Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links Reviews

by Pboy101

I’ve played YGO Duel Links since the near beginning and have had a lot of fun. At its peak, it was a game that was very cerebral, encouraged variety deck building, strategic PVP plays, and enjoyable nostalgic PVE events. But then a series of overpowered cards were released and for a long time the top of the meta game consisted of just a handful of decks; same decks and skills over and over again made the game very stale. Konami finally dropped a new ban list to try to remedy this problem and we’ll see what effect it has when the ban list takes effect. At the same time, Konami has also released the first pay only set of cards (structure deck). This is preceded by structure decks that were purchasable with game currency for the first time around and then with real money only the subsequent purchases. Now I have spent some real money on this game and don’t mind throwing a little support now and then because it’s a well made game. However, locking cards behind a paywall with no option to get the them besides real money sets a very bad precedent and I will not support this business model. I think the game the way it was, all cards obtainable by all players whether it be through cash or grind, is the way to go. Play the game for nostalgia, play the game because it can be very fun when the meta game is in balance, but do not support the business model of pay-only contents, that’s how you end up with a dead game.

by N5NR

This game is an incredible homage to Yu Gi Oh, and it’s a treat for anyone remotely familiar with the series to see the massive amount of cards, characters, and special animations they receive. The sound design is fantastic, and there’s obviously been work put into this game towards small details.

This it’s all the more unfortunate the game is so clearly pay to win. Good luck so much as thinking about cracking the beginner ranks if you don’t already have a deck that has a turn 2 win condition. The meta is basically run as many copies of cards that don’t allow the other person to play or get your three 4200 beaters out turn 1. If there was an ability to just play through the story against NPCs all day, it would be way more acceptable, but of course that’s limited by 100 different random currencies, time limits for duelists to “respawn”, just all kinds of money grubbing practices that hurt the game overall and detract from its merits.

I initially couldn’t tear myself away from this game, but you quickly realize as the free welcome gifts run out that at its core, this is nothing more than a soulless husk; a cash grab that monetizes you’re lack of patience and unwillingness to suffer through the sweaty salt mine that is the ranked ladder. Such a shame, hopefully Devs realize people are willing to spend money on games that actually have substance and stand for something other than weaponizing nostalgia to make a quick buck.

by Doris Floris Gorgeous

The game used to be great. However, it has fallen from grace. The events that Konami cycles through are usually very fun and enjoyable. The characters, skills and vibe of the game are easy to pick up - not to mention you don’t have to spend $$$ to get the full experience. Every other review complains about problems that can be worked around, yet none mention the only issue with the game - PvP (the worst condition it’s ever been in, no contest). The added cards come in sets called “boxes.” Each box has a theme which typically contain cards that harmonize together. The newer additions are absolutely brainless and require 0 skill to construct a successful deck. You see morons in the chat spamming what is and what isn’t meta, yet everyone seems to forget what made yugioh great initially - the originality of character personality and their unique flavor of cards. Watch out for the raw skill and prowess possessed by people who use “Sylvan” and “Aromage” cards, they’re sure to out maneuver you or maybe even win in one turn! Such fun! The catering to amateurs has undoubtably destroyed the PvP aspect of the game but fortunately there’s more to do than dueling other players. Although this is simply an opinion, I believe this review holds some merit as I’m a multiple-time KoG player and have played for over a year and a half. Enjoy the unlocks and atmosphere of the game & approach PvP cautiously at your own risk.

by Gurrola Boy

I loved this game soooooooooo much! But when it came to switching phone and redownloading. The game fails to mention that you would lose EVERYTHING!!! It never mentions what you need to save your account and it’s info and what to do when your account disappears into thin air without explanation. As well as expecting players to remember their ID #’s as well as other useless info that you wouldn’t even think would be remotely important!!! I got so far and I was just getting better, but because of this stupid glitch it whatever, my experience has been totally ruined!!!!
Also there are WAY to many cards in this game that have abilities that practically destroy whatever cards they want, I can’t tell you how many duels I’ve fought with people activating that ability and practically wiping out half of the field!!!
Which leads me to my final complaint, even though it says you are in a specific rank, there are some people who obviously pay money to get the best cards. As I only get cards that are given to me and in packs and there are those who have set decks and are somehow in the bronze rank, ruing in the experience and not leaving to many good dueling experiences. I hope these things change one way or another and hopefully sooner rather than later!!!!!

by Hell P Me Pls

Sorry for bad English. Yugio is an amazing game, a lot of opportunities, everything is very interesting. But I realy hate the new cards introduced, it introduced such an imbalance into the game: is it normal that I didn't have time to make a move, and the enemy has already summoned three monsters with an attack of 2800+ in attacking form? And these same cards are able to destroy your cards just effects. What are these samurai - they will destroy all your monsters, all your traps and magic cards. Plus to them Underground maps, Bushido, pyramids. But samurai stand out more than others. They don't need to try to summon a strong monster. And there's almost nothing you can do but watch. The higher the rating, the more such donaters-cancers. All stupidly copy this configuration. People can put themselves in a pack of 3 such strong cards, without the ability to oppose them something, no restrictions, no negative effects for them. And I ask myself, what am I doing with this game? I sit and watch this nightmare. You ruined the game. If possible , divide the game into three worlds as well. For example, I want to play without new cards from the third world. I will play with players with cards from the first two worlds, any to choose from. I love the game, but the lack of balance and strategy is annoying. Please do something about it, it discourages the desire to play.

by ZeroRyuzaki

If you’re looking for a simpler version of the Yu-gi-oh! game, this is for you. Despite what other reviewers say, I don’t find the game pay to win as they give you a ton of gems and tickets to be able to build the deck you wanna build. However, I do feel like after awhile, specifically after you get all the characters unlocked, that the game feels repetitive. You’re just playing the same duels over and over again to try to get the one or two new cards that they add into each event or to get the new character that they might add to the game once every few months.

One of the biggest complaints I’ve seen is the meta game, and tbh, I agree with them, but for different reasons. It is true that as you get to higher rankings in PVP, the more you’ll find people using the same deck with only minor alterations. This is honestly a result of a lack of archetypes that the real game has an abundance of. Most of the archetypes that are in the game are ones that are used by the characters in the shows (Magician, Blue Eyes, Stardust, etc.), with only one new archetype being added every few booster packs, and it’s not even half the cards in the archetype, making playing them worthless until the extra support cards are added, which could take months to do.

by Midnightblack86

First off let me say that I have loved Yu-Gi-Oh since I was a kid and I like how the game has certain cards that are unique to some players as well as skills. However as I got more into the game I noticed that the new boxes that came out featured more and more cards that harmonize together and have chaining effects without the player having to come up with a strategy to use them. This is a problem I feel because it takes away from the originality of coming up with your own deck and trying new ideas you may have. I believe that’s what made yu-hi-oh the great game that it is because of the originality and prowess each duelist showed with their own deck.
Even so this concept of getting all your monster, spell, and trap cards from the same box and just using them as they come requires almost no thought or skill to use especially when you use them with a character’s skill that’s made for them. This is overall my only problem with the game the pvp has become way to easy for players who choose not to put as much thought into how their deck is formed and it makes duelists who are amateurs able to become high ranking the pvp players just by spending a little money on boxes. Again I like the game but this is a real problem that in my opinion should be addressed more going forward.

by Damien Hosea

I have been playing Yu-Gi-Oh since the cards released in the US. This game is fun but we are here to talk about Duel Links. I have noticed a few things about this game that is slowly starting to turn me off.
1. Buying cards in the only way to actually get good cards to keep up with good players however, when you spend money on cards, it would seem as though the game doesn’t want to give you anything good. Let’s say you buy 10 packs for $3. You pull one Ultra Rare card. It’s not the card you wanted so you buy 10 more packs while will now cost you $6 because the price goes up. Now you pull nothing but commons. It seems like the game gives you even worse cards after you’ve spend your money the first time.
2. In online duels, everyone uses the same decks. You might see some people with different decks here and there but everyone is running the same decks in this game. It would seem as though only people who spend crazy amounts of money on this game to actually be good.
3. The gems that you get are little to nothing. They give you maybe 5 gems for doing something. You’ll get a lot of you level up characters which take forever.
Overtime, this game will eventually get deleted from my phone due to the fact that it feels like you get nothing for the money you put into it. They did a “reopen your packs” promotion and I bought 3 different packs and reopened them all, and got nothing but commons on all pulls. Huge slap in the face!

by GladDiamond

I've been playing for a long time. Though I rarely put effort into PvP since it'll just be a group of strong copied decks alongside my cell service goes out like twice per two weeks. The game is probably the best gacha game there has been. You get a lot of their currency called gems during events. It's usually easy to unlock characters, cept bastion and that one dude in dark side of dimensions. Just it feels like the level up mechanic to get new cards could be polished. You'd think you would already own the signer dragons. But no you have a skill that adds them to the deck. I get your running a business but that's they're signature card. It's like having to pay 40 bucks for a Pokemon game and then having to pay for Pikachu. Other issues would be that some archetypes like guardragon and DD aren't labeled an archetype in game, so you gotta search them. For DD that is really frustrating to search. It's weird to have an addition to an archetype added in the next box. It was hard and costly to get most of it the first time. It would be great if you could set up an archetype store. If you have all but one card of a set you can trade in some of the extra ones you already have for that final card. This would be a one time deal per archetype. It would be appreciated if you could buy some of the event cards in store. Mostly the unpopular ones.

by EconTakeUrGf

This game can be played using free to play, and they have come a long way in that regard. I have been playing since the game came out and absolutely love it. My only warning to people is that if you enjoy it as much as I did and would like to be able to play competitively you will have to drop quite a bit of money. For instance if a new box comes out you would have to drop 100 to 200 dollars to get three copies of the cards. They do have sales, ranked tickets, and events that are a good way to get cards for free, but like I said before without dropping some money you will not have the advantage some have, and depending on the deck type it could be a huge disadvantage. I have notice recently that when a box comes out there rares are now becoming much better cards, which is easier for F2P people to obtain, and they have events all the time to collect cards. Lastly if you want to be competitive at this game you will also need to spend a lot of time! If a event comes and you miss that chance to pick up those cards it can mean you will not be able to use the best arch type for a long time. So remember the facts, the games is fun and well designed, it is free to play if you just want to have fun and be semi competitive, you will drop a lot of money to stay current with the meta, and you will have to spend a lot of time playing events and ranked or fall behind. Hope this helps anyone wanting to play.

by Balla_g6

This game is great in many ways and dynamics. The number one thing to give credit, is it is not pay to win. They have a great leveling system with excellent rewards. Which makes easy to catch up if you haven’t played in awhile. It is very easy for new comers. I could never get my friend to play the actual card game, but I got him to play this, and now he plays the actual game with me, because YuGiOhDuelLinks taught him how to play. I love the animations for those monsters that got them. But now I must say the things that need improving. The dialogue is so cheesy; I always have it on silent! Also I do understand there are a lot cards missing and the reason would be to progress the game through time and keep it relevant. However, the game is only up to the synchro era, and the synchro era doesn’t have as much progress as the the fusion and original era. It is definitely time for the synchro era and all of its characters to get their support maxed. There are so many, stardust, red dragon, black wing and many other cards lacking from the game today. The xyz could also be included finally. I mean yugioh vrains is already getting kinda close to finishing. This game is very fun and I play it every day, and I don’t plan on stopping as long as the progression system stays the same and they update the cards. There definitely needs to be more cards, overall though; a great game and I even recommend to people who have never played yugioh.

by Duhdrezziii

Don’t get me wrong I would love to give this game 5 stars, this is by far the best Yu-Gi-Oh! game out there including the actual $60 games on the console and this one is free! But the problem here comes from the card game itself. These “meta” decks completely dominate the game. This game would have such a bigger fan base if you could play it how it was meant to be played: by building your own decks and testing them out and playing with friends in a fun, competitive environment. I’ve been playing this game since it came out and I’ve got to say I love it, but with the addition of these crazy decks and meta cards it’s ruining what should be the most fun part of the game which is the pvp. It should be easy to go into pvp and play with people from everywhere in the world who share the love of this game with whatever deck you want and not have to face people who play the exact same cards because “that’s what wins” I know this problem exists in the TCG as well as the OCG. Konami needs to realize that their game is majorly unbalanced. Skills were a great addition to the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! and they add a lot of balance where earlier there was none, but they don’t fix these problems completely. A lot of what needs to fixed can easily be done if the company just listened to the fans of the game. A little communication can go a long way.

by Aaron Valeska

It’s a fantastic app and you get to duel many people and even legendary duelist from the anime I play this for hours and the inclusion of cards from the anime and new cards never seen in the anime can be played by any character like you can use blue eyes ultimate with Pegasus and it’s fun too and the skills are the best part like they give you cards that you can’t get or haven’t gotten yet for free but speaking of skills (negative review from now on) the thing with skills being rewards for dueling legendary duelist is a rig you can just want one skill that does one simple thing that only helps your deck a tiny bit (example) I wanted the skill it’s a toon world for my toon deck and I’ve dueled over 70 duelist and I’ve even gotten the sleeves for using Pegasus for 100 duels and most of them for this challenge and even for other duelist and even for other “drop skills” I haven’t gotten a single one I would’ve gotten at least one with yugi muto for how much I’ve dueled legendary duelist with him but nope I got 0 of them and that’s the scam of this game I think you could get this skill in the Pegasus event but to date I don’t think so unless I have to duel 1,000 duelist then maybe ill give this a better review knowing it’s possible

by Urameshiimaru

I have to say that this is a free to play licensed game done the RIGHT way, first off it doesn’t constantly spam your screen with ads and offers for stuff to buy like most F2P games which is a huge plus in a world where 90% of free games seem to do something of that sort every 2 minutes. There are TONS of cards with new ones being added all the time, constant events going which help give you freemium currency to a point where you never feel forced into spending money just to continue playing, honestly that is one of the main reasons I chose to spend money on a few extra packs just to help support the game, I really can’t think of anything bad about this game that’s worth saying, I don’t think it’s ever crashed on me even though I’m on a fossil of a phone and on the same subject the battery consumption is phenomenal, I can play for hours with it barely effecting my battery, which is a huge deal for me when my phone goes from 100% to 10% in 10 minutes for most games. If you’ve ever been a fan of the series then give this game a try, it’s a streamlined version of the original but it works soooo well, honestly the regular format would take too long for a bite sized app game like this

by Armored Warlock

This is by far a 5 star mobile game. If you enjoy the strategy it takes to play these games then this is the game for you. Do not listen to reviews that say you have to pay money to be competitive. It’s just not true. You can be lazy and spend the money if you’ve got it. Will say prices aren’t to unreasonable in this game. But you can also grind in this game. If you play it right and go for your stage challenges and unlock all the playable characters. You can get about 2,000 gems from every character in the game. It is not hard to get everyone to lvl 30 it is what I did and I’ve had no problem playing competitive. Also every time a box comes out the kind developers give away at least 500 gems. Not to mention the 5,000 gems you get when you start. So they definitely let you decide which way you want to go with your deck. On top of all that there are several events that happen all throughout every week with chances to get good cards. Every event eventually makes its way back around and you can get another chance if you missed out before. So as you can see this is a great game with loads of opportunity to make yourself great in however play style you like to duel.

by OG Dynmks

So I’ve been a very big fan of Yu-Gi-Oh since I was a little child watching it on Saturday mornings on 4Kids.
It’s great to see the mashup of all generations of the show displayed between all the characters with their different skills and different cards. My ONLY issue is with the new decklist feature that has recently been added. I continuously do the “tutorial” for the decklists and every time I close YuGiOhDuelLinks or go into the missions/stage tab, it makes me redo the tutorial again. If I’ve already done the tutorial and go into the missions/stage tab and it makes me redo it, it soft locks the game because I cannot favorite the deck list it asks because I’ve already done it prior. Which causes me to close YuGiOhDuelLinks and restart it. EVERY SINGLE TIME. Which I’m sure you can tell causes a lot of frustration and takes away from the enjoyment of the game. Other than this feature being buggy and not properly tracking, the game is fantastic and I’ve already gotten multiple people I know to download the game and play alongside me. Great game, just wish the buggy features were fixed faster. Thank you for producing and rekindling my greatest childhood memories!!!

by CFDuelist

This game has no heart. PvP is ruled by people who load their decks with the same cards to the point on higher levels every match feels the same and can be won in the first 3 turns.
This game would be a lot better if some of the cheesier cards that allow you to summon 3 or 4 monsters per turn were actually rare and not handed out to everyone. I want an actual duel not just watching somebody play half their deck in one turn and win.
Also i dont understand the “shuffle” aspect. I noticed some of my best spell cards rarely get put in my hand while the same 3 cards will constantly be put in my hand. I once got to turn 30 by strategizing and utilizing my spell and trap cards, with the hope of being dealt my favorite magic card only to never see it in the 15 turns i had. Not just in those 15 turns but i played 15 straight PvPs and didnt see that card once. Theres no way these cards are being shuffled like they are supposed to be. I even rearranged my deck and see no improvements.
Overall playing the computer on higher levels is fun but PvPs get monotonous when everybody’s playing the same way in order to get quick and cheesy wins in 3 turns. I want to actually duel like in the anime/game. Not just cheese summon cards to get all my best monsters in turn 2. Thats not how the game is played. Nobody is summoning their best monster in 2 turns in any episodes ive ever seen.

by Him Fr

it’s all strategy imo. some games cost a lot. this hasn’t cost me a dollar and i made 2 of my IRL decks minus 1 card (locked as the final upgrade for a secret character) in the span of about 4 days. you really just have to be strategic in how you utilize your gems, opportunities to earn gems, events, and orbs/triggering stage ups (you could potentially have multiple worlds all 99% finished and ready to stage up, resetting the growing number of standard duels you've been allowed each time) and do your darn duel trials. free gems for one turn of a game. hard to find features like that.

ALSO ESPECIALLY know when to use your tickets. you can spend 5000 gems trying to get 1 card out of a 400+ BOX, OR you can see if it’s redeemable with a ticket/character unlock you can get on a daily basis for free. the “card catalog” will show you how any card/related card is achievable. some do require BOX purchases (makes sense when there are over 10 thousand individual cards), but theres a plethora of short cuts to so many cards you don’t have to just buy a BOX 100 times over hoping a deck builds itself before you go broke. STRATEGIZE and MAXIMIZE. it’s what the entire game is all about after all.

by Mjakef

This is probably the most fun Yu-Gi-Oh! Experience I've ever had. And I'm super into Yu-Gi-Oh! In general. I was hesitant at first because the smaller game board. But after playing, I actually really really like it. I like the idea of quick games. It lets me practice certain strategies faster than the original game. It's more like the show that way.
I also love the voice acting and the time that the developers put into this. I can really feel the heart that was put into this. I am constantly amazed because of the innovative new updates that continually come to this game!!! I really cannot. Believe this game is free! In no way do you have to pay to win. The option is there if you want it, but I've only paid once, and I really didn't need to. I honestly felt guilty that I didn't at least pay a little bit. It's really that good.
If you like Yu-Gi-Oh, YuGiOhDuelLinks is a must have. I've even showed YuGiOhDuelLinks to a few of my friends who've barely heard of Yu-Gi-Oh!, and I've gotten a few of them attached. You don't have to be a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh! To appreciate a well made game.
I just want to personally thank everybody who put in the work into perfecting this game. Every little corner that wasn't cut goes a LONG way, and I'm sure I speak for a lot of people who regularly play this game, Thank you guys so so much!!!!!

by Cartercr

I really enjoy YuGiOhDuelLinks. I played Hearthstone but it felt like such a horrible grind just to get cards that were remotely useful. YuGiOhDuelLinks gives you so many options to get competitive fairly quickly. You can definitely pay for packs, and I have honestly considered it (because I legitimately want to support YuGiOhDuelLinks, not actually because I need the cards) but the nice thing is I don’t feel like I have to in order to play competitively.

I want to throw a special shout out to one particular feature that really deserves recognition: the vagabond. If you don’t know his reputation just do a quick google search, he has challenges that make it hard to win but used super op decks that seemed to always get the best draws. With the recent changes to the vagabond I see him as a really valuable resource in the game. His challenges are a little bit better tuned, and the XP gains are still wonderful. The thing that really adds value, though, is that the vagabond gives you the chance to look at his deck after dueling him. His decks are taken from high ranking duelists, so this is a great way to see what the best players are using, what’s meta, and what is being tech’d in certain decks.

Overall this is an easy 5 stars. I have personally recommended YuGiOhDuelLinks to friends by word of mouth and I will gladly continue playing it!