Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel just released on most non-mobile platforms and will be coming to mobile devices soon. I tried it so you don’t have to:
Let me start off by saying that I’ve never understood the popularity of Yu-Gi-Oh. I know it is tied to a manga and an anime, so I guess I get the appeal of putting a monster in to play that you recognize from the story, but the game itself is not great next to its peers, which were historically Pokémon TCG and Magic. Now In the digital space it also has to compete with the myriad other CCGs out there.
At its core, the game is simply about playing monsters, traps, and spells to reduce your opponent’s life to 0. There is no “mana” system other than the possibility that you need to sacrifice (tribute) low level monsters in order to play higher level monsters. There are also a couple of convoluted mechanism for getting certain powerful monsters in to play, some of which are game changers and some of which aren’t worth the effort.
I tried the game on a PS4 and thought the UI was a bit clunky. The menus all do a quick server check before opening, so absolutely everything not in-game has a slight lag. In game, if you have a card in play that can activate it will ask you to confirm after every. single. action…. Have a trap and want to attack with 5 monsters? You will have to address that trap card after every attack. The game is pretty slow. The controller-based nature of a console slows it down even further, but I assume PC and mobile will help in this regard.
At its core, what this game is is YGO’s attempt to compete with other digital CCGs. It’s has a similar structure for dueling, earning currency, buying cards, repeat ad nauseum. There is solo content but thus far for me it has been a series of tutorials and basic AI battles. What is completely baffling is that I haven’t seen a character from the anime anywhere. At least in past digital iterations, of which there have been many, you dual against the characters that made the show popular. Here, you click an icon and duel some random AI names after the deck it is using.
I don’t actually know why this game exists or how it is better than Duel Links, which was the last version. Perhaps there are different sets and mechanics, but I don’t know the game well enough to judge. I can’t see how this is even remotely competitive against the heavy hitters in the digital CCG world, though.
