Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Tag Force 5 | a Review
originally published on 10/06/2021;
Hello everyone, I am the indomitable master of getting luck via utilization of the Heart of the Cards, G.E.M.Simov, an unequivocal beast at card games, here to tell you about Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's Tag Force 5, for the PSP, which is going to be referred to as either ‘The Game’ or ‘TF5’ from this point onwards.
I would like to inform you all, ladies and gentlemen, that I will not be playing through the other 5 Tag Force games (because there’s a total of 6 of ‘em), and, instead, I will just review this game, with which I will review the whole game of Yu-Gi-Oh (the Trading Card Game) and, as a result, I will no longer need to review any Yu-Gi-Oh games, because they’re all on the same level as this one, due to the fact that their core is playing Yu-Gi-Oh...
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it. Also, I am a gameplay designer and a writer so I got the credentials to talk shit.
Gameplay
So, this game has 2 modes of playing. The first mode is the ‘Light Novel’ funky character sprite walking about Domino City (the setting for the game), chatting with fellas, engaging in minigames and experiencing the story, as well as finding cards strewn about, buying cards, making decks and other such things.
The second mode of playing is the neckbeard exclusive, card game regime. When the player approaches a goon in the first mode, they can challenge the approached fella to a duel, and then the second mode kicks in. Behold, a battlefield! Behold, cards! Behold, RNG!
Yes, ladies and gents, this game is fundamentally flawed based off of the fact that it is a card game. There really isn't much to say here, but I'll just go ahead and provide a short run down. The battlefield has 15 slots for cards - one for the Deck, one for a Graveyard, in which discarded cards go, one for a pile where cards removed from play go, and one for synchro/fusion cards. Those are the slots that can have stacks of cards on them. Then, there's a slot for a field card, and five slots for spells or trap cards and five more slots for monster cards. The player can have a deck of cards anywhere between 40 and 60.
The goal of the game is to use cards to deal 8000 points of damage to the opponent, before that's done to the player, while also trying not to run out of deck. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Well, unfortunately, it’s not that simple, or nice, because this game has been out and about for a long, LONG time. More than 20 years. Over those 20 years, it has changed. It has been updated, as in, many, MANY cards have been added… And there’s an UNBELIEVABLE power creep in this game.
Power creep, what’s that? Well, imagine a monster. It has 1000 attack and 1000 defense. That’s a decent monster, at the point when the game is released. However, as time passes, more and more monsters get added. To avoid having the game get stale, because it would just have a LOT of monsters with 1000 attack, or a number close to that, and 1000 defense, or a value similar to that, the folks at Konami did something else.
They decided: “Let’s make ‘em more interesting. Give ‘em an effect!” And so some monsters have 900 attack and 900 defense, because their power would be too great if they had 1000 of either AND an effect, and, thus, they have weaker stats, but they also do something else, they don’t just have that power of being a body on the board. Though, a few years pass, and that becomes a bit boring.
It’s as if the best decks have already been made… And, so, the folks at Konami make some new cards, but they’ve got 1000 attack and 1000 defense, AND an effect, so they’re stronger, and more appealing, than the old decks, so people want to buy cards again. And it goes on and on… Ad infinitum.
The issue here is that some cards are absolutely worthless. Beyond valueless. The only thing the player COULD use a monster with no effect for is their Collection. Other than that, there’s literally no use for them. The player is actually just gimping themselves if they use ‘em.
What’s worse is that the decks the player ends up playing against, even those which are supposed to be the weakest possible, are still capable of annoying the player tremendously, because having cards that are absolutely mandatory in any deck is a good idea. Overall, it seems as though the balance of power is so incredibly out of wack, and the difficulty curve is so abominable, that the enjoyment I can derive out of this is… Lackluster.
What’s the issue here? Well, imagine: I am a new player. I got a starter deck, and I’m itching to try it out. I barely know what what does, there’s some stuff that says things, but there’s nothing that can teach the player how to play, other than playing, failing hard because of the game’s lack of effort at informing its players how it works, and then trying again. Worst thing is that, with that starter deck, the player has an underwhelming 45% to 55% chance of winning against the WEAKER decks.
BUT, there’s the catch. Weaker decks are relegated to the characters who are, at best, OCs introduced by the game. The characters who are featured in the show… Well, those fellas can pump out a board of 2500+ attack monsters with no means of coming back in one turn at the blink of an eye. I mean it, totally. There’s no fucking way you’re coming back after one of these pieces of shit gets their combo off (which literally requires NOTHING but luck).
That’s the biggest issue. There’s barely any skill involved in this game. It plays itself, half the time. Just buy packs, get the cards, copy a deck from somewhere, and then watch as victories come running your way. It’s quite ridiculous.
In short, the fundamental flaw of card games is that, no matter how good a player is, they need to be both lucky and financially able to spend hundreds of dollars on cards. Fortunately, the player only needs to be lucky, when it comes to this one. Unfortunate, really, because card games have the potential to be incredibly entertaining and fun, but then, when they are, it is not fun for the person on the other side of the screen/table. Good thing this is mostly vs AI (who plays that, amirite?), but then when the AI crushes the player, it’s not fun either.
One other thing - the AI is abominably stupid. It takes an incredible 5 to 25 seconds of RAW processing to do anything, and it is absolutely staggering. I wish I knew why it is that the win condition is to get rid of all cards on the field, and then the AI plays a card that has an optional effect of GETTING RID OF ALL CARDS ON THE FIELD, but, for some unknown, nihilistic reason, that effect is not activated by the AI, and, as a result, the AI loses. Spectacular. This is only made worse by the fact that this game is all about team duels, and who does the player team up with? The AI. And the AI LITERALLY makes the player lose, because why not? Immaculate design.
SO let’s not focus on the card game aspect of this, but, rather, on the walking around aspect that’s got the Visual Novel style presentation and gameplay, okay? I would love to, but… Well, the card gaming part of it is integrally tied to it. But there are a few little spaces that are somewhat separate, even though still intertwined.
When chatting with a goon, the player can engage in a few minigames, as mentioned, to increase their standing/relationship with said character. The minigames are not very interesting, but they’re an interesting means of solving the approach to Visual Novels, which is usually equal to GAMEPLAY LAST, or NO GAMEPLAY. Now there IS something to do. It’s just relegated to doing weird maths, guessing the name/type of a card, or going down a path by picking the appropriate directions.
In addition to that, there’s the fact that the player can look around and try to find the MC, who gives the player an item, cards, Duel Points (DP, also known as money) or nothing. Other than that, though… There’s not much to do. The player can walk around and find cards dropped on the ground, but everything is done VIA dueling. Gotten a character to a relationship/standing that’s the equivalent of a full heart? Duel. Wanna buy items? Duel to get DP. Wanna get cards? Duel to get DP to buy packs. Otherwise the means of obtaining cards are, frankly, underwhelming.
All in all, the gameplay is centered around playing Duel Monsters, aka Yu-Gi-Oh. And that’s a bad game. 1/3
Presentation
This game has some relatively passable music, but BY GOD is it insanely poorly thought out! Imagine, if you will, the player walking about (jumping from area to area in search of something), and every time they go onto the map screen, the music abruptly stops and swaps to a HIGH INTENSITY TECHNO, regardless of whether the previous track was a tensely howling wind or a relaxing jazzy tune. It’s really abrupt and unpleasant, and, seeing as a large part of the game is wandering about from area to area, this is a problem.
On top of that, the tracks become droning very, very quickly, and there’s another big issue - there’s very little variety in the music that plays during duels, and, not only that, but it’s almost distracting, in a sense. It’s not bad, but it’s not good, and it gets on my nerves by the time the 10th turn rolls around. Big yikes.
When it comes to the visuals of the game, it has a mixture of 2D Sprites, which look pretty nice and, I dare say, have a bit of character, Illustrations of the characters with different emotions on their faces, for when there’s talking to be done, as per the Visual Novel style, which aren’t bad at all, and then there’s 3D models that only make duels last longer by having their animations go off. The models aren’t bad, and the animations aren’t horrible, but if seen 2 or 3 times, they lose their novelty, and, the only thing they do, is make duels last 20 to 25 minutes instead of 15 to 20 minutes. It’s… It’s not that pleasant.
The manner in which the game, itself, is presented, when it comes to playing a duel, is actually pretty neat. There’s a field at the left side of the screen that shows the card that’s currently selected and all the info about it, as well as the card that the currently selected card is going to/is affecting. It’s really nice, and provides a great deal of information to the player - that’s good stuff.
Now, there’s the problem of the presentation of the Story. It’s presented as a Visual Novel would, which is, most of the time… Not good. I mean, let me skip stuff, at least! But then there’s more, because, at the end of each character’s story arc (and there's a lot of those), the CREDITS get PLAYED and the game BOOTS the player OUT. What the hell is that? Pretentious much?
Either way, those are some very, very small gripes. In the grand scheme of things, this game looks absolutely incredible, even if the sounds are… Mediocre, at best. This was one of the few games that I consciously muted, because it became too annoying to listen to. 2/3
Story
The story is the usual Yu-Gi-Oh GARBAGE. CARDS, DUELING, BONDS, and, of course, a world literally RULED by a single card game. The characters are interesting and have a lot of personality, which I really like, but it’s all wound up in the cocoon of CARD GAMES, and it’s… Really silly.
Interesting things would be that every important character - that is a character from the show - has their own story, which the player can experience by getting up to the highest relationship/standing with said character. The stories these characters have, however, are, at best, bland, and, at worst… Idiotic. Take, as an example, Akiza - her whole story is about figuring out what it is that she doesn’t know, which another character has learned as a result of dueling. All she then does is try to figure that out, through dueling, and, lo and behold, after dueling 4 times she figures out that dueling is fun when done with friends. I… I’m not sure this is what I was expecting.
The story has some good points to it, but… Yikes. It’s so bad, almost as if on purpose. 1/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? Does a shitty RNG based card game get the one point I give out for personal pleasure derived from gaming? No. 0/1
Conclusion
4/10. If you’re a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh, or card games, give this one a try. You’ll probably enjoy it, as it is quite well done.
I tuck it under my belt, another shining achievement that I proudly display.