Players of the popular mobile game Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links are enjoying all of the major updates that have come recently, including the addition of the GX world. However, Konami also announced the mobile game will receive a Steam version that allows duelists to play on PC.
However, there are a lot of questions surrounding the Steam announcement so I caught up with Duel Links Producer Kenichi Kataoka at the Yu-Gi-Oh! booth at New York Comic-Con 2017 to speak about the mobile game. I learned the Steam version of Duel Links will be free-to-play and will allow for duelists to easily transition from playing on smartphones to the PC and keep all of their progress saved.
To do this, duelists will have to create a Konami ID and sign-in to the Steam version of Duel Links with that ID to access their game. Duelists can create a Konami ID now by selecting the “Data Transfer” option when they first boot up the game and select “Transfer data with Konami ID.” The website will open up from there where you can register an ID.
When asked about the release date of the Steam version, originally announced for December, Kataoka was optimistic.
“We’re planning as early as possible, so we’re hoping to get it out by the beginning of Winter,” Kataoka said through a translator. “You’ll be able to play between the mobile and PC version with mouse controls at home.”
The topic shifted to the massive GX update and what was to come down the line for the mobile game. Kataoka reassured that the original Duel Monster world will still be supported and expanded on along with the GX world, and that there are still plans to release characters in the DM universe.
Adding the GX universe in Duel Links does open the possibilities of other Yu-Gi-Oh! series to make their way to the mobile game, Kataoka confirms.
“Definitely that’s a possibility, to continue adding new worlds. I do love 5Ds,” Kataoka said with a laugh.
The conversation shifted to the current meta of Duel Links and how Cyber Angels has become the dominant deck in the early days of the GX update. I was curious on whether the team anticipates a certain deck/archetype becoming the most popular with each update.
“As cards go, we have an expert on our team in terms of game balance on both cards and the selection of cards, and he chooses cards,” Kataoka said. “As a direction we try to keep the meta as diverse as possible so it doesn’t all end up as one deck or one series.”
Kataoka said adding cards to Duel Links only takes a few days but the team takes about a month to carefully figure out which cards should be added to the mobile game.
“We keep track of all the player data on what decks they use and the win/loss records using those decks,” Kataoka said. “If we see a trend that Cyber Angels are overwhelmingly strong, we will introduce cards to balance that out.”
Kataoka is excited to see Professor Crowler added to the game and wants the Ancient Gear archetype to change the meta.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links is available to download on iOS and Android today.
