Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom is a Yu-Gi-Oh video game for the Nintendo GameCube. Rather than a card game, it is a mixture of a Real Time Strategy and RPG.
The story is split into campaigns for Yugi and Kaiba, with a campaign for Joey unlocked after beating both of those. It begins with the various characters from the series invited to a game company, SIC, to help test their new virtual reality RPG, "Kingdom", and ending up trapped in the game world. Taking on the role of marshals in command of teams of monsters, Yugi and Kaiba, along with other members of the Yu-Gi-Oh cast, participate in the story of a rebellion against the Sygh-Varths Empire on the continent of Rondeval, with the hope that winning the game will allow them to leave. Along the way, Yugi and Kaiba will recruit into their forces not only other players trapped in the game, but also a few NPCs and of course a wide variety of monsters from the anime and card game.
- And You Were There: While the characters who are real people trapped in the game are all playing versions of themselves, there are also NPCs who are based on characters from the series, such as Pegasus (named "Pegasus J. Kroitzel" in this game). There are also many characters who are recycled from Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden Memories.
- Another Side, Another Story: Beat both the Yugi and Kaiba campaigns and you unlock the Joey campaign, which shows what Joey was doing before joining Yugi's forces.
- Ascended Extra: Scott Irvine is the Big Bad for a good amount of the game, but he actually originally appeared as a KaibaCorp technician in the anime during the testing of the Battle City Duel Disk.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: A few of Yugi's friends are brainwashed. Bakura, however, is Not Brainwashed, but instead just replaced with Yami Bakura.
- Combination Attack: Some sets of monsters have attacks that work in conjunction with certain other monsters (such as the Dark Magicians and the Dark Magician Girl, the Gemini Elves, and the Harpie Lady Sisters).
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Some computer opponents can use fusion monsters as normal monsters rather than having to fuse them.
- Cyberspace: Technically the whole game takes place there, but it's most obvious in the last few stages (which are played in both the Yugi and Kaiba campaigns) where the characters have left the virtual world of the story and now have to conquer a graphical representation of the computer system that's running the game.
- Doomed by Canon: Since Joey didn't bring a whole group with him when he joined your side in the Yugi campaign, it should be pretty obvious that the Black Dragon gang will have to split up by the end.
- Fusion Dance: Like the card game, you can fuse certain monsters by equipping them with Polymerization and using it on a compatible monster.
- Heel Face Turn: Kaiba is pretty much forced to make one by Marthis, who accuses him of treason in order to get more of the Emperor's favor, but Kaiba doesn't like working for the Empire anyway so he's fine with it.
- Konami Code: If you use it, you earn 573 gold.
- La Résistance: Yugi's army, and eventually Kaiba's as well, are both branches of the resistance against the Empire.
- Load-Bearing Boss: After you beat the final boss, the SIC building burns down for no apparent reason.
- The Man Behind the Man: DarkNite/Nitemare.
- Mons: The monsters, naturally.
- Monster Arena: The challenge mode could be considered a form of this, though it has no bearing on the campaign mode itself.
- The Most Dangerous Video Game: Kingdom. (Not The Falsebound Kingdom itself though. Hopefully.)
- New Game+: All monsters and items are carried over every time you finish a campaign.
- Risk-Style Map: The between-stage story segments illustrate the locations of each stage this way, as do a few parts where the characters are describing their strategies.
- True Final Boss: Nitemare becomes the final boss after beating one of the campaigns, who just uses a higher level god monster.
- We Cannot Go on Without You: Usually, it's game over if the campaign's viewpoint character loses a battle.
- Win to Exit: The goal for most of the game.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle: You'd think the story would be over once you defeated the Emperor in battle, right? Well, Scott Irvine has different plans.