Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 138 Dungeon Crisis

I don't know if there was ever a dungeon in a story that DIDN'T involve a crisis of some sort. When a protagonist is in a dungeon, you can trust things aren't at all good. Unless, of course, they OWN the dungeon, and in that case... it seems a little odd that they would be a protagonist. I mean, it's POSSIBLE, since the protagonist and hero of a story aren't always the same person, but in this manga that's highly unlikely.

Yeah! Eat it, Ryoji! How do you like that???

Actually, he seems to like it just fine, considering he's smirking in the next panel when he says that it may very well be too late for Yuugi to have summoned a monster. He says they'll see, because even though Yuugi managed to get ONE monster on his side of the table, Ryoji still has more of them, and a path that reaches all the way to Yuugi's side. He internally questions how ONE monster can defend against his attacks, smirk lingering.

Yuugi, isn't looking deterred by this, thinking that the real game is just beginning. Ryoji yells that he's taking his turn and throws the dice aggressively, no longer smiling.

Just in case you guys forgot the rules, friends. It HAS been longer than usual since we visited Yu-Gi-Oh, after all.

So Ryoji picks out one of his dice and presses the top of it so the sides unfold, revealing Grenadier Level 2. Yuugi sweats at the increased number of his opponent's monsters, though I'm more concerned with the description of Grenadier under it's stats, which says that if a player can't roll two trap crests, "it can bomb into dungeon for 1 space."

... lol wut?

Ryoji elaborates, thank goodness, that Grenadier has a special ability despite its low level. If he can also roll two trap crests, Grenadier can destroy one of the opponent's monsters, which is only the one at this moment. What the hell does bombing into the dungeon for one space have to do with THAT?? Who knows, but Yuugi doesn't like the sound of this special ability, thinking he has to increase the defense of HIS creatures in order to block Ryoji's inevitable attack. He's only too aware of how this crap goes by now.

Yuugi announces it's his turn, pulling a new die out of his dispenser, the other dice clacking into place after it's removed. He examines his new die and notes that it has three summoning crests on it, so it shouldn't be difficult to summon this time. He rolls his dice, and sure enough, two summoning crests come up. He cheers that he did it and presses on the top of one of his high-level dice to summon it, a lizardlike creature in armor that Yuugi calls a Crocozaurus. Is that the real name? And if so, how did Yuugi know it? It's like Capsule Monster Chess all over again...

Whatevz. Yuugi learns inexplicably that his cool new monster has a special ability just like Ryoji's, inflicting 1,200 points damage on enemies two spaces away if he rolls two attack crests. The Crocozaurus is on the opposite side of Yuugi's dungeon master, and Yuugi thinks it can increase the defense zone for it. Ryoji mentally chuckles, because he can see that Yuugi's monster has high stats, but the game's moves can be varied by the combination of crests.

He shouts that it's his turn and throws the dice, and OF COURSE he rolls two trap crests, because why WOULDN'T he roll two trap crests? Yuugi is at first shocked that Ryoji's summoning string has been cut, but then realizes what the trap crests mean a moment later. Ryoji is delighted, because he's been waiting for this. What WAITING have you been doing, Ryoji? You always seem to get everything you want the moment you roll.

Grenadier pulls a bomb out of nowhere as Ryoji explains that said bomb is activated because of his two trap crests.

Add Mario Kart to the list of shit Ryoji has ripped off.

Crocozaurus succumbs to the resulting explosion, and Yuugi sweats as he gapes at his brand new monster being wiped off the table. Ryoji chuckles, mockingly saying what a shame it is that Yuugi's summoning was so useless. Yuugi doesn't dwell too long, shouting that it's his turn and tossing the dice, but his roll only contains one summoning crest. He curses those dams again, frustrated that he missed summoning another monster.

On Ryoji's next turn, he aggressively rolls two more summoning crests yet again and summons Girafasoo, which is a bizarre dragon that looks like it has another foot for a head, at least from my view of this poor scan. Ryoji also got a forward crest, so it moves one step ahead. Yuugi sweats at its closeness, worrying that he might lose. Grinning, Ryoji reminds Yuugi that it's his turn, and Yuugi squeezes his eyes shut like he just wants to block out reality right now. I'm totally not blaming him for that, mind you.

Yuugi wonders how a beginner like him can beat the creator of this game. Well, Yami managed to do something similar in the last arc. Why don't you try to emulate him? Ryoji asks Yuugi what's wrong, and if he's going to give up, expression soured. He glares before shouting at Yuugi not to disappoint him, questioning if this is ALL he's capable of. Yuugi's eyes snap open, though he remains speechless. Ryoji reveals that he's aware Yuugi has defeated many duelists after he got the Millennium Puzzle and Yuugi is somewhat shocked that Ryoji seems to know about that. I guess the fact that word gets around about a kid wearing a big gaudy pyramid puzzle and beating all these high-profile gamers is somehow surprising. I dunno.

As though reading his mind, Ryoji tells Yuugi that he has been hearing about the Millennium Puzzle for years from his father, and the legend surrounding it about how the person who solves it will become the king of games. Ryoji says that the person has finally appeared before him, in the apparently yell-inducing Yuugi Mutou. Yuugi glares as Ryoji continues, saying that his greatest desire was to play against the person capable of solving the Millennium Puzzle, taking it away to test Yuugi's true ability.

After a pause, Yuugi asks Ryoji how his dad happens to know about the Millennium Puzzle, and Ryoji answers that the story takes place long before either of them were born.

Guess who!

This "mysterious" fellow whom Ryoji's dad admired so much one day informed him about the Millennium Puzzle in an apparently long-winded fashion, saying essentially that the one who could beat him was the one who would solve the Millennium Puzzle. Yuugi doesn't waste any time in deducing that this long-winded dude if his grandfather. Some things never change, eh? Ryoji tells Yuugi that his father challenged this braggart to a game, and the result was not in his father's favor. When Ryoji's father lost, an apparently evil curse on the board caused him to become disfigured. Some sort of shadow game?

Ryoji finishes up by telling Yuugi that their current match is linked to this long-past event through generations. Yuugi stares steadfastly on at Ryoji, and I get the feeling he's not convinced this is really the whole story either. However, Ryoji has been fully taken in by the tale by this point, to the extent that he has not only spent years chasing revenge for his father, but also the legend of the Millennium Puzzle. He yells at Yuugi that their game is a big bet on who gets to keep that precious puzzle. Yuugi continues to glare, with an element of shock mixed in judging by that exclamation point above his head.

Determined to defeat Yuugi, Ryoji thinks that he'll become the owner of the puzzle, because he's the one who deserves it. I'd like to know how he figures, but his logic isn't actually explored here. He just addresses Yuugi's persistent poop-face with an obstinate thought at Yuugi to show him the power of the one who could solve the Millennium Puzzle.

Yuugi's response is only too appropriate.

Atta boy! Let your dice do the talking! He looks determinedly at his summoning roll, then looks closely at each of the dice he's rolled to decide which one he should summon. Yuugi chooses one that he thinks is a bit of a risk with its particular ability, which makes me wonder where that information is on the outside of the dice. Wish me luck, because the chances of actually finding that out are close to zero.

Ryoji's eyes widen in the next panel at Yuugi's decisions, which are rather unorthodox given the rules we've seen played out before. Yuugi placed the die he chose pretty far from the established path, and left the die folded in a cube. He tells Ryoji that this is all deliberate, and he's not unfolding the die just yet. The option to put off a summoning until the next turn is apparently a rule that I don't remember being told to Yuugi, but Ryoji acknowledges it all the same. How did Yuugi know this? *shrug*

Ryoji wonders what Yuugi is planning, but doesn't dwell, thinking he can attack Yuugi while he's being a slowpoke in summoning his next monster. Ryoji throws his dice, and as they bounce, Yuugi gapes.

Yuugi notes with some worry that the two creatures Ryoji moved forward have reached his dungeon master, while Ryoji reminds him that there's also an attack crest in the roll, so...

But if the Lizard Dragon could attack the enemy from two spaces away, why did Ryoji bother to move it right up there?

Ryoji is smug regardless, telling Yuugi that he only has two points left, as if Yuugi didn't already know. Yuugi reaches over to the die he left in its cube form during his last turn, thinking that now is the time to act. It's Ryoji's turn to gape at now while the die unfolds, fretting that Yuugi has delayed his summon until this moment.

The monster is an iron ball that sprouts mechanical limbs and a head, called Iron Demon Gorugon, Level 3. It's capable of rolling and crushing any enemy in its path if the player controlling it gets an attack crest. Ryoji is definitely NOT happy about the special ability here, which activates rather quickly.

I'm glad, because I don't know how I would adjust to Ryoji as a protagonist. I don't think I could, to be honest.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? This one had a nice pace with that even tit for tat in the gameplay. When the game is too one-sided in who's winning, I get frustrated because it seems to slow down the action when only the one side is actually getting something done. Granted, a lot of that has to do with the villain's diabolical withholding of important game rules in order to put them at a disadvantage, but this cheating crap pisses me off in the long run anyway. Ryoji just totally discredits himself in all his later claims that he wants to see what his opponent is REALLY made of.

No you don't. If you did, you would have started this game with a thorough breakdown of all the rules and an even playing field, you dick. Which is my reason for simultaneously being so frustrated with this chapter. Ryoji talks about wanting to win against Yuugi to prove HE'S the one meant to be king of games, but he started this game with allowing Yuugi to choose his dice blind even though he could have done with some information about how they worked to begin with. And YET, even with this disadvantage, Yuugi is learning, but in an impossible way. He appears to have inexplicably learned all the dice and monsters within, their special abilities and moves, without any visible means of having done so. There's no chart or anything, so I'm left scratching my head at how he's getting this information.

It's like KT only just realized that he had to change his villain's motivations slightly to fit with the more sympathetic direction he was going, so he also had to change the fact that Yuugi started at a disadvantage. It creates a bizarre dichotomy in which you have to judge Yuugi as initially incompetent, or Ryoji as essentially an idiotic liar, and that's kind of infuriating.

I have to admit that I did really enjoy the small telling of the bare-bones of the story that led Ryoji and his father to this point. It revealed enough that we understand better the relationship between Ryoji's dad with Sugoroku, but it doesn't reveal EVERYTHING. It was a delicate line to walk, and I think KT pulled it off.

I do have a random question about this game, though - what happens when you're down to your last three dice and you roll summoning crests? Do you summon and lose a die, only leaving yourself with two dice left? Do you ignore the summoning crests? Do you HAVE to have three dice to roll? Who knows? WE probably won't.