how Sound Voltex made me a better YGO player

Mar. 13, 2024 1:47 AM

This post was originally written for my Dreamwidth blog on the timestamp written above - the original formatting has been preserved whenever possible.

Salutations. You may have read the title of this post and had a thought similar to "you are delusional" rise up in your head.

A quick briefing before I explain myself in more detail - I have kept myself informed on the state of competitive YGO since 2012, having taken a break between 2016-2022 to play Sound Voltex. Though I have not competed in any major tournament settings beyond the local level since learning the game on a "competitive" level, I am at least at the level where I have an intermediate understanding of competitive play.

With that background out of the way, what do I mean by "how Sound Voltex made me a better YGO player," and how do two completely unrelated games that happen to be developed by the same parent company (Konami) correlate in any way?

Let me begin with the evergreen adage - "play more."

To the rhythm game players who read this, you will undoubtably kiss your teeth and turn your nose upwards in a manner best described as casual annoyance, while this statement will hold no such resonance to the Yugioh folk at home who grow tired of my prose.

In the wider rhythm game genre, the phrase "play more" is the advice given to any player looking for any potential foundations for improvement, a phrase as ethereal as it is frustratingly vague. Like telling a new YGO player to start learning the game through reading a Swordsoul guide, the sentiment has good intentions, aimed to ease you into the process of independent study so that you take a more reflective approach to understanding your game on a greater scale than the material you engage with from credit to round. It's meant to be as open-ended as possible, because having lesser freedom of agency doesn't encourage players to learn the intricacies of Yugioh or rhythm games. Rather, it establishes the opposite perspective, the idea that you must follow the process from A to Z. Can you say you're really learning anything if the first step is basically reading an IKEA manual? You develop bad habits that you depend on too much as a player, superficial crutches that later become your defining association with any experiences you may have.

With this in mind, I wish to briefly refute the games that people often compare YGO to. Many equate the process of learning and playing YGO to fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom, where the execution curve is steep, learning the game is obtuse at best, and you can very easily lose agency with even one minor lapse of judgement.

This is an apt comparison, were it not for the fact that beatmania IIDX exists.

Almost all of the issues that people bring up with YGO (high execution barrier, nearly vertical learning curve, information overload from the legacy format) are the same problems that make IIDX brutally difficult for newer players to pick up. The game has developed such a reputation over its 25-year history that most high-level IIDX players will often tell you to steer well clear until you're already confident enough in at least one other title. Hell, if you look at it a certain way, song removals/revivals are basically the IIDX equivalent of a banlist. Konami has been making legacy titles difficult to learn as a new player for years now, but the problem of poor learning material is a constant factor that still stands to this day. I have my issues with IIDX in the same way I do with YGO, but the former has that "legacy prestige" behind it that can somewhat explain why it's so tough to get into. It makes sense in the context of rhythm games, because the genre already has an accessibility problem that makes self-study even more valuable to the core experience - something YGO has no excuse for, as a game with free simulators like EDOPro at the average player's disposal.

So how did playing SDVX help me improve (even tangentially) at YGO? It all comes back to "play more."

The most common interpretation of "play more" is to experience as much of your chosen game as possible, or in essence, play as many charts as you can relative to your skill level once you hit a wall close to your physical limit. When I was stuck at a certain level of progression (e.g. the level 17-18 wall) one of the best options I had at my disposal was to play more level 14-16 songs.

Study up on fundamentals.
What key knowledge am I missing that would be useful to know at a higher level of play?
Am I currently encouraging any bad habits that should be avoided in future?

Playing with a wider range of options gave me the foundations for self-reflection, like the above questions, that let me think more intuitively about my playstyle, providing me with more focused aims and objectives than the simple "I want to achieve x goal (e.g. skill lv. ∞) by y date" goalposts that people always post and never follow through with. Additionally, it gave me a stronger appreciation for the game beyond my current understanding - how could I say that SDVX was my favourite rhythm game if I didn't give every single song or chart in the game a fair shot, and try learning something each time? By playing both the best and worst of what the game has to offer, I took that information on board and used it to influence my goals to achieve in future sessions. I figured out what I'm good at, and what needs improvement.

That leads me to YGO. I've never been the best player, deckbuilder, or teacher prior to the release of Master Duel, but effectively starting from scratch after six years away from the game reset many of the problematic mentalities I held during my youth. If I wanted to learn the game again, I would have to understand the new hotness. Mess around with decks and cards I would have never never fathomed the existence of back when Ghost Ogre was new.

I picked up a newer midrange deck (Marincess) to establish my fundamentals once more. (It's my pet deck now.)
Tearlaments gave me the motivation to learn decks with more freeform maneuverability.
Against my better judgement, I crafted a whole Labrynth core. Now I understand the main elements of control playstyles.

Playing more isn't always a message borne from laziness. It's advice that stems from poor articulation. Should you choose to arbitrarily limit yourself for whatever reason, the end result will stunt your growth and enjoyment of the game. You don't engage with what the game offers you, but instead pick at your own discretion because the process scares you. That's completely fine and understandable. Nonetheless, I think you should try to step outside your comfort zone by habit, rather than force. Try to veer towards what interests you first, whether that's a new set of charts, or a deck type you don't often play with, and make an effort to sit down with your experiences after each session. Think about it all - the good, the bad, what you were confident with, what requires more fine-tuning.

To end this post on a positive note, I think picking up a new deck, or playing a chart for the first time, is an admirable effort. Rather than viewing it as a stepping stone for your endgoal, think of it as a new perspective on how you already see your chosen game. The greatest initiatives start from the smallest ripples.

I hope this encourages you to try something new, and find a fresh understanding in something you (hopefully) already love so dearly.

If you finish reading this with one core message in mind, let it be this one:
DO NOT RUN AWAY FROM ENDYMION