Key findings

• Yu-Gi-Oh: Duelists of the Roses mixes the mechanics of card and board games, making it stand out from the series.
• The game creatively retells the historical Wars of the Roses with a Yu-Gi-Oh theme, adding an intriguing story element.
• The game’s unique gameplay systems led to a sequel to the cult RPG classic.

Since its founding in 1996 Yu-Gi-Oh, created by Kazuki Takashi, has spawned several adaptations and video games that complement its outstanding legacy. It began as a Shonen Jump manga, Yu-Gi-Oh Later, anime adaptations, card games, board games, and video games were added to the series’ extensive repertoire of products. Not every product was a success, as some of the anime adaptations were criticized for being too childish and not following the rules of the card game. The same can be said for the multitude of video games in the series. However, one PlayStation 2 video game stands out among the rest and is by far the best video game adaptation the franchise has to offer.

Yu-Gi-Oh: Duelists of Roses was released on September 6, 2001 for the PS2 and is still one of the most popular games in the franchise’s history. Most Yu-Gi-Oh Titles tend to stick to the normal rules of the card game without much deviation, but this PS2 classic stood out as it perfectly blended the card game and board game formats. While Yu-Gi-Oh Games in the modern era have mostly evolved into card game simulators, Yu-Gi-Oh: Duelists of Roses stands out for its unique gameplay, captivating narrative, and reinvention of the franchise’s traditional model.

Yu-Gi-Oh: Duelists of Roses The popular game creatively reinvented

A perfect mix of tabletop board game and trading card game

The Yu-Gi-Oh The franchise is known for its complex and rich gameplay, featuring several game mechanics that overwhelm many players. Additionally, the game is difficult for beginners to play, as the card rules are rarely precise or make sense, and often rely on strange grammatical conventions to explain how they work. Fortunately, Yu-Gi-Oh: Duelists of Roses is a complex game, but not so daunting that it’s difficult to understand.

Yu-Gi-Oh: Duelists of Roses for the PlayStation2 plays like a mix of an RPG board game and a collectible card game. Before each battle, players build a deck of 40 cards and choose a deck leader. Each card in a deck has a deck price, and players must be above or below the deck price limit or they cannot use their deck. In this way, the game maintains balance and forces players to strategize with even the weakest cards, as the strongest cards significantly increase the overall cost of the deck. The game contains over 800 cards from the earliest era of Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game. Fortunately, this means that none of the Yu-Gi-Oh The cards present in the game can hardly hold a candle to today’s meta threats. Nevertheless, the game is filled with an immense number of strategies and players must learn the best of them to have a chance at success.

The PS2 Yu-Gi-Oh: Duelists of Roses uses gameplay ideas from the iconic Duelist Kingdom Arc of the original Yu-Gi-Oh Anime. Throughout the game, players will encounter different types of terrain during their matches as they face off against iconic characters from the franchise such as Mai Valentine and Weevil Underwood. The terrain increases or decreases a monster’s ATK value by 500, meaning players will sometimes need to build multiple decks and use the best one for the situation. Three types of terrain (Labyrinth, Crush, and Toon) have special effects that players must strategically consider. While these matches are rare, they are some of the most difficult in the game, so players will need to perfect their skills to win these encounters.

The basic gameplay focuses on a 7×7 grid on which players place their Yu-Gi-Oh cards over the course of several rounds while reducing their opponent’s life total from 4000 to 0. During each round, players can move their deck leader one space and place cards face down next to the deck leader. Any card can be moved, allowing players to lure their opponents into well-timed traps or foolhardy fights. To win, players must reach the opponent’s deck leader and attack them enough times to reduce their life total to 0. It is also possible to win a match by surrounding the opponent’s deck leader and rendering them unable to play cards. Players can also defeat their opponent if they cannot draw a card from their deck.

Not everyone Yu-Gi-Oh Card can be a deck leader as players must promote their favorite cards by winning games and gain experience points. These experience points not only allow other cards to be deck leaders, but also allow players to gain more cards for their arsenal to defeat the trickiest opponents in the game. Some deck leaders have special abilities, so players should look through their entire card collection to see what would be the best choice. Although the game can be complex, it is not daunting, and working out unique strategies and card combinations makes the game intricate and fun. Although the game is not a 1:1 simulator of the Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Gameits ability to stand out through its gameplay and unique storyline makes it one of the most interesting Yu-Gi-Oh games.

Yu-Gi-Oh’s attempt at a historical drama is surprisingly fun

Yu-Gi-Oh: Duelists of Roses Tells a fascinating war story through card games

Many game franchises try to adapt history to tell an exciting story, but the line between success and failure is thin. Assassin’s Creed The franchise is one of the few exceptions as it mixes historical settings with fascinating new characters to create interesting stories. Yu-Gi-Oh: Duelists of Roses is similar in this respect, as it is a fascinating retelling of the historical events of the Wars of the Roses—also known as the English Civil Wars—which took place between 1455 and 1487. This concept may be familiar to fans of the Yu-Gi-Oh Franchise, but the game tells the story with such creativity that it is a magnet for players who are not sure if they can handle this abstract Yu-Gi-Oh video game.

At the start Yu-Gi-Oh: Duelists of Rosesplayers can choose to play as Yami Yugi or Seto Kaiba, the two most iconic characters from the original series. While the characters’ iconic appearances were loosely adapted, Yu-Gi-Oh character is meant to represent a historical figure, as Yami Yugi portrays Henry Tudor and Seto Kaiba his opponent Christian Rosenkreuz. This story may have completely overwhelmed the game’s younger target audience, but the historical significance of the narrative is not lost on the older nostalgic fanbase. In the game, players take on the role of the summoned “Rose Duelist”, a figure brought back in time from an unknown era to help either the Lacastrians or the Yorkists win the war and take the throne. The narrative may be an absurd interpretation of history, but its lovable characters help it stand out from some of the other games in the Yu-Gi-Oh Franchise.

Popularity leads to a spiritual successor

Yu-Gi-Oh: Kingdom of the False is a fascinating sequel to Yu-Gi-Oh: Duelists of the Roses

Despite its abstract plot and gameplay for the Yu-Gi-Oh Franchise, Yu-Gi-Oh: Duelists of Roses was a commercial success, although it received mixed reviews. This led Konami to rely heavily on the medieval aesthetic for its next major video game. Yu-Gi-Oh: Kingdom of the FalseUnlike most Yu-Gi-Oh Title before, Yu-Gi-Oh: Kingdom of the False was a turn-based RPG that required players to use iconic monsters like Celtic Guardian and Kuriboh to defeat enemies in a virtual world. While abstract gameplay for Yu-Gi-Oh: Duelists of Rosesfans were not quite as receptive to the RPG style of Yu-Gi-Oh: Kingdom of the False.

Yu-Gi-Oh: Kingdom of the False may have featured the franchise’s most iconic characters, but the gameplay avoids mentioning them often, instead focusing heavily on the RPG aspects. The game may have flopped with critics, but for many, it is a cult classic Yu-Gi-Oh fans, and it is what players have ever received as a sequel Duelists of the Roses. Til today Yu-Gi-Oh: Duelists of Roses is perhaps the most popular title in Yu-Gi-Oh video game history and remains a PlayStation 2 classic. Modern Yu-Gi-Oh Video games rarely reach the creativity in Duelists of the Roses. To this day, fans of this cult hit hope that Konami will one day release a true sequel to the game that utilizes the intuitive gameplay mechanics of the original title released nearly 25 years ago.