Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution for Nintendo Switch Review

Yu-Gi-Oh has come a very long way from when I first started playing the card game way back in June 2002. Back then, the rules were much simpler and the grind was easier and I had great memories playing the card game along with attending local tournaments. The first big change to Yu-Gi-Oh outside of the yearly forbidden/limited list was the introduction of Synchro Monsters back in 2008 and since then, more types of new types of monsters and summoning were introduced. It may seem bvery overwhelming at first, but it will be simple once you get around to the rules. This year, Yu-Gi-Oh finally comes to the Switch and I got my hands on a review copy of Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution and here are my thoughts of the game.

If you are familiar with the Playstation 4 port of the game, then you know how the mnechanics work. But this version of the game, has the Link Summoning rule that was introducted in the VRAINS series. In fact, this game’s campaign mode features the stories from the original series, GX, 5D’s, Zexal, ARC-V, and the current VRAINS series with over 9000 cards in the game. That is right, this game has the most cards out of any video game in the Yu-Gi-Oh series. You have the option to play whichever story you want so for instance, if you want to start with 5D’s, you can right away. You can do that, but I recommend to playthrough it in order for first time players. I say this because once you begin 5D’s, you will have to learn the Synchro Summon mechanic. Zexal has the XYZ Summon, ARC-V has Pendulum Summon, and VRAINS as I said before, has Link Summoning. Each of those along with Fusion and Ritual will have a learning curve for you to endure, but it is worth it when you customize your decks with the many options of cards. Speaking of the cards, many of them you will have to unlock by purchasing them in their shop (Not with real world money) in different booster packs.

Link Summoning and its monsters changed the gameplay of Yu-Gi-Oh forever as the field matters more than ever. Link Monsters have arrows on the edges of its cards and depending on what it points to, good or bad effects can happen so not only that you have to pay attention to where you place your cards, but where your opponent plays their cards as well. This feature I had the most time thinking about whenever I am about to Link Summon since I knew about the previous summoning mechanics from years ago. You also get most of the Link Monsters from the VRAINS campaign, but I have a feeling that there will be more DLC from the VRAINS campaign since the show is still ongoing.

This game also supports local and online multiplayer with ranked matches. I did not experience lagging or cheating during my online matches so that is a great thing. Another mode that caught my interest is the Battle Pack Mode and for that mode, you can use decks that are already built in your matches. But this will come with an in-game currency fee so it is totally up to you if you want to use this mode.

This game to me, celebrates the 20+ year anniversay of the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise and I recommend new and veteran players to pick this game up and play it. It is challenging, fun, and worth the wait especially since there has not been a full fledged Yu-Gi-Oh video game on a Nintendo console in almost 7 years. Yu-Gi-Oh has a special place in my teenage years and it still manages to find me being drawn back to the series. Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is the treasurebox of all Yu-Gi-Oh video games and I appreciate the efforst that Konami has put in this massive game!

Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @julianexcalibur for more content. Contact me at julian@alternativemindz.com.

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance NY Premiere Interviews

This past Tuesday, the cast and producers of Netflix’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance appeared at the red carpet for the New York premiere of the new Netflix series. Age of Resistance is be the prequel to the movie that was released over 25 years ago and many fans and attendees were lined up outside to wait to see the premiere. After the red carpet, there was a reception for the press and even the actors and producers attended to talk to everyone!

Talent and producers that attended were Keegan-Michael Key, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jason Isaacs, Hannah-John Kamen, Lisa Henson, Louis Leterrier, Donna Kimball, Will Matthews, Jeffrey Addis and Javier Grillo-Marxuach.

I got the chance to interview Keegan-Michael Kay, Game of Thrones Alumn Nathalie Emmanuel, and Hannah John-Kamen (Atman and The Wasp) as we talked about the series and what can we expecdt from it since it will take place before the movie.

Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @julianexcalibur for more content. Contact me at julian@alternativemindz.com.

Fear The Walking Dead Season 5, episode 11 “You’re Still Here” Recap

Colby Hollman as Wes, Alycia Debnam-Carey as Alicia Clark, Colman Domingo as Victor Strand – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 11 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC

Last week’s episode of Fear was a mission to help Chuck and although Morgan, Dwight, and Grace succeeded, it ended up making us question whether if Morgan and Grace will end up together. That might be explored a few episodes from now as Alicia and Strand are out to help Wes. What will happen when they meet Wes and also encounter Logan’s group? Also, was it Madison leaving those messages on the trees? You will find out on my recap of the episode titled “You’re Still Here”.

The episode opened with an overhead shot of the tree with the message Alicia seen. Alicia walked up to it to read it and as she does this, one walker approached her. Alicia was hesitant to kill it since she has not done that since they took off with the plane. The walker falls down as it is stuck and is trying to reach Alicia. Alicia calls Strand to take it down and another walker tries to bite her and Strand comes to the rescue to kill those two walkers along with killing the first one that Alicia seen. As you can see, she is still traumatized. Strand tells Alicia that they are running low on fuel and that they need to return and Alicia wants to look for the person that wrote those messages on the trees. Wes then radios in and Strand realized that he seen the tapes. They then meet and Wes told them about what happened to his motorcycle. He also says that his brother is waiting for him too.

Morgan and Althea enters a bank and they take down walkers. Morgan had a close call with one since he has a shorter stick. Althea tells Morgan that he might need a new stick as well. Althea then opens the large safe and Morgan killed the walker inside of the safe. Althea then told morgan that she uses that safe to store the tapes and she thinks that someone will watch those tapes if something were to ever happen to them . Back to Wes, Alicia, and Strand as they are driving to where his current hideout is. Wes asks Alicia about her looking for the trees with the messages and she tells him that she wants to look for the person who wrote them there. She then says the reason she wants to look is because she wants to know how do they do it along with how they see the world. She also says that she is sorry of what happened to him when he encountered Logan. We then get a shot of many walkers devouring an animal and that looked dusgusting as hell. Wes goes inside his hideot to see his brother. Strand and Alicia talk about the current situation and then gunshots are heard. A guy runs out of the door with a gunshot wound and takes off with their car and motorcycle. Wes tried to stop him as he got away and Wes and Strand begins to take down walkers by shooting them. One of the guns held a teargas grenade and the walker had been shot by one so the teargas went off which affected Strand’s sight for the rest of the episode.

Lennie James as Morgan Jones, Maggie Grace as Althea – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 11 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC

Alicia then pours water over Strand’s eyes and gave him a wet blanket for him to get healed. Alicia and Wes then argued about what just happened and Wes told her that her brother was dead and the man he encountered took something that belonged to him. They then go to the front of the building to see that they are trapped because the walkers are by the glass. Alicia made it clear that she does not want to kill the dead, but she wants to help. Morgan and Grace radioed Alicia and after that, they drive until they see a roadblock and it is Logan with his people. Morgan and Logan had a standoff and Logan told him that they will not cross unless they give up the location of the oilfield. Morgan and Althea tried to come up with a solution, but that was not happening at all since Logan is not convinced. Logan then makes a joke about Morgan’s wife and son and Morgan was about to snap and kill Logan until Althea calmed him down.

Wes and Alicia talk about what the guy took that was so important and then Alicia brings up that her brother also died. Although Wes told her about when was the last time he seen his brother, he does not want to relate to her at all. Grace then told Alicia over the radio that they are still far away. Alicia collects the guns and ammo from the locker and grabs her weapon as she think she is confident enough now to take down walkers. Wes begins shooting at the walkers from outside and one of the bullets cracked the window. Alicia and Strand looks for keys for another room and a walker breaks through the glass. Alicia, still in her paranoia state, tried to kill a walker, but Strand saved her and asked how many more there were. Wes then shot the last two walkers that entered the place.

Matt Frewer as Logan – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 11 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC

Morgan and Alicia talk in the car about what happened and about him talking about his family on the tape. He said that he wanted to get people to trust them if they watched the tapes. Althea also says that what they lost does not define them at all. Alicia radios them and here, is where we see that they found the car and the guy who stolen it. We are lead to believe that he turned, but he did not. Wes walked up to him and the guy tosses the bag towards him qand begins to choke him. Wes then stabbed him in the rib after he asked the guy for the manuscript that he stolen from him. He gives it back to him and told him “its really good stuff” and this is the first person that Wes killed. Wes says that he should have not radioed them and that people are people at the end of the day. Alicia wanted to give the book back to Wes nd he refused. They bured the man’s body and Alicia begins to read the book and she noticed that the ending quote is the same as the one on the trees. This is when she figured out that he made those messages on the trees. As Alicia made her own message on the tree, she stated that she will not do anything for strangers no more. Alicia, Strand, Morgan, and Althea look at the tree and commented how great it is. Alicia and Morgan talked a little more about his history as well. Alicia then finally killed a walker and seems to finally get back to her normal state for now. The episode ends as Logan and his group broke open the safe and found the tapes.

For everyone looking forward to Madison returning due to these messages, you will be disappointed to find out that it was not her that left it. Alicia’s character development has grown much more during this episode as she dealt with the curisoity of the trees, and being paranoid of killing walkers due to the scare from the radioactive walker. I also loved that we got a little bit of “Clear” Morgan in this episode and it is a reminder that he could snap at any minute and at anytime. My only gripe about the episode is that I still do not know what Logan’s motive is besides the oilfield and Wes just seemed like another survivor, but hopefully, his character is further explored during this season.

Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @julianexcalibur for more content. Contact me at julian@alternativemindz.com.