Recent reviews by Crux

Phenomenal game with massive potential. More content is really all this game needs, and as co-op survival scavenge-a-thons go, this is definitely it.

Don't listen to negative reviews that are salty about the metagame in Yu-Gi-Oh!, or yugiboomers who are afraid of special summoning more than once a turn. Let's talk about the platform.

This release, the Steam PC version, is pretty responsive and quick. Interaction can be toggled on or off to bluff your opponent better, and most of the animations are reasonably quick. There still are some slow ones (returning banished cards to deck or having to manually remove multiple counters one at a time to resolve certain effects come to mind) but overall the experience is sleek and polished.

The sound design is also incredible. Higher-statted monsters slam down onto the board with more force, each attribute of monster has different sound effects play when attacking, and the summon cut-ins for key monsters in an archetype lends itself to a lot more hype mid game. The soundtrack too is heavenly, with three different melodies being featured depending on if 1) you just started the game, 2) a player played a monster with a summon animation and 3) either player is below 3000 LP. Each of these tracks increase in tension as the duel progresses, and vary by the playing field your opponent uses.

The visuals on the whole are fantastic also. The duel fields feel lush and realistic to play on, and the card art is of great quality. The cards themselves highlight effects that you or your opponent use, so that chain links don't become confusing.

The only gripes I really have with Master Duel are that I wish that they'd update the game's banlist more often, and I feel it still takes too long for cards to come into the game (I know you can't do it immediately after the OCG release, but why not after the TCG's release? They're just digital assets after all, all the info is already on Konami's DB). Transitions between screens take a half second to load withouy fail, as if nothing is being cached, and there seems to be little to no effort to stop bots during events.

That being said, the Master Duel team are great at taking feedback surveys seriously, so there's a chance that some of the above will be fixed in the near future. Overall, I can strongly recommend this game to anyone who's curious about Yu-Gi-Oh! or has played before in the past.

game remembers how you applied your stickers in the second game

wow

A superb deckbuilder with a dark twist. If that sounds like your thing, just pick it up without reading anymore about the game.

Uhh, this is way more content than any game has any right giving for free.

Lovely rhythm-action experience, that teases the story of the rest of the game. Tight controls, fantastic presentation and music that'll stick in your head long after you've finished playing.

Play it, and then buy the soundtrack out of guilt.

If you're looking to get into Yu-Gi-Oh!, or pick up from a childhood of playing the game or watching the anime, this is a great jumping off point. The game centres itself around the anime, with a heavily abridged version of the story from Duel Monsters to Arc-V. The game does a great job at teaching you the basics, and the game gets more and more challenging as the respective storylines deepen. And if you're looking at this and the original Legacy of the Duelist, get this one: it actually uses the modern 2020 Master Rules players are currently using, and Pendulum Summons aren't completely busted.

There are more than a few cons to taint the experience, however. Primarily (and this becomes more relevant the older this review becomes), the card pool is no longer current, finishing at (I believe) 2020's Ignition Assault. This means that while mainstays like Nibiru and Lightning Storm are here, entire archetypes that have become prevalent in late 2020 and beyond (such as Golden Land, Adamancipator, Tri-Brigade and more) simply don't exist. This, in addition, means that the banlist used for online matches is similarly out-of-date. Not that you'd want to use this for competitive play, because since Master Duel is set to become the definitive way to play on Steam, you won't likely get many online matches here. The story mode also peters out after the original's Pendulum-focused adventure: the VRAINS campaign features no story or introduction at all, meaning that newer players will have no context for who Playmaker, Varis and Soulburner are or what they do.

In spite of this, Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is a solid way to play against AI in a fun setting using the decks shown in the anime. We'll have to wait a little longer for a truly great TCG simulator, but the campaign and challenges in this game offer plenty to whet the appetite of any Duelist.

yeetus

You know that feeling you had when you first discovered the magic of Murder or TTT in Gmod? This is that. Get it.

What a treat this is to play. The handcrafted puzzles and new game styles have all the hallmarks of a devoted fan of the original puzzle. The dev really nailed accessibility for new players, too; you get five misplays (either marking a safe space or clicking on a bomb), but the achievements encourage perfect play. Wrong moves feel fair - since there's always a move you can make, your mistakes are yours alone. While the original Globesweeper was an evolution on the original genre, Hex Puzzler is undoubtedly a fondly-written love letter to it. For the asking price, this game will whittle away spare hours like nothing else. An easy recommend.

Well I'm glad I get to update this review. Persona 4 Golden is a phenomenal RPG and an excellent first foray into the SMT/Persona franchise. The world feels vibrant and lived-in, the characters are genuine and add different perspectives, and for a game centred around mystery, it doesn't fall short about leaving you breadcrumbs to keep you guessing. Highly recommended, be sure to pick up the other two games when they release here too.

Updated 3/7/22. Original review 17/6/20 follows:

If I REALLY had to nitpick, this game could have upscaled to 4K and had support for Adaptive Sync, but this is still an easy recommend. Charming characters, a unique and striking art style and an instantly immersive story are the name of the game here, all backed by one hell of a diverse, yet distinctively Persona soundtrack. All I can hope is that we get Persona 5 on Steam too!