DuelLinks! : a review and walkthrough for new players

 Greetings!

During these recent months, I just started back playing the infamous card game; YuGiOh!, which is developed by KONAMI. If you're from 90's and your at the slightest, an ordinary geek, then you must've at least heard about this game. Originally it came out from a manga series in 1999, and further growing to anime and sequels with developed gameplay (broken gameplay) which surprisingly still stands firm until today. I used to play the game (real card) back then when I was at JHS, and recently the mobile game version was released so I tried to hop back to the game, hoping to gain some nostalgic retro gaming experience.

The original game is simple; you have 8000 life points (LP) and a pile of deck which may consist of 3 types of cards, monster, spell, and trap cards. the USUAL gameplay would be like summoning your monster, dealing damage by attacking your opponents monster OR a direct attack and you win as your opponents LP is decreased to 0. But as the game develop through time, there are many insane cards been added to play, which for instance made the gameplay more complicated than people thought when the game was initally released. Due to this date, there are 6 types of summoning (tribute, ritual, special summon, fusion, synchro, xyz, pendulum) which comes out from each original sequel of anime series.

This review would be focusing more on the mobile game, YuGiOh Duel Links! which I played recently. The gameplay is similar with the original version, but it comes up with 3 monster zone and 3 spell/trap card zone, and 4000 LP, thus an independant ruling based on the released cards (correlated to the ban, limited, and semi-limited cards). With this in hand, the game is expected to be twice faster and less complicated than the original version. Since the game is in a mobile game platform, one good thing is that KONAMI hasn't released all cards as the original version does. But don't worry since the game itself has released pretty much decent cards to enjoy the gameplay whihch comes up in packs that we can buy with gems obtainable through the game (even though you can also buy it).

There are many events throughout the game (usually each event updated each 2 weeks or so), which also releases super rare or even ultra rare cards and tickets that you can trade with a card of your favor from an available list. But, as almost every online game does; the ultimate goal of playing the game is winning the ladderboard and reach a seasonal title; King of Games (KOG). Anyone can reach KOG through each season which is updated each month. In order to reach KOG, you have to win numerous time against players with the same rank (platinum, gold, legend, etc). Each ranks comes with 7 sub-ranks, except legend which has only 5 (for example, platinum 1, platinum 2, until platinum 7), and as you win, you can go to the next rank. As far as I remember, the KOG ruling applied now (Nov 2020) is that you won't lose rank as you lose until you reach legend (so just keep playing and win effortlesly). But from legend to KOG is when the real game starts.

To promote from sub-ranks in legend (for example, legend 1 to legend 2), you will need a 3 win-streak. Thus if you have a 3 lose-streak you are automatically demoted. For legend 5 to KOG, you will need 8 win-streak. Think of this ruling as you win you get +1, and lose would be -1. So, the total winnings I menitoned before means you have to get a point of +5 for legend 5 to KOG, and +3 for the sub-ranks in the legend rank. For me personally, reaching legend is easy enough (total less than 25 games, if playing on mid-season ranked duels), but to reach KOG, I have to play around 250 games if I use a decent mid-tier deck (This ruling is based on what I remember, if you have any more updated or correct rulings, please kindly comment here below).

The real problem in almost every online game, including Duel Links comes here. When people are actually climbing the ladder, they need better cards. So most people with high-tier decks actually buys crazy amount of gems, then they buy card boxes and packs, and get the ultra and super rare cards which comes with insane effects. Here is where the game becomes broken. Cards with effect to special summon many monsters in one turn, removing cards from play, and so on are labeled with a high rarity for a reason. It's obviously expensive, but when people have the cash, then the rarity issue becomes a joke. Ironically, the game becomes more like a paying to win rather than a playing to win game.

This is seriously not cheap. As you climb throughout the ladder in ranked duels, you will likely face high-tier decks, for example 'control shiranui' decks. It is a fast paced zombie-synchro deck whith the ability to synchro summon from the graveyard, triigering effect when the monster are banished, and also it has decent strong backrows to support it. In my personal opinion, it is the strongest versatile synchro deck ever released in duel links (compare to infernity, dragunity, cryston, or karakuri which mostly focuses on one turn kill (OTK)).

For the control shiranui deck, as I cited from duellinks.meta website, it costs 67.000 gems to build up a balanced-full set shiranui decks. This 67.000 gems comes from buying the packs or boxes which contains the core cards needed. How much does a gem cost in real life? In my experience, I bought my gems usually from google play cards. For example if I buy 1500 japanese yen google play card, then I get 1500 gems too. So you can think 15 gems would cost around 1 USD. So, to get the full set shiranui deck from just buying gems, it would cost around 4500 USD. I don't know other people, but for me personally, spending that much amount of money for an in app-purchase is just too much.

One more thing to underline is that this is not cheating, and as it is actually a bussiness for KONAMI, I quiet understand that they want a good marketing by releasing these expensive-crazy effect cards. For the sake of the game itself, KONAMI also updates the ruling so these cards aren't abused too much. Even though most changes usually affects high tier decks, it is good to keep in mind that the game is still playable and enjoyable, in case you aren't running for the KOG or KC Cup (world-wide league based ladderboard, playable 4 times in a year or so).

Is it possible to reach KOG without spending real-money on gems?

Well it is, but you still need to at least buy several packs to get a well-balanced playable deck using gems that you obtain through the game (level up character, missions, events, etc). These decks are usually noted as free to play decks (F2P). As you buy boxes of cards, you will get the cards as listed what's inside by a random chance. For example the box contain 200 cards, and 10 cards from it costs 100 gems, so if you buy all the cards from the box it would cost 2000 gems and you will definitely get all the cards inside.

You can also reset the box as soon you get the card that you've been searching for. In that way, the listed cards in the box would be refreshed. My F2P version would be a full set of box with at least one time reset. Usually the total would cost around 10000 gems (at the highest, twice reset of minibox). As it sounds a bit expensive, don't worry because there's a lot of ways to get gems especially if you are still a new player in the game. For reference, I personally can get 500 gems (to open 10 packs) in at least 3 days while doing my workdays during off-season at my laziest pace (no event timing). So the good news is that if you focus on one deck, it would take you at least 2 months to get a full F2P deck which can compete with high tier decks.

In case you are really looking to start the game with an F2P deck then I recommend you to open duelinkmeta website. Just google it and it will show you the cards you need, in what boxes, and the cost also. They recommend the Aromage archtype deck, Lunalight, and also ritual beast. I never play ritual beast, but all these decks are decently common to find on high tier rank duels with good gameplay (as long as you can master the combo). For my personal experience, if you want another option than these decks but still are affordable and good as heck, you can try out desperado barrel deck or dragunity - ascalon deck. You can get all the main cards from a structural deck that you can buy in the game. Usually people will buy a total of 3 copies of the deck to formulize the best-lethal way to play the deck. There are also some better cards to replace or play along with the structural decks which you can find in the boxes too to gradually build your deck stronger.

So, thats my review point about this game. Yes it is abused in many ways, but still enjoyable and competable (since its a strategic game, not an RPG). Best of luck for your game, adios~

Home

A chair is still a chair,

even when there's no one sitting there.

But a house, is not a chair.

And a house is not a home, 

when there's no one there to hold you tight,

And no one there, 

you can kiss

Goodnight.

A house is not a home - Luther Vandross

28 August 2020

Living in Japan

Just as a brief intro, the first until the third paragraph is about my personal life. So, if you want to jump to the explanation of settling in Japan, you can start reading from the fourth paragraph.

It’s been a while since the last time I wrote in my personal blog. Forgive me for abandoning you for a long time. So hereby, let me bring you my status-quo. My life has changed a lot. Now I am studying in Japan (Kwansei Gakuin University) for Chemistry Master program for one-a half year (until March 2019). How did I end up here? It was a quite long story. Since I graduate from Biology bachelor degree in September 2016, I continued my study in Biology master degree in the same university from my bachelor degree (UKSW, Salatiga). Then after attempting a year in UKSW’s master degree, I was pretty lucky to be granted an opportunity to study abroad in KGU Japan due some collaboration works of UKSW-KGU which will give me (hopefully) two Master degree’s from both universities.

Going for overseas study is not an easy thing to accomplish. Preparing all the required documents for the university, dealing with the immigration office (visa, passport, etc), dealing with communication problems with the university office, and even facing financial support issues has been a tough mission for me. Now, I am settle enough to strive through my new life and environment here. To be honest, it’s not an unusual thing for me living in such a half-dead situation. In my bachelor degree, I joined the student board organization and somehow managed to be the chairperson of the executive board. I met many people, with different and strikingly beautiful way-of-think. It changed me a lot, and day by day I will always have organization problem to deal with. It bulked my mental of survival instead of living.

A matter of instance at the moment I finished from bachelor degree was to move-on. It wasn’t an easy thing for me to step forward and leave a trace behind for those special memories and friends I had on the student board organization. I had to restrain myself and only provide sight for those who seek for my perspective. Helping should never overwhelm the parameter of intervention. So then I was focusing myself on my master degree, which later made me chosen as the student to study abroad.

Now, I am stuck in the middle of Japan. Thinking about it, I must tell you that until this point I believe Japan is a good place for vacation, but not for living. If you think you will have a typically romance-harem anime plot life here, that’s completely wrong. Everything is provided in Japanese, and it is quite hard to find a good-english Japanese speaker here (2 out of 10). For social life, they’re not as open as European nor Indonesian (basically my homeland). So, If you do plan to live here, I recommend you to study Japanese.

Next case about living in Japan is the price. Everything here is pretty expensive, moreover for an Indonesian like me (since the exchange rate of IDR to yen is high, 1.000.000 (read: one million ruphias) is around 8.500 JPY). I have to pay around 40.000 JPY for my room, and around 20.000 JPY for food. This calculation is even without the expenses I have to pay for other things (trasportation, etc). So, you can imagine yourself how much you should afford to live here. At least to survive, you need a daily job so then each month you got some salary to help you. It might be difficult to get a full-time job in Japan (I don’t know, never experienced before), but it’s easier to get a part-time job. The salary for part-time job varies around 20.000 JPY (normally more or less). In order to get a part-time job for a foreigner, you have to deal with some “permit” administration in the immigration office when you arrive at Japan (better when you arrive). It’s not that that hard, just ask the officer: “baito”, and hopefully they will understand. After you get the permission, you now can seek a part-time job with a regulation usually maximum 28 hours you can work per week.

For people who want to visit Japan just for vacation, I suggest you to bring about 200.000 JPY (a family with four people having vacation for more or less one week). Mainly your expenses will be used on hotel (7000-10.000 JPY per room/day for a 3-4 star hotel), transportation (by train may exceed 50.000 JPY, but if you use shinkansen it might be much more expensive), and also food. This 200.000 JPY budget is just in case you want a “luxurious” vacation. But if you’re planning to get the most cheapest and it’s only for two persons then I guess around 50.000 JPY for a week is enough. Don’t forget that you still have to pay for the airplane which has a varied price. If you’re from Indonesia and you don’t bring many baggage, then I recommend you to use Air Asia.

So that’s a just a scratch of my experience which I could share. I’m still new though, but I hope it helps you a lot. If you have further questions about a plan to go to Japan, feel free to leave a comment or you can contact my personal email.

8 November 2017
@albert_karwur

Pengecut

Katanya seorang pemberani itu bukanlah orang yang tidak mempunyai rasa takut sama sekali, melainkan orang yang bisa menghadapi ketakutannya untuk bisa terus maju ke depan. Bukannya mundur ke belakang

atau malah macet; stuck; tersangkut untuk kemudian tersandung kenangan.

Saya ingin menjadi orang seperti itu. Saya ingin berteman dengan rasa takut dan bukannya berusaha lari atau memusuhi, hingga pada akhirnya saya hanya berkejaran dengan rasa takut itu sendiri.


aku takut kehilangan kamu.

@albert_karwur
18 Juni 2017

Broken-Hearted

It's simply impossible to deny your feelings. Seriously, it's like when you love someone you just do it. You just make your move, and go-get-her. You don't need any theory nor words; it's your action which speaks louder. Same thing when you're sad. You might smile, but your teared up inside-down and somehow you just ruin your whole day. Your 'broken-hearted'.

When you're 'broken-hearted', you seek for a solution. But you cant find any solution under your logical thought. You're feeling insecure. You cant sleep even when you're tired already. You just get day-dreaming all day long thinking about her. Towards these symptoms, I am stuck inside it.

Since it's almost been 2 years together, you really know the best way to kill me. It's what I hate the most. Just by being silent, not in words only, but practically actions. Under these condition I've been puzzling around, regretful of what I've done and trying to make a way back to this relationship. 

But yes, I know what's my fault and I shall carry the lessons forward. But dear don't be hard. It's okay to be angry, but not to live in anger.

In the midst of my hectic night, I was thinking words we spoke recently: "It's easier to fall in love rather than to stay in love". Now I'm feeling it, and it's true.

Be well dear, sleep tight.

I love you.

@albert_karwur
13 February 2017

Kamu Ingat?

Hei kamu. Kamu ingat? Tepat setahun yang lalu, akhir Desember 2015. Kita adalah dua yang saling tidak kenal. Kamu adalah kamu; dengan kerumitan cerita yang diam-diam setia kuikuti dari kejauhan. Bukan bermaksud menguntitmu, hanya saja aku kagum. Kamu, ya kamu. Seorang hawa yang pada satu waktu independen dan tegas, dan pada waktu lainnya childish dan menggemaskan. Semua itu kurangkum dalam satu frase yang tak terpisahkan definisinya, karena itu berarti kamu. Itu yang kucatat dalam buku bulan Desember. Dan karena saking senangnya aku mengikuti ceritamu, aku sampai tidak sadar. Aku menjadi lebih dari sekedar penggemar rahasiamu. Aku menyukaimu.

Mungkin disisi lain aku juga kurang romantis ya, mengingat kali pertama kita jumpa empat mata. Kita duduk di teras agra, berhadapan. Gagap bicara. Malu tapi mau, enggan tapi ingin tahu. Kamu ingat?

Dari begitu banyak detail kita yang terlewatkan bersama, kini sampailah kita disini; dititik ini. Titik sedekat dua kelingking yang saling memagut. Terimakasih sayang; untuk cerita sepanjang 2015. Sungguh, terimakasih.

Selamat natal dan Tahun baru chacha :)

Kamu ingat? Jangan nyengir, aku tahu kamu pasti tidak akan lupa dengan ucapan itu.

-  dedicated to my dearest  -

@albert_karwur
3 January 2016

Suatu Malam

Kamu tertawa, tapi dengan jelas aku bisa melihat air mata yang tidak sempat mengembang. Tertahan. Atau lebih tepatnya ditahan. Dan air mata yang tidak sempat menggenang tersebut ternyata bukan satu-satunya hal yang ditahan di malam hari itu. Afeksi yang membanjiri hatiku juga harus dibendung supaya tidak jebol dan menyapu apa yang sudah kita punya saat ini, sesuatu yang terlalu berharga untuk dipertaruhkan hanya karena saya berharap afeksi itu tidak berjalan satu arah.

"Kita akan terus mencintai setelah disakiti. Tapi kita akan mencintai dengan cara yang berbeda, tidak akan pernah sama lagi."* Begitulah saya mencintaimu sekarang. Dengan segala ketidaktahuan saya mengenai dirimu di balik selapis ekspresi wajah serupa topeng gareng yang tidak pernah berhenti tersenyum, dengan segala ketakutan saya akan datangnya rasa nyeri dan kehilangan yang meninggalkan sesak berkepanjangan.

Aku dan kamu. Air mata yang menggenang. Perasaan. Sesuatu yang (entah sampai kapan) akan terus ditahan.

12 Agustus 2015

@albert_karwur