Growing up, I played the original Yu-Gi-Oh! card game with just about anyone I could find. My brothers, my friends, and even my dad (whoGrowing up, I played the original Yu-Gi-Oh! card game with just about anyone I could find. My brothers, my friends, and even my dad (who didn't have any idea what he was doing).
I always admired the mechanics of Yu-Gi-Oh as a card game, but since time has moved on and it's become less socially acceptable to play Yu-Gi-Oh now that I'm a grown-ass man, I figured it would be nice if I could satisfy that occasional pang of Yu-Gi-Oh nostalgia by playing this game.
Legacy of the Duelist is probably the most satisfying Yu-Gi-Oh video game I've ever played. I played the GBA games back when those were big, and this game is much more detailed (and has over 6,000 cards to collect). You also get to relive the duels of all five generations of the Yu-Gi-Oh TV series (Duel Monsters, GX, 5D's, Zexal, and a little bit of Arc-V). But I don't really care about any of those except for the original Duel Monsters series, since that was the one I grew up with. It covers a decent amount of that show, but not as much as I had hoped (the Noah arc isn't there at all, and I think there's a bunch of other stuff missing too). That said, most of the battles you care about are there from the beginning of the show up through the Battle City season. You can either use the story deck or your own custom deck for each duel, and you can even play as the opposing side if you want (giving you a chance to use Pegasus' deck against Yugi, rather than the other way around).
You also win all sorts of trinkets for completing individual duels, including signature cards, and a sizable amount of DP (duelist points) you can use to buy different packs. You can also make up to 10 customizable decks with the cards you get, which is pretty handy.
Yes, the game features online duels too, but I haven't gotten the chance to try those out yet (I'm afraid I'll get stomped since I haven't been playing long). But based on how in-depth the rest of the game is, I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work. I'll update this review if there are any glaring problems with the online.
The majority of the issues I have with the game are less about the features in the game and more about the game's presentation. What little character models there are are extremely underwhelming - seeing an ugly PS2-era Blue-Eyes White Dragon materialize out of your card leaves a lot to be desired. Fortunately very few of these cards have these ugly animations. Most of the time it plays like you're playing the card game, with few interruptions.
Also, there are no clips from the anime to bridge the duels you complete, and you get no chance to explore the world. All you get is a list of duels to beat in chronological order, and some text-based retelling of the context behind it. Considering the fact that past games have let you explore the world, and the fact that the world Yu-Gi-Oh takes place in is actually a fairly interesting one, this is a missed opportunity.
On top of the other presentation-related complaints, the background of the playing arena rarely changes, and neither does the boring loop of music, making most duels feel same-y and of little consequence. I just switch on the Pandora app on Xbox One when I tire of the in-game music.
Overall though, if you're looking for a way to play the straight Yu-Gi-Oh card game, build custom decks, play competitively with people online, and relive the anime (or maybe discover it for the first time), this is a surprisingly good package for the seemingly hefty $20 price tag. Hey, it's either find some friends who aren't embarrassed to play Yu-Gi-Oh and shell out on expensive packs and decks for the real thing, or shell out the $20 for this game.
Personally, I'm all for the latter. :)… Expand
