Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution has been slowly revealing more and more details about this updated card game over the last few months. We’ve seen some screenshots showing the card battling gameplay. There was also the confirmation that this new game and the original version would remain separate, and that the older game would not be updated to include the new content. Konami even confirmed a Switch port of the title. And despite all of this, we’ve still got more in store this week as some new screenshots have been revealed.
These new screenshots show a couple of new things, showcasing both card battles and some CG goodness. For example, we get our first look at the new 3D model for Number 39: Utopia, then there is a duel between Blue Angel and the game’s AI, before finally wrapping up with a shot of a match between Jaden and Sartorius.
In terms of new content, this port is mostly the same game as the original, with some new additions. The newest version, which will be exclusive to the Switch, will include 9,000 cards from the Trading Card Game and will include story missions and cards up until the first few duels of the Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS anime. Mechanically speaking it will likely be very similar to the first game, taking players through duels in singleplayer, using both story and custom decks. There will also be a multiplayer mechanic with local play.
There are a few weird things going on here, mostly concerning the Switch version. One surprising thing about all of this is the rating that this port has received from the ESRB. The Switch version of Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is rated T for Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, and Partial Nudity. According to the site, some cards contain “a human-like character with her breast exposed” and creatures with exposed buttocks,” this is in comparison to the console versions of the previous game, which got a milder rating. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game are rated E10+ for Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, and Suggestive Themes.
What this says is that the past of the physical card game, which has often enforced pretty heavy-handed censorship from the Japanese to Western versions on behalf of Konami/4K Media, may not translate to the games quite as much. Another example of this relaxed attitude is the most recent animated content produced for the IP. Dark Side of Dimensions, a Yu-Gi-Oh! film released in 2017, featured no scene changes whatsoever, and the franchises’ newest anime, VRAINS, has very little changed from the Japanese version.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is coming to Nintendo Switch in Japan on April 25, 2019, with the Western release coming a few months later, during the Summer.
