Ok, full disclosure, this is the first time I've ever done anything like this, so I'm probably going to be kinda sloppy here. Tagforce 1 is an old-as-hell game and I only recently discovered the power of emulators, so I picked it back up. I personally love the idea of a video game that takes an era of an ever-shifting card game and preserves a particular era of it. In fact, I'd love for there to be such an option for literally every era of Yugioh, but that would probably never happen. I plan on reviewing all the characters and their decks through the entire series (if I don't get disinterested first, that's something I worry will happen), but unfortunately Tagforces 3 and 6 are not on the emulator. Maybe they're out there somewhere and I'm bad at finding them though. If a character appears in multiple games, I'll only discuss them in the current game I'm going over. I'll first talk about the generics from the 3 schools, then the non-generic side characters, then the main ones.
Tagforce 1 #1: Aite
Annie:
Aite can be found in the store before school, and in the Slifer Red cafeteria after school. He spends his entire time in there, even when it isn't dinnertime. He talks to you about not having enough DP (that's the currency used to buy packs and sandwiches in this game, he doesn't have anything to do with Duel Portal) to buy all the cards he wants. He also implies that the price of packs could change from time to time, but this doesn't actually happen. Some packs stop being available depending on the day or character relations, and you end up unlocking a bunch as you play, but that's it really. If you try to give him a sandwich, he tells you that he just ate, which is actually a clever line in retrospect because he appears in the store and the lunchroom most of the time, and that response makes sense in both places. He probably is just lying though, but you can't call him out on it.
Aite goes in several different directions with his Zombie Deck. He has Castle of Dark Illusions & Pumpking, which were unplayably janky even back then. He runs a bunch of Normal monsters, but has little reason to. A few duelists in this game run Heart of the Underdog but Aite is not one of them. Then he also has the Decayed Commander+Zombie Tiger Union, but only two copies of each and no support whatsoever for them. Also I should mention that it's an absolute crime that GobZom can't search either of them. Return Zombie can stall pretty decently, but he has no other cards that help him do this. Reborn Zombie doesn't even work without a select few cards that skip your Draw Phase, which, you guessed it, he has none of at all. It only works if you Time Seal him. His best move is Fusion Summoning his dead elephant for a 2200 attacker. Great Mammoth of Goldfine shares a fusion material with Skelgon, and is a significantly better card than it. Get dunked on, you weird zombie serpent dragon thing, whatever you're supposed to be. Aite's deck is one of several that demonstrates to the player the danger of not having a focus for your deck. Yeah, his deck is Zombie themed, but that doesn't mean you just toss in a bunch of zombie-themed cards (ROBBIN' ZOMBIE I'M STARING DIRECTLY AT YOU) and call it a deck. It also demonstrates to the player that they shouldn't run a bunch of bad normal monsters. Very important pointer everyone needs to hear. Dude's just a living, breathing tutorial tip.
Whichever direction he wants to go with his Zombie deck, he would benefit greatly by having Pyramid Turtle in there. He has 3 Books of Life, so surely he must've pulled at least one Pyramid Turtle. Maybe even a Vampire Lord, even a Vampire's Curse. Actually, I should stop considering that he might not be able to afford all the cards when thinking of how to fix his deck. Just, triple Pyramid Turtles, throw in some Vampires, add a fuckton of staples because where even are those in this deck, and the rest I guess can be filled out with GobZom and uhhhh maybe the Great Mammoth of Goldfine thing. I haven't reached the Zombie pack yet, but when I do I could try rebuilding his deck with more thought. It does seem like a fun idea, but that's probably just because I really like Zombie monsters. You can also make Skull Servants or a Bone Tower mill deck in this game iirc, but that's more in the territory of another duelist I should be getting to soonish. If you wanna keep the Slifer Red feel, you could just replace some vanillas with Pyramid Turtle and go all in on the Pumpking angle, because with his current deck he is one of the weaker Slifer Reds.
Score: 3/10
Next up will be Alvaro, who's like Weevil Underwood if Weevil was a bodybuilder. That's gotta be interesting.