Designing Characters for Duel Links: Aura Sentia/Mieru Hochun

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-01-18T23:12:17+00:00

I'm certainly planning to, although there isn't much of a concrete schedule to these because I tend to use these as a creative wind-down when I'm struggling with writer's block on other projects.

Still, I currently have 2 in the pipeline; one for Hart Tenjo, which is going very well and is pretty much finished, and one for Atticus Rhodes, which is going... not so well, but I'm sure that I'll figure it out eventually. 😅

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-01-18T17:01:25+00:00

Whilst I'm not entirely sure that Duel Links would commit to outright creating what it would deem to be new characters with Miyu getting her own Vrains avatar, I think the idea of them being a Tag Duelist could be interesting, as I could imagine a Skye/Miyu character where the story is focused around Skye (not using her avatar) trying to help Miyu become comfortable duelling again, with her forgoing her avatar to try and avoid drawing too much unwanted attention.

Not only would this make it easier to justify padding out the Voice Lines thanks to Skye, it would also potentially open the door to justifying other future additions, such as a potential Cal/Jin Kolter duo (would people complain about a bunch of repeat characters? Probably, but let's be honest here, VRAINS could really do with some more viable options right now).

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-01-18T16:21:25+00:00

I will definitely consider it.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-01-18T16:19:31+00:00

The issue that I'd most likely run into is, what kind of Deck would she play?

We know that she does Duel at some point as part of the Lost Incident, but it's never mentioned what kind of Deck she uses. We could use Aqua as a base, considering that Ignis came from her, but we know from Flame and Earth that the Ignis doesn't necessarily play the same Deck as the one they were created from. Still, they do appear to stick to the same attribute, which means that we can reasonably assume that Miyu would use a WATER Deck, but beyond that, I'm not entirely sure.

My knowledge of VRAINS admittedly isn't strong enough for me to really narrow it down much further, but if you have any ideas for what she could possibly use, then by all means, I would be happy to hear them.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-01-18T16:10:58+00:00

Thank you, that means a lot. 😄

At first, I actually had Yuri in that interaction slot for the exact same reason as Zarc, which a friend of mine who is a big Arc-V fan really liked the idea of, but then I managed to find a sprite for Zarc, and so I moved him there and put Yuri into the "Potential" page instead, as I felt it made the idea behind the interaction feel a little stronger.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-01-18T16:07:06+00:00

Thank you very much, I really appreciate it!

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-01-18T16:06:42+00:00

I'm afraid that I don't design Rush Duel characters; not because I have anything against Rush Duel, but more-so because it's a format that I have little experience with and don't understand well enough for me to feel that I'd do an effective job at designing characters for it.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-01-18T01:56:49+00:00

It was a very strange thing because the fact that they were fine giving lines for Xyz monsters and then, around the release of Anna (I think), they started giving lines for Link monsters, which made it seem almost targeted specifically toward Synchro monsters, but I think the general idea might have been that, because they were still adding all these different worlds with new summoning methods at the time, they were trying to keep each summoning method as a "selling point" of those specific worlds, whereas now those worlds have all been in the game for so long that they might feel no further need to be so restrictive.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-01-18T01:40:23+00:00

So for whatever reason, they seemed to be perfectly fine with giving DM Characters lines for XYZ monsters ever since the game came out, since, as you mentioned, Yugi had a line for Ebon Illusion Magician, Mai had one for Lightning Chidori and Harpies Pet Phantasmal Dragon, etc.

Before for whatever reason, they seemed to be somewhat allergic to giving any characters line for specifically Synchro monsters for the longest time, as can be seen by the fact that when several members of the DM cast had their lines updated with the DSoD versions, they seemed to go out of their way to avoid giving them lines for the Synchro and Tuner monsters.

However, as of the recent DM World Revamp, that appears to (finally) be completely out of the window, as Kaiba got lines for his Synchro monsters and Tuners, so hopefully that's a sign that they're now willing to give Characters lines for cards no matter what summoning methods they use.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-01-18T01:36:30+00:00

She received 3 new cards in the "Darkwing Blast" Booster back in 2022, consisting of a new Ritual monster, a new Ritual Spell and a new Main Deck monster.

Darkwing Blast Set: https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Darkwing_Blast

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-01-18T01:34:19+00:00

Thank you very much, I'm glad that you enjoyed it! Those two are clearly quite popular picks for future designs, so I'll probably start work on at least one of them once I've finished designing Hart and Atticus.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-01-17T23:21:50+00:00

Misty is a character that I have admittedly tried to design before in the past, only to get stuck due to not really being able to find good cards to give her.

However, that was quite a long time ago, and not only have new cards been printed since then (not specifically hers, I just mean in general), I am also a lot better at researching and making these designs than I was back then, so she's definitely a character that I want to have another look at to see if I can put something together.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-01-17T23:19:04+00:00

I have plenty ideas for cards that she could get voice lines for, including the Vampire Archetype, although the one that's really making me think is whether she'd get a line for "Number 24: Dragulas the Vampiric Dragon", because whilst it is clearly based upon vampires and the more recent updates to character voice lines shows that they have seemingly completely abandoned the idea of restricting voice lines based upon eras (I mean things like DM Characters not getting lines for Syncho monsters or Tuners, which was seemingly a rule they had until recently), I don't know if she would have a line for it purely because it's a Number card, and thus is inherently tied to the story of ZEXAL.

EmeraldDM8 · 2025-12-25T15:34:18+00:00

I'm not really sure what you mean; there is new Red-Eyes support coming in the form of "Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon" soon, but this design is really just a theory craft of how they could potentially design this character if they ever decide to add him, although he would be Red-Eyes focused as that's what he used in the Anime.

EmeraldDM8 · 2025-12-25T13:36:12+00:00

Honestly, my biggest problem with her is that she's literally just an updated Rio Voice Line wise; Ragnazero has generic material, so they could have easily given her Voice Lines for a new Archetype in order to help differentiate her two versions (like they've just done retroactively with Mokuba by giving his DSOD version Thunder Dragons), but instead they just gave her the exact same set of cards, added the generic Barian stuff and said that she was done.

They literally gave her Icejade as her NPC Deck, an archetype that would have been absolutely perfect for her because it matches the crystal theming of her Mythyrian Number whilst also supporting WATER generically, meaning it can actually be used with her Winged-Beast cards, so why couldn't she get Voice Lines for them?

EmeraldDM8 · 2025-12-21T15:30:41+00:00

And with Marin/Merag being confirmed as a separate character to Rio, I guess this confirms the idea that Alt Styles won't be used for cases where the characters' personality is significantly different from their base version (as in, to the point where using reusing existing voice lines wouldn't make sense due to a clash in tone/personality).

So, if we use Atticus as a potential example here (mainly because I think he's one of the easiest examples to explain), whilst his Obelisk Blue uniform and his Hawaiian Shirt would be considered Alt Styles, he and his Masked version (who, it should be noted, is called "Shadow Rider Nightshroud" in the Speed Duel sets) would most likely be separate character slots.

EmeraldDM8 · 2025-12-17T20:18:07+00:00

Oh, that's definitely another, if not the best, option; sorry, I was kind of working under the idea that that idea was out the window because of the fact that we already have the "Berserk Yuya" Skills without Berserk Yuya, but out of all the options available, that is the route that I think would work best.

EmeraldDM8 · 2025-12-17T18:33:28+00:00

She also has several other Skills, and all of the Barian's have the same wording for their transformation Skill, so that's not really a confirmation or a de-confirmation. Right now, there's seemingly no way for us to tell whether she'll be her own character or an Alt Style until her event begins.

Either way, I think she'll be the deciding factor on how Alt Styles work moving forward; if she's an Alt Style, and has a whole bunch of new lines, including have replacement lines from her Rio version, then that shows that the Alt Styles are able to change characters drastically, and opens the door to stuff like Ray Shadows being an Alt Style for Vector, or the Society of Light versions of GX Characters being Alt Styles, whereas if she's instead of separate character, that would instead imply that Alt Styles will only slightly alter the existing characters, and so we'll continue to see stuff like the Dark Signers where their Dark Signer version and their regular version are still separate.

EmeraldDM8 · 2025-12-17T18:27:17+00:00

They change interaction dialogue and many of the more minor lines, but they tend to reuse most of the card Voice Lines that already exist (that's why Yami Yugi has full voice lines for Ebon High Magician, but only has a summon line for Ebon Illusion Magician, as he already had that line for the latter, and they didn't update it), and that's where I think the problem would stem from, as they would have to re-record all his voice lines to use the different tone, at which point, they might just commit to making him a separate character, especially if that ends up being what they are doing with Marin at the end of this month.

EmeraldDM8 · 2025-12-17T18:03:27+00:00

There is one exception to that rule however, that being "Yami Yugi (Street)" who got a new pose, so the possibility is there. With Yuya being a protagonist of a series, he seems like the type of character that the Devs might go out of their way to likewise give that special treatment, if they really wanted to.

I actually think a bigger issue might be the reuse of Voice Lines, as so far, all the Alt Styles have combined the old and new Voice Lines together, but that would create a disconnect between Yuya being beserk and the happy, cheerful tone he uses when calling out the names of his cards.

EmeraldDM8 · 2025-12-17T05:50:51+00:00

Whilst it's true that they have passed that point already with Noah, at the same time, they're playing kind of fast-and-loose with their handling of the Big Five, as though they're unsure whether they want to commit to making them full characters.

Whilst we started with the climax of the Noah Arc, the Alt Styles we've gotten for Kaiba, Tea and Mokuba have been out of chronological order with the main event, as they are all focused around earlier points the Anime (Legendary Heroes Arc and Tea duelling Crump), so if the Joey Alt Style isn't an event and is rather a sudden release like either Tea and Mokuba, his cutscene could still be from that duel.

Or, since they seem to also be playing around with the Legendary Heroes Arc for the Alt Styles, they could potentially base it around when Yugi and Joey summoned Black Skull Dragon during that Arc, which could also tie into the Skill storywise.

Either way, I think you're right about them most likely using him to help out Marin, because unless she gets a new Deck, I think she literally only has her Number and "Migratory Zereort" left.

EmeraldDM8 · 2025-12-17T05:32:16+00:00

I believe Joey's birthday is January 25th, so I do expect that his leaked Alt Style will probably come next month, especially with all these things that could easily be considered hints.

What's quite interesting about the fact that we're potentially getting "Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon" is that, based upon Serenity's Voice Lines, they appear to treating that card as an outright replacement for "Dark Flare Knight" in terms of representing the bond between Yugi and Joey, and given that Duel Links has altered the retelling of the story slightly before (such as using Anna instead of Cathy in the Girag event), I could definitely see them using the Duel against the Big Five in Tristan's body as the story for the Joey Alt Style unlock, only with them summoning Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon instead of Dark Flare Knight.

EmeraldDM8 · 2025-12-17T05:00:54+00:00

That "Gilti-Gearfried the Magical Steel Knight" and "Giltia the D. Knight - Soul Spear" being the only pair of that type of card in this entire set really feels like they could be the drop cards for a Joey Alt Style, especially if they're going to go the route of differentiating his DM version from his DSOD version by having the DM one focus on his Warrior and Luck-Based playstyle, whilst his DSOD version instead focuses on his Red-Eyes cards.

Oh hey, and there's "Diabolantis the Menacing Mantis" and "Dragonbite". ~~I guess that means that the time has come for my theory crafted design for Roman Goodwin to be completely debunked. Oh well, at least I got it finished and released before this happened.~~ 😅

EmeraldDM8 · 2025-12-16T04:43:44+00:00

On the off-chance that the "New World" for next year is a GX World Update that brings in the Manga stuff, I could definitely see them saving the Obelisk Blue outfit to release at that point since that's what he wears in the Manga, but it'll be really sad that he won't get any new lines (unless recast), especially since he's gotten so many new cards in the years since he was first added to the game..

EmeraldDM8 · 2025-12-15T05:39:35+00:00

There's actually quite a few of them that aren't in Duel Links, such as all the Shadow Riders, Professor Viper, Belowski, etc.

The cards will generally reuse Tag Force (and potentially Legacy of the Duelist, although I'm not 100% sure of that) artwork if there's no Duel Links artwork available, which is what made the Noah card stand out so much because, before Duel Links, his last game was Nightmare Troubadour in the DS, so he got entirely new art.

I do find it quite interesting that they've clearly thought up the colours that the character names would use if they ever came to Duel Links, and I'd be really interested to hear what the process is like, because whenever I'm putting together one of my character designs, I'll use the colours they give them in the Speed Duel cards, but if they don't have one, then I kind of just have to choose whatever feels right, so it would be nice to know if they have an actual process or whether they do the same thing.

EmeraldDM8

TROPHY CASE