Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom
North American cover art North American cover art
Developer(s)	Konami
Publisher(s)	Konami
Series	Yu-Gi-Oh!
Platforms	GameCube
Release date(s)
Genre(s)	Real-time strategy

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom (遊戯王 フォルスバウンドキングダム ～虚構に閉ざされた王国, Yugiō forusubaundo kingudamu ~ kyokō ni tozasa reta ōkoku) is the only Nintendo GameCube game in the Yu-Gi-Oh! series.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Falsebound Kingdom takes a different direction from the rest of the series, being more of a mix of real-time strategy and role-playing video game elements than the typical card battling games seen on other systems.The system it uses is uncoventional, but quite effective, as it uses a 3D battle stage including bonuses and improvements (such as fortresses, weapons, etc.)

It features most of the major characters from the anime and manga series as well as 177 monsters.

Plot

At first the player can choose between two storylines, for Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba, but later the player can get one for Joey Wheeler as well. The Yugi storyline involves Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Téa being invited to the testing of the virtual reality game "Kingdom," created by the company SIC. When they enter the game they soon find themselves trapped within it, and they must summon the help of the game's characters and monsters in order to defeat the game's villain, Emperor Heishin, and ultimately stop the plans of the game's designer, Scott Irvine, to control the three Egyptian God cards. At one point in the Yugi storyline, Joey, Tea, and Bakura are all brainwashed, and the player must fight against Tea once, Joey twice, and Bakura once in a kind of race, where the player must get to a town before Yami Bakura does, or the level is automatically lost. Common Strategies done to complete this mission is to use a very fast monster, such as "Ansatu," (Earned when Bakura joins your team on the level, "Battle for Tsughut") and have that team charge Jakhdud immediately. Then, it is just a matter of defeating Bakura to win.

Kaiba's storyline features Seto Kaiba and his brother Mokuba Kaiba, who are also trapped in the game. Initially they work for Emperor Heishin, but Kaiba soon turns against the Empire, as Marthis, his 'helper' hears Kaiba talking to Pegasus, after a mission in the game where the player has to face Pegasus, and suspects that Kaiba is a spy for the resistance, so turns him in to the Emperor, who sentences him to a public execution. However, Kaiba escapes with Mokuba and Bonz escape from the Empire. However, Marthis is waiting for him with a unit, and promises the man who brings Kaiba to him any thing he wants. After defeating all enemies on the level, Pegasus arrives and asks Kaiba to lead the resistance, as he 'cannot return to the Empire' with a price on his head. Kaiba recruits further members for his resistance, including Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor, leaving the player with a large force only 7 missions into the campaign.

A climactic plot event in both stories occurs when Mokuba is kidnapped, and Scott forces Kaiba to battle against Yugi, and this level is called 'Face Off' in both of the campaigns. At the end of both storylines is a segment taking place within a secret room leading from the game's fantasy environment to the inner workings of the computer that is running the game itself. Either team must defeat Scott Irvine as well as the enemy DarkNite, wielder of one of the God Cards at level 1, Obelisk the Tormentor in Yugi's story, and Slifer the Sky Dragon in Kaiba's. After beating one story, the other storyline becomes harder, with higher level monsters. In this harder mode, there is an additional villain, Nitemare, who has the God Card at level 99.

Joey's storyline is a prequel to Yugi's and features some minor characters from the other storylines. Its main villain is Marik Ishtar who uses The Winged Dragon of Ra. This storyline finishes with the character facing Kaiba, Mokuba, Marthis, and other Marshals, on the same map which the Kaiba campaign began on, which is almost a sign of things to come, as Malairuka and Jusell on Joey's side are on the side of the enemy in Kaiba's first mission.

The player, no matter what campaign they choose, is certain to face the three Blue-Eyes White Dragons, as Yugi and Joey face Kaiba, but Kaiba must fight the Dragon Lord to obtain the three Dragons.

Every time a campaign is completed for the first time, the level of all enemy monsters increases by 30. The only exceptions to this are the monsters on Scott's team on the final level, which is 2 Serpent Night Dragons (Lv. 45) and a Skull Knight (Lv. 50), and then the Egyptian Gods at the end of the game, where the first opponent will always have a level-1 God.

Challenge Mode

The game also includes a Challenge Mode consisting entirely of battles, where the player has to fight various characters from the campaign, such as Joey, Kaiba, and Yugi.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic 44/100 Review scores Publication Score Game Informer 6.5/10 GamePro GameSpot 3.1/10 GameSpy GameZone 5.9/10 IGN 3.5/10 Nintendo Power 2.4/5

The game received "generally unfavorable reviews" according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.

External links

• English Falsebound Kingdom website
• (Japanese) Japanese Falsebound Kingdom website
• Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom at MobyGames