The Digimon Alysion beta has come and gone, and two things immediately came to mind for me throughout the trial period:

1. I think if Bandai Namco nails the monetization model, this could be the best TCG simulator on the market
2. I am not good at the Digimon Trading Card Game.

I was lucky enough to get into the beta and try out the game’s story mode, its various card distribution systems, deck-building tools, and PvP functions. This article will serve as both a preview and a review of the game, of which I am so excited to play the official release whenever it comes out.

We’ll obviously start with the first point, in that Alysion combines all the best parts of games like Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel and Pokémon TCG Pocket to create an immersive and comfortable playing experience. Gameplay is automated, perfect for newer players like me who might be unfamiliar with the game’s various phases. It is also very easy to see the entire playing field, like your Hand, Deck, and Trash.

Alysion does more than just offer an officially-licensed Digimon TCG simulator, though. It also offers a fully-scripted Story Mode, complete with original Digimon, that helps players immerse themselves into Alysion as a game world instead of just a simulator. You’ll meet your player character Hondo Kanata, her “rival” Valner Dragnogh, and her “senpai” Kurusu Koga. You’ll also get to meet her Partner Digimon, Gemmon, and its Digivolutions.

The Story serves as the game’s de facto tutorial, teaching you how the Digimon TCG works and putting you into certain real-life scenarios you might find yourself in. It will also guide you through getting yourself through these scenarios and end with a win.

But how do you get cards? Unsurprisingly to anyone who has played a free-to-play TCG simulator, you get it with gems. Luckily, the beta version gave gems out hand over fist, though I wouldn’t count on that remaining the case when the full game launches complete with monetization.

What Digimon Alysion does offer is a unique take on free packs. It lets you pull two free packs per day a la TCG Pocket but offers a unique set of cards in those packs like Master Duel.

The game also offers premium packs that contain more powerful cards containing more familiar Digimon like WarGreymon, Omnimon, Gallantmon, Imperialdramon, and more. No surprises here, either – 100 gems gets you one pack, 1,000 gems gets you ten.

You can also dismantle extras of premium cards and use the resources to generate cards like Master Duel, but they all pool into one finite resource, rather than having UR and SR resources in the other game.

Alysion uses the traditional TCG rarity system of Commons, Uncommons, Rares, Super Rares, and Secret Rares. The game also has “Parallel” rares – higher rarity versions of existing cards with additional effects or cooler artworks, perfect for those who want to pull consistently for higher-cost art. My favorite are the two-color art styles like these Kentaurosmon and Imperialdramon cards:

The beta had three different sets to pull from, based primarily around the first three seasons of the Digimon anime, for better or worse. It will be interesting to see if Alysion follows the theme set like Pokemon TCG Pocket and Master Duel or if it will launch with the current crop of Digimon TCG sets.

For the card game itself, I had a come-to-Jesus moment: I have no idea how to play this game at a high level. Yes, I was able to breeze through the Story Mode and could manage a few wins, but I found myself behind the eight ball quite a bit against stronger foes. I think this was for two reasons:

1. There was a clear best deck in the game (Yukinamon Blue) and I didn’t want to play it.
2. The beta didn’t offer a guide on deckbuilding.

I found a guide on YouTube that helped me but was from three years ago in the paper TCG. It was difficult for me to get the cards I felt like I needed but even when I had everything, I never felt truly in command. Obviously, I just need to grind more and get better, but it was frustrating as someone who got to a high level in Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon to struggle with another card game.

‘Digimon Alysion’ TL;DR Review

Here’s basically where I’m at with Digimon Alysion. If Bandai Namco gives us even decent monetization options, we might be looking at the best TCG simulator on the market. It combines user-friendly models of free daily packs and card generation resources to get more cards.

The Story Mode offers a way to immerse players into the game and give them more free rewards on top of it. Like in my beloved Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle, the story can keep going to give players gems, and potentially even new strong cards.

Playing games is easy and fun. I don’t have to worry about knowing every aspect of the rules because the game automates each phase and highlights the steps you have to take. I had a bad habit of forgetting to hatch a Digi-Egg during the Breeding Phase but the game was there to remind me to tap the egg deck and get a new egg.

The only things I’d like to see are a friendly monetization function and more tutorials on deck-building and high-level strategy. A deeper dive into the game’s keywords would also be nice, too.

All in all, Digimon Alysion delivered on its first impression and I cannot wait to play the full release whenever it comes out.