This game is great, especially when you know how to take advantage of what the five you. I haven’t spent a penny on the game and I’ve been able to make great decks. There are ways around the “shortage of gems”. There are 5 different series on this game, from the original YGO to Zexal. Each one has their OWN stages that refresh standard duelists when completed, and those standard duelists can be used to beat missions that often reward gems (or lead up to earning gems). Several events are made for easy gems (like duel quest, duelist road, KC Cup, etc.). PvP rewards crazy amounts of gems, and half the time you don’t even have to win to get them. There are many ways to get gems, and if you’re good at PvP you can potentially get twice as much just from getting promoted through the ranks. Just make sure you buy starter decks of your favorite archetypes and then buy booster packs from boxes that have cards that compliment them. Don’t go headfirst into the boxes. This game is most definitely viable for F2P players. Again, I haven’t spent a dime and I can compete with ranked players. As long as you know what you’re doing and you aren’t dumb with your gems, you can go very far. I even had to make a new account before (I forgot to put my data on a Konami account) and I’m even further than I was before. It’s a great game for new players and experienced players, but learning about the archetypes you like to use will pay off tenfold.

Don’t get me wrong I would love to give this game 5 stars, this is by far the best Yu-Gi-Oh! game out there including the actual $60 games on the console and this one is free! But the problem here comes from the card game itself. These “meta” decks completely dominate the game. This game would have such a bigger fan base if you could play it how it was meant to be played: by building your own decks and testing them out and playing with friends in a fun, competitive environment. I’ve been playing this game since it came out and I’ve got to say I love it, but with the addition of these crazy decks and meta cards it’s ruining what should be the most fun part of the game which is the pvp. It should be easy to go into pvp and play with people from everywhere in the world who share the love of this game with whatever deck you want and not have to face people who play the exact same cards because “that’s what wins” I know this problem exists in the TCG as well as the OCG. Konami needs to realize that their game is majorly unbalanced. Skills were a great addition to the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! and they add a lot of balance where earlier there was none, but they don’t fix these problems completely. A lot of what needs to fixed can easily be done if the company just listened to the fans of the game. A little communication can go a long way.

This game is an incredible homage to Yu Gi Oh, and it’s a treat for anyone remotely familiar with the series to see the massive amount of cards, characters, and special animations they receive. The sound design is fantastic, and there’s obviously been work put into this game towards small details. This it’s all the more unfortunate the game is so clearly pay to win. Good luck so much as thinking about cracking the beginner ranks if you don’t already have a deck that has a turn 2 win condition. The meta is basically run as many copies of cards that don’t allow the other person to play or get your three 4200 beaters out turn 1. If there was an ability to just play through the story against NPCs all day, it would be way more acceptable, but of course that’s limited by 100 different random currencies, time limits for duelists to “respawn”, just all kinds of money grubbing practices that hurt the game overall and detract from its merits. I initially couldn’t tear myself away from this game, but you quickly realize as the free welcome gifts run out that at its core, this is nothing more than a soulless husk; a cash grab that monetizes you’re lack of patience and unwillingness to suffer through the sweaty salt mine that is the ranked ladder. Such a shame, hopefully Devs realize people are willing to spend money on games that actually have substance and stand for something other than weaponizing nostalgia to make a quick buck.