Image courtesy of KONAMI
After the success of the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game exploded west of Asia, Konami tried a few different spin-offs of the game to try and test the waters. After all, the original manga was not strictly about Duel Monsters; it was about the King of Games triumphing in multiple different games. But this proved too challenging for KONAMI, for their primary spin-off game, Dungeon Dice Monsters, was a critical flop, if not also a commercial one. Where did this game go wrong? Read on, and we will analyze three vital issues that seriously stymied Dungeon Dice Monsters.
#3. Games Ran Too Slowly
For initiates of DDM, especially those more or solely acquainted with card games like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dungeon Dice Monsters was a frustrating game to play. The setup was anything but simple. Both players needed a suite of figures, as well as the respective cards for those figures. Furthermore, they needed their own set of dice (and dice dimensions for their figures), two abacii for tracking certain values, and a board upon which to play.
This may seem like a rudimentary, easy set of material demands, but for many card gamers, it meant a lengthier set-up time than usual. Add to this the necessary time shipping along their inventories and breakdown times of the game state post-game, and you leave little time for even a casual match. This doesn’t lend itself well to a reasonable gaming environment.
#2. The Video Games Were Even Slower
In the context of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection, many reviewers have stated that Dungeon Dice Monsters was one of the worst games in the anthology. We say “one of” because some games were literally unplayable if you couldn’t read Japanese, which should say a lot here. But the truth of the matter is, DDM was a very slow video game. One would have hoped that setup times for a video game adaptation of a tabletop game would be swift, thanks to the digitization of things, but this proved far from the case.
The fact is, no matter if it was physical or on a handheld screen, matches in DDM could take a while to resolve. We neglect to say “play” here because, simply put, the wait made it seriously unfun for many players. Between loading screens, bad AI, and all manner of other user-interface issues that seriously bogged down actual match time significantly, it was just a bad video game. Ultimately, this did not lend itself well to marketing the physical tabletop game, either.
#1. There Was Little To No Support For Dungeon Dice Monsters
For all its initial hype, Dungeon Dice Monsters continued to pale in comparison to the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game. As a result, any further R&D for DDM was discontinued after the fourth set, Iron Guardians. The game was initially received fairly well, too, but Konami merely didn’t want to devote more resources to this game, instead focusing on the card game.
Nowadays, you can find the old rules online in English. Furthermore, you can find some of the figures and even full starter sets on auction sites like eBay, though many of the cards are long gone. Heck, you can even find a small but devoted fan base for the game selling third-party game aids on Etsy. But as for Konami, they’ve largely washed their hands of this game they seem to see as failed.
In the end, I’d love to see a resurgence of this game. Seeing a second edition of Yu-Gi-Oh! Dungeon Dice Monsters would be amazing, especially if Konami revamped the rules to facilitate faster gameplay. Setup would need to be expedited immensely, for instance. While that seems like a long shot, seeing new players come into a game like this would be so much fun for its older fans.
But now, let’s open the floor to you, dear readers. Do you remember ever playing Dungeon Dice Monsters? Did you have a favorite figure from the game? And more importantly, did you enjoy it? Sound off below!
