Yo-Kai Watch has become quite the sensation across the ocean in Japan. Noted for it's similarities to Pokemon, Yo-Kai Watch has you travelling a map in search of spirits to catch and battle with. Does it hit its mark?
Well, somewhat. The premise is pretty simple and very reminiscent of Pokemon. You play a child, around the age of 10, who is allowed to wander the streets unsupervised catching incredibly dangerous characters. The story is nothing to write home about. It's episodic in nature, but barely connects each episode. You'll find yourself helping one friend in Episode 4 (for example), only to move on to helping another person in Episode 5 with barely any correlation to the last episode. The final few episodes attempt to pull together some semblance of a story, but honestly, it wasn't enough to get excited for. The ending felt incredibly rushed and it happened way too soon. However, a good saving grace was the well written dialog. It was witty and humorous, something that is hard to find in a game marketed towards children.
Don't get me wrong, this is certainly not a short game. While I finished it in about 14 hours, I'd consider that a rushed playthrough. There is an abundance of side quests and of course a load of Yo-Kai to hunt and collect. Outside of the core elements of catching and battling, there are a few other things to do. For starters, there are bug and fish collecting minigames. They are pretty straight forward. You have to land a spinning mark on a specific section of a circle. The rarer the bug/fish, the harder it is. The bugs and fish are then used to either sell for cash or use in side-quests. In addition, there are at least two different unique "boss" challenges. One is an incredibly difficult boss that fights you if you break a certain rule a few times in a row. The second is a massive demon chase that makes use of your limited running ability. Both are challenging and are certainly fun. I'm sure there are more non-story based bosses that I've yet to encounter as well.
As for side quests, boy are there a lot! A lot of them are multi-part and do have some story aspects to them, but I'm not sure how to feel about them. Most of the quests I played were simple fetch quests that were incredibly boring. But, the developers did seem to put a lot of effort into the quests, so they are definitely worth a shot. My biggest gripe about the side-quests, is the absolutely poor map system. For the main quests, you usually get a marker as to where to go. However, for the side quests, you get no marker. You can't even turn off the marker for the main quest and turn it on for a side-quest. The best they do to help you is give you a hint as to where you have to go through the dialog from the quest giver and a hidden, never spoken of, button that shows you a general location as to where you should go. I spent so long looking for where to go, that I got incredibly frustrated. It's one thing if they mentioned the general location button, but they didn't. I had to find that through trial and error.
The biggest draw to this game are the Yo-Kai you can collect. There are certainly a bunch of Yo-Kai to catch and most, if not all, of their designs are fantastic. The developers really put emotion into the characters in this game and you will certainly adore some of these spirits. There is a big downside to this collecting however. In order to have a Yo-Kai join your team, you need to be lucky. Basically, Yo-Kai join your team randomly. You can sort of sway it into liking you by feeding it its favorite food. Unfortunately, I found absolutely no place in game that mentions or even hints at what each Yo-Kai likes! It's all trial and error, which is incredibly frustrating. Not only do you have to guess what they like, but even if you guess right and use the highest quality, most expensive item, there still is a chance they won't join you. Hell, I've used a $500 steak only to get a Yo-Kai I never targeted with food! I really think a Pokemon-like system would have benefited this game substantially. The random aspect really throws everything off and makes it frustrating. Also, Yo-Kai don't learn new moves. Instead, as they level, their moves level as well. In addition all Yo-Kai, at least I think all of them, can either evolve or fuse. If a Yo-Kai can't evolve, then it will fuse and vice versa. I don't think there is any Yo-Kai that can both evolve and fuse.
The combat system is surprisingly complex. At first glance though, it doesn't seem to be. The Yo-Kai will attack themselves and you only have a few options of input. You're limited to 6 Yo-Kai and they are placed on a circle. The front three will attack by themselves, while the back three will do nothing. The complexity comes into play with what you can do during the battle. During the battle, you have access to a few commands. The primary command that you use is the Soultimate. These are powerful moves that can do a variety of thing. You have to play a minigame to get them going however. These range from drawing symbols, to popping "balloons", to spinning a circle, and so on. Yo-Kai build up meters by attacking and these meters are fully unleashed when using a Soultimate. You can't spam the Soultimates, so it's all about strategy! The second thing you can do is simply rotate the circle of Yo-Kai. Someone is starting to die? Rotate him out! Simple enough! The third action you can do is utilize a pin. This pin is movable via the touch screen and serves a few purposes. Firstly, it allows you to target specific Yo-Kai or even specific body parts on the Yo-Kai (something featured heavily in boss battles). Secondly, spirit-like balls occasionally roam the battlefield and you can launch a pin at them to gain things such as items, bonus XP, affection increase on enemy Yo-Kai (what's used to recruit), and even something that will add to your Soultimate meter. Lastly, enemy Yo-Kai can "inspirit" your Yo-Kai. Basically, these are debuffs making your Yo-Kai do various things such as, not attack, attack its teamates, etc. You can rotate an inspirited Yo-Kai to the bottom three and then use the Purify option. Again, to purify, you have to go through a minigame. These minigames are exactly the same as the Soultimate minigames.
And that's not all. Before the battle, you can set the Yo-Kai, obvious enough. However, each Yo-Kai belong to a tribe and if you place Yo-Kai next to each other from the same tribe, they will get bonuses, such as movement speed or defense up. Even further, Yo-Kai have personalities. These determine what your Yo-Kai do during battle. A Yo-Kai that has a twisted personality will focus on Inspiriting techniques, while a Tender Yo-Kai will focus on healing. You can buy books that will change these personalities to further strategize before battle.
Conclusion
Long story short, I enjoyed the game. It certainly has its ups and downs though. I'm not a fan of the repetitive side-quests and the Yo-Kai collecting can be quite frustrating.
Pros:
-Excellent design and characterization of the Yo-Kai
-Battle system is innovative, fun and rewarding
-Graphics and design is beautiful and immersive
-There is a lot of depth and customization towards making your team
-A lot of things to do
Cons:
-Story is bland, boring and barely connects to itself
-Catching a Yo-Kai is purely luck
-The map system is vague and will have you wandering a lot, just looking for the right place
Final verdict? I liked this game and recommend it. If you enjoy collecting and battling with monsters, this game will be for you. If you don't care about the story and just want to battle all day, this game is for you. It could use a bit more refining, but it is definitely a good competitor for Pokemon!
~Ryan
Well, somewhat. The premise is pretty simple and very reminiscent of Pokemon. You play a child, around the age of 10, who is allowed to wander the streets unsupervised catching incredibly dangerous characters. The story is nothing to write home about. It's episodic in nature, but barely connects each episode. You'll find yourself helping one friend in Episode 4 (for example), only to move on to helping another person in Episode 5 with barely any correlation to the last episode. The final few episodes attempt to pull together some semblance of a story, but honestly, it wasn't enough to get excited for. The ending felt incredibly rushed and it happened way too soon. However, a good saving grace was the well written dialog. It was witty and humorous, something that is hard to find in a game marketed towards children.
Don't get me wrong, this is certainly not a short game. While I finished it in about 14 hours, I'd consider that a rushed playthrough. There is an abundance of side quests and of course a load of Yo-Kai to hunt and collect. Outside of the core elements of catching and battling, there are a few other things to do. For starters, there are bug and fish collecting minigames. They are pretty straight forward. You have to land a spinning mark on a specific section of a circle. The rarer the bug/fish, the harder it is. The bugs and fish are then used to either sell for cash or use in side-quests. In addition, there are at least two different unique "boss" challenges. One is an incredibly difficult boss that fights you if you break a certain rule a few times in a row. The second is a massive demon chase that makes use of your limited running ability. Both are challenging and are certainly fun. I'm sure there are more non-story based bosses that I've yet to encounter as well.
As for side quests, boy are there a lot! A lot of them are multi-part and do have some story aspects to them, but I'm not sure how to feel about them. Most of the quests I played were simple fetch quests that were incredibly boring. But, the developers did seem to put a lot of effort into the quests, so they are definitely worth a shot. My biggest gripe about the side-quests, is the absolutely poor map system. For the main quests, you usually get a marker as to where to go. However, for the side quests, you get no marker. You can't even turn off the marker for the main quest and turn it on for a side-quest. The best they do to help you is give you a hint as to where you have to go through the dialog from the quest giver and a hidden, never spoken of, button that shows you a general location as to where you should go. I spent so long looking for where to go, that I got incredibly frustrated. It's one thing if they mentioned the general location button, but they didn't. I had to find that through trial and error.
The biggest draw to this game are the Yo-Kai you can collect. There are certainly a bunch of Yo-Kai to catch and most, if not all, of their designs are fantastic. The developers really put emotion into the characters in this game and you will certainly adore some of these spirits. There is a big downside to this collecting however. In order to have a Yo-Kai join your team, you need to be lucky. Basically, Yo-Kai join your team randomly. You can sort of sway it into liking you by feeding it its favorite food. Unfortunately, I found absolutely no place in game that mentions or even hints at what each Yo-Kai likes! It's all trial and error, which is incredibly frustrating. Not only do you have to guess what they like, but even if you guess right and use the highest quality, most expensive item, there still is a chance they won't join you. Hell, I've used a $500 steak only to get a Yo-Kai I never targeted with food! I really think a Pokemon-like system would have benefited this game substantially. The random aspect really throws everything off and makes it frustrating. Also, Yo-Kai don't learn new moves. Instead, as they level, their moves level as well. In addition all Yo-Kai, at least I think all of them, can either evolve or fuse. If a Yo-Kai can't evolve, then it will fuse and vice versa. I don't think there is any Yo-Kai that can both evolve and fuse.
The combat system is surprisingly complex. At first glance though, it doesn't seem to be. The Yo-Kai will attack themselves and you only have a few options of input. You're limited to 6 Yo-Kai and they are placed on a circle. The front three will attack by themselves, while the back three will do nothing. The complexity comes into play with what you can do during the battle. During the battle, you have access to a few commands. The primary command that you use is the Soultimate. These are powerful moves that can do a variety of thing. You have to play a minigame to get them going however. These range from drawing symbols, to popping "balloons", to spinning a circle, and so on. Yo-Kai build up meters by attacking and these meters are fully unleashed when using a Soultimate. You can't spam the Soultimates, so it's all about strategy! The second thing you can do is simply rotate the circle of Yo-Kai. Someone is starting to die? Rotate him out! Simple enough! The third action you can do is utilize a pin. This pin is movable via the touch screen and serves a few purposes. Firstly, it allows you to target specific Yo-Kai or even specific body parts on the Yo-Kai (something featured heavily in boss battles). Secondly, spirit-like balls occasionally roam the battlefield and you can launch a pin at them to gain things such as items, bonus XP, affection increase on enemy Yo-Kai (what's used to recruit), and even something that will add to your Soultimate meter. Lastly, enemy Yo-Kai can "inspirit" your Yo-Kai. Basically, these are debuffs making your Yo-Kai do various things such as, not attack, attack its teamates, etc. You can rotate an inspirited Yo-Kai to the bottom three and then use the Purify option. Again, to purify, you have to go through a minigame. These minigames are exactly the same as the Soultimate minigames.
And that's not all. Before the battle, you can set the Yo-Kai, obvious enough. However, each Yo-Kai belong to a tribe and if you place Yo-Kai next to each other from the same tribe, they will get bonuses, such as movement speed or defense up. Even further, Yo-Kai have personalities. These determine what your Yo-Kai do during battle. A Yo-Kai that has a twisted personality will focus on Inspiriting techniques, while a Tender Yo-Kai will focus on healing. You can buy books that will change these personalities to further strategize before battle.
Conclusion
Long story short, I enjoyed the game. It certainly has its ups and downs though. I'm not a fan of the repetitive side-quests and the Yo-Kai collecting can be quite frustrating.
Pros:
-Excellent design and characterization of the Yo-Kai
-Battle system is innovative, fun and rewarding
-Graphics and design is beautiful and immersive
-There is a lot of depth and customization towards making your team
-A lot of things to do
Cons:
-Story is bland, boring and barely connects to itself
-Catching a Yo-Kai is purely luck
-The map system is vague and will have you wandering a lot, just looking for the right place
Final verdict? I liked this game and recommend it. If you enjoy collecting and battling with monsters, this game will be for you. If you don't care about the story and just want to battle all day, this game is for you. It could use a bit more refining, but it is definitely a good competitor for Pokemon!
~Ryan