For Example, the Story. I'd give the Story a 6/10. There's very little nuance and everything is very laid out for you, as well as Aichi starting as basically a god of the game after only playing a few times was very immersion-breaking. In the original series, Aichi, for the first few games, is complete ass. And that is great, because it makes it feel much more real and grounded as opposed to this now where he's kind of just at the level of a worlds winner after MAYBE a week, whereas most real worlds winners have played for years.
The art, is pretty good (8/10). There's nothing really wrong with the art and the character models do look really good. My only gripe would be that the backgrounds like PAINFULLY average, and they really contrast the characters in terms of quality. There are exceptions, like the river scene when Aichi is the big sad, god that river looks amazing, and most actual games look great, but outside of that the backgrounds really distract me from thinking it looks necessarily amazing.
The sound is pretty mediocre. (5/10). The OP is great, the ED is alright, I guess? Most of the sound design is boring and uninspired, but there are a few nice tracks here and there. Not a COMPLETE drought but not an overall great soundtrack.
The characters are.. alright (5/10). They're definitely not bad, and Kai's backstory adds a lot more to HIS character, but Aichi and Ren's character and duality were butchered in terms of quality. Psychi is underrepresented, Ren is more of a copypaste bad guy with not nearly enough time to develop and the story kind of just assumes you've seen the original before they talko no jutsu him into being friends which feels extremely unnatural and a far cry from the original.
I really did enjoy this series (8/10), as a fan of the Card Game, watching the characters play it and being able to follow and understand what they're doing makes it a lot of fun for me as an individual, not that it really affects it's overall quality.
Overall, I'd give this show a 7/10. There's interesting ideas and the bombastic and over-the-top duels feel alive and like they're happening right in front of you but the show's story really drags down the ship.
