Anyone who read my review
of Yu-Gi-Oh: Power of
Chaos: Joey the Passion knows that I’ve been caught adrift in a seemingly
never-ending wave of all things Yu-Gi-Oh thanks to the Mini Bearer. A sizable
portion of my exposure, as well as my understanding of the card game the license
is based on has come from the videogames. Without said videogames, I would have
never, ever understood even the basics of the card game and would have forever
believed that the Mini Bearer was simply making up the rules as he went just to
stomp good old dad. Save for a misstep here and there, the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise
has been fully realized in videogame form with pretty good results.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest missteps in the franchise was when Konami
strayed from the card game with Yu-Gi-Oh: Duelist of the Rose. In that game you
played with a selection of monsters from the game in a strange melding of
strategy/board game mechanics while slogging through a mindless storyline that
had absolutely nothing to do with Yu-Gi-Oh, as its fans know it. With that
said, Yu-Gi-Oh: Capsule Monster Coliseum is for all intents and purposes a
reworking of Duelist of the Rose, which thankfully is pulled off far better than
its predecessor.
In Yu-Gi-Oh: Capsule
Monster Coliseum you take on the role of Yu-Gi-Oh as he competes against various
opponents in a game, which is more chess than card game. The board/grid upon
which you play is a continuously evolving world, which forces the player to
constantly evolve his or her strategy, keeping the game both interesting and
challenging. To begin a game, each player selects up to six monsters, based
upon the monsters that appear on the cards of the standard game. The catch is,
you only have a set amount of points to spend on the monsters and it goes
without saying, the stronger the monster, the more points it will cost to put it
into play. In addition to this, each monster has elemental strengths and
weaknesses (fire, water, wind, earth, and so on), not at all unlike Pokemon.
Unfortunately, there are so many elements at play that it takes some serious
studying to memorize what elements are strong over others. While on the subject
of the elements, Yu-Gi’s grandfather does try to explain this in a little piece
of inadvertent comedy, at least for those of us that have seen “Base-ketball”
starring South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Yu-Gi’s grandfather
presents an oval with each of the elements shown around the perimeter of the
oval. From there he goes around the oval telling you what ones overcome the
others by drawing little arrows from one to the next. By the time he’s done,
you’re left with a nonsensical mess of arrows going every which way that looks
an awful lot like the map featured at the beginning of the aforementioned movie
showing the migrant patterns of professional sports teams.
Now back to our regularly
scheduled review. The elements and your understanding of their strengths and
weaknesses are vital to your success because the playing field constantly morphs
and changes. One minute you may have one of your monsters placed in a stream
where he excels and the next as the world rumbles and shifts you may find him
atop dry ground where he isn’t as strong. This sounds confusing, and it is for
a while, but the changing of the playing field and the dominant elements of
particular grid squares, keeps the game fresh and interesting. The amount of
strategy needed to be successful rivals even that of chess on the more varied
playing fields. These factors also mean that a player is never completely out
of the game. An advantageous shift here and a negative shift there for your
opponent and all of a sudden a player who had been struggling can quickly gain
the upper hand. This is not to say that the games are decided purely on a
chance shift of the board, but it does mean that picking your monsters and
moving them carefully is incredibly important.
From there, the object of
the game is to simply eliminate your opponent’s monsters or to clear a path so
that one of your monsters can attack your opponent’s personal piece. But the
strategy doesn’t end there. You are also allotted a set amount of points each
turn which can be used either for summoning one of your monsters, or for moving
a monster or monsters that have been summoned on a prior turn (you cannot summon
and move a given monster in the same turn). Also of note is that each monster
has a set pattern with which they can move on a given turn and the further you
move it from its starting position, the more points it costs. While all of this
sounds incredibly confusing and complicated, it’s really not that bad once you
spend a little time with the game. Like the card game, it’s not nearly as hard
as it initially seems and also like the card game, it’s more than it would at
first seem.
Graphically, this is the
best-looking Yu-Gi-Oh game yet, but unfortunately, that really doesn’t mean a
whole lot. Most Yu-Gi-Oh games revolve around the graphically simple portrayal
of a card game, whereas in this one you are presented with 3-D representations
of the monsters, as well as a 3-D rendering of a game environment. The only
other Yu-Gi-Oh game this could be compared to is Duelist of the Rose and Capsule
Monsters blows it out of the water. Where the graphics of DOR were muddy, and
well, ugly, the graphics of this game are sharp featuring nice models of 2-D
characters taking good advantage of the third plane. The monsters are suitably
rendered which is a nice accomplishment when one considers just how many unique
monsters there are in this universe. The arenas are also nicely done featuring
a good amount of variety not only from one end of the board to the next, but
also from one board to the next. There’s nothing groundbreaking, but they serve
their purpose creating a look both pleasant and functional, which will be a huge
plus to veterans of DOR.
The sound department is a
bit of a mixed bag. The game features the voice talent from the show, which is
usually a plus considering that anyone voicing a cartoon is a professional voice
actor, but they give a very under whelming performance here. Their lines are
delivered flat, monotone, and completely devoid of any life or emotion. In a
way it’s almost comical to hear these dry deliveries, especially when it
pertains to lines that were obviously intended to have some sort of emotion or
excitement. The music is suitable to the game, blending into the background
where it neither stands out, nor grates. The rumbling and shaking of the
playing field shifting is a nice touch.
Overall Capsule Monsters
offers a compelling way for fans of the series to experience the mythos in a way
different than the standard card game. It is a bit complicated at first, but
for those who devote the time to understand the strategy and the nuances of the
gameplay they will be rewarded with a fairly deep game of skill. For those fans
that felt a bit disappointed and put off by Duelist of the Rose, give Capsule
Monsters a good, strong look because it takes that concept and fixes most of
what was wrong with that effort. Those gamers who enjoy games that require more
brain, than finger power, but know absolutely nothing about Yu-Gi-Oh; you’ll
also probably find enough to like here to warrant a look.
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Gameplay: 7.5
The amount of
strategy required to play this game is impressive, if not intimidating. It will
take some time to understand the mechanics of the game, but once you do, you’ll
likely find the gameplay strangely addictive. The changing game board is a nice
touch that keeps things interesting and fresh.
Graphics: 7.7
Capsule Monsters
is a huge, massive, enormous upgrade over previous Yu-Gi-Oh games on the
system. While this accomplishment is appreciated and welcomed, it still doesn’t
stand up against the best the system has to offer. The character models are
pretty good, the environments varied, with some nice particle effects, all of
which are solid and serviceable.
Sound: 7.0
The game gets
points for using the cast from the show, but those points are canceled with
their dry, emotionless, humorous in a bad way delivery of their lines. The rest
of the sound from the music, to the environment shifts, to the sound of water
flowing across the game board is solid, if unspectacular.
Difficulty: Medium/Hard
The initial
learning and understanding of the gameplay can be intimidating, but with a
little time, most gamers will have no trouble playing the game with skill. The
AI of the computer-controlled characters is always competitive, but not
frustratingly so.
Concept: 8.0
Coming up with a
fairly new, unique way for fans to enjoy the license without it coming off as a
cheap “cash in” is an accomplishment. The developer has come up with a viable
game, that while very different than the signature game of the series, feels as
if it might be a game that Yu-Gi-Oh friends might play when they’re not dueling
with their cards.
Multiplayer: 8.0
Playing
against a living, breathing opponent amps up the enjoyment of the game
considerably. By its very nature, the multiplayer matches can get pretty
intense.
Overall: 7.9
Capsule Monsters
is a fun and engaging game that does justice to the license. Fans of the series
will likely find a lot to like here, as will fans of strategy games. For
everyone else, it may not be worth the effort of learning the game, but there is
no denying that the developer has come up with a different take on the license
that may just help Yu-Gi-Oh squeeze out a few more minutes of relevance in the
hearts of its fans.
