Review: YU-GI-OH! RUSH DUEL: DAWN OF THE BATTLE ROYALE!! Offers a Very Fun New Way to Play the Card Game

Earlier this month, Konami released Yu-Gi-Oh! Rush Duel: Dawn of the Battle Royale!! outside of Japan on the Nintendo Switch. The game was developed by Matrix Software and takes place in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens which introduces a new way to play the beloved trading card game called Rush Duels. If this game sounds like fun, you can purchase it from the Nintendo eShop for $39.99. Konami did provide me with a copy of the game for the purpose of this review.

I’m going to get a few things out of the way. Graphically, the game is pretty good for a Yu-Gi-Oh! game. There’s an overworld that you actually walk around and interact with objects (they should do this more with good dueling unlike some of the GBA titles) and I will say that this portion of the game plays and looks better when the Switch is docked with smoother animation. The music is a little generic, but fun. The menus and UI are easy to use and it’s easy to tell when an option is not unlocked yet. Now, onto the real meat of the review.

Rush Duels are fun. For years, fans have been asking for a new way to play Yu-Gi-Oh! with many being disappointed in Speed Duels/Duel Links. Rush Duels have some similar concepts from Speed Duels, but really makes it feel like a unique beast. Every turn, you draw until you have five cards in hand (or one card if you have 5+ cards already) and you can Normal Summon as many monsters as possible. This makes the Draw Phase even more crazy as it’s very easy to draw 3-5 cards per turn. These two changes also make huge swings a lot more possible to recover from a bad turn. Also, like Speed Duels, there is no Main Phase 2, so you have to do everything before you battle. However, you do have the full 8000 Life Points and a 40-60-card Main Deck. Also, the cards are almost completely different.

In Rush Duel, there are some cards that were brought over from Master Rule like Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Dark Magician, and Summoned Skull. The vast majority of cards are brand-new though. Cards like Sevens Road Magician and Multistrike Dragon Dragias are main examples as the first two key boss monsters you’ll acquire in the game. You’ll also notice that cards are laid out a little differently with the cost clearly labeled as Requirement and then the effect labeled as Effect. They should consider doing this in the physical game. In addition to helping duelists better understand how cards work, this also highlights the fact that cards typically have one effect. In modern day Yu-Gi-Oh!, it’s common for cards to have 2+ effects and this is a simplification that I found to be most welcome. The cards definitely feel simpler, but there are still interesting strategies for you to implement. It should be noted that there does not appear to be any chaining of effects in Rush Duels. The artwork on these new cards is pretty awesome as well.

Overall, Rush Duels are a lot of fun, but there are some additional things to note. First, if you want to create your own deck in Rush Duel, you have to either complete the campaign which appears to be fairly lengthy or you have to use the Konami code in the Student Council room which takes a bit of time to access. I was sad when I found out about this as you have to use the internet to find out about the latter option. The game pushes you to use Deck Recipes that it gives you and I understand to some degree as it can be very useful to help duelists get used to the new mechanics and cards, but a big part of the fun for many is the ability to build your own deck. Another aspect closely related to this is how weak a lot of enemies seem to be. I don’t know if I’m lucky or if I’m just not far enough (I’ve logged in roughly 10-12 hours between the story and Duel Quizzes) to see the first two decks you acquire not be strong enough to defeat any opponent. Spellcasters in particular appear to be incredibly strong with their own version of Mirror Force and a few other very good support cards.

Outside of the story, I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the Duel Quizzes section. I love these little puzzles in video games. It’s a way to learn cards, mechanics, and skills outside of the story and it’s an easy way to score 1000 GP (the amount of in-game currency needed to buy a single pack). That said, there are a couple of aspects that I don’t enjoy about the way Rush Duel handles these. For starters, you can’t see what cards your opponent has available unless it’s face-up or in the Graveyard. Usually, you can have access to all that information in these quizzes to help you work it out. With this version, I’m having to repeat quizzes simply because I didn’t know about a certain card my opponent had. Yes, this makes it more like an actual duel, but that’s not the point of these quizzes in my opinion. I also struggle because in other games, you would be able to see not only what is in your deck, but also the order to help you plan your moves. Here, you can only see what’s in the deck and not the order (or they don’t make it clear what the order is). Once again, this caused what I consider unnecessary repeats.

To help end on a high note, I did want to note that something I really enjoyed was that in Rush Duel, you press A to activate effects and Y to change battle position. This really helps cut down on accidental position changes. It is also really nice that when a card is played, the game asks you if you want to get a closer look at the card played. I have loved this. You can adjust the frequency of this prompt in the options menu to some degree (including turning it off) to meet your needs.

Over all, Rush Duel is a lot of fun if you’ve played Yu-Gi-Oh! and want something that’s similar but different. The gameplay offers a lot of welcomed changes in my book and while it does have some areas that I think need improvement, overall, it’s a good game. I am also excited that DLC appears to be planned as there’s a locked section in the menu for DLC which leads me to believe Konami plans on providing future support to some degree. I do like the game and for many, the $40 is solid. If it’s ever on sale though, I would recommend it to more people.