EDIT: This review, which I wrote seven years ago, is a reflection on my experiences being hooked on a gacha game. I'm currently at a very different -- and much healthier -- place in my life, but I leave this up for posterity. - Amber, 1/1/2026

"A negative review on Duel Links? From someone with 50 hours in the game on Steam alone, who has created a community guide and logged over 120 consecutive days in the past year on the mobile version? BLASPHEMY!"

Yeah, I know, but let me explain myself before you crucify me.

Duel Links isn't a bad game. In fact, it's a great game that I've loved playing and that I've enjoyed from day one. Despite the microtransactions and sometimes unforgiving meta, Duel Links has been arguably the best Yu-Gi-Oh! game ever made, and Konami has shown dedication to both supporting its players and to regularly updating the game with fresh and exciting content. As a whole, I applaud Konami and what they've managed to accomplish in the year since Duel Links' global release.

This review isn't about the quality of the game, though; rather, it's about my personal experiences playing Duel Links religiously for a year and why I've decided to take a step back from the game going forward. Long story short? I think I've been addicted.

I mean it when I said I've played this game religiously. That's the attitude that both the game and the community promote if you want to stay in the competitive scene and keep up with the constant barrage of new cards being added to the game. You are regularly encouraged to log on daily, spending a couple hours here and there to grind for XP and reach the max level with your duelists, which is the main way to earn the in game gem currency needed to buy more cards. You'll spend hours auto-dueling npcs while pretending you can focus on other tasks in between, when really your mind is preoccupied with how you'll soon have to queue up your next duel and how much longer it'll take you to reach the next level or stage.

I got into this game because I loved Yu-Gi-Oh! as a kid, and the idea of a free to play mobile game that was regularly updated and supported felt exciting and nostalgic beyond words. But I never expected to spend almost every day of the past year playing this game, or logging in for over 120 days straight, or how I would soon make excuses to play Duel Links when hanging out with my friends or going on coffee dates or even when just relaxing on the couch with my girlfriend. When the game is always in reach, your phone always nearby, it becomes so easy to log on to check on the cooldown on standard duelists, or to find yourself playing yet another pvp duel. People around me starting complaining, saying I was on my phone all the time, but I insisted it wasn't a problem and that I was still present and engaged in the conversations that would go on around me, even if it wasn't fully the truth. At work, at school, at home, on the bus - I played everywhere, anywhere.

But venturing onto the Duel Links subreddit a few weeks back, I discovered that I wasn't alone in struggling to balance my time spent on Duel Links with my everyday life and responsibilities. So many other people have had these issues and multiple threads have been created to try and seek help from other players who didn't even know they shared these problems. Duel Links had become more than a daily routine for me, and these posts were a wakeup call: I had a problem.

I'm still kind of taken aback by the whole experience, and I'm not expecting everyone here to understand, but as someone who's played video games all their life, I never thought a game could have the kind of hold on me that Duel Links has. I felt compelled to open the game daily; I HAD to so that I would continue my log in streak, so that I could continue to earn more gems so that I could feel like I was keeping up with other players. I hesitate to use the word addicted, but my Duel Links habit had become downright unhealthy.

Sunday was the first day in 123 that I did not log in to Duel Links. It was a normal, quiet afternoon. I went to Starbucks, lounged around the house, played Overwatch on my PS4. It wasn't until after midnight had passed that I realized I hadn't played Duel Links in 24 hours, and the understanding that my streak had ended and that I didn't have to log in every day anymore if I didn't want to was cathartic beyond words.

I know that not everyone will experience Duel Links the same way, or the way that I have. I'm not going to stop playing altogether, either; I meant what I said about Duel Links being the best Yu-Gi-Oh! game on the market, and I've met some amazing people in the community that I've bonded with over our ridiculous shared love for a children's card game.

But since you can't leave a neutral review on Steam, I have to give it a thumbs down, if just for the regret I feel knowing how much of the past year I spent glued to my phone. This isn't meant to discourage anyone from playing Duel Links, and as I've said, I highly recommend this game. But please, please be aware of how much time you spend on the game, and don't let it impact other areas of your life the way it impacted mine. It's okay to believe in the heart of the cards - just don't let them consume you.

Look, if this is your favorite game, that's totally fine. Good for you. The industry has different genres for this exact reason - different strokes for different folks (pun entirely intended). With this in mind I ask that please, do not take this the wrong way, but I personally cannot in good conscious recommend this game to anyone.

Visually, the best way to sum up Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 is "softcore loli porn: the JRPG". And again, if that's your thing, that's totally fine - but if it isn't, you're not going to enjoy the visual novel aspects of the game, which include 'animated' fanservice sequences where literally only the characters' breasts are animated. Within the first minute and a half of the game, the primary characters are introduced in armor that is not only impractical for battle but impossible to wear in real life, while the dialogue referencing their centuries-long war over who deserves to be god devolves into an argument over whether breast size should be a factor in determining who has control over literally all of creation.

As a number of other reviewers have pointed out (and I hate to recycle the words of others here), it's a very niche brand of humor, and unless you're a hardcore anime fan - and again, specifically the loli genre - you're not going to get a lot of enjoyment out of this title from a writing standpoint. Everything is designed to be 'cuteness overload' while somehow simultaneously completely oversexualized, and that really just isn't going to appeal to everyone, which is why the 'Overwhelmingly Positive' rating on Steam feels both baffling and completely unjustified.

Regardless of your softcore porn preferences, moving past the visual novel aspects (which are about 50% of the game), the gameplay itself aims to be a mix of a traditional turn-based JRPG while combining elements of a basic tactics system in which you have to physically move characters within range of their opponents, which presumably opens them up to attack. However, given the range of movement afforded characters from the start of battle with most low-leveled monsters, this system doesn't appear to make much sense because both you and your opponent will easily be able to close any starting gaps within the space of a single turn. Perhaps with the addition of long-ranged characters later on in the game, the tactics aspect will actually begin to shine, but for the beginning levels its inclusion is more mildly confusing and frustrating than anything else, especially considering that visually the system actually looks nice. Aside from this, however, the combat boils down to your basic JRPG fare, and there's nothing really special about it - because, again, the combat is really only half the game anyway. I'm not sure if the combat improves in the game's sequels, but I'm far less tempted to shell out any more money to even attempt to try them given my experience thus far with Re;Birth1.

The greatest setback of them all, however, is the game's controls. As the store page says, for a long time this game was exclusively available on consoles, and it is made abundantly clear from the very first dungeon that Re;Birth1 was not designed with PC gamers in mind. The keyboard controls are abominable, even with keymapping, and it turns the entire experience into a taxing, joyless, tedious affair. I don't think I'd recommend anyone even attempt to play this game without a controller, unless you have the miraculous, nigh-inhuman patience required to alternate between using the mouse and having both hands on the keyboard just to be able to navigate the first dungeon. It's just that infuriating, and this problem persists into the combat sequences, where you will often find yourself having to once again alternate between using the mouse and having both hands on the keyboard within the space of a single turn, just to be able to select more than one target. It is absolutely mind-boggling that there isn't a warning on the store page that a controller is recommended for this game. Oh, and by the way, every single key prompt is designed with a controller in mind, which makes memorizing the keymapping even more difficult.

The game's writing, meanwhile, is an entirely different source of frustration. The plot is a thinly veiled parody of the console war between Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and Sega (?), and in this reality all four are middle to highschool-aged girls guilty of more fourth-wall breaks than Deadpool himself. It's an interesting premise that gets heavily bogged down by the 'cutesy' anime dialogue of our loli protagonists, and it's a shame, because the concept of playing as characters who are aware they are in a video game is one that is seldom used. Unfortunately, Re;Birth1 fails to utilize its basic premise to its full potential.

I'm sorry if this all sounds harsh. Again, obviously this game appeals to some people. I sure as hell don't know why, but if this is your kind of game, hats off to you. I'll never judge you for that. But the point of this wall of text is that this game really isn't designed to appeal to the average gamer - or, hell, most gamers in general. And people deserve to know that, given that this game still has an 'Overwhelmingly Positive' rating. If you absolutely have to try Re;Birth1, get it on sale - but it definitely isn't worth the retail price tag, and I cannot recommend anyone spend $29.99 on this.

WITNESS ME!

OVERALL: 67%
Gameplay & Controls: 4/5 ♥s
Graphics & Visuals: 3/5 ♥s
Music & Audio: 3/5 ♥s

Part of Garry's Mod's lasting popularity stems from just how many things you can do with it. The number of game modes available is absolutely astounding, even more so when you realize that all of them were created by members of the community. It's an incredibly vibrant game, and if time has proven anything, it's that its players are capable of just about anything.

-Gameplay & Controls-
Your experience will change from server to server, depending on game mode, but among the most popular modes are Murder, Prop Hunt, and Trouble in Terrorist Town — or “TTT”, as it is affectionately referred to by its many fans. The first plays out more or less like a virtual game of Clue, while the second is a bout of hide and seek where those who are hiding can transform themselves into a copy of one of various items hidden around the map. TTT, meanwhile, is similar to Murder except everyone has weapons to defend themselves, and players cooperate to attempt to inform each other who the traitor is in their midst. Other game modes can range from a full-on clone of DayZ to human battleship, a testament to players’ ingenuity. The only thing stopping me from giving the gameplay of Garry’s Mod a five is the same aspect which can make playing it so much fun: the community. While many members are quite engaging and friendly, there are always some others out there determined to ruin the experience of everyone else they play with. Whether through hacking their client or harassing other players, this small minority can easily wreck whatever game mode you happen to be playing, and good luck trying to get an admin on to do anything about it.

-Graphics & Visuals-
Garry’s Mod runs on Valve’s decaying source engine, and, while powerful, its age is becoming increasingly apparent. The visuals don’t necessarily detract from the experience to be had, and some players have made an effort to introduce custom player models and textures, some of which look quite nice. Again, however, the engine itself is dated, so please be aware of that before you play. Something else of note is that this game can’t really be run unless you have a Valve-made source engine game installed in your library. This is because, as the name suggests, Garry’s Mod is in fact one giant mod that pulls all of its textures and resources from other games. There are (illegal) ways around this, but the truth is that unless you get the necessary files on your system one way or another, you’re going to be missing the majority of the game’s textures. Which is Valve’s way of saying pony up the extra cash, unless you enjoy everything in alternating shades of black and pink.

-Music & Audio-
Most of the tracks and sounds in the game are supplied by source, though other songs are supplemented through Garry’s Mod’s ever-expanding Workshop. Most of these end up collectively as taunts in game modes such as Prop Hunt, and they honestly make up the greatest part of the experience. However, sounds such as those are often limited to certain game modes, with others being almost silent except for the sounds of your fellow players’ mics, which is rather unfortunate given all of the sound effects that have been added to the game over the years.

-Final Thoughts-
Honestly, it’s a good game, especially when you’re playing with friends. It can really be a lot of fun, and it’s always something to do if you don’t have anything else to do. The sheer amount of game modes is perhaps the greatest selling point, though considering the fact that you have to own a source game in order to properly play, I really don’t think it’s worth $9.99. It’ll often go on sale around the holidays for a fraction of that price, so if you happen to see it drop below $5.00 I would definitely pick it up if you get the chance. Just beware of the trolls hiding in the community’s crevices.