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

Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution coming to Switch

Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is the newest trip down memory lane for grizzled old duelists. Or if you’re still in the hobby, this may well be the perfect Yu-Gi-Oh! game for you. We’re taking a look at the Switch port of the game today, and letting you know if it’s worth it to spend your money on this. Let’s talk about what you get for the price.

Design

The big focus here is the Campaign. This single-player mode runs from the original OG Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, and all its story arcs, but there’s so much more. Coming to Switch, players get more of the same from the first game, a lengthy campaign and lots of challenges, And with the new anime arcs added, there’s so much more to do. Players will have a lot to do, but is it rewarding? It depends on what you want out of the game. If you just want to learn basic mechanics of the new card sets, it’s pretty good without the pressure of in-person play. If you want to play the card game for much cheaper than it would be to play the physical game, it’s a better option.

But if you’re a hardcore fan, the consideration of buying Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is a much deeper question. You’re going to have to think about what you actually want out of the game.

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

The clear intent here is to let players learn what they don’t know while offering a decent option for online play and a ton of CPU duels. The campaign is intriguing, but does the real meat of the game extend beyond the grind?

Execution

The story begins with Yugi’s first duel against Joey in the classroom and runs across all different series like GX and 5Ds all the way to the latest series, VRAINS. This means that new deck mechanics will be a big draw here, and players are encouraged to build meta decks to overcome the online play. The banlist is pretty massive, and has a mix of both OCG and TCG ban lists in it. It’s worth noting that this applies to modes outside the campaign, so you can just make a super OP beatdown deck that completely destroys most of the CPU decks.

The Draft and Sealed play modes have been brought back as well, and are available both offline and online. The one downside is that you can’t just hop into a booster draft with friends on NSO.

The game has more than 9,000 cards, with multiple game modes. Playing through any of the modes either requires or rewards DP, or Duelist Points. These are the currency in the game and they’re primarily used to earn more cards through the Card Shop. The Card Shop sells various Booster Packs tied to Duelists within the various levels of the campaign.

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Rather than let you build your ideal deck right out of the gate, Legacy of the Duelist requires you to build a library of cards through these Packs. That means you have a lot of grinding ahead of you. There’s a reason that many gamers have decided that farming DP by repetitively surrendering duels over and over is the best approach. This game has no crafting system for cards, and duplicates are useless, adding insult to injury when opening hundreds of packs for one card.

Functionality

I encountered quite a few slowdowns in various duels during my time. The AI seemed to hang more than once when trying to figure out how to play. I played hundreds of hours of the original game’s PC port and never had this issue. The Switch graphics have also been reduced a bit, and the card renders have a noticeable drop in quality to them.

Value

At $30 USD, there’s a ton of meat on this game’s bones. The Draft and Sealed Deck offers some competitive play, and the campaign has a lot to like. The farming for DP is the biggest let-down here though. It’s a real bummer that Konami has not added a targeted card pull that prioritizes awarding cards you don’t have.

If you’re a fan of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game you’re going to love Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution. Well, you might. This game has a ton to do, but also a lot of grinding. The card redemption system is notorious for bad RNG. If you’re thinking you can collect every single card in every single set in the game, prepare for a lot of grinding. The game gives you about 1,000 DP or so for winning a duel against the CPU. That will buy you 2-3 booster packs. This might sound good, until you consider that you have to open dozens of packs to get one new card when you nearly completed a set. This was a major problem for me with the last game, and it has returned in this port.

The Switch port does include all the DLC content from the Xbox One and PS4 versions, so there’s no need to spend anything extra.

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

6.3
While this game is a good alternative if you want to avoid paying too much money, the game has its flaws. The Switch port has both performance and gameplay problems that can make it a chore for some players. Some folks might also be turned off by the banlist.
8.0

Design

7.0

Execution

4.0

Functionality

6.0

Value

Pros

  • +Tons of cards to unlock and duels to play
  • +Great Switch port with solid touchsrceen integration
  • +Controls in general very easy to grasp

Cons

  • -Slow delays in duels thanks to chains
  • -Tons of RNG for card redemption
  • -Large banlist means less deck variety
  • -Crashes and slowdowns are common
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