Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelist of the Roses, known in Japan as Yu-Gi-Oh! True Duel Monsters 2: Succeeded Memories (遊戯王 真デュエルモンスターズ２), a video game for PlayStation 2 in the Yu-Gi-Oh! series, is loosely based on the real-world English Wars of the Roses. In mid 2006, Duelists of the Roses was named a PlayStation 2 Greatest Hits title.

Yami Yugi (Yugi Mutou in the English manga and the original Japanese adaptations) assumes the identity of the head of the Tudor dynasty, Henry Tudor, while Seto Kaiba represents the head of the Yorkist forces as Christian Rosenkreuz.

The player assumes the role of the Rose duelist, who has been summoned to aid the Lancastrians by Simon McMooran, a Scottish Druid at Stonehenge. However, Christian Rosenkreuz (also known as C. Seto Rosenkreuz) shows up and then the player decides which side he or she is going to be a part of. In order to get back home the player needs all 16 of the "Rose cards." 8 Red rose cards are held by the Lancastrians and the 8 white ones by the Yorkists. The player can choose the Red Rose for the Lancastrians, or the player can choose the White Rose for the Yorkists. Each side has different opponents and different endings, but there is an option to restart the game after completion to travel the path you did not choose the first time round.

Gameplay

The dueling rules differ from the ones that are in the present time and that they are under the "Perfect Rule." In this way there is a crude form of movement and a Deck Leader. Deck Leaders are monster cards that are needed to play cards from the hand; they represent your Life Points (LP). Any attack to your Deck Leader is considered to be a Direct Attack to your LP. Monsters have ranks, the lowest being a Private and the highest being SD or Secretary of Defense. Through ranks, they can learn different abilities to help enhance other cards. Depending on its role during a duel, a monster will promote through ranks. A soldier can not be use as a Deck Leader until it achieved a rank. Usually monsters with Level Stars of 3 or less get more or special abilities.

Card Movement

Card movement is a simple card moving rule where you can only move the cards left, right, forwards, or backwards along the field. This movement capability is multiplied when there is a terrain movement bonus (see below). Some cards have the ability to transform such as Cocoon of Evolution is now a power-up and Shadow Ghoul can transform into a Wall Shadow when it is moved into Labyrinth Terrain.

Terrain

The field takes the form of a chessboard with each of the "squares" in the field usually being different terrain. Monsters that are powered up by being in favorable terrain get a movement bonus and 500 ATK/DEF points.

Here is a list of all of the terrain and their effects on the monsters:

Terrain	Powers Up	Powers Down
Normal	No Effect	No Effect
Darkness	Fiend, Spellcaster, Zombie	Fairy
Mountain	Dragon, Winged Beast, Thunder, Fairy	Zombie
Meadow	Warrior, Beast-Warrior	Spellcaster
Forest	Insect, Beast, Beast-Warrior, Plant, Pyro	Fiend
Wasteland	Dinosaur, Machine, Zombie, Rock	Fish, Plant, Sea Serpent, Aqua
Sea	Fish, Sea Serpent, Thunder, Aqua	Pyro, Machine
Molten Destruction (The only Pyro field card)	Pyro	None
Toon	Toon monsters	Monsters other than Toon
Crush	Immortal	Destroys monsters with ATK at/over 1500
Labyrinth	None; only certain monsters can enter	None

Deck Cost

Each card has a Deck Cost which can be used to determine the overall power of the card. Each card that is added to the deck increases the Deck Cost by the card's cost (e.g. a card with a cost of 24 will increase the deck's cost by 24). During the Campaign Mode, you cannot duel someone if you have a higher total Deck Cost than your opponent. This helps to keep players from completely dominating their opponent.

3D Monsters

The Duelists of the Roses shows the monster itself hovering above the card when it is face up on the field. When monster battles are set to "Display" in the options menu (which you can bring up at any time during a Duel) when two monsters come into contact the screen switches to a detailed arena representing the current field terrain with the two monsters on either side of the arena. After a few moments the two monsters battle and the winner then roars or dances its approval over the victory of the battle.

Passwords

Players may obtain secret passwords through Kaiba's Chain Pieces found at the end of each story mode side. These passwords may be entered through the deck construction menu. The monsters/traps/spells unlocked by the passwords are usually very powerful and can be used strategically.

Included Cards

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses also featured 3 Secret Rare cards, they are found in the box of the game. They are:

• Alpha The Magnet Warrior
• Beta The Magnet Warrior
• Gamma The Magnet Warrior

Japanese duelists were also able to Pre-Order The Duelists of the Roses, to obtain Valkyrion the Magna Warrior. This was not released with The Duelists of the Roses in either North America or Europe.