This is an awesome game. For my money it's the greatest PS1 game of all time. I played it a whole lot as a kid, though I mostly played the first phase of the campaign, and then just played free duel to discover new fusions as I farmed for starchips that I actually never got to spend. Later on, in my teen years, I managed to cheese my way through Pegasus and Kaiba with the help of my trusty Jirai Gumo and Job-Change Mirror into Summoned Skull. And that's exactly where my playthrough stayed, that is, until recently.
I got a sudden urge to replay this game and in doing so, I realized that there is still a very solid Forbidden Memories community around. People are looking to figure out new stuff about the game, they are modding it, they are coming up with new self-imposed game modes, and so on. The game is a lot of fun in its own right, it's bright and colorful, it can take a good amount of strategy which makes the duels exciting, and of course, the music is amazing. There's all that and more, but I wanna instead take some time now to focus on a perhaps slightly overlooked aspect – the story. Because as I recently played this game many times over I realized that the story, while not necessarily original, has a whole lot going for it. It's a tale of the hero's journey, a tale of power, greed and betrayal, a story of high lords and low peasants, all within the backdrop of an ancient Egypt full of powerful monsters and strange magic.
The story opens with a dark screen being gradually lit by a faint torch which moves with the sound of ominous steps down an otherwise empty corridor. Then we see a man dressed in an odd garment, a high mage certainly, wandering those halls in search of something. Through it all, we get the distinct feeling that this man simply should not be there. And then he finds what he was looking for.
And it's only after that classic prologue that we get to meet our hero. We play as a young prince whom we'll call Yami, a slacker who is apparently being scolded by his mentor, Simon Muran. That is because Yami is in line to become the next pharaoh, but instead of performing his duties and learning how to rule, he prefers to spend his days in the city's duel ground so that he can play cards with his friends, who actually don't even know he's a prince. But before Yami manages to escape, he has to win a duel with his mentor and then he has to listen to a little lecture. Simon Muran talks about the card game the egyptian people play as a kind of cultural thing for entertainment but he says it wasn't always the case. In olden days, dark mages harnessed the power of the monsters within the cards to wreak such havoc that it almost destroyed the entire world... Scary stuff, but at this point, Yami basically nods and goes along with it. All he wants is to go meet his friends.
Yami runs to the duel ground even if there's a big festival going on in the town plaza. The villagers though, for the most part, prefer to hang out at the grounds, playing card games with each other, and Yami is happy to play a round with them. First up is Teana, one of his best friends, then he duels against a grown man who is hoping to become a better duelist, then a young man obsessed with finding rare cards, and lastly, an old man who hates losing. In any case, they take their loss to Yami in a friendly way, seeing it as a chance for improvement.
Teana then invites you to go to the town plaza and look for Jono even though she strongly dislikes the festivals there. She remembers them fondly from when she was a child but she blames the high mage Heishin for the increasingly spooky rituals. Then Yami and Teana wander around for a bit until they find Jono being mercilessly defeated in a duel against an arrogant young mage named Seto. Yami comes to Jono's defense which sparks an altercation that almost ends in a duel if Seto didn't have other business to attend to. It would appear Seto is a busy man... And because of that he instead offers to grace the duel ground with his presence, for a duel to be played at a later time. It seems like a juvenile conflict but it is actually the beginning of a long rivalry.
Funnily enough though, if Yami takes a detour and goes to the previously guarded shrine, he is instead met with that sight – a group of cloaked figures, each man wearing his own color, talking about master Heishin's plans and schemes, and they even criticize Seto's role as his right-hand man. It would appear there are strange things afoot, but Yami isn't equipped to handle them or even particularly interested in any of it at the moment.
Yami arrives at the duel ground only to find Seto is running late which at least gives him time to catch up with Jono and have a friendly duel. Seto then arrives with his entourage, Yami duels him and, much to Seto's surprise, Yami defeats him. Seto becomes visibly distraught but immediately regains his composure after realizing Yami's true identity, and more than that, he wonders about the young prince's true potential.
After that explosive duel which greatly impresses Yami's friends, everyone is ready to call it a day. Some of the villagers would still duel well into the night, but others are tired. Teana even says she lost track of time and there's not much to do anymore. Now Yami has to return to the palace, take a scolding from Simon Muran and go to bed, which he does. But as Simon Muran retreats into his quarters he is summoned with great haste – an invasion! Heishin has attacked the palace, wielding a kind of strange magic... Simon Muran confronts him, almost revealing an old and bitter rivalry between the two, but the end of their interaction is left uncertain.
Everyone in the palace is overwhelmed. Yami is taken by a handmaiden as they hope to escape but they are quickly intercepted, not by Heishin though, but by Seto himself. He has found Yami before Heishin managed to and asks for a strange but powerful item that Yami supposedly knows the secrets of – the millennium puzzle. But of course, Yami has been a bit of a slacker, he has no idea what's going on, he doesn't know what the puzzle is, let alone what secrets it holds. All he knows, all that everyone instinctively knows, is that Heishin and Seto are bad news.
But at the last minute, Simon Muran appears, all tattered and weak, having survived Heishin's onslaught and having found enough strength to retrieve the puzzle from its hiding place. Perhaps Simon Muran is stronger than he seems... He gives Yami the puzzle and tells him to run, willingly being left behind for the good of the realm. Sadly though, Yami is stopped by Heishin himself.
Heishin mocks you and he is very right in doing so. While it is technically possible to win this duel, it is highly unlikely. Even with the necessary fusions to beat him, such as Summoned Skull or Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon, you will still need a whole lot of luck. For that reason, in your first playthrough of the game you'll find yourself wholly unprepared to defeat the main villain. And that is precisely the moment that made me want to write this essay.
In this game you have to win every single duel. Weirdly, even if you lose friendly duels against the villagers, you still have to face the “game over” screen. But with this duel it's different, this is the only duel in the game in which you actually have to lose. And that is because Yami is immature, he is weak and childish, he never took his duties seriously, he never cared about becoming pharaoh, he never even liked to dress as a prince. Instead he preferred to dress up as a commoner and wander around the streets of Egypt, meeting villagers and playing games... Well, Heishin and the mages haven't been slacking, they have been preparing a coup which is now being fulfilled.
So Yami loses the duel, he didn't even stand a chance, which means he can't go past Heishin. But Simon Muran has one last ace in the hole – he grabs hold of Heishin and orders Yami to shatter the puzzle. Now, this next bit sounds like a small thing since this is an old strategy game we're talking about here, but the player does have to enter that input himself, you are the one who has to make the decision to shattering the puzzle, you are forced to trust that Simon Muran has a plan.
The puzzle is shattered, much to Heishin's disappointment. Yami is then transported to a strange place, a kind of M. C. Escher maze, all gray and impossible and surreal. In the process of shattering the puzzle, Yami's soul became somehow entwined with the puzzle itself, becoming lost somewhere within its pieces. It is indeed a strange sort of punishment but it's the only way Simon Muran had of preventing Heishin from taking over the kingdom and subsequently the world. Still, all is not lost. Simon Muran has great faith that someday, no matter how long it takes, someone will come along, a kind of hero in his own right who will assemble the puzzle. And with that said, there is nothing else for Simon Muran to do. Thus, with some kind words, he sends Yami to his exile.
And after all that, which is essentially the first section of the game, you, or the player, wake up as a new person, a boy named Yugi, a boy who had been dreaming about all of those events. He is living in modern times but he is surrounded by familiar faces from his dream – Jono is there as always, as is Teana who acts as Yugi's helper in the card shop. He is participating in a tournament where all the strongest duelists have gathered. At first it's just a normal tournament, but after a while, strange things begin to happen. The coincidences just seem to pile up.
After the preliminary stage, played with an awesome background music, a man named Shadi appears, claiming he was called to the tournament by his millennium key, and asks Yugi if he'd like to meet his own dark twin. It's all new and confusing but Yugi agrees and uses the item's magic to peer somewhere within the puzzle which, in a way, holds his soul.
That's our first view of the protagonist of the game, whom we see from the perspective of the secondary protagonist, though in a way, they are the same person. This Yugi boy is the one foretold by Simon Muran, the one from the future who happened to find and assemble the puzzle. Thus they are entwined by fate, they can communicate without words, ironically keeping Yami in line with the silent protagonist trope. But interestingly, Yami has made the most of his time in exile, presumably five thousand years, to come up with a plan. He has created six blank cards which he shows to Yugi. And after awaking from the vision, Yugi finds them still in his hand.
But he has to brush off all that strangeness because the next duel is upon him, against Shadi himself. They duel, which is actually a pretty easy one, and afterwards, Shadi's millennium key and scales are consumed by the blanks cards. So it becomes clear – Yugi's goal is to reunite all of the millennium items so that Yami can return to his own world. And after powering through some tough challengers, namely Pegasus, the modern day creator of the card game, and Kaiba, a man suspiciously similar to Seto, Yugi does exactly that.
When all is said and done, Yami returns to the puzzle and, what do you know, Simon Muran is there... but not for long. He appears one last time as a kind of spirit or memory to guide Yami through a mystical portal through which he can return to his own world. But beware! Simon Muran warns him that Heishin has six of the seven millennium items in his possession, and with their power distributed among his loyal henchmen, he rules the realm through fear and intimidation. And that means that by returning to his own Egypt of five thousand years ago Yami risks losing the puzzle, thereby allowing Heishin to conclude his master plan. But then again, if Yami remains in exile, he will have abandoned his own people.
After that omen, Simon Muran sends you along, and now it's serious, your mentor has done all he could do. Now you truly are on your own... The hero may well feel afraid, he may still be too weak and too naive, but he has learned all that he could. So he emerges from his strange, time-wrapping exile to return to his own country after what seems like only a few days. And he finds the old temple in ruins.
That is the cost of Yami's carelessness. Having neglected his role as the prince, he became complacent, he fooled around with childish things while his enemies coiled around him until they were ready to strike. And when they did, there was nobody who could stop them. The kingdom became weak, and for that reason, it could be said that Heishin does have a point – a king has to be strong, and if the king isn't, then someone else will come along to take his place, and with great violence too. So now Heishin rules the realm from the safety of his dark shrine, wielding the power of the millennium rod while his high mages rule from their own temples with the power of their respective items. All that's left is the puzzle, which Yami has... He has to tread lightly, but he does have to tread.
After realizing his old palace as he knew it is gone, Yami goes to the king's valley and meets Sadin, the guardian of the valley, and Shadi's past self. He is loyal and willing to help but there isn't much he can do, everyone is totally in the dark regarding Heishin's power and his mages. But Sadin still has faith, and though the king and queen are dead, he says that with the pharaoh's return there is hope once again for Egypt. Yami needs Sadin to take him to the forbidden ruins but Sadin just doesn't know the way. However, there is one man who might have known.
Yami returns to the old city to find it seemingly abandoned and in ruins. He goes into his palace and is immediately stopped by a mage soldier. Apparently, though the city is deserted, soldiers still wander about and terrorize the villagers. After Yami defeats him, he is free to explore. And in Simon Muran's quarters, he finds a map.
In typical mentor fashion, Simon Muran just keeps on helping Yami, even from beyond the grave. With the map in hand, Sadin can guide you to the forbidden ruins, precisely the same ones in which we first saw Heishin during the very prologue of the game. Things are starting to come full circle... And as Yami discovers the same spell Heishin did, though he doesn't quite understand it, and as he discovers the locations of the five hidden temples, he is intercepted by Seto... Only this time he's not looking to duel. He almost encourages Yami to fight the five mages, something which Sadin takes with a grain of salt. In any case, Yami does indeed have to fight them, he needs to end the tyranny of the mages and free the villagers. Speaking of whom...
As Yami wanders through the old duel ground, all abandoned and destroyed, beautifully accompanied by a melancholic piece of music, he is approached by someone, only this time it's a pleasant encounter. He meets Jono who recognizes him and immediately takes him to the secret place they moved their duels to. Luckily, they have all survived, but life isn't all that great. The mages terrorize the villagers who have to hide and sneak around, but they still gather to support each other and to play card games, which at least serves to while away the time. And it's kinda beautiful to see how, through all that torment, they are all still so upbeat. They are even shocked to find out that their friend was actually a prince and they hope they can still treat Yami the same way as before, that is, as a friend... So the temple may be gone, the palace may be gone... but the people remain.
The reunion is truly a welcome respite. Once again, it proves that all is not lost, but it will be a dangerous journey. Yami will have to take the fight to the mages, he will have to challenge them in a series of duels where losing is simply not an option. But Yami, and in this case, the player, might not be quite ready yet. This is when the game becomes proper difficult, now you have to build your deck for real. And thus, you are forced into the drawing board time and time again, hoping to build your deck with the strongest cards you can in order to beat the high mages.
Meadow Mage being the MVP
Pegasus rewarding you for some boring S-teching
The high mages are scattered throughout the various temples, empowered by the millennium items which, in a neat trick of storytelling and gameplay, is something which is reflected on the board itself. Yami will have to go up against them with a handicap in the sense that each mage plays monsters empowered by the field. And not only that, but you need to defeat two in a row, the low mage of each respective temple, and the high mage. And now it's revealed that the high mages were of course those shadowy figures in the shrine before the first Seto duel. They are the ocean mage Secmeton, the mountain mage Atenza, the desert mage Martis, the forest mage Anubisius, and lastly, the meadow mage Kepura.
And as you go along, chewing bubble gum and kickin' ass, you will find that if you return to the villagers after each defeated mage, they will congratulate you and encourage you. They are all counting on you, which is indeed a heavy burden to bear, but then again, the people are Yami's strength. So maybe, while playing around with the villagers and commoners caused the little prince to become complacent and weak, it could also be that the bonds he forged with them along the way are his true power. It could be that the qualities he needs in order to become a real king have been forged with the people all along. And because of them, Yami is not alone.
After beating two of the high mages, he goes to revisit his friends only to be told by Jono that Teana has been kidnapped, most likely as a trap to lure Yami into the dark shrine... Still, without hesitation, Yami and Jono go to rescue her.
In there they have to navigate through a labyrinth guarded, not by a minotaur, but by a mage. But with Jono by his side, Yami makes it through and finds Heishin and Seto, restraining a distraught Teana. Heishin retreats, having waited there just to see the prince's return with his own eyes, and then Yami has to duel Seto for the second time. Thing is though, the duel is fairly easy and, after you inevitably beat him, he doesn't seem too bothered about it. In fact, he seems to have been holding back, like he was just testing Yami, and concludes that the prince might be capable of really defeating the high mages...
The reunited group then return to the safety of the duel ground. Jono and Teana tell Yami to be careful, both with the mages as well as with Seto. Even they suspect Seto's motives... It's almost like all the threads have been laid out and now we just have to watch as they unfold. And so Yami carries on, beating the mages, one by one, and restoring his strength with his friends who still encourage him.
That is what Yami does until he defeats all of the high mages, after which he is led by Seto himself into the dark shrine. As soon as they enter, Seto mysteriously vanishes, and Yami is stopped by Sebek and Neku, Heishin's devout guardians. Yami has to defeat them, once again with the field at his disadvantage due to the shrine's dark magic at work. In many ways, Yami has had to venture out in the unknown, as all true heroes do... And then, after a rather underwhelming entrance, he finally duels Heishin.
Heishin still thinks of Yami as a boy, he still thinks of him as the kid prince, so weak and ineffectual, hardly a challenge. Because in the first Heishin duel, the player is meant to lose, Heishin's cards are much stronger than yours, and, advanced game strategies aside, you stand no chance to beat him. At the time of the first battle, especially in your first time playing the game, you will have a deck mostly filled with monsters whose attack doesn't reach a thousand, and your strongest fusion is at best a twenty-eight hundred, whereas Heishin easily plays three thousand plus attack monsters, and if that wasn't enough, the field is tilted to his advantage. Indeed, the game forces you to lose against him...
But now it's different, now the tables have turned. Now it is Heishin who became complacent. In fact, as far as the game itself goes, Heishin is programmed to be exactly the same in every way, which is something that, even if accidental by the developers, ironically ties in with the game's story. But Yami, however, through his exile and in having to take up his place in the hero's journey against the darkness and the unknown, he is the one who became strong. So strong in fact that he defeats Heishin.
The game has come full circle but it's not over yet. Seto takes over Heishin's millennium rod and now, between the two rivals, the seven items are gathered. Seto then takes Yami to the forbidden ruins and finally reveals his plan – he was using Yami so that he could defeat the mages, defeat Heishin, gather all the items in the ruins to then use them to unleash some kind of dark power. But Yami won't do it, he won't go down without a fight, he'll duel Seto in their third and last duel, a duel which, at least in my view, is the toughest in the whole game. The game itself even kinda cheats in the sense that Seto gets to frequently use cards that are more or less unavailable to you, such as the dreaded Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, Gate Guardian and Shadow Spell.
Even still, Yami has come too far to stop now, so he powers through Seto and is about to destroy the items. But at that moment, Heishin returns, having apparently foreseen Seto's betrayal. He threatens Seto's life to the point where Yami is forced to hand him the millennium items, because though Seto is on the side of the dark mages, Yami never sees him as truly evil, perhaps just as misguided and, for good or bad, he is his rival, not his enemy. And so, with the items reunited, Heishin finally puts his plan into fruition – he resurrects Darknite, one of the wicked sorcerers from Simon Muran's story, one who used the power of the cards to almost engulf the world in darkness.
Heishin attempts to give orders to the dark lord himself but he gradually comes to the realization that he bit off more than he can chew. Darknite doesn't obey Heishin, he doesn't even particularly care about him either way. While the game kept teasing Heishin as this big villain, it turned out that he wasn't, not at all, he was as much of a sap as the rest of the mages. The true villain had been foretold by Simon Muran's wisdom all along!
Heishin wants Darknite to give him his powers but he has no such luck. The magic of the items doesn't see Heishin as worthy of it since he didn't gather the items himself, so he has no contract with the dark lord. Then on a whim, Darknite traps Heishin within a card and burns it.
At this point even Seto is in awe of the dark lord's power and pleads with Yami that he beat Darknite and send him back to where he came from, lest they suffer Heishin's fate... Now is the moment to become a hero... After returning to Egypt, Yami did everything right – he shouldered his responsibility, he was intent on correcting his past mistakes and restoring order to the land. Yet in doing so, in being moral, in saving Seto, Darknite's rebirth still managed to be fulfilled. However, as a true king, Yami shoulders the responsibility once again, and in holding Yugi's millennium cards he holds the binding contract, which affords him a chance to defeat Darknite.
And then, through sheer will, he does just that. He defeats Darknite who then reveals his true form, Nitemare, a more monstrous figure that Yami has to defeat as well so as to gain control over the dark lord and send him back to the underworld. And after five consecutive and painful duels, Yami defeats him, making it to the end of the final six. The magic of the items sends Nitemare back into his eternal slumber and, after a great commotion, things appear to return to normal.
Yami walks out of the forbidden ruins, noticing Seto is gone and all that's left of him is his high mage veil. He appears to have become ashamed of his actions and willingly exiled himself, perhaps for the good of realm. And lastly, Yami reclaims the throne, he seals the forbidden ruins forever and becomes the mighty pharaoh.
The king of games
So why is this story so beautiful? I suppose it may seem like a simple one but I don't think it is, I think it runs deep with meaning. Heishin and the high mages represent greed, this seedy side of human nature that always schemes and manipulates to its own advantage, gathering in secret with hopes of taking over the land, and then the world. It's also rather insightful how Heishin is killed by his own creation, so to speak, signifying just how misguided and twisted he was... Seto was greedy too, extremely ambitious, but his real sin was pride. He wanted power and ingratiated himself with Heishin to achieve it, but when he realized the true cost of that dark magic he instead turned to Yami, the only one who could defeat it.
The prince begins as a naive young boy who is having a lot of fun neglecting his duties and who instead prefers to play games with villagers, hiding his own status of highborn from them, and yet, he ends up as the conquering hero. Simon Muran is the typical mentor, at first almost comedic and silly, but as time goes by, especially after his death, you realize just how powerful and wise he was, and how, though he is the weakest duelist, his influence in the story and his wisdom are unmatched. And even though his presence is gone, you still have his teachings and, as his disciple, you carry his will. As for Jono, Teana and the other villagers, they feel increasingly ostracized from the celebrations which are slowly taken over by the mages, and then, after the coup, they are forced to live in fear except for when they go to their secret hideout and play card games to lift their spirits. One can even imagine them meeting in secret, with Jono giving inspirational and prophetic speeches about the true king's imminent return.
My favorite card when I was a kid
And then the hero does return, after a brief exile in reality but a long exile in his own mind. It's almost as if Yami had to pay the price for his carelessness in a kind of purgatory. But he didn't waste any of that time... He tortured himself in order to devise a plan, and upon returning, he had to face his many fears since he was the only one capable of restoring order in the land. And even if he wasn't, even if there was another hero, he still had a debt to his own people, a debt he simply had to repay.
In many ways it's a story that has been done many times before, but as they say – if it ain't broke, you don't need to equip it Megamorph. I for one find this game amazing overall and, in typical hero's journey kind of way, I too didn't realize, or even know the whole story when I first played it. I was just going along without understanding it, too intent on discovering new cards and experimenting new fusions such as the glorious twenty-two hundred depicted above. But while the game itself is a lot of fun, the story doesn't get enough praise. So I praise it here now. And if nothing at all is to be learned here, it's just funny how a game called Forbidden Memories is so damn nostalgic.
Comments
Post a Comment