Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel Critic Reviews

Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel is Yu-Gi-Oh! at its best. The kid gloves have been taken off to give us a complex, deep game full of exciting plays and powerful combos, but presented in a sensible and readable way, free from Joey Wheeler shoutin' about da heart o' da cards. Whether you're a veteran duelist, a lapsed player, or someone who's had a vague interest at some point in the last 25 years, this is the way you want to get into Yu-Gi-Oh!.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel is an excellent game buried under a few layers of frustration and potential hang-ups. Excavation efforts are easier than they might appear, and the game does an okay job of helping you out. The game can be frustrating and off-putting for some, but if you know where and how to interact with your opponent’s multi-minute combo turns, a whole world will open up for you. Even as I write this, I find myself tempted to boot it back up for “just one more game.” And given how close I am to my assigned word cap, I might do just that.

Master Duel is currently a reasonably barebones experience that delivers on what it needs to but not anything else. I am impressed by the focus on allowing players to get right into the swing of competitive duels by giving them the tools to quickly put together whatever deck they would like. The presentation is immaculate, aside from many typos in the game’s original text. I love the pacing of the flashy animations that lend a lot of weight and satisfaction to every blow struck on your opponent. I only wish there were more differences in how easy it is to create older, less-competitive decks than the new stuff being played in stores in 2022.

By its proposal, Duel Master clearly distinguishes itself from Duel Links, the other free-to-play in the universe of Yu-Gi-Oh!. By focusing solely on the playing card game, the title offers a very complete experience with official rules and a huge collection of cards on all media thanks to cross-platform.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel is Konami's bet for the franchise in the foreseeable future. In its base state is a solid experience, and its contents will be expanded over time.

Master Duel is the pinnacle of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG in virtual form. It offers a ridiculous amount of tools to assist in deck customisation, and easily lets you obtain any of the thousands of cards. Where it currently falls short though is the matchmaking options, as there’s just so many variables at play from day one. This isn’t a game for new players, but it doesn’t try to be, so if you know your Blue Eyes from your Kuribo, Master Duel is for you.

If you can overlook the limited available modes and move past the potentially devastating feeling of being one-turn-killed online, Master Duel is a Yu-Gi-Oh! game that will allow you to build — and more importantly, defend against — a deck of that caliber.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel is a free to play game designed for those who have been active in the card game for years and are looking for a space to measure themselves against other duelists from around the world. It's a deep game, with over 10,000 cards and updated rules. It's also addictive and a lot of fun, but less experienced players will struggle as they adjust to competitive play.

One of the most exciting online CCGs released yet. It could use more singleplayer content, but for PvP, it's tough to beat.

Konami managed to make the best Yu-gi-oh adaptation to this day that will bring many surprises to both old and new players because this game isn’t the same one we used to play 15-20 years ago. The learning curve is huge and it requires a lot of time to learn all the decks currently available, so be ready for a lot of grinds.

Without going around it too much, Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel is, to date, the definitive game dedicated to the collectible card game. Aside from some elements that will turn up your nose a little, such as the limit of only twenty decks, it provides players with all the tools necessary to explore and play Yu-Gi-Oh in the best way, all enriched by excellent animations and original elements, such as the lore of the archetypes, very appreciated. The future success of the game will depend exclusively on the update frequency that Konami will decide to adopt, but for how they are behaving today, we can only be satisfied.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel is an awesome game that Yu-Gi-Oh! fans, both new and old would love. I honestly would've probably given this a lower score, but they just added the option decks from YGOProDeck directly to the game. This just fixes one of the major issues of the game and warrants it a better rating. All in all, fantastic looking graphics, and it plays well. What else can you really ask from a card game?

As with any new game, the future of this game entirely is uncertain, but this launch has made us very hopeful. Konami seemingly is keen to learn and is already doing user surveys to find any flaws in the system, and with the questions chosen it seems the team are looking at the right areas already. With some patches and more quality of life features, this game could easily become the definitive Yu-Gi-Oh! experience, but only time can tell.