Very similar situation to Dark Duel Stories but with slightly more interesting mechanics at play. It'd be worth checking out if the latter half of the game wasn't so grindy/one-note.
The basic premise of this YGO format is that, similar to DDS before: monsters don't really have effects, you can only have a max of 5 cards at one time in the hand, and you only really place one card at a time (although you could play multiple spells in DDS, it was just rarely useful and traps were only set in a monster zone for one turn before being destroyed during your opponents next turn). Dissimilar to DDS, this game has a few changes that help to make battling more interesting and keeps you from wasting cards in trying to be experimental. That is to say 'Polymerization' and a fusion deck still don't exist and the game counts merging cards as this mechanic. It kinda reminds me of how SMT games take certain monster classifications, adds them up and then rounds down to make a relatively stronger combination monster. The fusion mechanic works better in this case (compared to Dark Duel Stories) as you can stack on more than 2 cards to get a better end result, or just try to see what cards can make what results. For example, 1 weak warrior and 1 weak pyro monster can make a 'Charubin', but this isnt super good so you can add another warrior to the chain and make 'Flame Swordsman' which is fairly good throughout the first half. Furthermore, you could chain 2 random monsters in the hand to see what they could make, if anything at all, and then chain 2 more monsters that you do know make a fusion result, thus seeing what Mon 1/Mon 2 can do before Mon 3 interrupts and then fuses with Mon 4 (this implying Mon 3 doesnt fuse with Mon 2 or Mon 1+2). To supplement this new mechanic you're also able to draw multiple cards at a time to fill up the 5 card hand, meaning there's not much card (dis)advantage play in a sense (also no pot of greed :( ).
Throughout the first half of the game it was pretty fun to mess around with what combinations you can make and utterly decimate some of your opponents. On top of all this, you can just summon whatever monster without any cost, meaning stronger monsters have no need for tributes, so if you get any strong boss monsters you can just pop them down for free.
Although the other mechanic also tied into these fusions is a little less understandable, as it also integrates the 'attribute' weakness cycle from DDS- but with a twist. All of the card's attributes are now listed as planet signs and i didnt even bother trying to remember most of these, not helped that fusion results also have you choose between two of these signs and you don't really know what results with have what second choice if you wanted to counter play an opponent's stronger monster unless you just remember Flame Cerberus has Mars/Pluto obviously. Also they changed the 'stronger attribute auto kills weaker attribute' from DDS to 'stronger attribute gets a bonus 500 atk/def to their stats/ penalty 500 for weaker attribute'.
By the end of the second section I was feeling pretty good about this game, but pretty much right after this most of the battles you fight are ridiculously powerful, and the desire to experiment loses any meaning as you just have to grind to get any electric and dragon monsters so you can fuse into 'Twin-Headed Electric Dragon'. The point I made earlier about having no tribute cost needed gets to be a real problem as the second half of the game is filled with opponents having a bunch of +3000 atk monsters, usually buffed by these battles having an automatic field while you might still be working with a deck of 500-1500 atk monsters and a few spells. Hell I say the second half of the game is hard but even the card pools of some mid-game duelists like Pegasus have insane cards for them to draw/summon freely like Meteor Black Dragon with its 3500 atk. Thank fucking god the starter deck (while randomly built based off of a cardpool) always gives you either a dark hole or raigeki to work with.
I was gonna have stroke if I didn't realize after a while of grinding that you can get cards from Free Duel on the main menu but it means almost nothing. This still runs into the problem of DDS where you only get one card after winning, but now the results also vary based on your rank and style of playing, and even these card pools are so stacked against you its not funny. Like man, thanks Atenza for the Droll Bird (600 atk/500 def) that really goes hand in hand with the Black Skull Dragons (3200/2500) you were reaming me with earlier. Its easier to grind duels to get star chip points and get the cards you need through the password shop than it is to grind for the prize cards themselves (but like, 999999 star chips for big boss monsters when you get like 1-5 for each battle? Really?).
It's such a shame too because I was digging the style and mechanics of the game a lot, but trying to make a strategy out of your pulls by the second half is impossible unless you get super good rng/grind enough. Ironically, early in the game even with how easy it can be was way more interesting as any card I did snag that was of a new attribute/type had me thinking "ooh what can i make with this" or "oh these kinds of monsters can better make this result" and I tried balancing my deck towards these end goals but barely any of this mattered by the latter half. At least some of the battling music bops still.
The basic premise of this YGO format is that, similar to DDS before: monsters don't really have effects, you can only have a max of 5 cards at one time in the hand, and you only really place one card at a time (although you could play multiple spells in DDS, it was just rarely useful and traps were only set in a monster zone for one turn before being destroyed during your opponents next turn). Dissimilar to DDS, this game has a few changes that help to make battling more interesting and keeps you from wasting cards in trying to be experimental. That is to say 'Polymerization' and a fusion deck still don't exist and the game counts merging cards as this mechanic. It kinda reminds me of how SMT games take certain monster classifications, adds them up and then rounds down to make a relatively stronger combination monster. The fusion mechanic works better in this case (compared to Dark Duel Stories) as you can stack on more than 2 cards to get a better end result, or just try to see what cards can make what results. For example, 1 weak warrior and 1 weak pyro monster can make a 'Charubin', but this isnt super good so you can add another warrior to the chain and make 'Flame Swordsman' which is fairly good throughout the first half. Furthermore, you could chain 2 random monsters in the hand to see what they could make, if anything at all, and then chain 2 more monsters that you do know make a fusion result, thus seeing what Mon 1/Mon 2 can do before Mon 3 interrupts and then fuses with Mon 4 (this implying Mon 3 doesnt fuse with Mon 2 or Mon 1+2). To supplement this new mechanic you're also able to draw multiple cards at a time to fill up the 5 card hand, meaning there's not much card (dis)advantage play in a sense (also no pot of greed :( ).
Throughout the first half of the game it was pretty fun to mess around with what combinations you can make and utterly decimate some of your opponents. On top of all this, you can just summon whatever monster without any cost, meaning stronger monsters have no need for tributes, so if you get any strong boss monsters you can just pop them down for free.
Although the other mechanic also tied into these fusions is a little less understandable, as it also integrates the 'attribute' weakness cycle from DDS- but with a twist. All of the card's attributes are now listed as planet signs and i didnt even bother trying to remember most of these, not helped that fusion results also have you choose between two of these signs and you don't really know what results with have what second choice if you wanted to counter play an opponent's stronger monster unless you just remember Flame Cerberus has Mars/Pluto obviously. Also they changed the 'stronger attribute auto kills weaker attribute' from DDS to 'stronger attribute gets a bonus 500 atk/def to their stats/ penalty 500 for weaker attribute'.
By the end of the second section I was feeling pretty good about this game, but pretty much right after this most of the battles you fight are ridiculously powerful, and the desire to experiment loses any meaning as you just have to grind to get any electric and dragon monsters so you can fuse into 'Twin-Headed Electric Dragon'. The point I made earlier about having no tribute cost needed gets to be a real problem as the second half of the game is filled with opponents having a bunch of +3000 atk monsters, usually buffed by these battles having an automatic field while you might still be working with a deck of 500-1500 atk monsters and a few spells. Hell I say the second half of the game is hard but even the card pools of some mid-game duelists like Pegasus have insane cards for them to draw/summon freely like Meteor Black Dragon with its 3500 atk. Thank fucking god the starter deck (while randomly built based off of a cardpool) always gives you either a dark hole or raigeki to work with.
I was gonna have stroke if I didn't realize after a while of grinding that you can get cards from Free Duel on the main menu but it means almost nothing. This still runs into the problem of DDS where you only get one card after winning, but now the results also vary based on your rank and style of playing, and even these card pools are so stacked against you its not funny. Like man, thanks Atenza for the Droll Bird (600 atk/500 def) that really goes hand in hand with the Black Skull Dragons (3200/2500) you were reaming me with earlier. Its easier to grind duels to get star chip points and get the cards you need through the password shop than it is to grind for the prize cards themselves (but like, 999999 star chips for big boss monsters when you get like 1-5 for each battle? Really?).
It's such a shame too because I was digging the style and mechanics of the game a lot, but trying to make a strategy out of your pulls by the second half is impossible unless you get super good rng/grind enough. Ironically, early in the game even with how easy it can be was way more interesting as any card I did snag that was of a new attribute/type had me thinking "ooh what can i make with this" or "oh these kinds of monsters can better make this result" and I tried balancing my deck towards these end goals but barely any of this mattered by the latter half. At least some of the battling music bops still.