Not bad, though it's held back in a number of ways that prevent it from being truly awesome. I do like how sleek and simple its main modes are without being as barebones as most of its predecessors and without being as grindy as games like Tag Force and Spirit Caller. I think the less grindy nature of this game alone is something notable enough that that puts it above the vast majority of Yu-Gi-Oh! games in general. At least in theory. Unfortunately, it winds up being screwed by a few things seemingly outside of its control. It walks so other games can jog.
The Duel World mode is quite nice and I find it more compelling and cute than the later World Championship series games as a concept. My problem, though, is that there isn't really a world to walk around in; one of the first major things that hold WC2008 back is that if it had been made just a year later it perhaps may have been put together like 2009-2011's story modes. While I find that the later games are paced a bit worse and tend to feel more grindy, they at least do allow you to walk around instead of just being a cursor selecting characters. Unfortunately, though, Duel World is more like Spirit Caller's story mode. Even so, though, I think it has quite a lot of charm. They really went around the block in terms of picking random and notable monsters to feature, with a lot of them being picks that feel weirdly well thought-out. I like that Gigobyte's story was included to an extent in it, for example. The only really big problem I had was the forced tag duel section, wherein you are forcibly paired with a Neos/Neo Spacian deck that is absolutely horrid unless you want to grind for different tag partners. At the very least you can do the grind at all if you want a different partner, but it would have been nice if you could at least choose from a few old faces from earlier in the game instead of being limited so much.
Unfortunately, regardless of the quality of the story mode this game only got the worst part of the GX era card pool and didn't even have the more unhinged bizarre Forbidden/Limited lists of the late DM era either. Despite being one of the last GX era games it didn't even have the cards from the last few sets available - at least not during the maingame - so it doesn't even fully represent GX's better sides all that much. Once again the game holds itself back, and once again had it been made just a little later it could have been so much better. I could absolutely feel the
I can go on about this but I think the picture is pretty clear. This game has the potential to be one of the very best of the video games in YGO's history but a lot of where it falls short are due to things just barely outside of its control or scope. The game does do plenty of good, of course. The AI is quick and pretty decent, at least outside of tag partners. The Duel World is really cool and the booster packs seem to flow in much better than in the other WC games I've played. The Free Duel mode is super easy to get into and the AI deck variety is nice and high. And of course, the old pre-Synchro style of YGO is fun to partake in one last time before the 5D's era comes. Like I said the card pool isn't as good as it could be, but it's still good enough to encapsulate a decent amount of the era. I played this game in my free time slowly but surely over the last year or so and I think it was a real fun time-waster cause it was muuuuch more easy to pick up and play in story mode than the later WC games I've played.
WC 2008 is so close to being head and shoulders above its peers, but it just isn't quite there. Genuinely pretty sad at how it just barely falls short of a lot of potentially great aspects and winds up being just a pretty okay package. Still fun to play on the go and while waiting for food and such, though! This is one I can at least recommend to people interested in clean and simple Yu-Gi-Oh! The lack of grind in the maingame makes it far more quick to play on a whim and make progress in compared to its peers. I'm glad the 2009-2011 WC games were able to benefit from 2008's experimentation but this game in itself has quite a lot of merit in its strangeness to be sure.
The Duel World mode is quite nice and I find it more compelling and cute than the later World Championship series games as a concept. My problem, though, is that there isn't really a world to walk around in; one of the first major things that hold WC2008 back is that if it had been made just a year later it perhaps may have been put together like 2009-2011's story modes. While I find that the later games are paced a bit worse and tend to feel more grindy, they at least do allow you to walk around instead of just being a cursor selecting characters. Unfortunately, though, Duel World is more like Spirit Caller's story mode. Even so, though, I think it has quite a lot of charm. They really went around the block in terms of picking random and notable monsters to feature, with a lot of them being picks that feel weirdly well thought-out. I like that Gigobyte's story was included to an extent in it, for example. The only really big problem I had was the forced tag duel section, wherein you are forcibly paired with a Neos/Neo Spacian deck that is absolutely horrid unless you want to grind for different tag partners. At the very least you can do the grind at all if you want a different partner, but it would have been nice if you could at least choose from a few old faces from earlier in the game instead of being limited so much.
Unfortunately, regardless of the quality of the story mode this game only got the worst part of the GX era card pool and didn't even have the more unhinged bizarre Forbidden/Limited lists of the late DM era either. Despite being one of the last GX era games it didn't even have the cards from the last few sets available - at least not during the maingame - so it doesn't even fully represent GX's better sides all that much. Once again the game holds itself back, and once again had it been made just a little later it could have been so much better. I could absolutely feel the
I can go on about this but I think the picture is pretty clear. This game has the potential to be one of the very best of the video games in YGO's history but a lot of where it falls short are due to things just barely outside of its control or scope. The game does do plenty of good, of course. The AI is quick and pretty decent, at least outside of tag partners. The Duel World is really cool and the booster packs seem to flow in much better than in the other WC games I've played. The Free Duel mode is super easy to get into and the AI deck variety is nice and high. And of course, the old pre-Synchro style of YGO is fun to partake in one last time before the 5D's era comes. Like I said the card pool isn't as good as it could be, but it's still good enough to encapsulate a decent amount of the era. I played this game in my free time slowly but surely over the last year or so and I think it was a real fun time-waster cause it was muuuuch more easy to pick up and play in story mode than the later WC games I've played.
WC 2008 is so close to being head and shoulders above its peers, but it just isn't quite there. Genuinely pretty sad at how it just barely falls short of a lot of potentially great aspects and winds up being just a pretty okay package. Still fun to play on the go and while waiting for food and such, though! This is one I can at least recommend to people interested in clean and simple Yu-Gi-Oh! The lack of grind in the maingame makes it far more quick to play on a whim and make progress in compared to its peers. I'm glad the 2009-2011 WC games were able to benefit from 2008's experimentation but this game in itself has quite a lot of merit in its strangeness to be sure.