Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links

The Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links closed beta was launched today and I managed to have a go at it.

The controls are easy and intuitive – a simple drag for summoning or attacking, similar to the touch gesture that is used in Hearthstone.

Having Speed Duel as the format is a great UX design choice made to accommodate the compact screen size of mobile phones. Duel Generations was a pain to play on a small screen.

Amazing voice overs, beautiful monster animations and pleasingly responsive gameplay, Duel Links is a very well made game that has the potential to be popular.

The defining factor would come down to the business model that Konami will be implementing. The game needs to have a reasonable free-to-play card acquisition rate so that it can retain its player-base, while still giving out enticing benefits to paying players.

 

Demo Duel Video

 

 

Starting Decks

 

Duel_Links_Yami_Yugi Duel_Links_Seto_Kaiba

 

The two starter decks are fairly even, with most monsters averaging between 1000 ATK to 1300 ATK.

Kaiba’s deck might be just slightly better with the obvious difference of Blue-Eyes White Dragon over Dark Magician, but Crawling Dragon could be a liability.

These cards would be quickly replaced with new cards obtained from booster packs, so just pick whichever character you like.

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14 Responses

  1. Okabe_Rintarou says:

    No fusion/synchro/xyz summons yet?

    • Akira says:

      I have yet to progress far into the game, but there should be Fusion Summon since there is an Extra Deck.

    • John Smith says:

      As others have mentioned in the comments below this game is fairly indicative of old school yugioh which means no xyz,synchro or pendulum if this game were to introduce those however it would become just like ygopro and duel network (IE: extremely fast paced and duels for casual /fun players would become very lopsided)

  2. Ive been playing all day today…think of this as old school yugioh…no synchro or xyz…just ritual and fusion

  3. OK, Speed Duel fitted on a Mobile game, but I still think they should give an option to play Regular Duel

    • John Smith says:

      Why?what would that accomplish?the only thing I don’t like about this game is the removal of main phase 2,this game isn’t another duel network /ygopro,this game seems to be geared towards older generation /classic yugioh players,I also find the 4000lp and 30 card deck restrictions often give you less freedom but in a good way in the sense that you have to be more careful when deck building and with lp

  4. Malcolm Lofton says:

    A yugioh game the keeps up with the meta??? they dont want to make any money.

  5. John Smith says:

    Thank fuck there’s no synchro /xyz,those things are fucking cheap and make duels incredibly one sided also @Malcolm Lotton it’s more to do the with the fact that meta decks often summon 3-5 times (literally)turn one before blowing up your entire field and pushing to win turn two,this game is clearly meant for people who actually know how to use their brains instead of relying on some gay archetype like battlin boxers,noble knights,qliphort,blackwing,nekroz etc

    • Dedrick J Newton says:

      There is nothing strategical about normal summoning and beat sticking. The newer generation of Yugioh are for more advanced players anyway.

    • John Smith says:

      True although contrary to popular belief there is still more strategy involved then just “normal summoning and beat sticking” you can’t just slap together a deck with high atk level 4 or lower or monsters and hope for the best you still need to find out what magic,trap etc cards work well with/support them and no before you say anything I don’t and haven’t played yatagarasu lockdown,goat control or anything like that, I would also like to know what makes you think newer generation players are more advanced and I should certainly hope that you’re not implying that older generation players lack tactic or any sort of skill,whilst many older players may lack or refuse to gain knowledge of newer cards most from my experience are generally quite capable of perfectly viable strategies also for the record I understand both xyz and synchro (haven’t bothered with pendulum yet)monsters and I am more annoyed about the speed of newer decks as opposed to the newer cards themselves.
      Reply

    • John Smith says:

      @Dederick J Newton should I assume you haven’t replied to my comment due to you lacking knowledge or a reply (perhaps both)of some sort or are you merely trying to avoid an argument?stop being rude and address the question I presented in my reply, I.E what makes “newer generation” players “far more advanced players”

  6. John Smith says:

    True although contrary to popular belief there is still more strategy involved then just “normal summoning and beat sticking” you can’t just slap together a deck with high atk level 4 or lower or monsters and hope for the best you still need to find out what magic,trap etc cards work well with/support them and no before you say anything I don’t and haven’t played yatagarasu lockdown,goat control or anything like that, I would also like to know what makes you think newer generation players are more advanced and I should certainly hope that you’re not implying that older generation players lack tactic or any sort of skill,whilst many older players may lack or refuse to gain knowledge of newer cards most from my experience are generally quite capable of perfectly viable strategies also for the record I understand both xyz and synchro (haven’t bothered with pendulum yet)monsters and I am more annoyed about the speed of newer decks as opposed to the newer cards themselves.

  7. John Smith says:

    I replied to your comment dederick j Newton but apparently you’re not going to reply to mine?!?! Fuck you, you cunt

  8. John Smith says:

    Fuck you dedrick j newton and fuck you and your mum you fucking cunt,you rude arrogant shit just making a smartass comment then leaving!you’re an arrogant prick

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