Consoles: Ps4,Ps5,Xbox One,Xbox Series X Switch,Android,iOS PC,iOS
Published:Konami
Developers: Konami
Released: January 2022
Yugioh Master Duel is the latest videogame entry from the Yugioh franchise. The game was developed and published by Konami themselves as they always held the rihgts for the Yugioh card game. Although the game was barely
promoted prior and upon it's release, it did not prevent it from becomming one of the best Yugioh game out there. In fact, 2 weeks after it's release Konami rewarded the players with ingame awards to celebrate the fact that the game had
10 million players playing the game. The game does NOT have a physical release and is free to download on any platform and contains micro transactions which are not that nessessary unless the players playing wish to create more
than 2-3 decks without the need to grind the game for gems(in game currency).
Yugioh is a japanese collectable card game developed by Konami which is based on the popular Japanese Manga Series Yugioh by Kazuki Takahashi. The manga began in 1996 and had it's final volume in 2004. More series such as Yugioh GX, 5ds,Zexal
and others are still being published adding more rules and cards to the game. In a quick Synopsis, Yugioh has two duelists phasing each other summoning monster cards, using spell and trap cards to either boost their monster cards or
destroy the enemy cards. Each duelist start the duel with 8000 life points and the goal is to reduce each others life to 0, the person whose life points reach zero first is declared the loser while the other is the winner. NOTE: This review Will not teach the basic rules of Yugioh, it will cover game mechanics and a few basics but it will not explain the rules fully.
Yugioh Master Duel
As mentioned above Yugioh master duel is the latest Yugioh game. This means that this game consist of all the summoning rules and most of the Yugioh boosters/ decks. The rules are up to date with the 'real world counter part' which means that if
overpowered cards are banned in the physical tournaments, the same cards are banned in the game. Upon booting the game, the players will be asked whether or not they played Yugioh in the past, read the manga or watched the anime and a few more
questions. Then the player will have to set up a profile in order for the home screen to appear.
Solo
The game is very friendly towards it's player. Whether or not the player played the game in the past or not, it doesn't matter. (Surely its a plus, but it does not affect that much) The game's Solo mode, is available to teach players how to play
the game and introduce them to different concepts new and old. My (the author's) relationship with Yugioh was really good back in the 2000s and i was up to date with the schynro rules and the XYZ. I was unfamiliar with the Link and pendulum rules. Solo mode
does a fantastic job of teachng the player the rules and arch types of the cards. It should also be stated, that Solo mode gifts the player with full on decks such as a link deck, schynro deck monarch arch type decks and others. Further more playing versus the
Ai and completing the tutorial rewards the player with plenty of summoning gems which is something the majority of the players want in order to get themselves new cards. Solo mode requires the player to play using the default game which the game gives the
player, but it also has extra rewards for those wishing to use their own deck. In the early levels, the Ai is relatively easy but the more the player acomblished the more difficult the Ai will become.
Duel
Duel is where the player can duel versus other duelists online. Each time a player duels another they re capable of earning points to help the boost their rank. Furthermore, Duel is where various online events will take place. As of now (March 2022) There has been
only one online event which was around the XYZ summon. The game offered an XYZ deck but also allowed players to use their own decks given the fact that they included XYZ. Other extra deck cards such as Link,Schynro and Fusion cards were not allowed. Last but not least
Duel offers the ability to invite friends to play a friendly duel together. It also allowed for other people to spectate the duel. Leaving the table open allows for random people to also join your room and duel againts the player.
Deck
One of the best thing about Yugioh is the fact that the player can build and customize their own Deck. Sure the game does give a couple of default structed decks, but building and winning a duel with a deck made by yourself feels much more rewarding.
The option Deck allows the player to create and customize their own deck and make a few changes on some already owned. The best part about deck structure, is the fact that the game offers the player the ability to search other players decks. For example,
imagine there's a player who wishes to built a Dark Magician Deck, (which was the first Protagonist's favorite card.)t he player can go into deck creation and search Dark Magician. The game will then offer the player a variety of decks (made by other people)
which consist of the dark magician. NOTE: Some decks might not be dark Magician theme but might contain the card. (these decks will also appear as long as 1 copy of the dark magician is included) The player can choose the deck they prefer the most and
proceed into creating the deck. Copying an online deck doesn't mean they re playable. The cards will appear as see through, and the player will have to either purchase boosters to find the cards or Craft the card itself by spending points. Once all the cards included in
the deck are made then the deck will be playable. The player is still allowed to make changes in a copied deck if they wish for. Eg. A player coppied a deck that had 1 eye of Timaous and 2 Magician pf black Chaos, the player can remove the two magician of Chaos and replace
them with 2 copies of Timaous. Each deck consist of 40-60 cards and the extra deck 1-15. The less the cards in the main deck the better the draw will be and extra deck doesnt matter as they do not count towards main deck.
Shop and Card Crafting
There are 3 ways of receiving new cards.
Store
Crafting
Cards & Decks gained from Solo & Duel mode
Cards and decks gained from Solo& Duel mode are self explanatory, since rewards are given to the player when clearing a mission in Solo. Cards are also given after a duel online in some cases, but in most cases the cards given are weak common cards. Similary there's a finite ammount of
decks to gain from solo as there's a hand full of solo missions. Crafting is the main menthod of getting a specific card. In order to craft a card, the player will have to select deck,edit deck and type the name of card of preference. All of the cards have their rarity, which is one of
the following:
Common (C)
Uncommon (UC)
Rare (R)
Super Rare (SR)
Ultimate Rare (UR)
All of the cards require a total of 30 points in order to be crafted. Points are gained from Duelling (Solo/Online), mission bonuses (EG special summon online 40 times), awards from the season pass and finaly by dissmanteling spare cards and cards that were found in a booster but are not good for your deck.
Cards that are dismantle will give the player +10 of the same type that the card was. Dismanteling shiny cards (which can be found radomly in boosters or radomly crafted) will reward more than the usual points. Crafting an UR or a SR will also unlock the booster box for a limited time in the store in order
for the player to spent their gems for it.
Following the example from before, if a player wishes to make a dark magician deck, they can copy a deck from the online library. The best option for them to do now, is to craft a singular copy of the Dark Magician card. By doing so, the Dark Magician Booster pack will temporarily become available in the store.
The second step the player should take, is to visit the store and purchase Dark Magician boosters. With plenty of good luck the player will most likely get most of the cards listed in the deck. Some cards may be missing, as not all the cards required can be found from the dark Magician boosters and can
be found elsewhere. The player will have to singularily craft all of the missing cards by dissmanteling the doublicates and cards of rarity found that re not gonna be used in the dark magician deck or a different future deck.
The store similar to any game is the place where people can spent their currency, in this case the gems. The store is seperated in it's own sub categories.
Pack
Structure Deck
Accessories
Special
Pack
Pack is the place the player will most likely visit often. Its the place where the players can unlock and purchase booster packs that contain cards. The first option of pack is the Normal Pack. The game has an option of three different booster packs that the players can purchase. They re the standard defaults
that the player can always purchase. As mentioned, finding SRs and URs will temporarily unlock a different booster pack which can be found below normal pack in Secret pack. This is where packs become available for approximately 48 hours. Below Secret pack there is Bonus Pack where the player can spent
tickets instead of gems to get random cards. When selecting a booster, the screen will display the Rare cards featured in the box and will also offer the chance to see all the cards featured in the booster. A singular pack costs 100 gems and full set of 10 packs costs 1000 gems. By purchasing 10 packs at once the player
is guarantee atleast 1 SR. If the player fails to find an UR during the oppening of the 10 packs, the next set of 10 will quareantee atleast 1 UR. Each pack consist of 8 random cards 4 of which are random and 4 are themed based of the booster .
Structrured Deck
As the name suggests, the game offers the player to purchase a full complete functional decks which are built, in order for people to purchase on day 1 and instantly begin playing online. Always keep in mind the cards included in the decks can be used in other decks, however tey cannot be used as Dissmantle materials.
Accessories
Accessories are cosmeticks thats can cab be purchased. They do not make any difference on their own as they re only there for visuals. There are different things to customize such as :
Mate: Mates are avatars that appear next to the player's battle field in Game. All of them have unique anmations and are well designed. Mates can be obtain from store or gain as awards from playing online.
Duel Field: Duel fields change the arena where the player can place their cards. They can be a volcano field, a standard arena and others.
Protector Sleeves: These are Protector sleeves that the player can equip to their cards. The sleeves have a specific art in the back.
Icon: Similar to mates they re just cosmeticks that the players can use as their profile picture.
Special
The special item on the store is usually where the player can spent Gems to obtain the season Pass. Similar to any online game, the more a player plays (online) they gain experience points and level up. Each level on the season pass rewards the player with different items. These items are Game accessories, Gems and crafting
materials such as SR, UR etc.
A Basic Games and Things worth Pointing out
The game is fully up to date in terms of the rules of the game, the summoning features and the ban list that exists. The user interface is simple and everybody can understand the basic gameplay of Yugioh. The game begins with a simple coin toss. One of the two players will randomly get the option to pick heads or tails and the
coin will flip. If the player guessed correct, they get to choose whether or not they ll play first or second. Once the selection is made, the decks will be shuffled, and each player will draw 5 cards. The player who starts first will not draw a card and will have to make a play based on their current cards. They can active/set
spell cards, set trap cards and summon/special summon monsters. They cannot attack as this is the first round of the duel. The game will then proceed to the second player. A Yugioh round consist of :
Drawing phase: The Player begins by drawing a card. Quick spells, quick effects and traps can be activated
Main Phase: The phase where the player can set cards,activate cards and play monsters. Quick spells, quick effects and traps can be activated
Battle Phase: The phase where the player can declare attack on the enemy cards or direct attack. Quick spells, quick effects and traps can be activated
Main Phase 2: Similar to main phase, the player can proceed to play cards(if they haven't in phase 1), swap monsters to defend (unless they attacked with that card). Quick spells, quick effects and traps can be activated
End Phase: The player whose turn was, has nothing else to do and thus ends their turn. Quick spells, quick effects and traps can be activated
The game always keeps track on which phase of which player is. If the player has a move (good or bad ) the game will remind the player with a pop up window. For example, if the player A has a trap/spell/monster effect activated and player B has something on the field/hand graveyard that can counter it, the game will pop a window, showing
the counter card and it will allow player B to activated (if Wanted). The game will always temporarily freeze the phase whether or not player B has a counter in order to prevent any possible spoiler for player B's strategy. E.g it would ve been unfair for the game to inform player A that B has a counter and thus it will delayed in both cases.
Moreover, cards that rely on coin toss, random allocations and coin flips still have their effect displayed on the field. Gracefull dice will roll a dice and follow the cards effect, Fiend Sanctuary will flip a coin and proceed with the result and cards like Ordeal of the traveller will radomly select one card from it's user hands and offer
the other player an option to call spell, trap or monster.Endless loops cannot occur as after a certain ammount of moves the game will (on it's own) cancel one of the looping cards in order for the duel to continue. Instant wins are available, given that the conditions are met. For example, Exodia,destiny board and other ways to
get an instant win are allowed. Note that the game knows not many players can achieve an instant win strategy, as there are cards that can stop the techniques. The rule of Deck out exists in the game and can lead to a deck out victory. This type of victory represents the fact that one of the two players has run out of Deck and thus cannot
proceed to their Draw phase which translates to defeat. Some cards get their own unique animation when played, which is a nice detail.
Final thoughts
Overall the Yugioh master duel is currently the best game to enjoy playing Yugioh. The game has over 10 000 cards that the player can obtain and make their deck. As mentioned it easy to create a deck based on the monster card of the individuals liking. It's solo mode is a great way of teaching yugioh rules to any newcommer or older players who
stoppped the game. Duel allows the player to play with friends and randoms both competitevly and friendly in order to fully experiment with the deck. It does contain of microtransactions however, by simply playeing the game rewards the player alot. From personal experience, i payed a total of €0.00 on the game and im currently in possession of three
decks, Dark Magician, Darklords and Traptrix. Three full functional decks, and i never grinded(Fully complete the solos or play alot of duels online) the game to get more. It's also worth mentionning how the prices for the gems found in the PS store are high and the odds of getting cards of high rarity do not justify their price.
This is a video with my Honest review close to when i played the Game
