Konami has announced the release date for its four-player mobile Yu-Gi-Oh game, Yu-Gi-Oh Cross Duel. In just a week’s time, Yu-Gi-Oh Cross Duel is leaving early access and getting a worldwide launch for iOS and Android, releasing on September 6 on the App Store and Google Play Store. It’ll be free-to-play, but as you might expect, is doing the microtransaction thing.
Yu-Gi-Oh Cross Duel features Yu-Gi-Oh characters and monsters, and has gameplay that is derived from the TCG, but differs in a number of key ways. The most obvious diversion from regular Yu-Gi-Oh is that games are four-player. That means, as a Konami press release explains, you have to get ‘political’, and “target key opponents, form temporary alliances, and break them when the time is right”.
The obvious point of comparison is Magic: The Gathering’s Commander format, and Yu-Gi-Oh Cross Duel even features Ace Monsters that work a lot like MTG commanders. They always start in your hand, and have powerful effects that should shape your strategy and deckbuilding. However, Yu-Gi-Oh Cross Duel also features a co-op dueling variant, where all four players work together, along with a singleplayer mode.
Konami says Yu-Gi-Oh Cross Duel features a “new style of Dueling that’s highly intuitive, even for newcomers to the Yu-Gi-Oh! series”. It seems to be more complex in some areas and pared down in others. For example, battles only last eight turns and each turn is shorter – you only get one Main phase for instance.
Yu-Gi-Oh Cross Duel features a new type of customisation. You can not only build a Yu-Gi-Oh deck with whatever cards you like, you can also further alter your monsters, assigning Skills to different cards.
According to the Yu-Gi-Oh Cross Duel Twitter account, the game has successfully hit its target of 500,000 pre-registrations. This means that all users will receive 600 gems upon game launch. However, it looks like that’s the less-valuable regular currency in this title, and the premium currency is called ‘crystals’.
The Yu-Gi-Oh Cross Duel global launch takes place on September 6, almost a year after the game’s closed beta began in October last year. While you’re waiting, why not check out our pick of the best Yu-Gi-Oh games?
Source: Wargamer
