Fun and unique take on the monster collecting RPG genre, although some of the mechanics can be very frustrating at times such as befriending new Yo Kai being even more luck based than catching Pokemon somehow and the requirements to get some Yo Kai being an unreasonable grind. Frustrations aside, this game is oozing with charm and is worth a play if you just plan on going through the main story and post game dungeon.
pokemon but good
i didnt like the combat system tho, the anime was a big part of my childhood so recently i gave the game a try
its basic child fun
i didnt like the combat system tho, the anime was a big part of my childhood so recently i gave the game a try
its basic child fun
The original Yo-Kai Watch was a rather jarring game to come back to as my last in the western-released trilogy. Many mechanics were obviously absent, though I never expected Jibanyan would only become a main character in the second game, and most of all I noticed a massive difference in the game's structure. Instead of having chapters follow a connected storyline, Yo-Kai Watch 1 instead goes for a slice-of-life format similar to its corresponding anime.
While not nearly as long as its successors, therefore not putting its mark on me the same way the second installment did, I still found myself having a wonderful time with this game. It did exactly what it set out to do, and then it ended. I love that it doesn't just feel like a lesser version of its sequels, it simply feels like its own thing. It's still as cozy and charming as I had hoped, and set a sublime groundwork for the future of the series. Would highly recommend.
While not nearly as long as its successors, therefore not putting its mark on me the same way the second installment did, I still found myself having a wonderful time with this game. It did exactly what it set out to do, and then it ended. I love that it doesn't just feel like a lesser version of its sequels, it simply feels like its own thing. It's still as cozy and charming as I had hoped, and set a sublime groundwork for the future of the series. Would highly recommend.
master class
love it but the gameplay is mid
Genre: Creature Collection
When it comes to Yo-kai Watch the story isn't that engaging but it does fit the vibe of the series. It does make sense that it's a bit souless as this series was designed as an IP instead of as a game they desired to make (source). The gameplay is honestly pretty innovative, it can get a little fatiguing if you're grinding but that isn't a requirement in this game at all. They also took care to add an internal narrative logic to navigating the world which I think is quite charming. Speaking of charming the visuals are incredibly appealing and are a major part of my love for this game. The yo-kai designs are fun and out there which really showcases the unique personalities of each Yo-kai. As for the soundtrack it is pretty forgettable but I think that's a positive honestly, it never takes you out of the sleepy little burg that is Springdale. Finally when it comes to how Yo-kai Watch compares to other Creature Collection games I feel is has a leg up when it comes to team building and training the Yo-kai you've collected but falls short in the actual collecting mechanic. It's just a bit too random and really discourages people from collecting all of the Yo-kai in the game. Regardless I definitely have a soft spot in my heart for this game.
tl;dr
Story: Half Star
Gameplay: Full Star
Visuals: Full Star
Audio: Half Star
Genre: Half Star
Total: 3.5 / 5 Stars
When it comes to Yo-kai Watch the story isn't that engaging but it does fit the vibe of the series. It does make sense that it's a bit souless as this series was designed as an IP instead of as a game they desired to make (source). The gameplay is honestly pretty innovative, it can get a little fatiguing if you're grinding but that isn't a requirement in this game at all. They also took care to add an internal narrative logic to navigating the world which I think is quite charming. Speaking of charming the visuals are incredibly appealing and are a major part of my love for this game. The yo-kai designs are fun and out there which really showcases the unique personalities of each Yo-kai. As for the soundtrack it is pretty forgettable but I think that's a positive honestly, it never takes you out of the sleepy little burg that is Springdale. Finally when it comes to how Yo-kai Watch compares to other Creature Collection games I feel is has a leg up when it comes to team building and training the Yo-kai you've collected but falls short in the actual collecting mechanic. It's just a bit too random and really discourages people from collecting all of the Yo-kai in the game. Regardless I definitely have a soft spot in my heart for this game.
tl;dr
Story: Half Star
Gameplay: Full Star
Visuals: Full Star
Audio: Half Star
Genre: Half Star
Total: 3.5 / 5 Stars
It's ok. The quests are often very simple and the very few dungeons in this game are very short. You can basically go to sleep during 90% of battles but they can be fun from time to time. Story exists. Meh
For a game I only picked up because it was $13 on Play Asia at one point and time, I enjoyed this game IMMENSELY. It is by FAR the most competent and fun Pokemon-like I have ever played, and I can completely see why it is SO popular here and abroad (but mostly abroad ;p). I'm not sure if I'm ready to say that I enjoy Youkai Watch more than Pokemon, but I enjoyed it a lot. I'm not sure how much of that is just having something so technically competant but so different from Pokemon when Pokemon has been so similar for so long, though, however.
First things first out of the way: For those of you who might've guessed otherwise (as I did), not being a Layton game does not mean that Level-5 can suddenly write well. The story is a total pacing cluster-fuck, with new, VERY plot significant characters being introduced right up until the very last chapter, characters whom you've never even met up to that point except perhaps in passing (literally, like on the street). The story comes to the last chapter really suddenly, and even though the game tries to do things like introduce mystery characters who seem all mysterious, it doesn't use them to any noteworth effect. HOWEVER, being as this is FAR more silly and mechanically-oriented (at least in terms of its presentation) than something like Layton, I felt that the bad pacing didn't really hurt the game too much. The characters themselves are very fun and silly, especially Whisper and your main character, so you never really feel like you just hate everyone, just that you're not that involved in the overarching plot of things.
The gameplay itself is certainly not without its problems, but it's the most fun spin on the Pokemon formula I've encountered. First up is the good stuff. The game plays like a real-time Pokemon where your whole team battles at once. You have three active and three inactive Youkai at a time on a wheel-system, and you can literally rotate the wheel to rotate them in and out as they become hurt or incapacitated. Your Youkai fight completely on their own, and other than giving them items to affect their "personality" (i.e. battle move-priorities), there's not a whole lot you can do about it. Granted, different Youkai do have different moves, you don't really have an easy way of viewing all of these moves in a UI of some kind, so it works best just to try different Youkai configurations to see what works. Although, just because your Youkai move by themselves, that doesn't mean that you don't have any way of keeping occupied yourself.
In battle, the things you, the player, can do will usually keep you occupied enough that you rarely have down time. First off, each Youkai has a super-move that can be used by playing one of a random series of mini-games. The top-screen action doesn't stop while you're doing these mini-games, so getting fast at them is a real strategy tactic. Additionally, when your guys get status effects (burn, slow, paralyze, etc.) you can rotate (literally) them out to do a different set of mini-games to get them back to tip-top shape. You also get extra EXP for doing those mini-games, so it's well worth it. You do need to have your Youkai's special-meter full before you can do special moves though, which is good, because some are VASTLY better than others (depending on the Youkai). You can also equip one item on each Youkai which will shuffle their stats in some way (almost every item with a stat benefit has some negative effect on some other stat, to keep them from being straight up "why the fuck wouldn't you use it"-buffs). On top of the above, you can literally 'pin' a target for your Youkai to focus on (and you can also use that pin to pop bubbles that float past the top screen for power-ups and items, no joke), as well as use items to feed to your Youkai or the enemy, which brings me to how you even catch these guys.
There is no such thing as a Youkai-Pokeball. Instead, this is much more like the awful Ni No Kuni method of catching monsters: You beat them up and then just hope to god that they decide to join you after the battle. You can give them their favorite type of food (of which there is no record or indication of in the game. You've gotta figure it out with trial and error and then just remember who likes which specific category of food) to up your chances, but it's usually never by any significant feeling margin. Especially because there are some Youkai which are legitimately very rare (like Noko) who appear very rarely, sometimes EXTREMELY rarely (there was one that will appear randomly in place of another Youkai, and I saw but two of in my fifty hours of play), this makes it a SUUUUUPER pain in the ass to actually get Youkai you really want reliably or in any meaningfully quick fashion. You can also only feed enemy Youkai (even a food they don't like) once during battle, so there's no food-spam option. This is, in my opinion, what Youkai Watch gets the most wrong about the Pokemon formula, and is my biggest hesitation with recommending the game to another fan of the genre.
That said, the above method of forcing you to fight tons of Youkai does have some useful side-effects. First off, this game has no trainers. Even though you have a party of six Youkai which you can rotate, you will never fight another Youkai Watch-kateer, so you'll only ever fight up to three other Youkai at a time. Additionally, becasue there are no trianers, the wild Youkai you fight are just far tougher than wild Pokemon tend to be. Because you have to fight Youkai very repetedly to catch them, this led to me accidentally doing a TON of grinding I hadn't intended to do, just because I wanted to catch all of dem Youkai. Wild Youkai also drop money, so I also never had any remote money problem despite all of the Youkai food I had to keep buying. It's basically the equivalent of if there were unlimited Pokemon trainers to fight, and the only way to catch Pokemon was to hope that the trainer gave you them once you beat them in battle. It's an interesting and somewhat useful side-effect, but I don't think that it outweighs the more significant problem posed in Youkai befriending (You don't capture, you befriend (with violence)!).
The last most notable thing about Youkai is that not only do they have specific ranks (six different ranks, E through S), but they also rarely evolve. Out of 220-ish Youkai, only about 15 or so evolve through levels, and another 15 or so evolve through being combined with other Youkai, and then another 15 or so by being combined with special items. This makes it so that you are quite often switching out Youkai completely to make different or sometimes completely new team configurations just because the stats on higher ranked Youkai are just so much objectively better (although it can take a little while to find a move-set that gels well with your team and personal style). If you've ever played Dragon Quest Monsters/Joker, this will seem fairly famliar to you, but I believe that Youkai watch does that system not just better, but correctly.
The REALLY (really) annoying thing about DQM series is that you need to combine ALL monsters together to make stronger ones, and you really don't have much concept at all of just how strong or spellfully teched out this new monster will be. That process CONSUMES both parents, and you're only left with a child, so you can seriously fuck yourself over and have to do a ton of grinding for a whole new team if you get some unlucky breeds with your main team members. In Youkai watch, it's just straight up replacements, so if a new team member isn't working out, you can just swap the old guy back in, no problems. Additionally, because higher ranked guys might be a bit better, lower ranked guys can still level just as high as anyone else, and since your main team will likely be higher level than most enemies you encounter, there's an incentive to keep lower ranked veterans in your team whom you like, even though they're lower rank. For example, I had a C-rank in my team all the way up to the end of the game, just because he was such high level and a very reliable damage-dealer. Additionally, there are some REALLY good items near the end of the game that can ONLY be equpped on D-rank or lower Youkai, so the game even give you a means of making somewhat squishier, beloved lower-rank Youkai a part of the team even into the late game :)
Verdict: Highly recommended. If you like Pokemon, I think you will like Youkai Watch. My general rule I've noticed with these reviews is that the bigger and impression a game has left on me, the more I wanna tell you about it, so this giant wall of text should probably give you some indication of that x3 . Granted, Sun and Moon did just come out, and if you're still playing that, I'd agree that there's not much reason to invite Youkai into your life atm. However, perhaps when you get bored with Sun/Moon, Youkai Watch would be an excellent way to fill that Poke-void, methinks :)
First things first out of the way: For those of you who might've guessed otherwise (as I did), not being a Layton game does not mean that Level-5 can suddenly write well. The story is a total pacing cluster-fuck, with new, VERY plot significant characters being introduced right up until the very last chapter, characters whom you've never even met up to that point except perhaps in passing (literally, like on the street). The story comes to the last chapter really suddenly, and even though the game tries to do things like introduce mystery characters who seem all mysterious, it doesn't use them to any noteworth effect. HOWEVER, being as this is FAR more silly and mechanically-oriented (at least in terms of its presentation) than something like Layton, I felt that the bad pacing didn't really hurt the game too much. The characters themselves are very fun and silly, especially Whisper and your main character, so you never really feel like you just hate everyone, just that you're not that involved in the overarching plot of things.
The gameplay itself is certainly not without its problems, but it's the most fun spin on the Pokemon formula I've encountered. First up is the good stuff. The game plays like a real-time Pokemon where your whole team battles at once. You have three active and three inactive Youkai at a time on a wheel-system, and you can literally rotate the wheel to rotate them in and out as they become hurt or incapacitated. Your Youkai fight completely on their own, and other than giving them items to affect their "personality" (i.e. battle move-priorities), there's not a whole lot you can do about it. Granted, different Youkai do have different moves, you don't really have an easy way of viewing all of these moves in a UI of some kind, so it works best just to try different Youkai configurations to see what works. Although, just because your Youkai move by themselves, that doesn't mean that you don't have any way of keeping occupied yourself.
In battle, the things you, the player, can do will usually keep you occupied enough that you rarely have down time. First off, each Youkai has a super-move that can be used by playing one of a random series of mini-games. The top-screen action doesn't stop while you're doing these mini-games, so getting fast at them is a real strategy tactic. Additionally, when your guys get status effects (burn, slow, paralyze, etc.) you can rotate (literally) them out to do a different set of mini-games to get them back to tip-top shape. You also get extra EXP for doing those mini-games, so it's well worth it. You do need to have your Youkai's special-meter full before you can do special moves though, which is good, because some are VASTLY better than others (depending on the Youkai). You can also equip one item on each Youkai which will shuffle their stats in some way (almost every item with a stat benefit has some negative effect on some other stat, to keep them from being straight up "why the fuck wouldn't you use it"-buffs). On top of the above, you can literally 'pin' a target for your Youkai to focus on (and you can also use that pin to pop bubbles that float past the top screen for power-ups and items, no joke), as well as use items to feed to your Youkai or the enemy, which brings me to how you even catch these guys.
There is no such thing as a Youkai-Pokeball. Instead, this is much more like the awful Ni No Kuni method of catching monsters: You beat them up and then just hope to god that they decide to join you after the battle. You can give them their favorite type of food (of which there is no record or indication of in the game. You've gotta figure it out with trial and error and then just remember who likes which specific category of food) to up your chances, but it's usually never by any significant feeling margin. Especially because there are some Youkai which are legitimately very rare (like Noko) who appear very rarely, sometimes EXTREMELY rarely (there was one that will appear randomly in place of another Youkai, and I saw but two of in my fifty hours of play), this makes it a SUUUUUPER pain in the ass to actually get Youkai you really want reliably or in any meaningfully quick fashion. You can also only feed enemy Youkai (even a food they don't like) once during battle, so there's no food-spam option. This is, in my opinion, what Youkai Watch gets the most wrong about the Pokemon formula, and is my biggest hesitation with recommending the game to another fan of the genre.
That said, the above method of forcing you to fight tons of Youkai does have some useful side-effects. First off, this game has no trainers. Even though you have a party of six Youkai which you can rotate, you will never fight another Youkai Watch-kateer, so you'll only ever fight up to three other Youkai at a time. Additionally, becasue there are no trianers, the wild Youkai you fight are just far tougher than wild Pokemon tend to be. Because you have to fight Youkai very repetedly to catch them, this led to me accidentally doing a TON of grinding I hadn't intended to do, just because I wanted to catch all of dem Youkai. Wild Youkai also drop money, so I also never had any remote money problem despite all of the Youkai food I had to keep buying. It's basically the equivalent of if there were unlimited Pokemon trainers to fight, and the only way to catch Pokemon was to hope that the trainer gave you them once you beat them in battle. It's an interesting and somewhat useful side-effect, but I don't think that it outweighs the more significant problem posed in Youkai befriending (You don't capture, you befriend (with violence)!).
The last most notable thing about Youkai is that not only do they have specific ranks (six different ranks, E through S), but they also rarely evolve. Out of 220-ish Youkai, only about 15 or so evolve through levels, and another 15 or so evolve through being combined with other Youkai, and then another 15 or so by being combined with special items. This makes it so that you are quite often switching out Youkai completely to make different or sometimes completely new team configurations just because the stats on higher ranked Youkai are just so much objectively better (although it can take a little while to find a move-set that gels well with your team and personal style). If you've ever played Dragon Quest Monsters/Joker, this will seem fairly famliar to you, but I believe that Youkai watch does that system not just better, but correctly.
The REALLY (really) annoying thing about DQM series is that you need to combine ALL monsters together to make stronger ones, and you really don't have much concept at all of just how strong or spellfully teched out this new monster will be. That process CONSUMES both parents, and you're only left with a child, so you can seriously fuck yourself over and have to do a ton of grinding for a whole new team if you get some unlucky breeds with your main team members. In Youkai watch, it's just straight up replacements, so if a new team member isn't working out, you can just swap the old guy back in, no problems. Additionally, because higher ranked guys might be a bit better, lower ranked guys can still level just as high as anyone else, and since your main team will likely be higher level than most enemies you encounter, there's an incentive to keep lower ranked veterans in your team whom you like, even though they're lower rank. For example, I had a C-rank in my team all the way up to the end of the game, just because he was such high level and a very reliable damage-dealer. Additionally, there are some REALLY good items near the end of the game that can ONLY be equpped on D-rank or lower Youkai, so the game even give you a means of making somewhat squishier, beloved lower-rank Youkai a part of the team even into the late game :)
Verdict: Highly recommended. If you like Pokemon, I think you will like Youkai Watch. My general rule I've noticed with these reviews is that the bigger and impression a game has left on me, the more I wanna tell you about it, so this giant wall of text should probably give you some indication of that x3 . Granted, Sun and Moon did just come out, and if you're still playing that, I'd agree that there's not much reason to invite Youkai into your life atm. However, perhaps when you get bored with Sun/Moon, Youkai Watch would be an excellent way to fill that Poke-void, methinks :)
It does give Pokemon clone but successful with some interesting plot points and interesting way to escalate the power of the collectible pets and the mascot of the game is a tragic story, if only it wasn't played for comedic effect.
I didn't have the chance to play this game for a long time (yet) but the hours I played seemed to be pretty decent. I love the series and I can understand why this got so famous
The way the capture mechanic works and getting 40 side quests that mostly wanted me to run over to whatever area I wasn't currently in, stopped me from spending more time with this than the minimum needed to get through the main story.
una vez me atasqué pero logré acabarlo
Got this game for collectionism for 5 bucks but tried the demo already before. Couldn't get into the mood and the gameplay at all. Not for me, I'm afraid.
solid
Pretty fun and unique still better than modern pokemon.
This game's pretty good. A very unique take on the monster collection genre. It's also pretty stupid and weird, which is always a plus, to me.
As far as "Pokemon clones" go, this one's pretty fun! The writing is super corny and the overall plot is kinda meh, but the actual gameplay itself is surprisingly well-done!
C'était super franchement chara design des esprits superbes l'univers les musiques etc rien à dire
Que raro que no haya futbol
pokemon if it was good. i cant believe how many hours i poured into this game trying to experience every single bit of it i could as a kid. there is so many side quests and secrets to find. you can beat any yokai you find, making a competent team is really fun.
kinda mid ngl
A lot of fun.
i used to love the tv show but the videogame just felt like a cheap copy of the pokemon games, it made me really sad to see so much wasted potential
goated
I gave up fighting the second boss :( It was fun while it lasted
one of the best starts a series can have
está bien, pero tiene muchas cosas que no me convence, sobretodo el método de capturar los bichos en sí me parece frustrante. Puedo ver el appeal del juego, pero yo siento que no está todo lo bien que puede estar, para mí al menos.
además el formato de la historia no me gusta nada, sólo consigió que la historia me diera igual.
además el formato de la historia no me gusta nada, sólo consigió que la historia me diera igual.
Jogo de pegar monstrinho mt bom. Os cenários são lindos e o jogo tem um dos melhores usos da segunda tela do 3ds que eu vi em um jogo do console desde kid icarus. Os cenários são lindos e a história é bem contida e divertida até o final onde ela fica meio sem sal e previsível. O design de criaturas é fofo mas se você está esperando coisas tipo evoluções ou fusões entre mostros vai se decepcionar. Elas acontecem só que bem raramente, é mais uma mecânica secundária, acho que o jogo dá mais foco à formação e gerenciamente de status e tals
this game blows
Yo-Kai Watch is an odd game to me. I remember playing it a long time ago, and enjoying it so much I went out of my way to complete the medallium. But it’s been so long since I played Yo-Kai Watch that I completely forgot what the game was like. I’m a big fan of Monster Tamers, and I’ve just been in the mood to play some good ones, so why not finally replay Yo-Kai Watch?
Firstly, one thing I absolutely adore about Yo-Kai Watch is how cozy it is. You’re in a small town for the majority of the game, exploring around, seeing whatever silly hijinks occurs with Yokai. While I definitely enjoyed exploring the world of the game, I also just found it really relaxing. The game’s story also adds to the sort of cozy nature of the game. Until the last chapter of the game, it’s very low stakes. Honestly, each chapter feels like a single episode of a cartoon you’d watch on a Saturday Morning as a kid, and not many other games I’ve played had this sort of vibe. While I didn’t grow up with this game, the structure of the game’s story still gave me a sense of nostalgia.
And mechanically, Yo-Kai Watch is a really interesting game. I think this is the only Monster Tamer I’ve played where you don’t directly control the monsters themselves. And I can see how people don’t like that, there’s a bit of luck that goes into this as you have to hope that your Yokai do what you want them to. Though I sort of like this. It makes the Yokai feel like alive in a way, at least more alive than the creatures in other Monster Tamers. And on top of all of this, there are ways that you can impact the battle. Rotating out which Yokai are in battle, using items, or making your Yokai use special moves. The battles in Yokai Watch are really interesting, though only some of the late game bosses made me heavily focus on them.
And as I described somewhat earlier, I really like Yo-Kai Watch’s story. It’s not anything too complex, in fact it’s extremely simple. But that simplicity works so well for the general vibes that Yo-Kai Watch has. Honestly the final chapter of the game kind of came out of left field, it’s much more serious compared to the rest of the game. Though yet again, I think it’s good, and the actual ending of the game is kind of unique in a way. The story creates this nice vibe that I think I’ve done my best to describe. It’s really cozy, and it does feel like I’m on a Summer Vacation.
I’ve described this earlier but I’m a big fan of Monster Tamers. My first ever game was Pokemon, and I’ve also played the likes of Shin Megami Tensei, and Digimon. One of my favorite aspects of Monster Tamers is the aspect of collecting them, trying to get as many as I possibly can. And that’s where I have a bit of confliction with Yo-Kai Watch. It feels so difficult to actually befriend Yokai. It’s already a bit hard to find specific Yokai you’re hunting for, and actually befriending them is much harder. Sometimes it takes 20 minutes just to hunt a single Yo-Kai, and I’m unsure if that’s a skill issue on my part or not. The odds just feel ridiculously low, even after having a friendship boosting yokai and giving the yokai its favorite food. Though this being an issue for me is probably not that big of a deal. The game definitely seems to push the player to relax, and take things slow, which is something I’m unable to do.
As well, the actual cast of Yokai in Yo-Kai Watch is odd. There are some absolute amazing and creative designs in Yo-Kai Watch. Though saying that, it’s really unfortunate to me that a lot of my favorite Yo-Kai are locked to postgame only, so I don’t get a chance to use them. With this in mind, there’s a noticeable amount of Yo-Kai that are reskins of other Yo-Kai. The first noticeable one is Castelius, that has 4 different versions. But theres also like likes of Illoo, Wiglin, and Heheheel. While in a typical RPG I’d be completely fine with enemy reskins, in a Monster Tamer I’m not particularly fond of it. Unfortunately, it motivates me less to complete the game’s medallium, as part of why I enjoy trying to find every creature in a Monster Tamer is to see each unique design. Ultimately this is a personal thing, but I want to at least acknowledge it.
Yet again, Yo-Kai Watch is a really interesting Monster Tamer to look back on. It’s not perfect, and I imagine that the later sequels polish the game in some form, but Yo-Kai Watch is still a really fun game. I think once I get around to playing them, I should be able to better my perspective from having played this one. I’m just glad that I finally got around to replaying this game, it’s such a unique little title.
Firstly, one thing I absolutely adore about Yo-Kai Watch is how cozy it is. You’re in a small town for the majority of the game, exploring around, seeing whatever silly hijinks occurs with Yokai. While I definitely enjoyed exploring the world of the game, I also just found it really relaxing. The game’s story also adds to the sort of cozy nature of the game. Until the last chapter of the game, it’s very low stakes. Honestly, each chapter feels like a single episode of a cartoon you’d watch on a Saturday Morning as a kid, and not many other games I’ve played had this sort of vibe. While I didn’t grow up with this game, the structure of the game’s story still gave me a sense of nostalgia.
And mechanically, Yo-Kai Watch is a really interesting game. I think this is the only Monster Tamer I’ve played where you don’t directly control the monsters themselves. And I can see how people don’t like that, there’s a bit of luck that goes into this as you have to hope that your Yokai do what you want them to. Though I sort of like this. It makes the Yokai feel like alive in a way, at least more alive than the creatures in other Monster Tamers. And on top of all of this, there are ways that you can impact the battle. Rotating out which Yokai are in battle, using items, or making your Yokai use special moves. The battles in Yokai Watch are really interesting, though only some of the late game bosses made me heavily focus on them.
And as I described somewhat earlier, I really like Yo-Kai Watch’s story. It’s not anything too complex, in fact it’s extremely simple. But that simplicity works so well for the general vibes that Yo-Kai Watch has. Honestly the final chapter of the game kind of came out of left field, it’s much more serious compared to the rest of the game. Though yet again, I think it’s good, and the actual ending of the game is kind of unique in a way. The story creates this nice vibe that I think I’ve done my best to describe. It’s really cozy, and it does feel like I’m on a Summer Vacation.
I’ve described this earlier but I’m a big fan of Monster Tamers. My first ever game was Pokemon, and I’ve also played the likes of Shin Megami Tensei, and Digimon. One of my favorite aspects of Monster Tamers is the aspect of collecting them, trying to get as many as I possibly can. And that’s where I have a bit of confliction with Yo-Kai Watch. It feels so difficult to actually befriend Yokai. It’s already a bit hard to find specific Yokai you’re hunting for, and actually befriending them is much harder. Sometimes it takes 20 minutes just to hunt a single Yo-Kai, and I’m unsure if that’s a skill issue on my part or not. The odds just feel ridiculously low, even after having a friendship boosting yokai and giving the yokai its favorite food. Though this being an issue for me is probably not that big of a deal. The game definitely seems to push the player to relax, and take things slow, which is something I’m unable to do.
As well, the actual cast of Yokai in Yo-Kai Watch is odd. There are some absolute amazing and creative designs in Yo-Kai Watch. Though saying that, it’s really unfortunate to me that a lot of my favorite Yo-Kai are locked to postgame only, so I don’t get a chance to use them. With this in mind, there’s a noticeable amount of Yo-Kai that are reskins of other Yo-Kai. The first noticeable one is Castelius, that has 4 different versions. But theres also like likes of Illoo, Wiglin, and Heheheel. While in a typical RPG I’d be completely fine with enemy reskins, in a Monster Tamer I’m not particularly fond of it. Unfortunately, it motivates me less to complete the game’s medallium, as part of why I enjoy trying to find every creature in a Monster Tamer is to see each unique design. Ultimately this is a personal thing, but I want to at least acknowledge it.
Yet again, Yo-Kai Watch is a really interesting Monster Tamer to look back on. It’s not perfect, and I imagine that the later sequels polish the game in some form, but Yo-Kai Watch is still a really fun game. I think once I get around to playing them, I should be able to better my perspective from having played this one. I’m just glad that I finally got around to replaying this game, it’s such a unique little title.