Sometime last year when I reinvented this world for a third time, I had started a little series of posts that explored some of the hidden mysteries and stories behind some of the cards in the Yu-Gi-Oh card game. But I ended up letting the series drop, mainly due to a good chunk of my energy being put into my fanfics and other things in my life. But I’ve decided to try and bring back this series of posts by covering a pair of cards that will play a very big role on this one GX fanfic I’ve been trying to work on. In truth I’ve sort of lost the energy to do the story in question, so this post is kind of a way to try and get that energy back. The monster in this post also played a major role in one of the older Yu-Gi-Oh videogames.
At first glance, Reshef may not be the most extraordinary card out there. It has good stats and a decent effect that can let his wielder take control of the opponent’s monster long enough to use as tribute fodder or as material for a Synchro or Xyz summon. But very few people know or remember that Reshef once played a very big role in a non-cannon story from the original Yu-Gi-Oh saga. And I’m not talking about how Reshef was used by Alexander the Great in the Capsule Monsters anime. In reality, Reshef was the main villain in a videogame made for the Gameboy Advance known as Reshef of Destruction.
In the game, Reshef was an evil entity that was awakened when his stone tablet was found by Duel Monster creator and main villain of the Duelist Kingdom arc, Maximillion Pegasus. Upon being awakened, Reshef possesses Pegasus and drains the power of the three Egyptian God cards in order to revive himself. The possessed Pegasus, who starts going under the name, Sol Chevalsky for some reason, sends out his old minions from Duelist Kingdom to steal the Millennium Items while he prepares to release Reshef from the tablet. I like to pause here for a moment to say that haven’t actually played the Reshef of Destruction game. I’ve simply read about the game’s story on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Wiki. But I’m pretty sure that the scene of Reshef’s revival is what’s depicted in the artwork of Final Ritual of the Ancients.
Anyway, in the game the player has to trot around the world and get back all of the Millennium Items, including the Millennium Puzzle. From what I’ve read, it’s a long and involved quest. Though there are a few fun little sidequests in the game that seems to involve some of the stuff from the Virtual World arc. In the game’s final battle, the player has to face Pegasus, who starts the duel out with 20,000 life points while the player starts out with however many life points that he or she had at the end of the last duel. Once Pegasus is defeated, the player has to duel Reshef in his true form. Reshef, by the way, starts out the duel with 40,000 life points and has all three Egyptian God cards in his deck, while the player starts out with however many life points left at the end of his or her duel with Pegasus. At the end, if the player by some miracle manages to defeat Reshef, Pegasus ends up having to give up his life in order to seal away the Dark Being once and for all.
I’d like to stop here for a moment and say that this game sounds like a real pain to try and beat. What game designer thought it’d be a good idea to have the final boss start out with 40,000 life points and have all three God cards, while the player starts out with however many life points he or she had left at the end of the last duel? There’s a fine line between challenging and frustrating, and this game seems to have gone a few miles past that line. Anyway, as homage to the videogame, Reshef was made into a simple Ritual Monster card. Sort of like how Yami Bakura’s avatar, Dark Master-Zorc was made into a card as homage to the Monster World arc of the original Yu-Gi-Oh manga and Season Zero anime.
That pretty much wraps it up for this post. Like the videogame he stars in, Reshef the Dark Being has become a card that’s largely forgotten. But sometime it’s the forgotten cards that have the biggest stories behind them, and the biggest mysteries.
