Pook's Place

Pook’s Review: Yu-Gi-Oh! Online (Demo)
By Pook

            As many of you know, I’m a big video gamer.  So I was outrageously surprised when Konami announced that they would be releasing an online version of their popular card game, Yu-Gi-Oh (a game I’m sure you are all familiar with).  Shonen Jump advertised that there would be a free demo of this game with their February issue, I was a very happy lad.  Needless to say, I got the issue about a week before it was supposed to hit the newsstands, only to find out that the network wouldn’t be ready for a few weeks.  Woe was me…until now.  Now, the network is up, and I’ve been dueling as often as I can (stupid hours wasted at work and sleeping!)  After putting it through the basics, here are some of my thoughts on the game. 

            I’m not going to go into all of the boring system requirements needed to play (although the demo does require broadband service).  After installing the files, you need to create a user name and password – the game provides a link to the official game’s site.  Once you are logged in, you can choose create up to 4 different players.  As of right now, I’m using “PojoPook”.  You then select English of Japanese play (sorry, the whole program will be in Japanese, not just the cards, for those of you who prefer the Japanese cards), and then you can select one of the two “Beginner Lobbies”.  I’ve seen upwards of 200 players in one lobby.  Once you enter a lobby, it is just a matter of joining or creating a game – single is single elimination, match is best two out of three. 

            The in-game set up is nearly identical to those of the Power of Chaos PC games.  The background is just like that of Yugi the Destiny – a Egyptian motif, rather than Kaiba’s high-tech background or Joey’s urban setting.  The music is pretty basic, but can easily get repetitious and slightly annoying.  But if you happen to like it, you can experience it in Dolby Pro Logic II. 

            The game play, again, is identical to that of the other PC games, however, there are some new features.  First of all, there is a chat option, so that you can make new friends or talk smack to your opponent.  This always brings out the weirdoes.  Next, there is a timer in the upper-right corner.  What this does is limit the time you or your opponent has to make a move.  It’s there for rock-paper-scissors before the match, as well as during the match itself.  The timer is a double edged sword, however.  If your opponent takes too long to make a move (or if they are having trouble with their internet connection) and the counter reaches zero, you win.  However, the same goes in the other direction.  Let’s say you are called away from your computer for a second, and all of a sudden, time is up – you’ve just added another loss to your record.  Or let’s say your modem decides to act up, or you suddenly have to close out the duel – if you don’t stay to finish, you lose.  I suppose it is good, though.  It prevents people from closing out in order to avoid losing, and the timer stops people who purposefully take their time so that you get frustrated and leave, giving them a win.  Just be mindful of it, or you’ll end up losing more than you should.  After the match, you can rate your opponent, which is exceedingly dangerous.  Overall, I judge fairly, but I’m sure that vindictive people will always vote “Poor” just for the sake of it.  Oh well, not everyone can be as cool as I am! ^_^

            But, winning does have its advantages, of course.  Winning gets to packs – digital ones, of course.  For winning a single duel, you get 1 card, for a match duel, 3.  You have a choice of 2 different packs, in order to mix things up.  You need these cards, because everyone starts with the exact same deck.  This is a major flaw in the demo – you know what everyone has, and because of that, you can plan strategies accordingly.  Also, there’s no variety to the game play.  On top of that, the demo is Traditional format, not Advanced.  That’s a real big issue for serious players… for now.  Look, I’m not one to complain – a free game is always good, especially a game I am quite fond of, so I’m not going to waste time quibbling about the lack of features in the demo. 

            There is one small thing I will quibble about, and that’s the price tag attached to the final version.  Odds are the game will retail for around $30, but Konami will be charging a monthly fee to play.  Once upon a time, I played Everquest for the free month trial.  I loved it, and decided to save money by paying for the next year in advance, rather than in monthly payments.  Over the course of the year, I played maybe twice.  Goodbye $100.  So, having been burned once before by the price of online games, I am hesitant about getting the full version.  If Konami ends up charging $10 or so a month, I’m sorry to say that I more than likely will not be participating in the online community.  But, if they make it a more reasonable price, I’ll happily play.  After all, you all know my feelings about dueling online (see “The Digital Duelist”). 

            Overall, for a free demo, Yu-Gi-Oh! Online is really good.  It isn’t great, but it’ll do for now.  There are no fancy monster animations or character voices, but it does get to the most basic level of the game, dueling.  I’ll give it a 7.5 out of 10, factoring in that this is not the final product.  We’ll just have to see what else Konami has given to us when the full release comes out in a few months.  Until then, happy online dueling!