Card games are always looking at new ways to reinvent themselves while maintaining a balance of both complexity and simplicity for those looking to just jump in along with those who are in it for the long hall. The Indie scene has become overrun with card based games and Yomi 2 is another entry in the over saturated market. While I open some time with Yomi 2 and enjoyed it, I still haven’t won a single match at the time of writing this and there isn’t much there to encourage me to keep trying.
There is a story mode to be found here and while I would love to tell you me about it, The game does require you to win in order to progress the story. Winning was something I found myself unable to do so I can’t speak much on this aspect. It seems to start off with the traditional tournament arc that most card based games shoot for so I don’ think I have missed much on this end. One of the more interesting things that I realized during my short time in the story mode was how the players see to communicate with one another. After each battle (or loss in my experience) we see notifications on a social media app in game that talks about each match. This gives us some personality in the characters we come across during our time in the story mode.
Story mode is a wonderful place to start off with when it comes to learning the game. Yomi 2 is a card based fighting game, with each character having their own deck and play style. I found myself playing Grave a lot due to his simplicity. Each character has their own difficulty rating and play style. With characters being broken up into Zoning, Rush-down, Grappling, and wild card, There is a lot of variety to be found so there is a character for everyone. You can switch characters before each fight to get a feel for them but there is also a reference page that allows you to check out each characters deck. Along with a multitude of characters and play styles, there are also colors that you can select when picking your deck. This gives various buffs and bonuses to certain actions which allows for even more customization in the way you play. We have touched on a lot of aspects here and we haven’t even talked about the way combat unfolds.
After selecting a character and color for their deck, things start to really get interesting. The tutorial explains that each card has a different move and certain moves cancel each other out. We have throws, Blocks, attacks, projectiles, and specials that are readily available at the start of our turn. If we are able to get past our enemies defenses than we are allowed to unleash devastating combos to dwindle their health down. It is important to keep in mind that you can only string together combos with certain cards so keeping an eye out for combos as well as opening moves adds a certain level of complexity here. While the game does a good job of explaining all of this, there is still a strong level of difficulty to be found here. I found that each time I threw out a card, my opponent either countered my card or blocked it which left me open for combos. This is what caused my downfall on multiple occasions an brings up the conversation of difficulty.
Yomi 2 is a difficult game to learn and playing against the CPU means that you will be facing defeat on multiple occasions until you learn how the game plays. Although I’ve played through the tutorial on multiple occasions, I still found myself struggling to progress in the story mode. Thankfully, there are a couple of other modes you can take part in. With both online multiplayer and a mode that lets you pass turns around in local multiplayer, there is room for improvement and a way to better learn the game without hitting your head against the wall repeatedly. I had a blast playing the game with some friends in the same room since local multiplayer seems to be a thing of the past that pops up more frequently as a selling point than anything else.
Deck based games have been growing in popularity over time and the Indie scene has done a wonderful job of helping the genre gain traction. The ability to play both online and in local multiplayer is something I would love to see in more games moving forward. The most unfortunate thing here has to be the difficulty found in Yomi 2 since this could be detrimental to a new players experience. I was unable to find a difficulty slider but I believe this would be beneficial for the story mode. This would be a nice way to experience the game whiteout having to deal with the consistent failure that is to be found here. While it was a fun experience and one I’m glad I had, it is hard to recommend for those who would like a casual experience.
