Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel Free on PS5, PS4

Konami has stealth-dropped a new Yu-Gi-Oh! card game on PS5 and PS4 today. Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel is a free-to-play game suitable for card players at all skill levels, promising to be “the definitive edition of the competitive card game that has been evolving for over 20 years!”

Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel key features

New or returning players can benefit from a series of in-game tutorials that teach the basics of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game. Once these are completed, players will be given a starter deck that they can then add cards onto as they complete matches and progress through the game. More than 10,000 cards are available to collect.

There are a variety of game modes to keep players entertained. Solo Mode features storylines and themes from the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game that will help to improve players’ skills. While this mode is suited more for beginners or returning players, there’s plenty of lore to be learned here too. Those wanting more of a change can go for the events and tournaments that will be available. Players can even build different decks to suit the special rules of each of the different tournaments. Tournaments will be rotated in and out regularly but there will always be a “wide variety” of tournaments available at any one time.

The game also features the ability to view other players’ decks to get an idea of how to improve your own. There’s a sample draw feature too to “simulate what cards you could get in your first hand”. Finally, the game will link with the Yu-Gi-Oh! Neuron mobile app that has features like Life Point tracking, dice rolls, coin tosses and Deck management.

Of course, while the game is free to download from the PlayStation Store, there are plenty of other add-ons that can be bought to make your life easier, mostly in the form of Gem Packs of varying sizes. However, PlayStation Plus players can make use of the free Pack Ticket 50 add-on, which gives players 50 free card packs to open.

In other news, gameplay and matchmaking issues in Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone Pacific have led to the delay of Season 2 until the midde of February. Elsewhere, Sony’s share price droped following the news of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision, maing their stock value drop by $20 billion.