Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters III: Tri-Holygod Advent

'Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories, known in Japan as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters III: Tri-Holygod Advent', is a video game of the Yu-Gi-Oh! universe for the Game Boy Color. The game was Konami's first attempt at a Yu-Gi-Oh! game released in English and the third in the Japanese series. However, this game does not follow all of the rules set for the Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game.

Players of the game can trade and battle with other players using a link cable.

Duels
Players must beat each player in a stage 5 times, in order to get to the next stage. Once the player beats a character 5 times, he or she may keeping on dueling them for more points [see Passwords & More]. Here are the list of characters that a player may duel against:

Stage 1

 * 1) Tristan Taylor (Hiroto Honda)
 * 2) Joey Wheeler (Katsuya Jonouchi)
 * 3) Mai Valentine (Mai Kujaku)
 * 4) Mako Tsunami
 * 5) Yugi Moto (Yugi Mutou)

Stage 2

 * 1) Espa Roba (Esper Roba)
 * 2) Rex Raptor (Dinosaur Ryuzaki)
 * 3) Weevil Underwood (Insector Haga)
 * 4) Rare Hunter (Seeker)
 * 5) Arkana (Pandora)
 * 6) Seto Kaiba

Stage 3

 * 1) Paradox (Meikyuu)
 * 2) P. Seto (Priest Seto)
 * 3) Ishizu Ishtar (Isis Ishtar)
 * 4) Slysheen

Stage 4

 * 1) DarkNite

Stage 5

 * 1) Yami Yugi (Dark Yugi)
 * 2) Marik Ishtar (password required)
 * 3) Yami Bakura (Ryo Bakura - password required)
 * 4) Shadi (password required)
 * 5) Nitemare (password required)

Game Format
During gameplay there is more than one way to win. A player may win by decreasing the opponent's life points to zero, forcing your opponent to run out of cards (have them unable to draw a card at the start of their turn), or by having all five pieces of Exodia in your hand.

In order to duel, a player's deck MUST contain 40 cards and be under their current Duelist Level. If the deck is over/under 40 cards or over the deck limit cost, the player will not be able to duel until the error is fixed.

Here are some basic rules for playing:


 * You may summon up to five monster to duel
 * You may have up to five cards in your hand (Note: If you have five cards in hand at the start of your turn, you will not be able to draw a new card)
 * Each monster card may attack any opposition monster card on the field
 * Once the field is empty, you may attack the opposing duelist's LP
 * Each duelist starts with 8000 LP (Life Points)
 * In order to summon a 5-6 star Card, you must tribute one monster that is already on the field
 * In order to summon a 7-8 star Card, you must tribute two monsters that are already on the field
 * You may only summon one monster per turn.
 * You may also set one trap card on the field (Note: If the Trap is not used during the opponent's turn, it is removed at the start of your turn)

=Battle Types=

In the game, players may notice a few different types of battle between monster cards.

The most basic way to defeat an opposing monster is to have a monster with higher attack

Example: Player A's card = 1000 ATK, Player B's card = 1200 ATK. Player A's card is destroyed and loses 200 LP (life points)

However, in Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories monsters can be destroyed because they have an inferior card type or element. In this format, the different between ATK or DEF (defense) points doesn't matter and the inferior card is instantly destroyed.

Element List:

Fire beats Forest, Forest beats Wind, Wind beats Earth, Earth beats Thunder, Thunder beats Aqua, Aqua beats Fire

Special List

Shadow beats Light, Light beats Fiend, Fiend beats Dreams, Dreams beats Shadow,

Extra information: No other type of card has an advantage over a card that has a Devine type. In addition, cards that fall into the Element List do not have an advantage over cards in the Special List and vise-versa.

Passwords
In the game, players can go to the Password Mode option. There they can input an 8-digit password found at the bottom of each trading card (sold seperatly), saving the card into their chest. Players can add saved cards from their chest to their deck, depending on how many points they have. The more points, the more STRONGER cards (not the MORE cards because there's a 40-card deck limit). You get points for winning battles, but you don't lose points for losing.

Teá Gardner also gives you 1 card for every duel that you win. If you type in a special password, Yugi's Grandpa will appear and he will also give you a card besides Tea. Tea and Grandpa will also give the player one card part for each win as well. (see "Card Creation" for part information)

There are also hidden passwords that unlock the hidden bosses in STAGE 5 and the Credits. Since STAGE 5 can only have one duelist, once the player inputs a password for a STAGE 5 hidden boss (Yami Yugi, Yami Bakura, Nightmare, Merik, and Shadii), the previous boss is that stage is deleted. But, when you re-enter the password for deleted box, the records are the same (meaning deleted duelist just doesn't appear while there's another duelist in stage 5, but when you re-enter them: they're old scores reappear. So the data of your previous battles with them are erased and are NOT erased).

Note: Some cards from the Trading Card Game will NOT be able to be added with the Password Option.

Card Creation
It has a unique feature: Players can "create" cards using different card parts, one for the upper half, and one for the lower half. You cannot make a card unless you have at least one top and one bottom half of a card. The player can also preview the created card before using up his/her parts. The only real catch is that the attack and defense can only go as high as 2000.

Trivia
Inside the packaging, this game also came with three cards for the Yugioh Trading Card Game (TCG for short). There were two different sets of cards that were released for this game.

The first set contained "Exodia the Forbidden One", "Dark Magician" and "Blue Eyes White Dragon". The second set contained "Acid Trap Hole", "Seiyaryu", and "Salamandra".

Since the release of this game, just about every Yu-Gi-Oh! game after has had some kind of promotional cards packaged with the game itself.