Having completed the game, I decided to take down my previous posts about the game and instead put up an overall piece about it. It’s been about 2 weeks since I started playing, but I lost a week in between cos I didn’t have the transformer to charge the GBA in Sg. So, 7 days to unlock all the characters.

For a comprehensive list of how to unlock all the characters, go here.

The game begins with 4 Tier 1 players: Tea, Tristan, Trusdale, and Bakura. This is basically a cakewalk, although I got very irritated at Tea’s defensive tactics. The descriptions provided in the game are mostly misnomers – how Tristan’s deck is considered high attack is beyond me, since his monsters are mostly less than 1000 points. Reminds of the way Mokuba played in Battle City.

Those in Tier 2 are: Rex Raptor (dinosaur deck), Weevil Underwood (insect), Yugi (basic/warrior/spellcaster), Espa Roba (clairvoyant), Mako Tsunami (water), and a new character Bonz. Mako is very much weakened in this version – doesn’t use his Tornado Wall or Legendary Fisherman to any good effect. Weevil is the toughest for me, cos he has many Effect cards that wipe away my monsters when flipped.

Tier 3 is comprised of Mai Valentine, Joey Wheeler, Bandit Keith, and Maximillion Pegasus. Joey is the toughest of the group – his Time Wizard never fails him! And because Jinzo is not allowed until you beat him a number of times, you are terribly vulnerable to Traps with little respite. Pegasus is a joke – hardly see his Toon monsters in action.

Tier 4 are the Ghouls: Rare Hunter, Arkana, Strings, Lumis and Umbra, and Odion. Rare Hunter is probably the player against whom I had to reset the GBA most often, cos he assembled his Exodia so quickly, even faster than Simon (although by the time I duelled Simon, my deck was pretty good). Strings was surprisingly tough too – none of the suicidal Jam Breeding Machine tactics from Battle City here.

Tier 5: Ishizu Ishtar, Marik Ishtar, Kaiba, and Shadi. What a group! I was not allowed to use Traps and Magic Cards against Ishizu, so the duels with her took forever, although it’s pretty much impossible for her to win (unless you run out of cards). Kaiba had awesome cards – his combo of Magic Jammer (to discard the Barrel Dragon), and Monster Reborn was easy to read, but hard to counter. But he has a tendency to do silly things like use Torrential Tribute and Ring of Destruction on himself. Duh.

Finally, Tier 6 – Simon (new character who plays the Exodia deck), Yami Bakura, Yami Marik, Yami Yugi, and the Duel Computer — seen in Battle City when Kaiba tests his Obelisk card against it. Of course, Tier 6 opponents have to be the hardest, right? Actually, no. Simon is easy to take cos he seems to have terrible luck at drawing his Exodia cards. 🙂 And Bakura is still weak, whether in Yami mode or not. Marik relies too heavily on his Gravity Bind, so Jinzo/Heavy Storm/Harpie’s Feather Duster ought to resolve him handily. Yugi is really tough to beat though. He has many, many high level monsters, which is also his weakness. If you can weather the initial storm, he will find it harder to summon his Dark Magician or Magician of Dark Chaos without the necessary tributes.

Tomorrow, I shall list my winning deck!!