Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links

I normally don't give mobile games such high praise, however this is one of the very few to be highly addictive likely due to it also being a pc game even if playing it on mobile is the preferable way of experiencing this game.

The best part if it is that it gives a bunch of decks that would otherwise be considered trash a chance to shine, this is because it operates on speed duels which heavily simplify the game by reducing life points to 4000 and skipping over main phase 2 entirely. I also like how the game encourages you to experiment with the anime decks as you get better rewards the more you play like the characters do in their respective amines. The presentation is also brilliant, particularly the soundtrack which is highly unusual for a battle simulator in this franchise as the music usually sucks from these games.

Of course, being a free to play game, it does have its drawbacks. The first is microtransactions as all of the best cards can only be obtained by buying packs in game. Granted the game gives out in game currency to help you obtain these cards, however it's clear Konami wants you to spend real world money building your favourite deck which you'll unfortunately likely be doing. It also gets repetitive whenever there isn't an event happening, when there is than its a blast to play. But if there isn't or there's a kc cup going on, all you can do are pvp matches which are prone to glitches and duelling the ai which have the same dozen or so decks that make progression in non-events rather tiresome. You'd think duelling the anime characters would break up this monotony and if you were to save up on gate keys it absolutely does, however you need to save up years’ worth of these items for there to be a satisfying pay off like I have and I doubt most people have that sort of patience to do so. Thankfully there's an auto duel feature to break up this monotony, although overusing it is dangerous as it leaves the game to make stupid moves on your behalf seemingly to increase your loss ratio against the ai.

It's a game with its setbacks, however to casual fans of the franchise, it's a solid way if getting into the Yu-gi-oh community provided you don't dedicate too much of your life to it.