"Den City" is where the latest and greatest online network has been developed. There, in the VR Space "LINK VRAINS", managed by "SOL Technology Inc.", people Duel day and night. The main character, "Fujiki, Yusaku", is a cool high school student with excellent skills of observation. In order to defeat the "Knights of Hanoi" who seek to destroy "LINK VRAINS", he transforms himself into his avatar, "Playmaker" to fight them in Duels while remaining anonymous in real life. But now, a hacker with the same purpose as Yusaku, a man named Kusanagi Shouichi, has information that "SOL Technology" is desperately searching for a mysterious life form. Yusaku realizes the "Knights of Hanoi" are also searching for this entity, spreading a trap across the network, for an operation to capture it...
This episode contains the following tropes:
- Action Prologue: The series starts with the Hanoi's raid in the Cyberse World, before cutting to Playmaker's battle with a Knight of Hanoi.
- Big Damn Heroes: Playmaker saves Blue Angel from being erased by Cracking Dragon.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: A few Xyz Monsters, including Zoodiac Hammerkong and Digital Bug Corebage, make an appearance.
- Infodump:
- Naoki explains to Yusaku (and the audience) about LINK VRAINS.
- Kusanagi explains to Yusaku about Charisma Duelists and speed duels.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Yusaku is shown to have a Link Sense.
- Protagonist Title: Yusaku is the titular "Playmaker".
- Rule of Three:
- Yusaku's analysis on why Naoki doesn't seem very strong:
- Brags about his Duel Disk, but is unconcerned with the contents of his Deck.
- Has yet to enter Link VRAINS due to lack of confidence in his own skills.
- He can't call himself a Duelist for judging someone's skill based on appearance alone.
- At the same time, Yusaku also notes three of Naoki's positive traits:
- He wouldn't talk that much about his Deck or Duel Disk were it not for his love for Duel Monsters.
- The fact that he has the latest Duel Disk model shows he keeps track of current events.
- He went to great lengths to communicate with an isolated and possibly lonely person, and thus doesn't seem like a bad person.
- Yusaku's analysis on why Naoki doesn't seem very strong:
