[Review] Yo-kai Watch
System: 3DS
Release date: November 6, 2015
Developer: Level-5
Publisher Nintendo
Author: Dennis
Few games in the last few years have excelled at making me feel truly lost in their world. When these types of experiences come about, they can make you forget who you are, your age, status, and more due to the fact that you’re so invested in them your mind completely clears. Yo-kai Watch manages to accomplish this and delivers an unbelievable experience that excels in everything it has to offer, from its graphics, gameplay, story, mechanics, as well as an art form a lot of games don’t bother utilizing anymore: humor.
Yo-kai Watch opens with a nice animated cinematic that gives players a summary of the events and what to expect. It’s a charming little intro that gets you ready to delve into the events to come, and be on your way encountering and befriending Yo-kai. Even though Yo-kai Watch’s advertisements have focused on the boy, you can also select a girl when you start the game.
Immediately upon choosing, you’ll find yourself given the freedom to run around Springdale, though the game expands into more territories later on. It’s not too much longer after beginning where you’ll run into your first Yo-kai friend, Whisper, by accident while looking for bugs to catch. Once that happens a full-fledged cut-scene will initiate, bringing the world to life even more with great animation and voice acting to go along with it. After seeing this, I fell in love with the fact that I could now place voices in my head of the Yo-kai – which conveniently all speak fluent English – while reading the text in the future. Though I was worried this would be a one-time occurrence like some games do to reserve space, I was pleasantly surprised by the plethora of cut-scenes that appeared making my way through the adventure, giving a nice balance between that and basic text.
Whisper not only gifts you the Yo-kai Watch after meeting him so you can help rid Springdale of mischievous Yo-kai, but also serves as your guide as you progress. He’ll help explain various mechanics as well as all the things you can do within Yo-kai Watch, which is surprisingly deep in content, and do so in the most succinct way possible, so it doesn’t all become overwhelming for the player. This is something I very much appreciated.
The gameplay of Yo-kai Watch and the story it presents is delivered in an episodic format to keep things centered on a certain goal and theme. The end of each episode or “chapter” will typically have a boss – though not always – to test all that you’ve learned and how well you’ve trained and bonded with your Yo-kai.
Yo-kai are obtained randomly, though you can increase your chances of befriending one by giving it food, which there is a variety of. Some Yo-kai will like certain foods, increasing your chance, while others will detest the taste of some. Alternatively, food and items can be used towards your own Yo-kai to replenish health, boost speed and stamina temporarily, among other things. Combining similar types of Yo-kai in your Watch will give them a huge boost in battle, especially when you have three similar types, providing you with an advantage and reaping better rewards this way. There is undoubtedly a huge factor of addiction in wanting to complete your list of Yo-kai as you receive a metal each time you befriend one. I found myself spending hours among hours wanting to complete my catalog, and with hundreds to befriend, you’ll be busy for a while.
The battle system in Yo-kai Watch is fairly simplistic in terms of RPG standards, as the fighting is all done automatically. This slightly irked me as someone who’s been playing RPGs since the day I’ve been able to hold a controller in my hands as I like to be able to strategically pick and choose my moves and the enemy in which they’ll attack. What you can do in battles, however, is initiate Soultimates, which are specials for Yo-kai. Every Yo-kai has a unique Soultimate which will typically do damage to all members of the opposing party. Others have some that inspirit enemies – reducing stats and giving them ailments – as well as some that have the ability to heal your party back to full health. When triggering Soultimates, you’ll be given an instruction to follow where you’ll utilize the touchpad in some way, such as spinning or tracing what’s on screen to fire up the Soultimate.
The auto-attack system may seem problematic to some, but once you delve deeper into the game, you start to find it’s actually convenient that that’s the case. You can use the touch screen of the 3DS to “pin” enemies, which will direct all attacks to one until they’re defeated. You can also utilize items strategically to both buff as well as increase your chances of obtaining other Yo-kai, “Purifying” your Yo-kai in the process which will essentially rid them of any issues they’ve received by being inspirited by enemy Yo-kai. It almost has a real-time strategy and tower defense vibe to it while remaining very much RPG-centric. It’s certainly unorthodox, but it works to its advantage.
One aspect Yo-kai Watch nails very well is sound design and music composition. As if the title didn’t already excel in its atmosphere as a whole already, the music complements the game very well. While you’re out and about, you’ll usually hear a catchy tune reminiscent of old-school RPGs, one that’s lighthearted and easy to whistle along to, looped endlessly but never to an annoyance. The music always changes perfectly between battles, cut-scenes, interactions, and much more, really making the humor, charm, and world of Yo-kai Watch so insanely palpable that it’s no wonder why it’s been such a huge hit since you truly feel like you’re part of everything that’s going on. The world comes to life as you encounter multiple characters and random passersby, never leaving a dull moment during your time.
Whether you’re playing Yo-kai Watch in small bursts or long sessions, you’ll never truly get tired of it or run out of things to do. Besides the main story, you can take on a myriad of side quests in the form of “requests” and “favors”. Requests are one time quests that’ll end once you’ve completed them, but favors can be done over and over again over intermittently. Doing requests and favors help to increase experience for your Yo-kai as well as reward you with items you usually wouldn’t find anywhere else, so it’s always a good idea when you have down time to do some of these. They’re fun and never feel like a nuisance either, which makes even the fetch-quests usually in RPGs something to look forward to! Yo-kai Watch is truly a game that we need more of, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Yo-kai Watch is an incredible experience that is sure to please all fans of the genre. With a sense of humor suitable for all ages, charm, and its beautiful aesthetics, there is no doubt the series is on its way to being a huge success for Level-5, if Japan’s reception to the series is any indication. The only real crime the game has is the fact it took so long to get localized so people all over the world could enjoy such a fantastic title that makes you smile and, for those well past their teens, feel like a kid again in the purest sense.
Yo-kai Watch has received plenty of comparisons to Pokémon, and even been labeled a Pokémon destroyer, but it’s easy to differentiate the two. On the outside, they look alike, but once you get your hands on it you’ll quickly realize that besides collecting monsters – which many games have done in the past – Yo-kai Watch is its own brand, world, atmosphere, and source of a good time, just like Pokémon is.
Level-5’s monster collecting RPG is great fun for everyone, and its ability to connect with other Yo-kai Watch players for battles and random prizes will increase the longevity of Yo-kai Watch even further. If there’s any game you should be playing this holiday season, it’s Yo-kai Watch.
