Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel (2022)

My boyfriend got me into this game. It was fun at first and he's very good at the game, so I was just mostly following his directions on what deck to make, what to click. I ended up getting most wins and achievements on Steam with Tenpai (before it got nerfed lol).

The competitive aspect is what ruins this game though; everyone is extremely toxic and only wants to win using try hard decks. If you want to have any chance of winning yourself you need to keep up with that toxicity, otherwise you just lose. Literally it's what I did with Tenpai, as that was considered the most toxic deck at the time. I also dipped into Chainburn and Floowandereeze, though Floo was a way shittier deck imo.

On top of that, it is still a gacha game, so don't be expecting to immediately be able to craft any deck you want (unless you either put in a ton of time or money).

I'd give the overall game a 6.5/10.

Well, I sure did a 180 on this one once I started playing online!

Even in the lowest tiers, the game is full of tryhards running decks that basically play themselves with endless chains and the ability to fill their play field on turn 1. I think I have to accept that this is just what YGO has become... The game just isn't the same game I played when I was younger. There's no more patience and strategy, it's just flooding the field with overpowered cards and complicating effects.

I'm a bit disappointed, but I'm glad I discovered this before I sank any real money in. On to bigger and better games, I suppose. Very excited for Still Wakes The Deep on the 18th!!!

This game has really surprised me.

Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is my all-time most-played Switch game, and I'll have to do a formal review on that one as I've long since completed the main campaign... But the available cards in that game are about 5 years out of date at this point, and some of the deck archetypes I really enjoy have since gotten useful new tools.

So I fired this one up, expecting a cynical gatcha game with all the good cards locked behind paywalls, and while that is kinda true, the way they've designed it is actually quite user friendly. Sadly, there's not much of a single player campaign, but there are a selection of solo levels that drop gems and some of the essential cards many decks may use.

But what really makes this game work for me is the crafting system. Basically, you can break down cards you don't want - and trust me, there will be thousands of those - to get crafting points, and given how generous the game is with currency for new players, I reckon there's just about enough to craft a deck or two if you know what you want to build. I've barely even touched the solo campaign, but I've already built around 3/4 of my Destiny Board deck from Legacy of the Duelist. The crafting ratio is essentially 3:1, or sometimes 2:1 if you break down foil variants. So basically, 3 cards you don't want will generate 1 card you do want. Pretty fair value, honestly.

I'll keep plugging away at this one, but I'm pleasantly surprised overall. I can see this being predatory for the casual user, but if you have a plan going in, it's pretty forgiving.

I was watching my wife play this game. I didn't realized that she was already gold rank and even finished the Season Pass (that she bought with the free gems).

Eventually, she went against a japanese player who easily summoned tha Winged Dragon Ra and Obelisk the Tormentor. She just laughed before they kicked her ass. It turns out she doesn't mind losing. She just enjoy playing.

I wish I could be like her. I quitted a lot of competitive games, like Street Fighter V, because I couldn't deal with so much losing.