Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Arena – Review
Aside from the earlier Yu-Gi-Oh! World Duel Carnival, Konami also released a free-to-play browser game by the name of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Arena. Partner up with all kinds of characters from the well known franchise and make your way to become a great duelist!
Story
As this is just a simple gameplay-oriented browser game, a story mode isn’t really available. You do however have a single player experience in which you will take on several quests. In these quest, you’ll have to duel against all kinds of popular characters or monsters from the series, including Yugi Moto, Jaden Yuki, Yusei Fudo and Yuma Tsukumo.
Graphics
The graphics aren’t really of much importance in a browser game. Mostly you’ll be navigating between different menus that have a simple but nice design to them. All the characters are also drawn in a chibi-like art style, making them look quite cool and cute. During duels you’ll just see a typical duel screen, much like the old PSP games. There might be some slowdowns when playing a duel, but it doesn’t affect much.
Sound
If you have played previous games like the Tag Force games on the PSP, you’ll notice that a couple of songs from those games have returned to the browser game. The songs exceed in making you excited to play a duel, and motivate you to win a game. The sound effects are also done well.
Gameplay
This is where the game is oriented around. You make an account on the website, and you’ll receive your own partner that will help you around. This partner can be changed later in the game, which is important because you’ll be able to play with a pre-made deck that is centered around that partner. For instance, in the beginning of the game you’ll get Yugi Moto as your partner and you’ll be playing with his iconic monsters like the Magnet Warriors. You’ll receive more partners after completing quests in the Single Player Mode or by renting their decks. Renting a deck can only be used for a couple of times, after which you’ll need to rent them again.
You also get to make your own deck by buying virtual packs through the shop. Each booster contains 5 cards, and are similar to those of the real booster sets. However, one booster costs a lot of DP so if you want to make a certain deck, you’ll need to duel quite a lot of times. This can become quite a drag, as it will probably take way too long for you to create the deck you want. There is still the option of using coins in order to buy the packs, but this will require you to use real life currency.
The most fun aspect of the game is that winning earns you DP, which can be used to buy virtual packs through the shop. This makes it so that dueling and winning a duel has some kind of worth, so you’ll be motivated to keep dueling and dueling. However, the catch is that you can only duel a set amount of times per day. You’ll have a stamina bar that has 5 charges on it, and after those 5 charges are gone you’ll have to wait a while in order for it to replenish. Another way to replenish your stamina is by making use of coins or by making use of items that you get for winning against an opponent AI.
Aside from the Single Player Mode, players can also participate in the Arena. In this mode you’ll be using your own decks (or partner decks) and duel against other human players. This makes better way to improve your own skills, especially since the AI in this game doesn’t always make the best moves.
For the newer players, the game also has a Tutorial Mode that explains everything that you will need to know for dueling. So if you are not sure what the rules are, it is best to give this mode a shot.
Conclusion
The game has some small minor issues in terms of speed. Aside from that you can also only play for a certain amount of times per day, which doesn’t really improve the game at all as it is just more of an annoyance. However, it is a good way to get some practice in and it does give the player the feeling that winning a duel is really fun and allows you to even open some booster packs or renting a certain character’s deck. So if you want to play against other players with decks that you aren’t familiar with, it is definitely worth playing.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Arena - Review,
No Comments