Yu-Gi-Oh! The Sacred Cards
As I said in my title, presuming that Konami follows the pattern (e.g. Duel Monsters 5 in Japan became Eternal Duelist Soul in America, Duel Monsters 6 in Japan became Worldwide Edition in America), Yu-Gi-Oh! The Sacred Cards (which I strongly suspect will be the American version of Duel Monsters 7) will be a massive improvement upon its predeccesors. With an updated dueling field featuring thumbnail views of the cards themselves on the field (no more tedious checking of cards to find out what it is), better effects, and even, I have heard it rumored, voice effects from the actors from the show! That last is in the Japanese version, but if it is as big a hit as it sounds, I can hardly believe that Konami would remove it.
What IS definate is the way the game will now be played. Eternal Duelist Soul had the player in a tournament setting, where the players were listed and one chose what duelist to battle. Worldwide Edition updated that somewhat with the city-division idea which gave some reality to the game. The Sacred Cards, or, as I've said, Duel Monsters 7, will instead chuck every type of duelist selection out the window and replace it with an RPG-style map. Wander the city of Domino and find a duelist. You want to duel Yugi Mouto? Cool, walk over to him and talk to him. You wanna duel Mai? Well, she looks busy, but maybe later. Think you're good enough for the great Seto Kaiba? Okay, that'll take some work, but beat enough duelists and we'll talk. The entire system has changed to give the player an excellent, visually appealing screen, while not losing any of the charm we gamers have come to expect from the Duel Monsters series. Duel!
