Yo-Kai Watch is already a huge success in Japan, selling over 8 million copies in that country alone. Now, Level-5 and Nintendo are making a big push into the west, and it’s clear the duo want the franchise to be as big as Pokémon itself. Hell, before you can get to the cartridge inside its game case, you’ll have to deal with an inserted advertisement for crazy, upcoming Yo-Kai merchandise. Prepare yourselves for the onslaught, parents.
Its premise is fairly simple — as a male or female lead (which you can name however you choose), you discover a mystical vending machine. That, in turn, spits out a mystical watch (spoilers: it’s the titular Yo-Kai watch) that houses a mystical Yo-Kai named Whisper. It’s all very mystical. So too is the explaination of a Yo-Kai — they’re essentially ghosts, but more aptly, spirits of emotion. in the (rather Japanese) town of Springdale, Yo-Kai make people depressed or angry and help to cause traffic accidents and the like. They essentially take the blame of doing something wrong from the town’s folk. For a more in-depth explanation of what a Yo-Kai is, and what the watch does, check out the video below.
At any rate, Whisper’s billed as the Yo-Kai Butler, and that’s pretty spot on — he accompanies you on your journey and throws out advice as you travel around. Your goal throughout is rather simple: collect other Yo-Kai, usually by impressing them mid-battle. Collecting — or, rather, befriending — a Yo-Kai provides a badge, and those badges are used to select a team of six for future battles.
Despite what you may think, you’ll spend most of your time running around the very Japanese Springdale and interacting with its many citizens rather than battling. You’ll be thrown a never-ending amount of fetch quests, with their goal to usually aid the inhabitants of Springdale in some way. While the quests themselves are overly repetitious, there is a lot of enjoyment to be had in getting to know your character’s friends, foes and family. Aside from myriad gathering quests are side-missions that unlock further gameplay; you’ll need to find the Yo-Kai Baku so she’ll pretend to you be you, asleep in bed, allowing you to venture out at night.
Battles themselves practically run themselves. You’re in charge of a wheel of your six selected Yo-Kai — three, on top, are your active fighters and the three below merely rest of heal. Your Yo-Kai will attack passively without any input, leaving you free to manage who’s fighting and who’s on deck. Occasionally, after the ability is powered up, you’ll interact to unleash a powerful Soultimate move. That, of course, requires some deft tapping on the 3DS’ touchscreen to pull off.
Most times, you’ll feel like the GM of a sports team rather than Pokémon’s Ash. There are two main exceptions to this; in local wireless battles against a human Yo-Kai, um… trainer, I guess, and also in boss battles. In those situations, you’ll need to be controlling every single aspect of the fight rather than just the high-level stuff. In these types of battles, it’s equally as important to pick a grouping of Yo-Kai that work well together and play to each other’s strengths. I could easily see Yo-Kai Watch battles and tournaments becoming major fixtures in events like next year’s PAX AUS.
For a children’s game, Level-5 sometimes fails to make instructions or functions clear. You’re told that Yo-Kai can be stronger or weaker against others, but a way to figure out that pecking order simply escaped me. So too when trying to guess what to feed a Yo-Kai when in the process of captur– um, befriending, it. If you don’t guess correctly when a link isn’t clear, you’ll end up losing the Yo-kai altogether when it’s beaten instead.
On the whole, Yo-Kai Watch offers up above-quality, handheld, Nintendo fare. It’s got crisp, clear visuals, a catchy soundtrack, absurdity from every pore – there’s a Yo-Kai shaped as a butt and another is a dog with a human face – and is joyous overall. While not as complex as Pokémon, it makes for a perfect little way to get a break from the everyday… even if that escape sometimes gives you menial tasks you were hoping to avoid in real life anyway.
Yo-Kai Watch was reviewed using a retail copy on 3DS, as provided by the publisher.
Review: Yo-Kai Watch
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