Yomi Reviews

Probably the best competitive card game around. No pay2win or grind2win rubbish, great balance, good matchmaking, and a fantastic fair ranking system on the leaderboards that also gives you a sense of progress as you improve your skills - this is PERFECT competitive game design, and exactly how all competitive games should be. Do not worry about only getting 10 characters to start with - you have the WHOLE game to play really with just ONE character in Yomi. There's so much to learn, and you can get good playing with any character.

A very clever card battler based around a very complex version of rock-paper-scissors. Each player, using characters with their own unique skills and perks, face-off in a series of individual rock-paper-scissor like encounters using a single card from their hand. Block/Dodge > Attack > Throw > Block/Dodge. If both players play an Attack or they both play a Throw, the speeds are compared and the quickest wins the encounter. If the player successfully lands and Attack or Throw, they might even be able to add in some additional cards to form a combo. There are all sorts of exceptions to the above rules a via the various character abilities, but this is the gist of gameplay. Characters trade blows back and forth until 1 of them is brought below 0 (it is even possible for both players to simultaneously knock out one another, but this is VERY rare).

General: -------------------------------------------------------- * Well-balanced and play-tested since 2010 (not kidding). * Good production values. * Can play as a Panda. * Simulates a fighting game well. * Can watch match replays. * Has regular tournaments, and an official, in-person expo event [1] Sound and visuals: -------------------------------------------------------- * Nice, hand-drawn art. * Music by the guys at http://ocremix.org/ * Can unlock shiny gold foil cards that leave you no more powerful (good), but look pretty (also good). Controls: -------------------------------------------------------- * Easy execution--just move your mouse around and click; no quarter circle forward motion required! Even your mum can perform the special moves in this game. Value: -------------------------------------------------------- * $15 USD for 10 digital Yomi decks, as opposed to about $10 USD per physical Yomi deck = good deal. * Can be played for free online if you want to try before you buy [2] * Can be replayed hundreds of times and still be interesting--a.k.a. "easy to learn, hard to master." * Can help you learn how to draw on your intuition to make decisions. [3] * Can help you walk the path of self-improvement. * Funds from Yomi may help Sirlin eventually make a non-card Fantasy Strike fighting game. Footnotes: -------------------------------------------------------- [1] Fantasy Strike expo event: http://www.fantasystrike.com/fsx [2] Play Yomi for free on the web: http://www.fantasystrike.com/game/index.php [3] Using intuition to make decisions: http://www.sirlin.net/articles/balancing-multiplayer-games-part-4-intuition

Hello, I've played Yomi on and off since a fairly early beta many years ago. Over time the game has been refined into a really engaging, deep and most importantly, fun fighting game. Each character is really strong on it's own merit, and there are no more really bad matchups, just slight advantages/disadvantages, far better than any other fighting game I've played. Yomi is very accessible and easy to get into, but offers a lot of depth at high level play. There aren't really overly hard game mechanics to understand. At its core, the game is sort of rock-paper-scissors, but evaluation gets more involving. There are always numerous options, which change constantly. A strong combo can leave you without much hand strength, or get blue bursted(combo escaped). Using your best and fastest moves early can limit your combat options if you're opponent still has his. Throwing out and hitting DeGrey's Pilebunker is one of the most #YOLO moves ever, but so satisfying to hit. It still takes some understanding of your characters attacks and abilities, and how they match up against an opponent's attacks and abilities to do well. Then you get to the never ending game of trying to outthink and outlevel your opponent, which is really fun. Being a card game there is some randomness, but it's not an absurd level like Hearthstone has. Best of 3/Best of 5 sets are fairly standard, even when just casually playing or in a ranked quick match. Long sets are nice to establish some history and level out the variance. Presentation wise the game is decent. I've always found the art to be pretty stylish. Character design is varied and well-done, thematically and gameplaywise. Sprites on moves, especially special and super moves is great. Rook, the Stone Golem punches hard, and doesn't dodge. The Windmill Crusher special throw looks like it hurts and wow it does. Setsuki, Ninja girl, is fast and evasive, but with low HP. Other miscellaneous things: There are a number of helpful guides for each character over on the official Fantasy Strike forums, hopefully some guides get put up here too. Cross platform play is pretty awesome. Hearthstone barely runs on my iPad, but Yomi runs great on it, and the touch interface works well for it. Spectator mode and replays work well, which is a nice feature. For new players, I recommend starting with Grave, Argagarg, or Rook, those characters are the most straightforward. Feel free to give the rest of the cast a try and see who you like though. Don't think that straightfoward or simple means worse though, I mained Argagarg for years when I started out and he's a still a very solid character. - Swiffle

I've been a long time fan of the card game and initial web versions and this Steam version is good, though not without it's faults. I'd prefer if the chat window wasn't a separate page and existed within the match screen, and merging my old account to use my preferred name was a little rough, but these are minor nitpicks. A more major nitpick is that the Expansion decks are $15, but if you view it as an expandable card game (and many won't since this is on Steam) then you're getting another 10 decks for what is the normal price of 10 decks, which is not bad. The other bit of microtransactions in the game, collectable cards that track match stats, is completely optional and therefore I feel does not detract at all from the game. (There is also EX characters, but these can be unlocked through gameplay and are just for fun anyway, so I don't really count them) Overall, there are certainly worse forms of microtransactions out there. The core gameplay itself is fantastic, as to be expected from one of my favorite card games. It's nice to have an engine arbitrate the matches so there's no arguing over any rulings. The cards are all super high resolution, and the fight animations are entertaining for the simple little things they are. Finding matches has been extremely quick for me, and there's minimal lag in the game itself. Highly recommended!

[h1] BUYER BEWARE: Dead PVP Game [/h1] 2 players online on the same day isn't even a guarantee. If you desperately want to play this game, find an active server/forum/community [i] first. [/i] To play this game, YOU NEED to find others: the AI is so predictable that it [i] doesn't even do mixups in a rock-paper-scissors game!!. [/i] That said, the game itself is fun, I wish I could give it a good review but I feel scammed even for buying it on sale at 5 dollars. The only people that should buy this game are those deep enough in the Yomi community to not need a review before purchasing it.

For hardcore Yomi fans only. If you're curious about the game try the web based version on the fantasy strike site. The game itself is absolutely fantastic, however the design of the steam version leaves something to be desired. The interface is exactly as it is in the mobile version, so everything is way too big if you try to play it at 1080p. The game is optimally played at roughly 800x600 unless you have a really tiny monitor. For a steam game this is not okay. If you're curious about the game, I'd recommend checking out the web based version. I have almost no regrets about buying this considering the amount of hours I've logged in the web based version, however I do have a hard time recommending this to newcommers. Try before you buy.

Developer is an asshole who preys on smaller developers and sends them a cease-and-desist just because they had the audacity of having the word "Yomi" in the name of their game. I definitely recommend playing Your Only Move Is Hustle (previously known as Yomi Hustle) on itch.io, and support the developer, Ivy Sly

Let's get THE BAD out of the way first: 1) As others have mentioned, the interface could be better. It's not very pretty, and there are a few mild annoyances with structure, but honestly you have to remember that this is - at its core - a card game. If you'd rather not play a card game because the graphics aren't up to your standards , then you have some strange priorities. 2) This game is not customizeable. If none of the characters appeal to you, you are out of luck. =/ (NOTE: This is also included as a positive, below.) So one or two minor complaints. As for THE GOOD: 1) The creator of this game, David Sirlin, is kind of a big deal in the Fighting Game Community. He was a pro until a nerve disability forced him to stop competing, so now he's a game designer with multiple big credits, a popular match commentator, and the admin of an educational Youtube channel about Fighting Games. So he knows his stuff. 2) The game itself is amazing. Sirlin set out to replicate the "conversation" that happens in high-level Fighting Game play - the headgames, the "I-know-that-you-know-that-I-know" exchanges, and the judgment calls of when to take risks and when to play conservatively - without the 1/60th of a second reflex/dexterity requirements, or the hours and hours of drilling combos into muscle memory. He succeeded. 3) The game is simple, deep, balanced, and allows for a shocking amount of personal style. The basic rock-paper-scissors mechanic is core to everything, but the characters manage to play SIGNIFICANTLY differently from one another because of their deck composition and character abilities. In addition, there has been a HUGE amount of playtesting done (consistently, by hundreds of players, since at least 2010) to ensure that the characters are both true to concept as well as competitive with one another. 4) The game is not customizeable, collectable, or pay-to-win. You buy the game, you get the same game everyone else is playing. Period. The only reason I win (or lose) more than anyone else playing the same matches is because of personal ability, knowledge, and experience. In closing, I would like to say that I kickstarted this exact game's physical copy last year, for $240. What I got here cost me another $25 (sale), and I spent it HAPPILY. Buy it.

I really like this game. I supported it before it was on steam. I have the physical card game. I sung the praises of this game to friends. But the lead developer is a whiny narcissistic crybaby who bullies other devs because he borrowed a word from Japan and now that he borrowed the word, no one else can borrow the word so he's bullying other devs with DMCA takedowns. For someone who supposedly cares about viable competition and balance; he seems pretty alright with being a scrub.