GoNintendo 'End of Day' thought - Yo-Kai Watch review

Bumping this one up for the night since it got lost in the news shuffle. Wanted to make sure you all had a chance to check it out, just incase you were on the fence about purchasing. Hope you enjoy the review! See you in a few, short hours.

Over the years, we've heard lots of questions asked about Pokemon. Does the Pokemon brand harm children? Will Pokemon be a flash in the pan fad? Could this/that franchise be the one to unseat Pokemon? While the earlier questions have faded away in recent years, the latter remains a constant. For some reason, people seem obsessed with finding the next game that will knock the Pokemon franchise from its pedestal. It's not enough to have success on your own...you have to be the game to 'beat' Pokemon. Now people are claiming that Yo-Kai Watch could be the title to do that.

There's no denying Yo-Kai Watch's success in Japan. It's been a fast and furious run to the top of the sales charts. The anime is viewed by millions. The video games are chart-toppers as soon as they come out. The toys fly off the shelves as soon as they're stocked. Yo-Kai Watch is currently a powerhouse franchise in Japan, and now multiple companies want that same success to happen in the states. Level-5 and Nintendo think the game could bring in big attention for the 3DS. Hasbro is betting big on the toy lineup early next year. Disney scooped up the anime rights for their XD channel. All the big players are there and ready to fire on all cylinders, but can lightning strike twice?

While the cartoon has been airing on Disney XD for a few weeks, we all know that it's the 3DS game that'll make the franchise into a star. The Pokemon franchise came out when the Game Boy was getting on in years, and it gave the system a huge boost and many more years of topping the sales charts. The game helped push the anime, toys and everything else. Some of that was by plan and some of it just happened. Now more players than ever are trying to make the Yo-Kai Watch success hit hard in the states. The test is set to happen this Friday with the launch of Yo-Kai Watch on 3DS. Lots of bigwigs want this franchise to become a juggernaut, but is it worth your time? Should you be just as excited about Yo-Kai Watch as they are?

There's no two ways around it. Yo-Kai Watch is going to be compared to the Pokemon franchise. The comparisons are almost unavoidable. It's pretty clear that Yo-Kai Watch wouldn't exist with the Pokemon franchise's success. The two games definitely share a number of things in common. Both are about collecting/battling monsters, with one of the goals squarely focused on capturing every monster possible. It's the very core ideas at play in both franchises that are quite similar, but it's how those ideas are handled that differentiates the two brands. All that said, if you have enjoyed a Pokemon game over the years, you should find something to like in Yo-Kai Watch.

From what I've seen of the anime series, Yo-Kai Watch's game follows along quite closely. The game actually uses scenes taken right from the anime to help tell the story. You take on the role of a character that finds a mysterious capsule vending machine in the forest. When a coin is placed in the machine's slot, a specific Yo-Kai is set free and joins up with you on your journey. He also gives you the titular Yo-Kai Watch, which is the key to the entire game. This watch is how you see Yo-Kai in the real world. Without the watch's special lens, you are just as blind to Yo-Kai as everyone else.

Here's where Yo-Kai and Pokemon differ. While Pokemon are 'pocket monsters' that everyone can see, Yo-Kai are mischievous ghosts that haunt our world and other realms. These ghosts go around and cause various troubles for humans, but the human race is oblivious to all this. Feeling particularly hungry one afternoon? That's probably because a Yo-Kai like Hungramps is hanging around you. Can't stop telling the truth even when it's super embarrassing? The Yo-Kai Tattletell is probably hiding close by. If people are suffering from any number of good/bad feelings or other troubles, you can bet a Yo-Kai is behind the happenings.

Again, this is where you come into play. The main character, now fitted with his Yo-Kai Watch, can see all the Yo-Kai that are causing trouble. When you see the real reasons why people are acting strange, it's up to you to do away with their Yo-Kai problems. Of course, there's only one way to stop all those issues...BATTLING! You'll have to befriend Yo-Kai in order to 'capture' them. They actually end up giving you a special medal that lets you call upon them if needed. Sometimes Yo-Kai will want to be your friends at the end of a battle no matter what, and other times you'll have to feed them some treats to win over their favor.

While some of the ideas above may sound very familiar to Pokemon fans, the actual battling between the two franchises is hugely different. Yo-Kai Watch lets you take on a roster of 6 Yo-Kai at once to take into battle, but they all appear on a rotating wheel on the touch screen. Only 3 Yo-Kai can be called into battle at once, and part of battles happen automatically. Each Yo-Kai also has a special meter to perform a super move, and when that meter is full you can activate the action. This usually involves tapping certain spots on the touch screen or spinning a wheel very quickly. The better you do, the more powerful your attack will be.

After a special move is used, you have to wait a certain amount of time before you can use it again. This is where the wheel comes into play. If you have used up the special move of your three active Yo-Kai, you can then spin the wheel and rotate in the other 3 on your roster. That way the battle keeps going and you have fresh players in the field. As that's happening, the Yo-Kai you rotated out are resting and filling up their special meter once again. This constant wheel rotation helps to keep things fresh during battle, and it also keeps you on your toes. You can even pick where Yo-Kai fall onto the wheel, so that way you can have a very specific approach to key battles. Hopefully your battles go well and you win, which lets your Yo-Kai gain experience and move onto the next objective.

Yo-Kai also have their own types, just like Pokemon do. Teaming them up on the wheel with like types will make everyone's attacks even stronger, so it makes sense to pair up Yo-Kai correctly. Obviously, the types will also matter depending on who you're fighting. You'll have to play a bit into the game to figure out what types work best against certain Pokemon, but eventually it all becomes second nature. Battling is indeed the main focus of Yo-Kai Watch, but thankfully the approach to battling remains fun and interesting throughout.

A lot of this has to do with the different Yo-Kai you can find out there. You might think that Nintendo had covered just about every type of creature imaginable, but Level-5 definitely has their own style on display. There are a handful of Yo-Kai that may seem familiar to Pokemon fans, but a large amount of the cast are fresh and fun ideas. There's even a few Yo-Kai that are quite low-brow in design, like a butt-headed character that farts out attacks and Snotsolong, a bird that has a very big problem with a runny nose. It's a mix of serious and humorous designs that really offer up a nice difference from what you see in Pokemon titles.

Collect Yo-Kai, battle with them and fight your way through the story. That's pretty much how Yo-Kai Watch works. You'll work your way through battles with lesser Yo-Kai to meet up with important characters and eventually take on boss battles. You also have a ton of sidequests to take on that are all over the map when it comes to content. You might find yourself hunting down a soda for a whiny kid or hunting down a specific Yo-Kai to fulfill a special request. As you might have guessed, a lot of this is busy work that lets you grind for higher levels and eventually evolutions. You can even end up merging different Yo-Kai into a new creation. It helps to keep the roster of Yo-Kai fresh, which again, really is at the heart of the game.

It's very important to point out that Yo-Kai Watch is a top-notch production through and through. This is a very nice looking game for 3DS. It may have a cartoon style, but it's quite pleasing to take in. The in-game audio and anime snippets are also very high quality, making the experience feel that much more high caliber. This all goes hand-in hand with the excellent localization job. All the characters involved really have personality and style that comes through in the writing. Even the names of the Yo-Kai themselves have clever puns based on what they look like or what they do. To tell the truth, outside of Nintendo's own titles, it's been quite some time since I've played a 3DS game that had an air of high quality about it like this.

Yes, Yo-Kai Watch and Pokemon are similar in some ways. They're also very different experiences in other ways. Yo-Kai Watch warrants a look outside of Pokemon comparisons. This is a very compelling, well designed, engaging and thoughtful experience for the 3DS. It's easy to see why Yo-Kai Watch became so popular in Japan. Level-5 really put together an outstanding product here that shines in every way possible. As long as you haven't tired of the traditional RPG grind or goal of collecting, you should find plenty to enjoy here. It remains to be seen whether the rest of the world embraces Yo-Kai Watch like Japan has, but there's no denying that the game is well worth your time and attention.

Yo-Kai Watch has done an excellent job of taking familiar mechanics, giving them a new twist and turning a tried-and-true idea into something new. Turns out all the excitement surrounding Yo-Kai Watch's launch in North America is very well warranted.