mode, in which you created your own character and woke up with anmesia. You'd then follow the story of the anime while solving some puzzles and doing a lot of dueling on the way. The other was World Championship mode, in which you would take on a bunch of CPU duelists, fight against your own decks, or even play online.

    World Championship 2010 contains two different gameplay modes. One is Story Mode, in which you create your own character and wake up with anmesia. You then follow the story of the anime while solving some puzzles and doing a lot of dueling on the way. The other is World Championship mode, in which you take on a bunch of CPU duelists, fight against your own decks, or even play online.

    The story mode of WC 09 contained a top-down view of your character in full 3-D graphics, which are about the best the DS can do. There were some rooms with puzzles, in which the camera would zoom out to the point where it's kind of uncomfortable. Every single character on the map had a deck of their own, and you could either duel them or just talk to them for information, RPG style. It also contained a few times where you would race on a customizable motorcycle called a "Duel Runner". The races were overall pretty frustrating and uncomfortable, and many fans hoped this would be improved in the next game. Speaking of which, there are also a few times where you have to dodge security guards. This is one of the most frustrating parts of the game, and many people couldn't even pass it without an action replay code.

    The story mode of WC 10 contains a top-down view of your character in full 3-D graphics, which are about the best the DS can do. There are some rooms with puzzles, in which the camera zooms out to the point where it's kind of uncomfortable. Every single character on the map has a deck of their own, and you can either duel them or just talk to them for information, RPG style. It also contains a few times where you have to race on a customizable motorcycle called a "Duel Runner". The races are overall pretty frustrating and uncomfortable, even though many fans hoped this would be improved in this game. Speaking of which, there are also a few times where you have to dodge security guards. This is one of the most frustrating parts of the game, and many people can't even pass it without an action replay code. Luckily, this time around, the more frustrating security puzzles are optional.
    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    WC 09 story mode (left) compared with WC 10 story mode(right).
    Sensing a pattern here?

    As i said, 2009 was a great game, but 2010 barely, if at all, improves upon it.

    Let's talk about a few of the differences, because there are actually some.
    When it comes to story mode, there are only two notable differences. The first is that during Duel Runner races in WC 10, you can pick up cards and Duel Points (this game's currency) on the track. In WC 09, there is no such feature. The second is that in additional to the box moving puzzles, there's now a new and incredibly frustrating kind of puzzle in the duel spirit world, in which you use a magic stick called a Minus Staff to reverse natural phenomena. That may sound cool, but it's really, REALLY frustrating. At the very least, you feel pretty accomplished if you can figure it out for yourself.
    Yeah, that's it. I'm serious. Those are the only differences in the two story modes, except i guess that your character is more customizable, and the color swap of the main menus.

    World Championship mode is exactly the same as in 09, except the menus are different colors, and there's more CPU duelists to play against.

    There are four changes to the duel interface, and in my opinion they're all negative. In WC 2009, the duels are shown in the point of view of the duelist (see the first image posted). In 2010, it's instead shown from bird's-eye view, which is disappointing for a few reasons. First of all, the images of the cards on your side of the field are still shown from the back. For those of you who haven't played the DS Yu-Gi-Oh games, whenever a monster card is placed on the field, and image comes out of the card and stays still there. In 2009, you saw the cards in your side of the field from the back and the cards in your opponent's field from the front. It made sense because of the point of view. However, in 2010, the exact same card images from the last games are used, along with some new ones, in the exact same position. Logically, they should be seen from a bird's eye view, but they aren't. With the new view, the extra images of the cards appear significantly smaller, to the point where you can barely make out their shapes. I would have at least liked an option to go back to the old POV.

    The second change to the duel interface is the card selection. You must select what cards you will use, and 2009 had a simple rectangular cursor that did so. In this game, the cursor now consists of several incredibly thick, pulsing rectangles. Not only is this incredibly unattractive, but it actually slows the game down at some points. And there's no option to turn it off. I would have preferred a single, thicker rectangle than in the last game, but this is just...what were they thinking? You do get used to it eventually, but it's frustrating, and the slowdown never stops.
    [​IMG]
    A duel in 2010. Notice the blue selection rectangles

    The third change is pretty minor. There is now a sword or shield next to a monster card, showing whether it's in attack or defense position. Kind of unnecessary, but not very annoying like the other changes.

    The last change is the only one that has the option to be turned off. Every time your opponent selects a card at any time, it shows you exactly what the card is, and stops the duel until you press A, asking, "Would you like to finish checking cards?" It's frustrating and condescending, but you can turn it off in the World Championship menu. If i didn't know that i could turn it off, i probably would have thrown my DS against the wall.

    Now lets talk about the improvements that should have happened, but didn't.

    One of the things I disliked about 2009's story mode is that it changes so many annoying things from the anime that it's based off of. One of the most basic is that it makes you the fifth Signer instead of one of the characters (kind of a spoiler so I won't mention it, it doesn't really matter), even though there's no need for this at all. 2010 actually makes this worse, with several annoying changes that don't make any sense.
    For example, (spoiler ahead)

    In the anime, one of the female characters, Carly, has a card battle with one of the antagonists, Divine (whose name is annoyingly changed to Sayer in the English version of the anime and video game) Divine is a psycho duelist (also annoyingly changed to psychic duelist in the English version of the anime and video game), meaning he has the power to make cards actually come to life. After Carly loses the battle, Divine uses his psycho duelist powers to make one of his monsters push her off the high building that they're on, and she falls to her death. She then comes back to life as a Dark Signer. One of the protagonists, Jack, then finds her glasses at the bottom of the collapsed building later.

    In the game, Carly just collapses and dies after the duel. This doesn't make any sense whatsoever, and Jack STILL finds her glasses at the bottom of the building, even though she never actually left it at that point.

    There's other annoying changes like this as well.

    Another of 2009's quirks was Wi-Fi mode. One of the most frustrating things was that while you were dueling online, someone could disconnect right before they lost, so you wouldn't be able to add the victory to your record or collect your rightfully earned rank points. This isn't fixed here, so many of the highest ranked duelists earned it very unfairly. Many fans also wanted card packs to be released and downloadable content. All of the WC games only have cards up to the point where development on the game started, meaning you can only play with cards that are outdated by the time the game is released. However, cards still aren't DLC, which is kind of unfair to the fans that bought this game.

    2009 also had a frustratingly stupid AI that used the CPU opponent's decks. There were several times where it had the cards necessary to beat me in that turn, but it was too stupid to put two and two together and actually do it. There's also times where the AI has to "think" where the game will just show ellipses for a few seconds. This is even worse in 2010. I've had to stare at ellipses for almost a minute. I've noticed the exact same thing happen in 2010. The only way to get a really challenging opponent is wi-fi, but as I've already said there's lots of frustrations there.

    There are also times that you have to duel with a partner, called a "Tag Duel". You tag duel partners are so stupid to the point where you just want to tear your hair out. Sometimes i think they did it on purpose to make the game more challenging or something. Seriously, it's like playing with a two year old. This isn't improved on 2010, at all. In fact, it seems worse.

    So Konami had an opportunity to release new features, which they passed up. They had an opportunity to fix the negative things from their last game, which they also passed up. Instead, they released the exact same game with a few downgrades.

    Needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed as a fan right now. Reverse of Arcadia was a great game, but it could have been WAY better, as I hope 2011 will be.

    Presentation- 7/10: Like its predecessor, this game is presented very well. However, with the top-down view of duels, still stupid AI, condescending "would you like to finish checking cards?", and the annoying rectangles and ellipses that slow the game down, it lost a few points.

    Graphics- 9/10: The graphics are very good, to the point where they push the limits of the DS. However, the messed up images of the monsters coming out of the cards are a major negative.

    Sound- 7/10: This is another frustrating part about the game. The music gets VERY repetitive and annoying, very fast. In fact, none of the bosses other than the final boss even have different music from the rest of the duels in the game. World Championship mode also has the same repetitive music as its predecessor.

    Gameplay- 9/10: The mechanics of the card battling are wonderful, aside from the annoyingly stupid AI and the rectangles. Story mode is also fun aside from the minus staff puzzles. But again, they could have gone much farther than they did.

    Replayability- 8/10: There still a few things to do after beating the game, including a New Game + option that I haven't tried yet. However, WC mode and wi-fi mode should keep you occupied for a while, provided that you have Wi-fi of course.

    Total Score: 42/50: Reverse of Arcadia is a very fun game, with great graphics and gameplay. However, it has many downsides and doesn't improve in it's predecessor at all. Get it if you enjoyed the last game, but don't' expect anything vastly different.
     
  2. kme92

    kme92 Well-Known Member

    Very informative review :p
    btw, the total score is out of 50, not 10
    XP
     
  3. xakota

    xakota Well-Known Member

    Heh, nice catch.
     
  4. blaza89

    blaza89 Well-Known Member

    i agree with the part where you become the fifth signer, i hate that part you practically replace crow and that sucks, you fight every single signer i hate that and the minus staff thing wasn't hard but all and all i think the other characters should do more instead of depending on you.....
     
  5. ol_tymez612

    ol_tymez612 New Member

    if any one has the rom for this game can u please put it up for us to down load
     
  6. xakota

    xakota Well-Known Member

    The J version of the game is uploaded here, it has an english option so i suggest getting it.
     
  7. nemesis11

    nemesis11 Well-Known Member

    one problem that i noticed is that the cards are cut when they are on your hands,its stupid u only see the superior part of the cards,the bottom disapears
     
  8. ol_tymez612

    ol_tymez612 New Member

    yeah I did down load that but my screen is just stuck on the "Loading" screen
    how do i fix that
     
  9. xnosidex

    xnosidex New Member

    Yea im facing similar problems with mine too. except i can't even load the game it say's their is a problem loading it and i should reset it and try again.

    Also, were all taking about using the R4 on a DS for this game right? cuz the problem might be there.
     
  10. xakota

    xakota Well-Known Member

    There is a thread about this on technical help, guys.
     
  11. kewong

    kewong Well-Known Member

    Here's the ROM that is working for the R4DS,Acekard 2i and R4i Gold.I know this because my brothers are playing this game.
     
  12. CoolKill3r

    CoolKill3r Well-Known Member

  13. klaimore

    klaimore Well-Known Member

    Is there going to be another Yu-Gi-Oh series? This game needs some serious improvements.
     
  14. kewong

    kewong Well-Known Member

    http://www.fileserve.com/file/FVSH27n