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E3 2015 Preview: Yo-Kai Watch

Yo-Kai Watch is pretty crazy.

I’m rather ashamed to admit that prior to walking into Nintendo’s E3 booth, I’d already written off the game as a Pokémon clone. In a way, it still kind of is, but it’s also much, much more.

A combination of Pokémon and Ghostbusters (and guaranteed you’ll be seeing that comparison almost everywhere), Yo-Kai Watch revolves around Nathan Adams – or Keita Amano in the east – a young boy who possesses the titular watch. Said accessory gives him the power to detect Yo-Kai all around him. The Yo-Kai are emotional spirits, some good and some bad, a portion of which will possess and influence the normal, everyday folk of the small American town Adams lives in.

With adorable Yo-Kai Whisper at Nathan’s side, I controlled the top-down game as Nathan left the small confines of his home – no, it doesn’t appear that his mother lives in the kitchen – and roamed the town in search of other Yo-Kai. The visuals of the game itself are very child-friendly and Pokémon like, with the crazy-scary exception of one Yo-Kai with a human head on a dog’s body.

yokaithatguys

That’ll give me nightmares for a while. Believe me, he’s a lot easier to handle in anime form than in-game.

I encountered my first spirit – one made of laziness, essentially – at the local park. The man who had been possessed by the spirit was the epitome of sloth. Hitting Y on the 3DS, I used the touchpad to scan the area with my watch in order to track down the spirit. Once found, the spirit wanted a fight. I was happy to give him one.

Fights in Yo-Kai Watch are controlled using the 3DS touchpad. On it, you’ve a wheel of six Yo-Kai, and four buttons on each corner of the circle. At the top are target and attack commands, and at the bottom, buttons for healing. You’re only able to attack with three Yo-Kai at a time; you can spin the wheel to align three with the game’s offensive or defensive button locations.

fightscreen

Battles in the hands-on demo were quick and efficient, but it’s clear later fights will require proper management, moving status-afflicted Yo-Kai to the bottom of the fight wheel, and fresh players to the top. Using a Yo-Kai’s special attack means you’ll also have to interact with the touchscreen, tracing patterns, tapping bubbles or spinning a wheel in order to power-up the move.

Beating the three Yo-Kai in the region, I found I didn’t capture any after a confrontation. Exploring in the town, I also encountered several friendly Yo-Kai; though we didn’t fight, I didn’t get to add them to my arsenal either. Time will tell how you expand your ranks… though those who can’t wait can pick up any of the previous two Yo-Kai games, already released in Japan, to get their fix.

All up, Yo-Kai Watch seems like a fun little game, perfectly suited for transit… or waiting in line at E3 queues. Yo-Kai Watch will be available this year on Nintendo 3DS.


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About the author

Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.