Grab your battle watch rather than your proton pack and befriend strangely odd yet cute ghosts in the world of Yo-Kai. But while it’s not much of a challenge, the game has an impressive, binge-worthy and well-written storyline that’s completely enjoyable.
By the developers of Professor Layton, Fantasy Life and Inazuma Eleven, Level-5 brings another solid RPG to the 3DS. With its Japanese roots, the Yo-Kai Watch franchise has stolen the hearts of Eastern gamers and topped the popularity charts with its sequels, an anime show and manga. And while it hasn’t repeated the same success over in the US, its niche play style will enthral youngsters and casual players.
Featuring eleven chapters in total, as well as some great post-game content, Yo-Kai Watch places you in either Nate or Katie’s shoes as you begin your journey in sunny Springdale searching for bugs. As part of a school project with your friends, you must travel deep into Mount Wildwood to discover those rarer insects. But on the way, a strange shrine seems to emanate power, drawing you in close. Touching the ball capsule machine spits out Whisper, the friendly ghost, who’s been trapped in a pseudo Poké Ball for many years – though ironically his uncles are nowhere to be found. Despite the uncanny references at play here, Whisper does resume the role of a Butler and becomes your apparitional stalker throughout the game.
By giving you a special watch, Whisper explains that he’s a Yo-Kai and that there are many others like him in Springdale. But not everyone can see Yo-Kai, in fact it’s only those with special abilities or those who own a Yo-Kai Watch that are able to trace the shadows and track down the creatures. By using your watch, players can easily find hidden Yo-Kai and befriend them in battle, adding them to the Medallium; a handy catalogue used to keep Yo-Kai medals of those you befriend. Once you’ve taken them under your helm, your chosen avatar can summon these adorable creatures into battle as you progress through the storyline. Tasked with saving the city from the bad Yo-Kai who have mysteriously appeared, you’ll need to rely on your wits and your friends to defeat the troublesome monsters.
Taking most of its inspiration from games such as Pokemon and visual aspects from the Professor Layton series, Yo-Kai Watch differs considerably in its battle layout. While many RPG games let the players make the decisions in battle, the adorable Yo-Kai are in charge of their own moves, are able to speak, and can make requests from players in-game. Featuring a distinct battle formation, players can use up to six Yo-Kai in battle, but only three can be active at any one time, appearing as a trio that work together. Placed in a circle on the touch screen, you’ll be able to use your stylus to rotate Yo-Kai in and out of battle, depending on type match ups and status problems.
With the game making heavy use of the bottom touch screen, there are four options you’ll need to utilise to help your Yo-Kai in battle. While the target and item buttons are self-explanatory for pinpointing an enemy’s weak spot and healing, Soultimate and Purify give the player more to actively do. Soultimate is a Yo-Kai’s special move and allows them to unleash incredible power across the battlefield at various enemies or target one specific enemy. For example, one of the story’s lead Yo-Kai Jibanyan, the furious feline, can unveil his trademark Paws of Fury. Players will have to tap floating medals, spin the stylus in circles, or trace certain marks on the touch screen to complete the move. But you won’t be able to use your Soultimate move endlessly as it takes time to charge up the soul meter icon in battle.
Similarly, the purify button is heavily used within the game. Enemy Yo-Kai may use certain moves to inspirit your friends, meaning they will lose health steadily, fall asleep, or permanently loaf around. Purifying your battlers is the same as using a soultimate move; pop the bubbles on screen, rub the poisonous dust from them and spin the sickness out of them. Both soultimate and purify are intriguing features that work well within the battles and can be quite challenging during bosses to switch back and forth between.
Yet the battle system becomes quite monotonous and archaic over time, with very little to really do when your Yo-Kai are of a higher level. It’s in these moments that I challenged myself to make a cup of coffee in the time it took to finish a Yo-Kai battle. Sadly, the battles were over in 30 seconds or less and I barely had time to boil the kettle and pop my spoon of coffee in my mug. Perhaps I should have challenged myself to do 10 sit ups instead, but that requires too much effort on my part. Players can even use the fast forward function to skip merrily through battles and their Yo-Kai will barely even suffer a scratch. Talk about efficient.
After the battle ends, your six chosen Yo-Kai are awarded experience points – regardless if they battled or not – which is fantastic for grinding low-levelled ghosts. You may even be approached by a Yo-Kai who wants to befriend you, seemingly drawn on a RNG calculator, rather than set in stone if you feed it their favourite food. Catching or befriending Yo-Kai is too much of a farce and completely unnecessary to complete the 25 to 30 hour game, particularly when those you acquire through the storyline or quests are much better than the ones you can befriend out in the wild.
Outside of the main storyline, quests are perhaps the most interesting part of Yo-Kai Watch. From upgrading your watch ranks through E to S to battle more powerful ghosts, to helping inspirited humans out of their current mess, each quest is varied enough to avoid repetition and boredom. Some of the game’s best writing is also featured during quests; witty puns and hilarious anecdotes included.
But it’s in Yo-Kai Watch’s attention to detail and its overall pace that really allows the game to shine. With visually stunning scenery in the sunshine, to dull and dreary realism – but sporting cute little raincoats and umbrellas – when it’s raining, Springdale is just beautiful to leisurely walk, run and cycle within. Players can even push the wait button when crossing the road to be awarded an item for safety first behaviour. And when travelling starts to get boring, there’s an opportunity to start using warp mirrors throughout the city, cutting out the need to cycle everywhere.
As part of its way to alter the game’s light-hearted pace, the Japanese RPG also draws upon a nightmarish element in Terror Time. In the first instance, Terror Time is a horrifying run against the clock with a gargantuan devil-like boss nipping at your heels. But over the course of the game, Terror Time becomes an irksome and entirely unnecessary sequence that offers up very little reward for too much effort. Worst of all, it pops up spontaneously during the game, perhaps when I’ve been idle in a place too long, or coincidentally when you are about to enter a boss lair. There’s also no consequences for when you get caught either, you’ll just arrive back in your bed; safe and warm. Similar to the bug catching and fishing aspects of the game, Terror Time isn’t nightmarish, it’s just fruitless.
Ideal for younger and casual players, Yo-Kai Watch is a relaxing bedtime story adventure. Though it features an archaic battle system and some aimless elements during gameplay, its storyline and attention to detail is top-notch, reeling adults in with its blissful simplicity. But when all is said and done, you’ve got to remember that if there’s something strange in your neighbourhood, just who you gonna call? Your Yo-Kai.
8/10
Based on the PAL version.
Christ, I live in the US and picked up a copy back in November. And I’m only NOW just playing it.
Don’t listen to people who says this is shit or a rip off. Already played it in 2013 and also beat the 2nd game. They are great and will make you feel like a kid again in a way Pokémon can’t. About that, the game is also very different from Pokémon gameplay wise and may not be as complicated but it’s still a hell’uva fun game.
Colette (If that’s your preferred name), I’m absolutely appalled that you did not address the gender and identity issues in this game. Why am I FORCED to play as a male with whom I cannot identify with?
Furthermore, I’m offended by your thoughtless use of the terms “young”, “casual”, and “adult”. Those are labels. THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A SAFE ENVIORMENT. LABELS ARE NOT ALLOWED.
It is YOUR responsibility to ensure that this space stays safe, yet your blatant use of labels and generalization (“The Yo-Kai”? Don’t you understand that each being may have a different, preferred persona with whom they identify with?) has triggered anxiety and I’m having a really hard time dealing with it. I request that you step down.
Sickr, same with you. As the leader of this community, it is your responsibility to assure that I do not come across offensive material on your domain.
Those Level-5 bigots.
Why don’t you just write your own review instead of complaining. Colette did a fine job and put a lot of work and effort in this. It is just so easy to criticize someone else, isn’t it?
I wouldn’t worry too much about it. You can play as a male or female character. The commenter is just stirring up unnecessary trouble. But thank you for your kind comment there, it really is appreciated. :)
Read my name, yo.
What. You actually play as a girl tho. You play as Fumiko/Katie. http://www.siliconera.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/023_thumb2.jpg
Joke or not it’s good to let people know it’s possible. They advertise the story as “About a boy” but while the boy is technically the “default” the female character isn’t a different version of him.
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