Yu-Gi-Oh! Cross Duel is a courageous transfer for Konami. Whereas Duel Hyperlinks tampered with the traditional Yu-Gi-Oh! format to make for a fast-paced model of the unique card sport, and Grasp Duel serves as a simulator of duelling in its purest kind, Cross Duel is one thing very completely different. It appears like the primary danger that the franchise has taken shortly, and whereas the outcomes are combined, it’s an thrilling sort of combine, and one which may make sense a bit additional down the road.
The core sport is enjoyable, every of the modes has its personal nuances, and if that was all of the context you wanted, I’d write up the foundations, say a few good issues about Blue Eyes White Dragon, and get out of right here. Sadly, issues are a bit extra difficult with this new enterprise for Konami because it’s the primary time within the historical past of the collection that they’ve explicitly employed gacha mechanics in a Yu-Gi-Oh! sport.
For those who hate gacha, you’ve in all probability simply tuned out, in the event you’re a defender of the microtransaction mechanic, you’re in all probability vehemently screaming one thing about the truth that the pack pulling system from each the bodily and digital Yu-Gi-Oh! card sport is one thing of a gacha system in itself. I’d ask each events to carry on and let me attempt to be honest. Cross Duel’s gacha system is annoying, and it’s arduous to correctly decide with the flurry of post-launch gem bonuses, but it surely’s not the worst factor on the earth, and it’s not far more troublesome to safe the playing cards you need with a commerce offering you possibly can collect the sources.
So, with that out of the best way, let me write a assessment as one might need in 1997 and simply discuss in regards to the sport. As I discussed earlier, the traditional Yu-Gi-Oh! format is massively adjusted to make a four-player sport attainable, with everybody shifting on the similar time, a number of regular summons per flip, and magic and lure playing cards simplified to solely operate in particular phases of the sport. You may verify the total guidelines out within the video under.
There are another mechanical decisions that really feel a bit bizarre at first, however come to make sense in time, like monsters dropping atk and def factors by battles fairly than staying at a constant energy stage. This easy change makes the eight turns of play much less reliant on destruction results to see a change within the duel dynamic, as even weak monsters can whittle away at icons like Darkish Magician or Elemental Hero Neos.
One factor Cross Duel has from the outset over Duel Hyperlinks or Grasp Duel is the number of sport modes. With ranked duels, pitting you towards three random gamers, tag duels, with a cut up subject for 2v2 battles, and raid duels, which put all 4 gamers towards a robust AI opponent. Raid modes have made their means into Duel Hyperlinks over time, however they nonetheless really feel like a solitary expertise that alludes to cooperative play in that sport, whereas in Cross Duel you possibly can actually work collectively to safe a troublesome raid victory, and that makes all of the distinction.
For those who didn’t discover my bias from that final paragraph, raid duels are at the moment my favorite. Ranked duels are up there too, however as I’m nonetheless studying the mechanics I’ve discovered myself on the top of some beatings from those that I’m considering pre-registered and have had months of apply. At the very least that’s what I’m hoping, in any other case I’m going to should spend a bit time repenting on the altar of The Winged Dragon of Ra.
One of many nuances we’ve solely seen Konami flirt with in Duel Hyperlinks is expertise, although in Cross Duel every talent is relative to a card fairly than a duellist, which means you possibly can stack as much as 20 expertise in a deck by the monster customisation menu. This might sound a bit gimmicky, or a minimum of it did to me at first, however I quickly realised that the range in these expertise provides a layer of technique the place you need to guess what impact they could carry, fairly than realizing what you’re coping with when somebody summons an impact monster in basically each different format of the sport.
Admittedly, for somebody who has performed varied variations of the bottom Yu-Gi-Oh! card sport format, a number of the modified card mechanics, like expertise and the brand new one-copy-per-deck rule, felt a bit alien at first. I can hardly blame this on the sport although, because the snappy tutorials you need to undergo in your first 20 minutes deliver you in control on all of the necessities, it’s simply I’m a creature of behavior. What I can say is that if you do familiarize yourself with issues, a profitable combo or flip execution feels simply nearly as good because it does within the base sport.
Going into the sport for the primary time, Cross Duel may sway you relying on what sort of duelist you might be, because it isn’t the tactical juggernaut that the core card sport is, and it in all probability won’t ever evolve into that. Like I stated earlier, profitable combos nonetheless really feel partaking, however the 500-second turns of Grasp Duel may take up nearly a complete sport of Cross Duel, and this will likely be a very good factor or a nasty factor relying on how a lot you get pleasure from limitless card combos over fast turnovers.
It’s price mentioning efficiency simply to say that Cross Duel is properly as much as the standard requirements of Konami cell titles and I’ve skilled no lag, stutter, and even connection points that have been the fault of the sport. It’s a seamless sim, and precisely what we’ve come to anticipate from the king of video games.
I can’t end this assessment with out highlighting the heightened immersion that the full-voice appearing brings to the sport. Whereas Konami used Grasp Duel to pivot away from reliance on the forged of the anime collection to herald nostalgia gamers, Cross Duel is aiming itself squarely at that demographic, and it’s only a good contact. I nonetheless would have performed Cross Duel with out listening to the raspy tones of Seto Kaiba educating me play, it simply makes you are feeling that little bit extra such as you’re a part of the sport world, and helps Cross Duel to ascertain some character proper from the outset.
All in all, Yu-Gi-Oh! Cross Duel has given me, fittingly, crossed emotions. As a 15-year-plus veteran of Konami’s card sport, it’s nice to see them strive new issues with contemporary concepts once more, experimenting with their energy as a franchise over their energy as a format. Nevertheless, the introduction of actual gacha mechanics, not semi-disguised as packets, muddies the water sufficient to make me query how I’ll really feel in a couple of days time when my properly of free gems has all however dried up.
That doesn’t imply Yu-Gi-Oh! has misplaced me although, and it doesn’t imply it ought to lose you both. I’m comfortable to provide the advantage of the doubt for the subsequent few months, as Konami adjusts certainly one of its greatest and most profitable franchises in response to its personal experiences, hopefully in addition to participant suggestions, in order that this experiment with the Yu-Gi-Oh! format isn’t misplaced to the annuls of time like a number of the forgotten titles of the early 2000s.
If you wish to study much more in regards to the newest card sport title out of Konami, be sure you take a look at our Yu-Gi-Oh! Cross Duel interview with developer Yuya Takayanagi. Or, in the event you missed our Yu-Gi-Oh! Grasp Duel assessment, take a learn to see how we received on with the opposite duelling sim of 2022.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Cross Duel assessment
Regardless of a barely gimmicky look and card packs lastly being pulled for all-out gacha mechanics, the well-executed dangers of Cross Duel outweigh the problems by providing a choice of diverse sport modes, every with its personal nuance, and a brand new solution to play with the beloved forged of over twenty years of anime adventures.
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