REVIEW

Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links Review

by Bradley McAvoy-James, January 28th, 2017

The Yu-Gi-Oh series has been around for so long now it’s hard to find anyone who hasn’t at least heard the name. One of the first card games to give the dominating Magic the Gathering a hard time, Yu-Gi-Oh became a massive game around the late nineties. This was largely in part to the TV show that became notorious for its over the top situations, censorship and, with regards to the western dub, hammy voice acting. But over time it has created a sense of nostalgia, along with such classics as Pokémon and Digimon, for people when they hear about it.

Enter Yu-Gi-Oh Duel links; a free to play mobile game on Android and iOS which is focused on the first season of Yu-Gi-Oh, featuring the original cast, Yugi, Joey, Kaiba etc and a simplified rule set. Before the phenomenon that was Pokémon Go, I would have believed that such a game would not click with players. But after 20 million plus downloads (correct at time of writing) I am pleased to be proven wrong.

As mentioned, Yu-Gi-Oh Duel links uses a different rule set than fans of the game will be used to. The “Speed Duel” format reduces a player deck size from 40-60 to 20-30, lowers the starting life point total to 4000 and removes a phase of the players turn called “Main Phase 2”. The card pool is also massively reduced, the Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game currently boasts a card total of 8000 plus and Duel Links only uses 700 of them right now. You may think then that Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links isn’t that good but these restrictions are one of the games biggest strengths.

By reducing Yu-Gi-Oh down, Duel Links has removed one of the game largest barriers to entry; Yu-Gi-Oh’s complexities. The game even eases new players in with optional tutorials and duel puzzle which help you learn about the game. The main characters themselves even talk you through them! This is the first thing you will notice about Duel Links is the presentation; the voice acting, for example, is great. All the original cast have returned and the charm in their lines is plain to hear. In fact, all the sounds of Duel links are amazing. Alongside the voice acting, the SFX are spot on and combined with the music leads to a memorable dueling experience. I’ve even found myself humming some of the duel themes from time to time.

The look of the game is also top-notch, the environments are detailed and pleasing to the eye, the character and NPC art is of a good quality and the animations, if the power usage is high, flow really well. As mentioned, there is a power usage slider which has a drastic effect on your devices charge. Playing the game on the lowest setting may cause a dip in quality but you can play the game for hours on end with no charging needed, a welcome feature for a game such as this.

As per most mobile games, there are systems in place to hinder your progress. In Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links this is on two fronts; firstly, the NPC duelists disappear after you play them and do not respawn until around 20-30 minutes pass. You will need to play them in order to complete challenges to progress your Stage Level which in turn leads to more unlocks and more content. Playing the NPC’s also drops gate keys, items you will need in order to play “Legendary” duelists, namely, characters from the show. These drops more rewards and specific cards related to their decks and normally are of a better quality than normal duelists.

This is the second hindrance; your cards. When you start out, your decks overall strength is a bit higher than the opponents you will be up against. However, your starting deck will quickly drop in power, so to mitigate this you will have to pick up some cards packs using gems. Gems can be obtained by just playing the game, but you can buy them via in-game purchasing. I managed to play through to Stage Level 30 before I spent a little bit of cash to grab the special one-time deals for each box of packs (three at time of writing), but this is a mobile game that rather easily could be played without putting any money into it which is a nice change for your average game.

One feature that surprised me was the Auto-Duel button present during battles. If you tap this button, a computer will take over your deck and play it for you at an increased speed. It cannot do special combos unless they are blatantly obvious but it speeds up the duels making each encounter under a minute to get through. This not only makes grinding less of a chore, but it gives Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links the speed needed to be a pick-up-and-play phone game. Using the AI also allows newer players to observe different ways of playing their decks that they may not have considered. However, you cannot use Auto Duel against Legendary duelists or when you are online since these games are special and will require your attention.

That’s right, Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links has an online PvP service as well. When you feel like your skills and deck are at a good enough level, you can jump online for some friendly games or start ranking yourself up in ranked games. You still get the standard drops from these games and EXP to level up which is helpful and you can unlock special drops the higher your rank gets, King of Games being the highest. Don’t worry, you can challenge your friends to games online as well and check out replays of notable duels that have been played recently as well so there is something for everyone here.