Pretty solid even if you don't understand Japanese. I think the combat is pretty enjoyable and if it was localized would draw more people in but the story being spread across multiple movies doesn't really help 💀. I think exploration is less of a focus in this game and it feels way less interconnected than previous games due to the time travel aspect. Ultimately, it's a fun experience but I think it lacks in the sheer volume of content as it's predecessors especially in terms of, again, exploration but is still a meaty experience WITH the dlc.
The switch from the 3ds to next gen console definitely can be felt in this title. Not a great game when comparing it to the last few games in the franchise. The only redeeming qualities of the game is it's story and DLC
As an English speaker this review should be taken with an extreme grain of salt but I felt like this was a pretty good jump from 3DS to switch for the series. It has much less content than its predecessors, but is still a good time and has a lot to enjoy. Really want this to get localized.
Better than Pokemon and I stand by this for eternity.
if you're playing this without the english patch you're [very dumb and silly and stupid] play it and realize this game is the best in the series
review altered because my last one got removed for using offensive language apparently
As expected for this series, mediocre. Battles are fun at first, but grow tedious quickly.
maybe it's just because I'm some cracker who doesn't understand Japanese but I was not invested in this game. stuck around for the funny Yo-kai themselves but I didn't love how things were formatted and the weird cut of content between this and 3.
in a lot of ways, youkai 4 feels like a love letter to the fans. universes from three mainline games and two feature films are brought together to make for an astounding amount of dialogue. it's hard not to see this game as the apex of the youkai experience.
unfortunately, it's still a little too rough around the edges. the frame rate is abysmal, the monster collecting is purely up to RNG on both unreliable spawns and material drop rates, difficulty is acutely rubber-banded, there are very few animated cinematics or voiced cut-scenes, and combat is largely a meme. i also never felt compelled to grind or grow my team - especially since are so often given higher tiered monsters just by finishing quests.
i kept holding out thinking that maybe at the post-game the collecting and battling would come into its own but it really doesn't. the extra play modes (youkai blasters and sumo tournaments etc.) aren't engaging enough to warrant grinding and ultimately everything is just plagued by the poor difficulty scaling and framerate.
i do however think the general design of the combat system is a direction pokemon-battlers aught to take in the future. the trainer can choose to actively support or engage in battle themselves. the whole thing kind of feels like a WoW raid - trying to keep your allies mana topped off and also managing your cooldown abilities. in a pinch you can freeze combat to administer a heal or switch trainers (also tied to cooldowns to prevent cheesing). and also similar to WoW, there are a lot of red circles and obvious telegraphs - but that's about all there is in terms of combat execution.
anyway, if you pretend the game is largely a VN and a walking simulator it's fine enough.
unfortunately, it's still a little too rough around the edges. the frame rate is abysmal, the monster collecting is purely up to RNG on both unreliable spawns and material drop rates, difficulty is acutely rubber-banded, there are very few animated cinematics or voiced cut-scenes, and combat is largely a meme. i also never felt compelled to grind or grow my team - especially since are so often given higher tiered monsters just by finishing quests.
i kept holding out thinking that maybe at the post-game the collecting and battling would come into its own but it really doesn't. the extra play modes (youkai blasters and sumo tournaments etc.) aren't engaging enough to warrant grinding and ultimately everything is just plagued by the poor difficulty scaling and framerate.
i do however think the general design of the combat system is a direction pokemon-battlers aught to take in the future. the trainer can choose to actively support or engage in battle themselves. the whole thing kind of feels like a WoW raid - trying to keep your allies mana topped off and also managing your cooldown abilities. in a pinch you can freeze combat to administer a heal or switch trainers (also tied to cooldowns to prevent cheesing). and also similar to WoW, there are a lot of red circles and obvious telegraphs - but that's about all there is in terms of combat execution.
anyway, if you pretend the game is largely a VN and a walking simulator it's fine enough.