Playstation 2 - Yu-Gi-Oh! War of the Roses Review

Remember the strategy game 'Stratego'?  You move your pieces across the board trying to capture your opponents pieces, Not knowing if they were of higher or lower value than yours.  This same style goes into "Yu-Gi-Oh!, Duelists of the Roses".

 In this game you are fighting the most pivotal war in English history; The War of the Roses.  But instead of regular battles you are playing battle cards instead.  But this game differs greatly from your standard battle card game.  You don't simply lay out your cards in a row in front of you.  And you don't just pick an opponent's card to attack.  You have to move them into position to attack.   This is a key element in the strategy of the game, in that you never really know what cards you might be attacking.  In regular Battle Cards, you know which rows are monsters, and which ones are spells and traps.  In this game, it could be anything placed anywhere.  Adds a note of mystery and surprise.

Another key strategic element is the point value system.  You can't have cards exceeding those of your opponent's deck.  This makes it more of a thinking person's game.  Instead of one where you simply overwhelm your opponent's deck.  The only problem I have with that is I am constantly having to re-do my decks before a battle.  That can get a little tedious.

If I have any thing negative to say about the game, it's the slot-machine bonus round. Trying to get new cards by drawing them out of a slot machine is so aggravating.  No matter how carefully you try to pick them, it never comes out right.

I recommend "Duelists of the Roses".  It's a thinking person's battle card game