I know this isn’t Pokémon but it’s a very very interesting read. As someone e who also grew up with Yugioh I never knew the history behind the game. Hope everyone enjoys this read as much as I did
7 Likes
If like me you’re lazy and buy manga that just sits getting dusty, watch season 0 of the anime to see the pre tcg arc, complete with glorious green hair Kaiba
4 Likes
Great share. What I find interesting is that both yugioh and PkMn went about marrying a media franchise with something else. YuGiOh went with the card game, PkMn went with the video game. But what’s interesting is how the card game was handled, and our attachment to the cards from each game. (I’m assuming based on my experience.)
While both CCGs are popular, the cards as a whole have always seemed to get more reverence in Pokemon, vs in YGO. The cards I am attached to in YGO are the cards I remember playing with. I remember combos, bans, the decks I spent time building. (The same is true in MtG.) Whereas in PkMn, the cards matter simply because they are cards, like a relic of childhood…
The ART, the way they were released, and probably the rarer nature of a specific card, as PkMn has not reprinted cards like YGO… But now this is getting away from the initial post. Anyway, great share, and I really have to wonder, what if yugioh had kept it’s more adult horror style?..
3 Likes
I’m friends with several modern Yugioh players and I constantly joke about their loli girl/waifu “monsters” vs the original monsters I grew up with…
Summoned Skull
Jinzo
Chaos Emperor Dragon
Dark Armed Dragon
Just a few examples of great cards in their respective eras. All monsters. No cute things. Lol
2 Likes
Yugioh was very appealing to kids when it first dropped and I really think a lot of it had to do with it having a completely different take on being a TCG than Pokémon. It was darker and was hyper focused on actually playing the game instead of collecting, yet not as hardcore as MtG. It was kind of a perfect middle ground in some ways. Nearly all of the Yugioh players in my area were former Pokémon kids.
I recall being 11 years old at a large vendor mall in early 2002 and was looking for Pokémon cards (a Dark Charizard to be exact). Just around the corner from the Pokémon card booth, almost hidden from the rest of the mall aisles, was a massive play area with 1 main Yugioh booth and around 30 tables. Not sure how many kids were there, but seemed like well over 50. Once I got a whiff of this new Yugioh scene, I instantly dropped Pokémon. This was during the release of the 2nd set called Metal Raiders.
I came back to Pokemon in 2014 to play competitively and started collecting a few years later. To this day I still play Yugioh, but it’s all retro formats. I don’t mess with the modern nonsense.
3 Likes