Yomi 2 | Early Access PC Review
When it comes to fighting games in 2023, gamers have already been spoiled with the stellar release of Capcom’s Street Fighter VI. With Mortal Kombat One and Tekken 8 also on the near horizon, there is no shortage of big name fighters to satiate our appetites. There’s a new challenger joining the fray this year in the form of Yomi 2.
Sirlin Games (named after David Sirlin, the lead designer on the HD Remixes of Street Fighter II Turbo and Super Puzzle Fighter II) is an independent developer that has been creating tabletop and digital tabletop focused adaptations of fighting games since 2005. Their deck based card game, Yomi, was designed to take the core strategy elements of a fighting game and translate them into a tabletop experience.
One drawback of the original Yomi digital adaptation is that its interface has come to feel very dated compared to other card-based dueling games like Magic the Gathering Arena or Marvel Snap. Now in 2023, Sirlin is updating the digital experience with Yomi 2, an early access game that aims to update the digital experience as well as streamline the core gameplay of the card game.
CARD COMBAT!
Since this is a card game adaptation, the gameplay is key to a good experience, and Yomi 2 shines the best in this regard. Yomi has always been about taking a deck of cards to be your fighter, while both players put down a single card at a time to either block, dodge or attack the opponent. A successful attack can chain into multiple hits just like a fighting game combo, but it can take only a single block to stop it cold. This creates a very similar rock, paper scissors dynamic that most fighting games tend to operate around.
While the first Yomi uses essentially a standard deck of playing cards as a stand-in for your “moves,” this version of Yomi uses a more stylized version of those decks removing some of the more extraneous elements like card suits. This was likely a move to help new players, who may have trouble mentally adapting a traditional 4-suit playing card deck into a game intended to emulate videogame style combat.
On top of the rock, paper, scissors aspect of the gameplay, each player gets to see each other’s discard pile. Once on each player’s turn, a player can trade a card in their hand for a card in their discard pile. This creates an exciting dynamic where each player can see what the other player may or may not be working with, which only becomes more engaging when each person knows all of the cards the other player can use. Yomi 2 streamlines this essential mechanic by displaying a pie chart of the ratio of each kind of card in your opponent’s hand. It takes the math end out of the digital experience and allows games to flow quickly and naturally so players can focus on the strategy.
Fill Your Super Meter!
This version of the game has also re-done the way your flashier “super moves” work in a way that feels much more in line with the traditional fighting game experience. There is a super meter that players can discard doubles of any card to power up. This creates a trade-off of sacrificing cards in your hand to possibly deliver a lot of damage on a later turn.
Finally Sirlin has added the “gem” system. This is a new mechanic that seems to simulate the idea of player-chosen systems in fighting games like the “isms” in the Street Fighter Alpha games. It adds a group of preset cards to your fighter’s deck that are themed around different gameplay strategies. For example, the black gem adds cards that cause your opponent to discard cards and lose health while the white gem allows the player to draw more cards and keep cards in their hands when they’re played. This mechanic improves upon the first Yomi game, where outside of having more decks, the experience did not feel like it had a lot of player input before a fight. The gems are a very welcome addition to the gameplay and something Sirlin should expand on more as the game continues through early access.
Back to the Dojo
There are a lot of systems to learn (just like a fighting game!) and Yomi 2 has a tutorial that walks you through most of the main gameplay nuts and bolts. However, some systems feel left out. For example, the tutorial screen for gems tells what they do but not how they actually interact with the gameplay. Since this is early access, this is likely something Sirlin intends to rectify, but right now there isn’t a lot there. Additionally there are strategy elements of playing the game that don’t seem to be part of the tutorial either. Players need explanations of how to read their opponents’ hands properly in Yomi, and adding some kind of advanced tutorial will be essential as many new players may not grasp this strategy on their own.
Graphically the game is colorful and striking with hand-drawn art for all of the cards and fighters, which has always been one of the best elements of the Sirlin games. You have your archetype stand in fighters like Grave (Ryu) and the stone golem Rook (Zangeif) that are depicted in-game using animated portraits that harken back to the Street Fighter IV watercolor painted style. When a fighter connects or blocks with an attack, you see the moves acted out one by one in the center of the screen, emulating the hit animations of a fighting game. One of the most striking implementations of this is all of the fighter’s “super moves” which have a brief, but over the top, cutscene that really helps the player feel the weight of the maneuver in a way that Supers and Ultras would in the recent Street Fighter games.
Fighting Alone
Yomi 2 has a lot of promise as a platform to play the game Yomi, but it has room for improvement in its single player content. The first game had AI battles and a survival mode, but was largely multiplayer focused. That’s not inherently a bad thing for a fighting game. But, in 2023, when you see things like Mortal Kombat’s storyline with high production values and Street Fighter VI with its World Tour mode, it’s clear that there’s an audience for good single player fighting content.
The good news is Sirlin does have a campaign and seems to have a unique idea for it. The not-so-good news is that being in early access, there’s not a lot there right now to dive into. The campaign is focused on the player taking their decks and playing at various locations in the world of Yomi, like a card shop or even a golf course. Along the way, you’re ranking up and reading the social media posts that give flavor to these locations, and the people that play in them. While the idea is charming, outside of reading the faux-twitter posts (which do look like someone spent some time on them), it’s a pretty flat experience overall as there’s no gameplay interaction in any of this story. In the campaign, you play fifteen games at the location and then enter a tournament, which is some 2 out of 3 games. Outside of the nine planned locations to play in this mode, only one is currently available at the time of this review. Additionally, there are achievements that seem to imply there will be a gameplay payoff to them, but right now they seem to be in name only. If this game is going to live up to its potential, then this mode needs to be expanded and filled in with elements that go beyond “play more games of Yomi”.
Multiplayer is where most of the focus is currently now and, as a pass and play game, Yomi 2 is fantastic. Playing online is also pretty easy. You can turn on a “find a game” toggle, just like most modern fighting games, and wait for a challenger. Sirlin says they plan to add more fighters to the game, although there is a decent amount of variety in the current roster. The fighters are currently split into a zoning group, rushdown fighters, grapplers and “wildcards.” The original Yomi had 20 fighters in it, so there is a lot of promise for a future full roster.
The Final Verdict
At the end of the day, the best way to sum up Yomi 2 is the fact that there is a lot of promise here. It feels like Sirlin Games has built themselves a solid platform for Yomi; now they need to flesh it out and give a reason for players to keep coming back. If you’re looking for a narrative or something more single-player focused, maybe wait until the game reaches 1.0 to see how much Sirlin is planning on investing in these areas. There is a lot of room to do something neat here, but it will involve adding more meat to the considerable bones that Yomi 2 has already built.
Ultimately this is somewhat of a niche game. If you like fighting games of all kinds, then you should give it a try, especially if you like board/card games too. If you like card games and have always felt intimidated by the lightning fast reflexes and combo mastery required to play fighting games, you’re actually the prime person this game is made for. Both of these kinds of players will find depth and gameplay variety in the mechanics alone for as much as they want to invest in it.
To hear me talk more about Yomi 2, be sure to listen to the June 28, 2023 episode of The Gaming Outsider podcast around the 1:45:22 time stamp.
This review is based on an Early Access PC copy of Yomi 2 provided by Stride PR for coverage purposes. It is also available on Mac.
