This has to be one of the best new RPGs I've ever played. Many people tried to call this the "Pokemon Killer" when it came out, but that was never supposed to be its title.

In fact, this is so different from Pokemon that if it wasn't coined the "Pokemon Killer" by the community, this game might've had more of a chance. People probably picked it up expecting Pokemon gameplay, realized it was nothing like it, then put it down and never played it again. But those that made it to the end had such a special treat.

I 100%'d this game. Collected every single Yo-Kai because it was just that fun. I don't want to compare this game to Pokemon, because it's not. But what I get out of this series that Pokemon no longer gives me is this unique Japanese charm.

I can't describe it. But this game is so odd in such a good way. It's so refreshing to just see a company take a monster taming game in such a silly route. Some of these designs are WILD and I know Game Freak would never do, but that's why I love Yo-Kai Watch. If Pokemon is fine dining with wine and cheese, then Yo-Kai Watch is pizza and beer.

But I don't want to dump on this game. I'm not saying it's bad by any means. It's just completely different than any other monster taming game I've played, and that's a good thing. I love that it uses Japanese lore and culture as an integral aspect of the game. Pokemon uses Japanese lore as inspiration and mixes it with other kinds of lore in the world. But Yo-Kai Watch makes Japanese lore an integral part to its story.

And I love it.

I am so sad this series didn't get the love it deserved in the West. I still remember collecting all the toys, the plushies, the figures, because I was just so obsessed.

Many players said that the battle mechanics were way too easy because your Yo-Kai auto attacks. I thought this was actually very unique. I had never played a game where you didn't directly control the action of your party members.

And honestly? It made for some pretty tough fights, especially later on in the game. I eventually got used to it and had no problems with it, in fact, I grew to love it.

But for those people, I'd say they completely overhauled the battle system on the Switch games. It's incredibly fun and would probably appeal to most players. So if those games ever get localized, let's please all support them so Level 5 can see that there's still an audience here for the series in the West!!

Overall, incredible game. I can't give this anything less than 5 stars, despite my minor gripes with the game. If you're even remotely interested in this series, I highly recommend you just play this one from beginning to end and see where it takes you from there.

Happy hunting!

Good game to be the first, it is very good, the story is nothing out of this world but the graphics are very good and the cinematics too, although sometimes I would like a little more difficulty and a little better plot of the story.
History:6
Gameplay:6
Levels:7
Bosses:7
Music:8
Rhythm:7
Final grade:7

Apesar de demorar muito para terminar esta grandiosa obra contemporânea, acredito que sai completamente satisfeito desse jogo. Acho que não tem palavra melhor para resumir Yo-kai Watch em carisma! Ao longo da gameplay já vou dizendo, que é um jogo que comparei muito com pokemon, e o motivo é que para mim pelo menos, são jogos com propostas minimamente parecidas. Ou basicamente falando de forma mais direta, Yo-kai watch é um pokemon-like. Dito isso:

Jogabilidade[5/5]: Não é nada complexo é um jogo de turno, com alguns complemento de gameplay, além de que é meio que tempo real divido em turnos, ou algo parecido não se explicar. Os mini-games da tela de toque são bem responsivos e diria que é um jogo que apesar de ser de turno, exige bastante movimentação rápida e reflexo. E a jogabilidade é responsiva no geral, flúida, e é gostosa principalmente. É um jogo gostoso de se pegar e jogar pela sua jogabilidade simples e suave eu diria.

Dificuldade[4/5]: Acho que alguns bosses chega a ser desbalanceado para quem só segue a campanha principal, mas eu entendo que é um jogo que incentiva mais a exploração e não apenas o rush da história principal. Porém em todo o resto ele é bem fácil e sinceramente acho que é algo mais do jogo mesmo, não vai te exigir muito por boa parte da gameplay, porém em momentos cruciais você tem que aumentar a guardar de certa forma.

Direção de arte[5/5]: Carisma! Como disse anteriormante esse jogo é absurdamente bem dirigido. O designe dos Yo-kai, o cenário do jogo no geral, os personagens, NPCs, todos são bem carismáticos nos seus traços. São bonito e fofos e ao mesmo tempo engraçadinhos. Diria que o jogo consegue alcançar o vale da estranheza ao mesmo tempo que acerta na fofura do seus bichos, algo que simplesmente é o movimento de assinatura desse jogo sem sombra de dúvidas. Isso é algo que falta para mim nos pokemons atuais. Eu não sei explicar, mas depois de jogar Yo-kai Watch por muito tempo, eu diria que me é incomodo de certa forma no 3D os pokemons serem muito robotizados e pouco carismáticos, e claro, a algumas excessões, mas em geral na gameplay de pokemon, eu diria que os pokemons tem muito pouco carisma nesse início de geração no 3DS(que até o momento foram os jogos de pokemon que joguei). No fim de tudo eu fiquei surpreendido com o cuidado que foi dado com cada personagem desse jogo, seja a forma como sua aparência, movimentação e animação conta uma história deles mesmos. Isso para mim é uma indentidade que falta em muitos jogos.

História[5/5]: Yo-kai Watch tem uma história simples e comovente de certa forma. E bom eu entendo que essa é a proposta, já que o jogo é destinado para o público infantil. A sensação que tenho jogando com esse jogo, é de fato de estar no período de férias de verão, e que estou me enfiando em algum tipo de aventura na minha cidade com meus amigos. Uma história simples divertida, com personagens carismáticos e marcantes com suas piadinhas sem graça que te faz dar pequenas risadinhas. E é incrível como cada personagem nesse jogo te faz se apegar por eles por simplesmente serem o que são. Além de que, fazer amigos dentro de Yo-kai Watch é sempre divertido e gratificante. Sendo uma grande lenha no fogo dos nossos corações. A forma inclusive como a história da aventura desse primeiro jogo se finaliza, é de certa forma acolhedora e gratificante, te fazendo se sentir melancólico e já com saudades das aventuras que se foram.

Trilha sonora[5/5]: Yo-kai tem uma personalidade própria em suas músicas. Acredito que acertou muito em todas, e acho até que é um jogo que se complementa com sua trilha sonora marcante.

Gameplay[5/5]: No geral o jogo é muito divertida. Apesar de que as vezes sinto que ele é meio lento demais, já que tem momentos agoniantes onde os Yo-kai se recusam a bater no adversário, mas acho que é algo que faz parte do jogo no fim de tudo. Apesar de ter ignorado a maioria das missões secundárias, algumas foram até divertidas de se fazer, menos aquelas que você precisa melhorar o seu relógia de Yo-kai, eu realmente não consegui me divertir nessas missões.

Conclusão[4,833/5]: É um pokemon definitivo para mim na geração do 3DS. Diria até que supriu muito bem a minha falta de pokemons-like que são de fatos bons, e não algo reciclado por anos. Yo-kai é um jogo com muita paixão, identidade própria e acima de tudo muito carisma. Me senti feliz jogando esse jogo maravilhoso, a ponto de me apegar aos personagens principais da trama. Acho que poderia sim ter desenvolvido melhor alguns personagens chaves da trama, mas acho que entendo essa ideia desapegada da história. Enfim é isso, estou muito empolgado com os próximos jogos!

THIS GAME IS SO GOOD!! If you have a 3ds and like fun, charming, games, GET THIS IMMEDIATELY!!! Also if you like japanese folklore creatures and/or want to learn more about them this is perfect for you. The teambuilding is easy to learn but hard to master and picking out the best yo kai for the job and placing them on the wheel is engaging and fun. Battles are fast paced and require you to keep your team healthy, tell them what to target, and activate their special moves. There's a ton of side activities to complete alongside the main quest so you'll never be bored. Exploring Springdale to find yo-kai and complete quests is very engaging and you will quickly memorize the layout of the big city as you play. I do think that you should unlock the ability to warp a little earlier than you do, but it's not that bad. This game is excellent and probably my favorite 3ds game. A must play for any monster game enjoyer.

It’s been a while since I played a Yo-Kai Watch game but with my longing for a new entry and all the signs of the series making a comeback I thought I would replay the original. This series will forever be special to me so this review may be slightly biased but I can acknowledge Yo-Kai Watch left a lot to be desired in the initial game. First of all I did play this on the 3ds version because for one the remaster isn’t in English but more importantly I feel the 3ds is where the battle system shines the most but as a consequence I will be having very few compliments about the graphics. I want to start by talking about the story. Yo-Kai Watch story has never been a strong point but to make up for this it has never taken its plot seriously, however compared to future entries and other games this games story just felt super empty. It’s not too long and isn’t the worst thing ever but as an introduction to some characters it’s not very good especially when some backstory and plot points are redone in the sequels and are just straight up so much better there. This plot leaves a lot of things unexplained and honestly not too impressed with it especially since none of the characters really felt as alive as they do in future games. Moving on I want to talk about something I think Yo-Kai Watch is almost unrivaled in and that’s exploration and side content. It feels almost impossible to talk about the story by itself with how much is usually in these side missions and extra areas. The problem is the first installation in the series feels like a beta for this idea. While there is lots of rewards for exploring and some side missions that affect huge parts of the game it’s just isn’t as vast as future entries. There are quite a lot of quests for a monster collecting rpg don’t get me wrong but not enough to feel like I’m not delaying progression. I think the main factor holding the side quests in the game back is the fact that the characters are so dry. It’s hard to feel like Mr. Barton is more than a npc with a name in this game compared to future games. While the exploration in this game is definitely worthy of yo-Kai watch quality, it isn’t the same without the train system or disconnected locations. The battle system though is still very much fun. A system where you don’t need to worry about directly controlling your yo Kai but instead about trying to manage all parts of the fight so your team can do what they do best. While it’s super bear bones in this installment it’s still got the most important parts. I will say the befriending system is a little unfair in this version with little ways to increase befriending odds but it wasn’t too bad. Very few broken items in this game with most of them being locked behind end game shop purchases or passwords. The difficulty of the game isn’t too bad with how easy it is to get shogunyan and how available talismans are (a little harder than I remembered though). The only problem I think the battle system really has is all the creative battles are locked in post game. I love this battle system and am sad yo Kai watch 4 doesn’t have it. It’s very unique and no game I have played has made something similar to it. I think this is a solid game and was a base for future entries in the game. It suffers from being over shadowed by yo Kai watch 2 in every way but has the first piece to the story of the series so feels like it needs to be played first. This game gets a 7/10 for me because yo Kai watch 2 exists but in the genre of monster collecting RPGs I would say 7.5-8/10 but still just play yo Kai watch 2 or 3. Fun to have completed it again and please give yo Kai watch a chance, it didn’t deserve this fate.

I enjoyed my time with Yo-kai Watch for its presentation, the quirky monsters and its charm. The core gameplay and story feel veeeery underbaked though. I don't think that it gives you enough skill expression in combat and in turn, it feels more like a stat and ability check rather than actual combat. Bosses felt more like a chore than a challenge because they are untargetable until you destroy their weak spot. The story is basically non-existent until the final hours of gameplay, where the big bad appears out of nowhere. Up to that part, it's more like little self-contained short stories that have mostly nothing to do with each other. Hopefully, later entries improve on these aspects.

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.