This review has been on the back of my mind for a while hell i even wrote the beginning of this review in the middle of class cause i couldn't stop thinking about writing it.

A really great game that in classic early 2000's Yugioh fashion is absolutely nothing like the actual card game and instead focuses on adding new gimmicks to it this time being chess.
You start the game with a deck of 40 cards and a leader to accompany it (a leader is a monster with at least one promotion more will be explained later in the review) and after choosing to side with either the British or the French (Yeah this game takes place in an actual historical war between the French and the British) you embark on a journey to collect 8 rose cards from the opposing side of whichever faction you chose (going with Kaiba makes you go up against all the good guys from the series and vice versa).

Now the game play is actually fun you fight your opponent on basically what is a chess board and you have to use a combination of spells, traps and monsters to either trick your opponent or overpower them as is already the case with Yugioh, however this time you are given the magic of 3D terrain allowing you to move around your cards face down adding an element of trickery to the mix by making your opponent guessing if the card coming straight to them is a monster or a trap that could basically turn the duel on its head. Along with the board there also are different terrains that each boosts or weakens any monster on it (i.e. fish type monsters gain bonus on sea terrain meanwhile machine monsters lose power) forcing you to think before moving into a space that could mean the end of your strong monsters.
These along with the promotion system which basically gives good noodle stars to your monsters that have been doing a really good job during the duel which in return allows you to set them as leader and even grant them specific abilities to that monster if its set as a leader (as long as it has enough promotion stars) make the possibilities of deck building basically endless.

My only real gripe with this game is having to side with the French how dumb the AI is. Like it might have something to do with how i played this game as a kid but after replaying it recently the AI can be tricked so damn easily its insane (there are still some actually challenging duels like with Pegasus but i think the majority can be won easily if you try to look for ways to exploit the AI).

Either way this is still a really solid game and i would definitely recommend this game to anyone that has a basic knowledge of how Yugioh works.

ALSO I CAN'T BELIEVE I ALMOST FORGOT TO MENTION THE SOUNDTRACK GODDAMN THIS SHIT GOES HARD.
https://youtu.be/MbIWFcZDK2Y