Universal [Old Soft launch thread] Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links (by Konami)

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by oskieTA, Nov 18, 2016.

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  1. oskieTA

    oskieTA Member

    Jun 24, 2015
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    #1 oskieTA, Nov 18, 2016
    Last edited: Nov 18, 2016
    [old soft launch thread]

    The game was soft launched in Japan about 2 weeks ago and should go global shortly hopefully...
     
  2. oskieTA

    oskieTA Member

    Jun 24, 2015
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    The game comes in English and Japanese with characters fully voiced in English. If you used to play the old GBA card games or the actual card game, you'll be disappointed to know that it's not the same card game that you have played. Then again it's not to say that it's no longer fun, it's just not the same game. Let me highlight some key differences
    1. Deck size is now 20-30
    You can still only add 3 of the same card and there is a section for forbidden and limited cards but currently there's none
    2. Life points starts at 4000 instead of 8000
    Self-explanatory
    3. You start with 4 cards and you don't draw in your first turn if you go first

    A lot may have changed since I played so maybe these are the norms and I haven't been touched Yu gi oh for a long while.
    To highlight what's actually in the game

    1. Pretty graphics :D
    You get nice animation for certain rare cards when you summon them like blue eyes, dark magician etc, the interface is also nice, certain places are 3D, for example to go to PVP you would see a 3D stadium that you can access, a 3D model of a card shop etc.

    2. Familiar characters
    If you are old school like me you'll be happy to find the old school class of characters before GX like Seto Kaiba, Joey, Tea etc and you can actually play as them, and each will have special abilities that you can activate, so far I have seen abilities that creates a field card, maybe other abilities will be helping you to draw high level monsters(speculating, haven't seen yet) so you can really call on the "heart of the cards to guide you"

    3. Gameplay
    A. Duel world duels or standard duels
    You will find Random AI characters in the so called "duel world". you will find 5 usually and it acts as your stamina bar, they will disappear after you beat them and reappear after sometime.
    When you win, a score will be calculated based on things like flawless victory, monsters killed, special summons etc and reward you with cards or other currencies like gems, gate keys etc.

    B. Legendary duelists
    These are your familiar characters in the duel monsters series and just by following the quests in the "stages"(player progress), you'll get to face off against more of them, unlocked by getting gate keys from completing quests, login bonuses, crafted from the card trader or found by clicking on "!" In the "duel world". They have different color gate keys and you need the specific ones to unlock the characters. These characters will have different player levels and higher levels require more keys to unlock and give better rewards.
    Completing their specific quests will unlock the ability to use that character and their decks.(very standard weak decks)
    Each character have their own individual level that is independent from the "stage" you are in and by playing as those characters you unlock new abilities, gems, deck slots, gate keys and cards as rewards.

    C. Duel school and vagabond duelist
    Duel school features dueling puzzles, which is like the old dueling puzzles where you are given a set of cards and you need to win in the same turn, the beginning ones are really just tutorials to help you get familiarized with the game, don't know if they will add more to it.
    There's also a "loaner deck" where you play using a preset deck.
    Vagabond duels is another character that randomly appears depending on how many friends you have added to your friends list and you need to fulfill certain conditions when you play against him, like using only a particular type of monsters etc.

    D. PvP
    There are ranked duels, casual duels and you play against your friends as well. A nice feature they have added is you can see replays of other people's duels, like a flawless victory duel, 1 turn win, or a very tight match, though many of the 1 turn win I have seen so far are people surrendering in their first turn...lol


    4. Monetization
    So there are a few different currencies in the game but you don't actually pay for any of them. If you spend money you will be buying packs or deck slots or orbs to play against computer opponents more frequently

    A. Gems
    Used to buy packs.
    Gained by bonuses and quests

    B. Gate keys
    Unlock legendary duelists/ anime characters to play as and play against
    Gained by bonuses and quests

    C. Coins
    Used to trade in for specific cards at the card trader,
    Obtained from bonuses and quests

    D. Attribute orbs
    Apart from coins some cards will need attribute orbs to actually craft them
    Obtained from bonuses and quests

    For card packs, currently they only have 1 type. They treat it as if you are buying a real box of cards in real life where a box will always contain all the rares, super rares and if you buy all 200 of them you are guaranteed to get at least 1 of the cards. You can always reset a box when you have bought out all the rares in that box to get new rares.
    Currently they cost 50 gems a pack or 1USD and if you purchased in bulk you would also get free gems as a bonus.with max paying for 30USD nets you 30 packs and 300 gems extra

    5. Final thoughts on the game
    The game is made much shorter with less cards and life points, clearly targeting the shorter play style of mobile games but this also takes away a lot of depth the game used to have.
    Currently not a lot of cards are in the game, but more will be added presumably.
    If you are hoping to make an OP deck, then you'd be disappointed to know that the strongest 4 star normal pet is "Axe Raider" at only 1700 attack and they are considered "ultra rare" in the game currently.
    The graphics and voiced characters givess a nice touch for those who would be nostalgic of the old anime series but for actual card game veterans they would be disappointed to know that the game is not nearly as good as the original GBA/nds series. Although I must say it got me really excited at first and the graphics and interface are what I had hoped for back in the day, will I continue playing? Yes, maybe for a little longer, but will I play for a very long time? That I am not so sure....
     
  3. Talbs

    Talbs Well-Known Member

    May 1, 2011
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    #3 Talbs, Nov 18, 2016
    Last edited: Nov 18, 2016
    Is it online only? And is it iPad only?

    Thanks for the extensive impressions btw.

    Edit, it's in oz store and is universal. will download later

    Edit 2: is online only. Not cool. I just want something reminiscent of the GBA era that I buy and is mine to keep. Is that too much to ask for?
     
  4. L.Lawliet

    L.Lawliet Well-Known Member

    Jun 28, 2011
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    I miss Yugioh Bam. I know some people didn't like it but it was really fun for simple, quick play. Unfortunately even with the ipa you can't download the files it needs to start (so it's pretty much dead).

    This still looks good but I do wonder if it has offline play. That was the biggest plus for me on Yugioh Bam.
     
  5. Talbs

    Talbs Well-Known Member

    May 1, 2011
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    Apparently this has been out since 27 October! Not only that, it's got 196 reviews in the oz store alone! What on earth!? The mind boggles on this IP's fanbase.
     
  6. Dailon80

    Dailon80 Well-Known Member

    Nov 10, 2014
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    Program Director/Radio DJ
    Eos
    Picked this one up in Japan App Store today
    Rock on
     
  7. oskieTA

    oskieTA Member

    Jun 24, 2015
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    So true! I almost had the thought of downloading GBA emulator on my PC just to play to old series... I am holding on to all the gems I can get so I don't have to spend a dime later when the card packs with more impressive line up of cards are released
     
  8. L.Lawliet

    L.Lawliet Well-Known Member

    Jun 28, 2011
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    Well I guess we can just stick to real cards :\ At least once you buy those they're yours forever.

    Buy any packs in here, they're only yours when you have an Internet connection and once the servers die - goodbye to your cards.
     
  9. Talbs

    Talbs Well-Known Member

    May 1, 2011
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    I've been playing now on and off (mostly off) for the past week just to give this a decent chance and see how it unfolds. I agree and support oskieTA's brief above.

    What I've found is, sigh, it's an online f2p tcg really. While there is Ai only play, the AI so far is severely lacking and I don't have the urge to play on to see if it gets better. It's not so much that it's lacking intelligence, it's that the tools that the devs have given the AI (the decks), are severely underpowered even at like 2 hours into the game for me. So actually I don't know if there's well written AI here because I can't get to a point of testing it. The AI is dropping 800 attack cards when my minimum is 1200. I'm up to "stage 7" whatever that means and playing the AI is just a bore and all over by turn 4 to 6.

    Also, in order to progress in the "campaign" you have to progress in stages which are done in groups of arbitrary "missions". What's the worst is that some stages require you to win "x" online duels. So now instead of playing a f20 style campaign, you're sent online to play against OP decks.

    Which brings me to online. Of course, online Pvp is just a "who's got the biggest monster" fest. Who's got the monsters with 1700 attack (because they're the largest 4 drop at this stage). So whoever has those, beats all other monsters basically and wins. With that, and with the limit of 4000 life points, the game just seems to be designed towards a "flip out ya monsters boys and get it done quick" vibe.

    The effects and flashes and twinkles are a bit much for me, I would've preferred simple and solid. I really would have liked a standalone one off purchase and play against decent AI in a proper campaign kind of a game, but alas this is not it. Nevertheless it is something for the yugioh kids to get into, and I can see it's probably just what some people (I suspect kids), are happy with, as yes its yugioh, yes you collect cards, yes it's flashy, yes you can flop out blue eyes white dragon, yes the yugioh characters are in, yes there's a form of trading, yes there's "missions" to keep you going. But it's every bit f2p that one would expect.
     
  10. Crazyboy423

    Crazyboy423 Well-Known Member

    Jun 23, 2014
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    Downloaded on SG AppStore. The game is good but the AI doesn't Knowles hop to play. It's too easy
     
  11. oskieTA

    oskieTA Member

    Jun 24, 2015
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    Update for 2 weeks later:
    As I got more into the game, I find myself playing a lot more actually. After I found out that there's an "Auto-dueling" function when you face off against non character players. I have also begun to appreciate the format of the new dueling style. With the reduced deck count and specifically "character skills" it's actually more like the yugioh game that's been done much better.
    The character skills range from increasing your staring life points to starting with a field spell and all the way to the OP "Destiny draw" which is a skill that Yugi can get from playing and having the skill drop from dueling rewards and you can pretty much guess what it does, it let's you draw exactly the card you want when your Life points are lowered by 2000. The addition of these character skills actually makes it much different than the yugioh games we play back in the day. Right now it does feel more like modern card games like Hearthstone where each playable character has their own style of play, e.g. Mai would totally own with the Harpies deck and You would really rely on dinosaurs if you played Rex.
    The AI also does get more challenging later on with their decks being upgraded as they have cards you cannot obtain currently with very specific combos and themes. I never understood why they let you have "deck slots" in the first place coz in the past I have always gone with one deck, to rule them all. Just by having OP monsters and basically owning every other card. But right now after playing for a while I understood that they were for you to creat individual decks to counter the decks of your opponent!
    And actually I find with the very specific inclusion of selective cards, the developers are actually creating new meta for the game and I actually find myself trading monsters more often with the opponents I face online than I ever did with computer AIs. Seems it's also possible to form pretty OP decks without the need to actually spend a lot of money. So far I am up around mid tier of rank duels without the need to buy a lot of packs. Though occasional booster packs do help. Interested to see how the game develops further!
     
  12. Robbie1350

    Robbie1350 Well-Known Member

    Dec 3, 2014
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    The game is out
     

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