As part of the confirmation of the Western release of a new Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist title, Konami has confirmed that the original version of the game will not in fact be updated with this new content and mechanics from the newer Switch title. In essence, the version of Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist on Steam and consoles will remain as it is. And the new mechanics like Link Summons will be restricted to the Switch version.
In a statement, a representative for Konami confirmed that “the mechanics in Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution are exclusive to the Nintendo Switch” and that there are currently no plans to bring them to the original game in any capacity, whether that be as DLC or a simple update. So no those of you, including me who own the first game on Xbox One, PS4 or PC, you won’t be getting a new set of story duels or cards for the foreseeable future. In all likelihood, the only way that would happen if there was tremendous fan feedback that showed a major financial incentive to put the work into port the content over.
And that’s probably really unlikely given that only a few hundred people play it on any given day on Steam, and console numbers are probably even lower. The game sold well, selling an estimated 100,000 – 200,000 units on PC, but that doesn’t directly translate to everyone picking up a $10 DLC expansion. And even if it did, it wouldn’t make sense from Konami’s side to go through the hassle of creating a new Switch version if they could have just ported the older game and bundled in the new content as DLC.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is the continuation of the franchise that began in 2015 on Xbox One and PS4 with the launch of Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist. The original game featured over 6,000 cards and a very comprehensive story mode which took players through multiple arcs of the legendarily cheesy anime, from Duelist Kingdom to the first portion of Arc-V series.
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 of some kind.
And finally, all the content previously released for the original Legacy of the Duelist on consoles will be included completely free of charge. Some good news though, is that the Switch version will contain local multiplayer, something the original game lacked. There is also online multiplayer and we expect the Drafting system from the first game to make a return in some form. I hope that Konami does something about the card collection system, because opening packs just to get nothing but duplicate cards that are completely useless was really irritating in the first game.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is set to hit the Nintendo Switch eShop in America, Europe, and more sometime this summer. If you live in Japan, you’ll be able to get your hands on it a bit earlier, on April 25, 2019.
