The Verdict
I know I came in saying that Yo-kai Watch doesn't play like Pokemon, and yet I spent a few points comparing the two. It's impossible to draw comparisons in games that both center around catching monsters and using them for battle.
However, Yo-kai Watch still manages to be different enough to separate itself from Nintendo's monster-catching giant. It's got some great visuals and voiceovers, especially for some of the Yo-kai, and the episodic gameplay manages to keep the game's pacing interesting. It's also nice that you can essentially play through an episode, solve that episode's problem, put the game away and pick it up again, now focusing on something new entirely. It's like having an entire season of a show on Netflix. You can either binge on the entire thing right away, or space it out according to your schedule.
I sincerely hope Yo-kai Watch manages to draw a crowd in the US. It's a fantastic game that I'd love to see a full franchise for here. And since the anime already started airing in October, there is a good chance that it might just happen.
The Positives
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Since it's Level-5, you can rest assured that the game will not only look great, but play great as well. Level-5 has an impressive track record for making beautiful anime-style games that perform spectacularly even under the confines of the Nintendo 3DS.
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Not a Pokemon clone, which is fantastic. Yo-kai Watch uses a lot of unique mechanics, whether it's use of the stylus or even the touch-screen during exploration and combat, that separate it from its monster collecting sibling.
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For the most part, you're exploring your home town and neighboring areas, which means you won't be going on a grand quest across the continent to rid the world of evil Yo-kai, but that's actually quite alright. It gives a slight sense of realism when realizing that you're playing as a young child with constraints like a bedtime (though the game lets you bypass that at some point).
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The Yo-kai themselves are great! They all talk, each one having a different personality, and some of them even having some backstories that you'll be helping them out with.
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The battle system can be tricky, but it's certainly unique. Instead of being turn-based, they all play out in real-time, sort of. You don't directly give your Yo-kai commands. Instead, they'll auto-attack, heal and defend on their own volition. You on the other hand have to worry about a few other things like Yo-kai placement, targeting, using items, and activating super attacks. While that all may sound a little daunting, it's actually not that bad.
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The super attacks get charged as Yo-kai battle, and then activate by performing a mini-game, whether it's to rotate a wheel on the touch-screen, tap orbs as they fly by, or trace rune-like symbols. Once they're activated, the super attacks are not only great for damaging enemies or buffing your party, but they look great as well.
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You can have up to six Yo-kai in battle at a time, but only three are ever actively fighting. You switch Yo-kai by rotating a circle on the bottom, which literally shifts them in the direction you're turning in.
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Furthermore, Yo-kai have various affinities, which you can think of like types in Pokemon. If you match two or three monsters with the same affinities next to one another in battle, they'll gain various stat boosts.
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Boss battles are actually one of the most fun you'll have, but they are also the most difficult. Many of them will have you heavily using the game's targeting system to exploit the bosses weakness. One of the bosses was a giant plant with three heads, and I constantly had to make sure my Yo-kai were attacking the vulnerable head. Likewise, a pig boss was constantly shifting guarding his face or his stomach, which had me switching the targeting between the two, to ensure I kept doing consisting damage. This all must be done on top of pulling off super attacks, healing your Yo-kai, as well as rotating monsters in and out of battle. It can get pretty hectic.
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The structure of the game is handled very well. Unlike Pokemon which is a grand adventure that continually unfolds as you arrive in new towns, Yo-kai Watch plays out like a TV series with episodes, each dealing with a different problem, but tied together through an over-arching narrative.
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Monster fusing is great, and there are some truly cool looking Yo-kai you can obtain through this system.
The Negatives
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Despite its looks, I'd say this game is much less inviting to a younger crowd, thanks to its unique and frantic battle system. Whereas Pokemon allowed the player to take as much time as they wanted between turns to figure out tactics with easy to understand attacks, Yo-kai just throws you into the fray with increasingly hard enemies as you go.
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The act of catching, or persuading, Yo-kai to join your team can be somewhat infuriating. You can throw them a food item that you hope they like, and then after battle, there's a chance that they'll ask to join your team. I didn't really like this uncertainty. Unlike Pokemon, where you can keep throwing pokeballs until you succeed, here you can only throw a single piece of food, and then hope they liked it enough to join you.
While Western fans will just now be getting their hands on Yo-kai watch for the first time, it's already somewhat of a culture phenomenon in Japan. It quickly rose to popularity, and spawned tons of merchandise as well as as TV show based on the games.
Yo-kai Watch puts you in the shoes of a girl or boy protagonist who comes across the titular device, which allows them to see Yo-kai, or demons, in the regular world. Turns out these Yo-kai are causing trouble and are often the source of mischief. Sometimes it even causes more pressing issues like having your parents fight. During your adventure, you'll be tasked with dealing with these pesky Yo-kai as well as befriending them to add them to your team. Because of this, many people will either compare or dismiss Yo-kai Watch as a Pokemon clone. Let me assure you that this is definitely not the case. While there are similarities, both games play quite different from one another.
Was Yo-kai watch worth the wait, or is the monster collecting game a case of too little, too late? Let's find out.
