When Yu-Gi-Oh! was at the height of its popularity during the late 90's and early 2000's, you'd be forgiven for thinking that there was a new YGO game around every corner. In fact, in a span of 4 years between 1998-2001, a mind-boggling 11 YGO games were developed and released. Among them was Duelist of the Roses, which was one of the oddest and most unique takes on the YGO formula. Set in 15th century England, this game substituted real and fictional historical figures for YGO characters as Yugi (Henry Tudor) and Seto (Christian Rosenkreuz) fought for the throne of England by playing an archaic version of Duel Monsters. If it sounds ridiculous, that makes sense, because it is. But just as it was the strangest YGO game of its time, it was also the best.

Both the main benefit and the main drawback to this game is the way the card game is played. Instead of sticking to the original game, DotR opts for a board-game style layout, where cards are played on a 7x7 grid and moved around, with the goal of surrounding and attacking the opponent's deck master. This structure is considerably more interesting than the original card game was at time of release, and is what gives this game so much of its charm. Even though the card game was still in a somewhat limited state at the time, this new format allows for a much more variable and nuanced gameplay experience. Players generally have a much stronger feeling of control over the game, as they have more agency to play their way out of difficult situations. Grasping victory from the jaws of defeat is immensely satisfying in this game, and that's because of this novel setup.

It also ends up being quite confusing. This is a game that, if it's your first time playing it, could take you 5-10 hours to understand how to play ideally, but if you've played it before, you can breeze through it pretty quickly. The game manages to keep players interested due to the deck cost system, which prevents the use of supremely overpowered cards to defeat opponents. This makes deck building a more involved process, and the game is better for it. Most of the difficulty comes from an unclear tutorial, save for the final boss, who just has vastly overpowered cards. There's also a lot of gameplay aspects that are left to be figured out. Fusions, for example, appear almost random at first, and require a lot of guesswork to figure out. Card collection is another wonky aspect, and you're better off playing with what you have rather than wasting time trying to collect specific cards. Even with all that factored in, though, it's a pretty short game, and there's not a lot to do once both routes are completed. Unless you decide to rank up your deck master, that is, which is extremely tedious and not recommended. Luckily, it's also something that's not really too important.

DotR is an impressive game simply because, in between the releases of other mediocre licensed YGO titles, it managed to stand out and offer something different. Even though there's not a lot of substance to it and it may appear pretty unapproachable at first, it's still an innovative title that clearly had passion behind it, with a killer soundtrack to boot.

An amazing game that was actually more enjoyable than the original trading card game, with its grid based system.

I would love to see a spiritual successor or a remaster with online play, new AI opponents and new cards.

A great story as well, retelling the War of the Roses with the cast of original Yu-Gi-Oh anime.

One of my favourite games of all time. The pinnacle of a TV show tie-in game.

I will return to this game to give my true thoughts on it.

I think I was just too young to understand the complex nature of this game. Something always drew me back to it all the time, even though I kept losing (guessing it's just because I'm a Yu-Gi-Oh! nerd)

Regardless, I love the story and presentation of this game. Truly good stuff. A unique atmosphere that really pulls you in.