History VideoGame / YuGiOhDuelLinks

** Nail's introduction into Duel Links was also the advent of Maximum Summoning as a whole, so in addition to event decks containing Yggdrago the Sky Emperor and Supreme Machine Magnum Overlord, players also get access to an event-exclusive Skill that adds the three components of Magnum Overlord to their hand when Dueling against Nail.

%%* Sherry [=LeBlanc=]

* CastHeard: Thanks to its nature as a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover game, ''Duel Links'' has accumulated a lot of playable Legendary Duelists over years. In late October 2023, the addition of Ghost Gal culminated in 100 Legendary Duelists as playable characters, and the numbers have still been growing ever since. The characters of each series are split between Worlds. So far, Speed Duel Worlds and Rush Duel Worlds cannot interact with each other yet, but datamined voice lines of the Rush Duel cast reveal them having voice lines for Special Summoning methods that aren't available in Rush Duels.

* StoryArc: It's implied that the different ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' series represented in Duel Links takes place some time after a certain arc in their reality. In addition, each series has an ongoing story usually seeing old rivals and villains come back and re-enacting their plans in the world of Duel Links. Finally, because of the gate, Duelests from different worlds can duel against one another.

* LiteralSplitPersonality: The plot of the ''ARC-V'' World is around this trope. The three additional personalities within Yuya and Yuzu/Zuzu mysteriously separate themselves one by one from the main personalities, with few added side effects like temporary memory loss (Yuto) or shared memories (Yugo). Yuto and Yugo are considered real and they both remember that they were fused with Yuya, while Yuya himself doesn't seem to suffer from negative side effects from the split. This also has started to happen with Bracelet Girls, starting with Celina leaving Zuzu's body. Although Zuzu notes that she can sense that a bit of Celina is still in her.

** In his debut event, there is a gag of Girag performing a SherlockScan on anyone he meets for the first time, only for the others to notice and start questioning him. He then starts lying that he's [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial definitely not suspicious]] or that he's a fan. The latter completely backfires when he says it to Quatro.

** Since the Yugis share a body, even if you duel one as the other, you don't get pre-duel or post-duel dialogue. However, this element changed once ''DSOD'' world was added, which brings with it the implication that ''DM'' world is simply a virtual recreation made by Kaiba. Likewise, you don't get the pre- and post-duel dialogue for dueling Yubel as Jaden/Yubel or vice versa.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Thanks to its nature as a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover game, ''Duel Links'' has accumulated a lot of playable Legendary Duelists over years. In late October 2023, the addition of Ghost Gal culminated in 100 Legendary Duelists as playable characters, and the numbers have still been growing ever since.

** Duel Monsters: The Duel Monster world is based on the Battle City arc of the manga, though it's implied to take place before Yugi and Atem's final duel due to his presence. Kaiba had created Duel Links to be an hub for strong duelists which has ramifications with the future series that would inevitably inhabit the system. It's also a test for his AI systems as he has virtual copies of various villains throughout the series, mainly Yami Marik and Yami Bakura. However something odd happens, after the Paradox event, Yugi mentions that they never met Yusei and Jaden before as the Yugis here are based on the manga and they are receiving memories from their anime selves. Also implying that those copies of various characters that can't exist might be more real than previously assumed. Solomon Muto's arrival serves as a sort of prelude to the Ceremonial Duel arc, as well as one to ''Dark Side of Dimensions'' through his interactions with the rest of the cast.
** Dark Side of Dimensions: This is where Duel Links is implied to take place in for the Duel Monsters cast. Duel Links was primarily used to help Kaiba bring back Atem. And just like in the movie, the Plana is attempting to stop him and destroy Duel Links.
** GX: The GX world is based in Duel Academy, but this world is a little wonky with their timeline as it appears to take place in a time somewhere within Season 4 of the anime, either around the beginning when everyone are around and not whispered by Trueman yet, or after the final Duel against Darkness but before graduation day. The only thing that does not fit is Zane who is still active in his "Hell Kaiser" persona, but other than that, everything points to Season 4. There is also a subplot taking place in the D.D. Castle Wave Duel events. At first this just seems like a castle just forming throughout all of the worlds to challenge the duelists of Duel Links, but later we find out the true cause of the D.D. Castles--the ''return'' of Supreme King Jaden. "Return" being a keyword here, because it means Season 3 events have already passed in GX world timeline, therefore confirming GX world is at sometime in Season 4. The Supreme King Jaden event pushes this further, by having Jaden/Yubel showing up in the event as ''themselves'', facing a recreation of Jaden's Supreme King persona, which, again, can only happen if the story is already at sometime in Season 4.
** 5D's: The 5D's world takes place after the construction of the Daedalus Bridge, the background of the hub world, and after the WRGP, but seems to occur before the cast went their separate ways at the end of the series. 5D's is where this kind of storytelling would begin. It starts with the Trudge event where he is sent to Duel Links to investigate it, only to find evidence heralding the return of the Dark Signers with Kalin, Carly, and Goodwin appearing in their Dark Signer forms for their respective Raid Duel events. Soon Kalin and Carly would be introduced in their normal forms though their Dark Signer forms would still be around to duel them. Afterwards, Antinomy would show up even though he was believed to be dead--his memories would somehow be reinstated in Duel Links, but not without Iliaster showing up, first with Primo's Raid Duel event, then with Aporia's, and next with Paradox re-enacting his plan from ''Bonds Beyond Time'' which, of course, involve the GX and DM era characters, and finally Z-one's.
** ZEXAL: The ZEXAL world is implied to take place after the Barian war, considering what Trey and Quattro had said at the end of Rio's event. Like the series, the plot is based around retrieving the Numbers Cards, which Yuma and Astral somehow lost. While they are hunting the Numbers Cards, something else is happening in the background as Trey mentions Kaibacorp, a name that has never been dropped in the series, as well as the existence of copies of Numbers Cards floating around, the possibility of multiple dimensions, and the returning threat of the Barians. Curiously, the characters apart from Trey and Quattro do not appear to remember the Barian War as Girag's appearance during his event has everybody treating him like a stranger. Strangely enough, as more Barians show up, Trey and Quattro seems to no longer remember either.
** ARC-V: The ARC-V world takes place in the Standard Dimension and is heavily implied to take place post season. This is due to the cast preparing for the return of Z-ARC whom they had defeated. The big sign at the time of this at the time of writing is that the four pieces of Z-ARC are splitting starting with Yuto. However, there is more to this than just Z-ARC as Duel Links might be crossing over the different ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' series rather than simply the ARC-V dimensions as the ARC-V cast recognizes Alexis, Aster, Jack, Crow, and Kite, but not the other way around. However, with the implications of the ''Bonds Beyond Time'' event, that might not be the case if any event in ARC-V would involve them. As stated above these characters would receive memories of their ARC-V version, but so far there is no evidence that this has happened yet and all events involving the ARC-V cast has stuck to non returning characters.
** VRAINS: The VRAINS world takes place after the end of the series. It, surprisingly, starts out with Soulburner discovering Duel Links, making his way through the stages until he comes across The Gore. Both of them eventually run into Playmaker, who's such a strong duelist already that he's already gotten ahead of them. Playmaker explains that he encountered Duel Links after journeying further into Link VRAINS and upon entering it, was surprised to find out that he had a "New" incarnation of Ai in his Duel Disk again. This "new" Ai remembers everything that the original one did, including the events of Season 3 where he gained a human form and became the main antagonist, ultimately losing in a climactic duel with Playmaker and dying as a result. Playmaker now intends to investigate exactly what Duel Links is. He also surmises that Varis will soon discover this world and, seeing that the Ignis have potential to resurrect, will likely try to recreate the Tower of Hanoi to try an exterminate them. Following Blue Angel's arrival, it is revealed to the others what Playmaker had suspected, [=SOL=] Tech didn't make Duel Links and they are trying to find out who did in the real world. Varis' event then revealed that, similarly to the Pharaoh and many of the other villains, Ai is nothing more than a reconstruction made based on memories. Ghost Gal's event continues where Varis's event left off, with her being sent by Akira to investigate Duel Links. They end up going to the deepest portion of Duel Links itself, which is a seemingly-infinite blue space containing a core. They attempt to gaze into the core, only to discover something ''unexpected'': the other worlds. They figure out the nature of Duel Links as a neuron network, leaving them with more questions than answers.

*** All four of the Emperors of Iliaster receive massive CharacterDevelopment in their events, but starting with Paradox, there's a ''lot'' of major plot revelations dropped as well. Most notably is the bombshell that multiverse theory is canon to the franchise, and that the DM world is based on the original manga version, which makes sense as it leads directly into DSOD world's plotline. The anime version of DM is a separate timeline entirely which eventually leads into GX and [=5Ds=]. On a more tragic note, this means that everything that Iliaster was working towards was not only doomed to fail, but was also destined to happen so that Team [=5Ds=] would carry on in their stead. Kalin is also allowed to take part in the final battle against Z-one, much like what many fans had wished would happen.

** Continuing from the show, Yugo confusing all of Rin's counterparts with Rin. Rin is not in the game.

** 5D's has Dark Signers Kalin, Carly, and Rex Goodwin as well as the Emperors of Iliaster.

* MassiveMultiplayerCrossover: Similar to ''[[VideoGame/YuGiOhTagForceSeries Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V Tag Force Special]]'', and ''VideoGame/YuGiOhLegacyOfTheDuelist'', it features characters from multiple ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' series, adding one World for every anniversary.

** Later, the Barians have been given their Barian Battlemorphs one by one, a skill that requires their Over-One Hundred Number on the field to be activated, which allows them to transform into their Barian forms.

* '''Number 105: Battlin' Boxer Star Cestus''' ('''Alito''')
* '''Number 106: Giant Hand''' ('''Girag''')
* '''Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon''' ('''Mizar''')

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sp_main_visual_8.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: Duel!]]

* Sherry [=LeBlanc=]

* Téa Gardner (Anzu Masaki)

* UniquenessDecay: Cards of which only one to very copies existed in the canon stories are now accessible to every player in Duel Links. This is discussed between Solomon Muto and Seto Kaiba during the "Grandpa Arrives! Solomon Muto" event, as there were originally only four copies of Blue-Eyes White Dragon, which later became only three after Kaiba tore Solomon's copy apart. In Duel Links, Solomon now has access to Blue-Eyes White Dragon again and so does every other player. Solomon thinks it's because of Kaiba's kindness, but Kaiba says that the reason why he made Blue-Eyes widely accessible is to prove that he's the supreme user of Blue-Eyes and the only one who mastered it. This is true, as Kaiba has the best skills for Blue-Eyes decks, whereas almost every other Legendary Duelist has no skills for Blue-Eyes specifically, and Solomon's skill "My Treasure, 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon'!" locks him out of an Extra Deck and it is only usable if he has only a single copy of Blue-Eyes in his deck. Normally, Legendary Duelists have access to skills that make it much easier to play certain decks that are heavily associated with them, and (most) other characters can't replicate said skills (though ironically, DM Kaiba was, at the time, about the last remaining Legendary Duelist with no unique Skills whatsoever).

* Black Luster Soldier (Ritual Monster) ('''Yami Yugi''')

The three iconic monsters Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Dark Magician, Dark Magician Girl and Red-Eyes Black Dragon have different summoning animations depending on the artwork and user, although most versions have the same animations[[note]]Blue-Eyes has two animations, Dark Magician has three animations, Dark Magician Girl has two animations, and Red-Eyes has two animations. The different animations are highlighted in '''bold'''.[[/note]]. So far, other Signature Monsters that have more than one artwork use the same animations for each artwork.

* '''Black Rose Dragon''' ('''Akiza Izinski''')

* '''Clear Wing Synchro Dragon''' (Yuya Sakaki, '''Yugo''')

* '''Trickstar Holly Angel''' ('''Blue Angel''')

** Some of the Skills in late 2023 and early 2024 are noted as having much clunkier English translations than older Skills, which at best makes them awkward to read and at worst [[TheComputerIsALyingBastard does not accurately reflect their functionality]]. Shiranui Style Successor is a particularly notable example: one of its restrictions was translated as "you can only Special Summon monsters with Levels, except for Zombie-Type monsters or FIRE monsters" (implying that you can only use FIRE or Zombie Link and Xyz monsters but monsters with levels are not restricted), whereas the actual functionality is "you cannot Special Summon monsters with levels except FIRE Zombie-type monsters" (which is pretty much the exact opposite). Battle Chronicle also got mangled in the translation, which completely butchers the summoning clause (it lets the player Normal Summon Chronicle Magician and Normal Monsters with 2500 ATK or DEF without Tribute, but prevents the player from Special Summoning Effect Monsters with levels that aren't LIGHT/DARK Spellcasters or LIGHT Dragons; this came out as the nonsensical "During this Duel, if you Special Summon "Chronicle Magician" and a Normal Monster with 2500 ATK or DEF, you no longer need to Tribute, and you only Summon or Special Summon Spellcaster-Type LIGHT/DARK monsters, Dragon-Type LIGHT monsters, and Effect Monsters with Levels.") and states that it searches Quick-Play Spells with "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" or "Dark Magician" in the card ''name'', rather than the card ''text''.

** Most of the ''Rush Duel'' Skills, as they are tuned to handle a much lower power level. A good chunk of these are conditional stat increases, which are quite good in a format where the best form of monster removal is beating over your opponent's board with a bigger monster. There's also Hammer Crush Deal, which essentially makes Hammer Crush (a Mystical Space Typhoon with a discard cost) effectively free by setting Hammer Crush then immediately drawing a card.

** Jaden and Jessie's dueling theme is a remix of the tag force 1 through 3 dueling theme.

** The Vagabond, in older versions, would have certain challenges in play that can significantly handicap the player, ranging from preventing the player from Special Summoning to only being able to use a single Monster Zone to starting the Duel with cards already in play. While harsher restrictions also gave more experience, they could just as easily make the Duel borderline unwinnable depending on his deck. Later downplayed by making the challenges less punishing and adding ones that are symmetrical, and eventually the system was removed entirely.

** Later, the Barians have been given their Barian Battlemorphs one by one, a skill that requires their Over-One Hundred Number on the field to be activated, which allows them to transform into their Barian forms. However, unlike with ZEXAL who has summoning animations for all of Yuma & Astral's Signature Monsters, the Barian forms lack summoning animations for any monster so far.

** The premise behind Loaner Deck Duels, it allows you to get a feel for how a prominant archtype from the most recent box handles.

* Nail Saionji (Neiru Saionji)

** Some of the Skills in late 2023 and early 2024 are noted as having much clunkier English translations than older Skills, which at best makes them awkward to read and at worst [[TheComputerIsALyingBastard does not accurately reflect their functionality]]. Shiranui Style Successor is a particularly notable example: one of its restrictions was translated as "you can only Special Summon monsters with Levels, except for Zombie-Type monsters or FIRE monsters" (implying that you can only use FIRE or Zombie Link and Xyz monsters but monsters with levels are not restricted), whereas the actual functionality is "you cannot Special Summon monsters with levels except FIRE Zombie-type monsters" (which is pretty much the exact opposite). Battle Chronicle also states that it searches Quick-Play Spells with "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" or "Dark Magician" in the card ''name'', rather than the card ''text''.

* TheArtifact: Primo and Aporia's duel and level-up rewards include the various Meklord Emperor parts from the anime to give the Emperor its various limbs. However, because the Meklord Emperors themselves are the reworked TCG version in this game, there's not much practical use for them (ironically their effect to self-destruct when there's no Meklord Emperor in play is a lot more relevant, since this allows a Meklord Emperor to be summoned by its effect; Primo does this quite a bit as an AI).

** Yugi's Level 40 deck revolves around spell counters, which he usually uses to power up his attacking monsters even when you've used Mask of Accursed to stop them from attacking. In some cases he'll use Wonder Wand to ''destroy'' the monster even if it's powered up, just to draw 2 cards.
** Mai's Level 40 deck revolves around Amazonesses, including Amazoness Chain Master. If it's destroyed and she has enough LP, she ''will'' use it to steal a card from you even if it's worthless.
** Para and Dox's Level 40 deck revolves around Kazejin and Suijin. Since their effects only work once per duel and the AI has no way to track this, they'll tribute a Kazejin and Suijin to summon another Suijin, even if you have a weaker monster than both of them.
** After the 1.7 update, Yami Bakura gained the habit of playing Malice Doll of Demise in Attack Position even when your monsters are stronger.
** Syrus Truesdale's Level 30 and 40 decks has Inverse Universe, a card that swaps ATK and DEF, which for whatever reason, he may activate even if it does not change the situation at all (the attacking monster still destroy his monster anyway, despite the change in stats). He also sometimes sets a monster in defense mode and then automatically destroys it with Shield Crush.
** Black Dragon Ninja has an ability to banish any opposing monster for the price of a Ninja monster and Ninjitsu Art from your hand or field. However, this comes with a drawback; if Black Dragon Ninja leaves the field, it will Special Summon all those banished monsters back to the field. If there are no other Ninjas, the AI will sacrifice Black Dragon Ninja itself, ignoring the fact that doing so would cancel its own effect out.

* BlindIdiotTranslation: The DSOD world has Kaiba plan to become the Pharaoh after defeating Atem, while the Japanese word used can mean 'King', 'ruler,' etc. and doesn't necessarily mean 'Pharaoh.' The official ''Transcend Game'' translation used 'King,' as Kaiba wanted to become King of Duel Links/King of Games.