Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (GB) and the Bandai Game: When the OCG was born

 

    Released in Japan on December 16, 1998, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters was the first handheld game in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise and the only one for the original GAME BOY. It gave Yu-Gi-Oh! players who were dissatisfied with how Bandai managed the game a more authentic version of the Yu-Gi-Oh! that had been on the pages of the manga. Based off of the then serializing Duelist Kingdom Arc of the manga, your goal was to fight your way through the ship and the island where the Duelist Kingdom tournament took place before finally facing the three bosses Simon Muran, Pegasus J. Crawford and Dark Yugi.

    As one would expect from a game that was on a system that elementary school kids had easier access to, this game was a hit on release. Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters reached 1.61 million units sold in Japan in its lifespan, and that game's success would spark the true Yu-Gi-Oh! mania that would support the OCG through 1999. However, this game's impact towards how the game we play today can't be stated enough. Most of the elements of Konami's 1999 OCG were introduced in this game. Specifically, the concept of Life Points (LP) that Bandai had removed in favor of its own system was reintroduced with this game. 

    For this article, we'll be comparing the Bandai game and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters to see why Konami's version was able to not only defeat Bandai's, but also understand why it's lasted for so long. 

    The Janjo Zone gives a solid explanation on how the Bandai game worked, but here are the rules in case you don't want to click the link.

1) Both players must use the same amount of cards in their Decks

2) Draw 5 cards from your Deck to form your hand

3) Select 1 Monster Card from your hand and play it to start a battle

4) To determine the result of the battle, compare the attacking monster's ATK with the defending monster's DEF

5) If your monster's ATK is higher, the opponent's monster is destroyed

6) Even if you destroy your opponent's monster, your monster is destroyed if its DEF is lower than the ATK of your opponent's monster

7) When the battle ends, draw 1 card from your Deck, and you can end your turn 

8) Each turn continues like this until both players' Decks are empty

9) Each player counts the total Level Stars of all destroyed monsters; the player with the highest amount is declared the winner

10) If you have Spell, Trap or Equip Cards in your hand, you can Set them face-down

11) You can activate your face-down Spell, Trap and Equip Cards at any time during a battle

12) When the effect of a Spell, Trap or Equip Card is used, it is discarded

13) When a player Decks out, the Duel continues until the opposing player's Deck is also empty 

Here is a match involving the Bandai cardpool and rules.

    Now with that established, let's start the comparison, shall we? Here are the rules for Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters:

1) Both players must have 40 cards in their Deck

    This is a modification of Bandai's 1st rule. The cap is necessary, but it's also too restrictive. When the OCG arrived, the max cap would be removed. However, the minimum cap of 40 cards has remained with us to this day. 

2) A Deck can have up to 40 copies of the same card.

    Amusing for a handheld game, but beyond ridiculous for a physical card game. Konami changed this for the OCG to 3 copies per Deck, and that too has been a foundational pillar of the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game to the current year.

3) Both players start with 8000 LP and 5 cards in their hand

    Another major change to the Bandai game was the addition of LP. Having been introduced in the manga, Bandai's removal of the LP system was the biggest change it made to the physical game. Konami reversed this in its first YGO handheld outing and followed the manga more closely. Konami's change was to quadruple the LP count from 2000 to 8000. 

4) Except for the first turn, the player draws one card at the beginning of the turn

    This is the introduction of the Draw Phase to the real world and is the standard we play by today.

5) A player may play one card per turn by either Summoning a monster or activating a Magic Card.

    A Bandai holdover that would be adjusted for the real game before being removed entirely. Traps are also not available in this game, but they would be added by the time of the OCG's release.

6) If a player attempts to Summon a monster into a zone occupied by another monster, the game will attempt to fuse the monsters. If the Fusion is valid, a new monster will be Summoned into the zone. If the Fusion is invalid, the second monster will replace the first.

    Polymerization was available in the Bandai game, but it had a specific use for Summoning Black Skull Dragon and not much else. Konami changed the mechanic in an attempt to make it more simple for the original Game Boy. The physical game would have Polymerization and a modified Fusion Summoning mechanic that we still use today.

7) Here are the ways to increase/decrease your ATK/DEF

    Increasing or decreasing the Level of a monster changes its stats by 60% each. Levels can be increased by up to 2 times. This is done through Equip Spells. There is no set number increase of the monster's ATK/DEF. Spellbinding Circl is the exception as it lowers a Level which lowers the ATK/DEF by 60% instead. 

    Field Magic Cards are also reintroduced into the physical game starting with Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. Unlike Equip Cards, the ATK/DEF of monsters able to be boosted by these Field Magics are either increased or decreased by 30%. It is also possible to have no change to a monster's stats. This would be reflected when Konami's game went physical in the Series 1 Field Spells. 

    Battling also changes from the Bandai game to the Game Boy game. You have the option of either Summoning or Setting (introduced here) a monster. For face-up monsters, you can either select "attack" or "defend." The monsters you select "Defend" for go to Defense Position which Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters also introduced to the game. For those in attack, you can either:

1) Attack directly and deal Battle Damage.

2) Attack your opponent's Attack Position monster and calculate both monsters' ATK. The monster with the lowest ATK is destroyed and Battle Damage is dealt. If the monsters' ATK is equal, both are destroyed.

3) Attack your opponent's Defense Position monster and calculate both. If the Defense Position monster's DEF is lower, it is destroyed. If it's higher, then the attacking player loses LP equal to the deficit.

Winning in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters can only be done in 3 ways:

1) The Duelist who loses all 8000 LP loses the Duel

2) If a player's hand becomes empty, the opponent with the highest LP wins

3) Exodia

The 2nd option would be tweaked for the OCG, but the rest are still win conditions to this day. 

    As can be seen in the comparison, Konami created a more fun version of Yu-Gi-Oh! through a handheld that people wanted to play. Instead of being collectables that could be played, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters showed that Yu-Gi-Oh! could be a legitimate card game that had collectable cards. This was enough for Kazuki Takahashi and Toei. With Bandai on the verge of its founding system's collapse and the failure of the YGO game, they finally sold control of the Yu-Gi-Oh! CCG to Konami. 

    Once again, a gaming-focused company defeated the mighty Bandai, but this time in the toy market proper. Bandai would continue to sell Yu-Gi-Oh cards and see through Yu-Gi-Oh the Movie for the next few months, but the writing was on the wall. By June 1999, Bandai had moved on to the DIGIMON CARD GAME and left the Yu-Gi-Oh disaster behind.

    As for Konami, they released two game guides for Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Perfect Master BOOK and the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Perfect Master BOOK Volume 2 by January 20, 1999. Two weeks later on February 4, Konami released the first ever Booster Pack for Yu-Gi-Oh known as Vol.1. 

And the rest is history.