Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution Review – PC Card Invasion

Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution Review

Back in September, I had the opportunity to review Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution on the Nintendo Switch. As a fan of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG back in the day, playing Link Evolution really did bring me joy. Not only did I get to play a card game I was familiar with but having the chance to relive the anime that I loved was refreshing. Now here we are 6 months later playing the PC port. Will this new port have any updated or added features? Well, the short answer is no, but that doesn’t mean that the experience itself has deterred at all. 

Rather than having a unique story, Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution lets players also live out the original TV series from the past 6 seasons. Whether you were a fan of the OG duel monster season with Yugi Mutou and the gang or perhaps more of a fan of Yuya Sasaki and the crew from Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V, you’ll be able to go through every plot-important duel that happened in the anime. 

Perhaps if you were like me, having played only the original Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, you may be a bit confused with the newer rulesets. Pendulum and Synchro summons? What the heck does that even mean? It may seem confusing at first but every first duel in each chapter serves as a very in-depth tutorial that more than does its job in properly explaining that chapters new ruleset. Once your match has officially begun, you’ll have the option to play with a pre-set deck that the characters actually had up until that point of the match, or you can play with your own custom deck.

It’s All About That DP

Once you’ve annihilated your enemy, you’ll earn DP, duel points, character deck recipes, signature cards, unlocked booster packs, duelist avatars and much more. DP is used to purchase booster packs that’s inspired by the character you’ve defeated. If you choose Grandpa Solomon’s deck, you’ll have a higher chance of getting the pieces for Exodia, or if you choose Mai Valentine, you’ll receive cards that’s more in theme with the deck she plays with. Not only can you slowly build up your own dream deck but once you’ve defeated your opponent, players will also have the option of selecting that battle again but from the point of view of the other player which will, in turn, give you even more goodies and rewards. 

Now if you really believe in the heart of the cards and want to take your battle online, there are regular player and ranked matches. In both of these game modes, you can play against someone online simply for fun and ranked matches will earn you points a spot on their leaderboard. Unfortunately, I tried for quite some time and I wasn’t able to actually find an opponent to duel against.

As I mentioned in my previous review for the Switch version, I really did enjoy this game but of course, I found just a few things that would have made the entire play through a bit more smooth. When purchasing cards from the card shop, there isn’t any way to quickly select multiple packs at once and forces you to continually spam the next button until you’re happy with the number of packs you’ve received. The lack of actual 3D summons is a bit disappointing as I was hoping to see some of my favourite cards come to life. But instead, we got just a few 3D summons for some of the more popular cards, Blue Eyes White Dragon and the Dark Magician to name a few, and honestly, for a game that was released in 2019, the 3D renders aren’t really the best looking either. And for an anime that has such dynamic theme and battle songs between all 6 generations of the show, the music also leaves much to be desired. 

With over 9,000 cards at our disposal as well as being able to relive the anime, Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is everything I could have hoped for. Sure, there are some elements and annoyances that hold the experience back but overall there’s a ton of content and fans should be plenty satisfied. 

***PC code provided by the publisher***