Yo-kai Watch (video Game)

is a role-playing video game developed and published by Level-5 for the Nintendo 3DS and the first game in the ''Yo-kai Watch'' franchise. Originally released in Japan on July 11, 2013, the game is based on the Yōkai of Japanese folklore, who are said to be ghosts and apparitions that cause mischief in daily life. In ''Yo-kai Watch'', player character Nathan "Nate" Adams or Katie Forester, depending on who the player chooses, is given the titular Yo-kai Watch, which gives him or her the ability to see Yo-kai, after stumbling across and befriending the butler Yo-kai Whisper. Players assume the role of Nathan or Katie, as he or she travels around town searching for and befriending peaceful Yo-kai, battling hostile Yo-kai, and solving problems caused by mischievous Yo-kai.

The game was released to a positive commercial and critical reception in Japan, and a steady rise in popularity started a franchise, including a toy line and an anime series, in addition to '' Yo-kai Watch 2'', released the following year for the Nintendo 3DS. Despite the franchise's success in Japan, the game would not be released internationally until 2015, when Nintendo announced plans to localize the game in the West. By November 2014, the game had sold over a million copies in Japan, making it one of the best selling games on the Nintendo 3DS.

Plot

While on a bug-collecting school assignment in suburban Springdale, Nathan "Nate" Adams visits Mount Wildwood and discovers an unusual capsule machine from which they free Whisper, a ghost-like Yo-kai who gives them the Yo-kai Watch, enabling them to see Yo-kai. Nate returns home with Whisper, only to find that the Yo-kai Dismeralda has sneaked in and caused his parents, Lily and Aaron, to argue about whether they should fix dinner or chores. Nate and Whisper head to an intersection and meet Jibanyan, who joins them to fight Dismeralda. She and her husband Happiere reconcile and he inspirits the parents, ending their conflict.

The next day, Nate visits Katie Forester, who is upset she unintentionally said mean things to her friend. Upon realizing a Yo-kai is responsible, Nate finds and befriends Tattletell, who inspirits Katie and allows her to reconcile with her friend. With the issue resolved, Tattletell reveals that a group of evil Yo-kai had broken several seals, disrupting the link between the human and Yo-kai worlds. Nate and Whisper defeat the evil Yo-kai and repair the seals, but not before it frees Slimamander. The two are ultimately saved by a mysterious Yo-kai.

Nate and Whisper decide to head to Timers and More, run by Mr. Goodsight, to upgrade their watch and be able to befriend stronger Yo-kai. In the process, Nate befriends Baku, encounters the Oni for the first time, and fights and defeats Sproink.

The next day, after Bear uses his mother's ring as bait to catch the "king of Catfish Pond" and accidentally loses it, his father instructs him to retrieve it. Nate and Whisper head to a riverside to find the kappa Yo-kai Walkappa and the ring, only to disturb the Yo-kai SV Snaggerjag. After the battle, Snaggerjag reveals he is the guardian of Catfish Pond, and that the group had disturbed the catfish in the area. Afterward, the ring is returned.

The next morning, while on his way to work, Aaron accidentally loses important documents after being inspirited by Wazzat. While retrieving the documents, they befriend Wazzat and receive a bicycle as thanks for saving their father's job. Soon after, they hear rumors about development at Flower Road and encounter Kyubi, who blackmails them into entering the construction zone at night. In the process, Nate and Whisper meet Komasan. They also find that Kyubi had led them to the true culprit: Massiface. After the protagonist defeats Massiface, the rumors stop and Kyubi muses about a greater conflict.

Nate visits an art museum with their friend Eddie, who asks them to accompany him in sneaking to the museum at night. After being warped into the museum by Mirapo and evading the museum's security protocols, they battle and defeat Phantasmurai, a suit of armor controlled by a mouse Eddie was trying to observe.

Soon after, Nate's friends meet up with them at the school to explore it at night, but are attacked by Tarantulor, a spider-like Yo-kai. It abducts their friends, and they and Whisper are forced to find them. They find Katie in the girls' bathroom, but are attacked by Tarantutor. After defeating it, Whisper becomes suspicious and asks Nate to return to the school and search for more clues. With the help of the Yo-kai Draggie, they discover that the abandoned Nocturne Hospital has unusual Yo-kai activity as a result of Doctor Maddiman, who they fight and defeat after he attempts to murder them. The defeated doctor cries out to Chairman Squiddilius McKraken, his master, who begins transmitting through Draggie's crystal ball, revealing himself to be a dissident Yo-kai politician who has been gathering support in the Yo-kai World to launch an invasion of the human world and subjugate humanity.

Nate's classmate Lucas reveals he is a Yo-kai related to Enma, the ruler of the Yo-kai World and the three venture to the Yo-kai World to seek answers. They are confronted by the Yo-kai who saved them from Slimamander, Venoct, who states Lucas was Enma's heir and was hidden to protect him from McKraken. McKraken is confronted and seemingly defeated, but upon returning to the human world, they find that the seals have been broken once more, McKraken has deployed his minions in the area, and Slimamander has reawakened. Nate defeats McKracken's minions and restores the seals, before defeating a mutated McKraken engorged on spirit energy and causing him to explode. Whisper, knowing that more evil Yo-kai will take advantage of McKraken's death, closes the elevator linking the two worlds, which Nate reluctantly accepts. In a post-credits scene, the elevator is rebuilt thanks to Lucas acting as a mediator, allowing the Yo-kai to return.

Gameplay

''Yo-kai Watch'' is a role-playing video game where the player searches around Springdale for Yo-kai using the 3DS' touchscreen. Players befriend Yo-kai by giving them a food item that they like before or during battle, and after defeating the Yo-kai it may or may not approach the player character and gives them its Yo-kai Medal, allowing it to be used in the player's team. Yo-kai can also be acquired through an in-game Gasha Machine by collecting in-game coins or using Play Coins. Certain Yo-kai are necessary for completing the game's main quest, and special rare Yo-kai are acquired through various subquests. Yo-kai have the capability to evolve into more powerful versions of themselves if they reach a certain level, or they can evolve by combining with particular items or other Yo-kai. The Yo-kai are divided amongst eight different tribes, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. There are also Legendary Yo-kai that can only be obtained by collecting a particular set of Yo-kai listed in the Yo-kai Medallium, a compendium of the different Yo-kai the player has encountered or befriended.

When the player encounters a Yo-kai, they enter into battle with it using six Yo-kai that the player has befriended previously, and the enemy Yo-kai may bring other Yo-kai to fight with them. The touchscreen is used during battles to rotate amongst the player's Yo-kai in battle at will. It is also used either to clear up status effects on the player's Yo-kai or to charge up the Yo-kai's special abilities. A common in-game event is "Oni Time" (Terror Time), where the player character enters a nightmare realm where he or she looks for treasure chests with special items in them all while trying to avoid being seen by other Yo-kai. If spotted, the player is chased by a powerful Oni Yo-kai that can easily wipe out the player's party unless they can escape. It is possible to defeat the Oni, but only if the player's Yo-kai are particularly powerful. The player can also encounter similarly powerful Namahage Yo-kai if the player crosses the street on a red light, but the encounter may be beneficial if the player follows the rules.

Development

''Yo-kai Watch'' was developed by Level-5, a Japanese video game developer based in Fukuoka, Japan. Before ''Yo-kai Watch'', Level-5 were best known for their ''Professor Layton'' series of puzzle adventure games for the Nintendo DS, one of the best selling game series on the platform, with 15 million units sold across six titles. At a time where Level-5 were already successful with resonating with younger gamers with multiple IPs such as ''Inazuma Eleven'' and '' Ni no Kuni'', many of the Level-5 staff expressed interest in creating, in Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino's words, the new ''Doraemon''; a title that would "be loved by many people over a long period of time". The team agreed that such a title would be an open world role-playing game.

Marketing and release

''Yo-kai Watch'' was officially unveiled to the public by Level-5 at the 2011 Tokyo Game Show, where it was announced during the company's annual Level-5 Vision press conference. It was planned from the start that ''Yo-kai Watch'' would be a franchise that consisted of a manga and anime series. A shōnen manga series by Noriyuki Konishi began serialization in ''CoroCoro Comic'' from December 15, 2012. This series has been licensed by Viz Media under its Perfect Square imprint. The series went on to earn awards for best Children's Manga at the 2014 Kodansha Manga Awards and at the 2015 Shogakukan Manga Awards. Prior to the release of ''Yo-kai Watch'' in Japan, a game demo was made available to download from the Nintendo eShop on July 3, 2013.

After the success of the game and its sequel, '' Yo-kai Watch 2'', a localization of the franchise in territories outside Japan was seriously considered. After registering a trademark for the ''Yo-kai Watch'' brand in the United States in January 2014, and inviting public opinion on an international release of the game, Level-5 formally announced in April 2015 that the game would indeed be released in the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, and Korea, with Nintendo helping to publish the game outside Japan. At E3 2015, a trailer for the game was showcased during Nintendo's Digital Event presentation, and demos of the game were available to play on the show floor during the convention. A release window of Holiday 2015 was also announced at the convention, with the date being further clarified to a November 6 release in North America by the time the game was showcased at the EB Games Expo 2015. A demo for the game was released on the Nintendo eShop in North America on October 22, 2015. The game was also sold as a bundle with the Nintendo 2DS in North America, selling under $100.

An anime series based on the video game premiered on the TX Network, owned by TV Tokyo on October 5, 2015, a month before the release of the game in North America. The series was broadcast in Australia on GO! in 2016.

In July 2019, Level-5 announced the first game in the series would be ported to the Nintendo Switch; the port was released on October 10, 2019, in Japan. Unlike the original 3DS version, there was no option to use English text. The game was ported to mobile devices via iOS and Android in Japan on July 10, 2021.

Reception

Japanese video game magazine ''Famitsu'' scored the game a 36 out of 40, with all of the four judges of the review giving the game 9 out of 10. Editor Reona Ebihara wrote that "the game gradually expands its feature set as you go, opening up this very unique world that's easy to melt into." She also commented positively of the game's use of the Nintendo 3DS' stereoscopic features and its "simple and deeply strategic" battle system. Fellow reviewer Urara Honma corroborated Ebihara's remarks, stating that the battle system felt "really great to control". She further wrote, "You won't run into much frustration playing this game, and while it does feel like one big fetch quest at times, the charms of the story more than make up for that." ''IGN'' awarded it a score of 7.2 out of 10, saying "''Yo-kai Watch''s gameplay is inconsistent, but its world is compelling."

During the 19th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated ''Yo-kai Watch'' for " Handheld Game of the Year".

Sales

''Yo-kai Watch'' debuted with a strong opening week, selling over 53,000 units in its first week of availability; the best selling handheld game in Japan and second-best selling game in Japan for that week, beaten only by Nintendo's 92,000 unit sales for ''Pikmin 3''. In a list published at the end of the year, Japanese video game magazine ''Famitsu'' named ''Yo-kai Watch'' as the 23rd best selling game in Japan, with just over 280,000 units sold. After the debut of the ''Yo-kai Watch'' anime in January 2014, Level-5, a month later, reported that the sales numbers for the game had spiked to over 500,000 physical copies of the game sold alone, without including digital download sales. The number was brought up to over 800,000, including digital sales, after sales tracker Media Create reported the game had sold as much by May 2015, though, ''Famitsu'' reported a more conservative estimate of 650,000 in the same time frame. The month earlier, however, Level-5 reported that they had, in fact, shipped 1 million units, with Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino stating, in an interview with ''Famitsu'', that he believed that the game would reach the million sales mark soon. By June, a month before the release of the game's sequel, ''Yo-kai Watch 2'', the game had crossed the million sales milestone, according to Media Create, after a steady increase of weekly sales since January 2014. By November 2014, the game had sold a total of just under 1,294,000 units sold in Japan. As of June 10, 2016, the game sold 400,000 units in North America. Although that number was below Level-5's expectations, it still got the ''Yo-kai Watch'' franchise off to a promising start overseas, and instilled confidence that the franchise would find its place.

The Nintendo Switch port sold 9,426 copies in its first week on sale, placing 4th overall for software sales.

Sequels

A sequel to ''Yo-kai Watch'' was released on July 10, 2014, for the Nintendo 3DS in two versions: and . Borrowing near-identical gameplay elements from the original ''Yo-kai Watch'', the games featured an expanded setting, a brand-new story, additional game modes, and a broadly expanded roster of Yo-kai. The games were released to positive critical reception, and an overwhelmingly successful commercial performance was boosted by the popularity of the anime and the preceding game. Both versions of the game accumulated pre-order sales of over 800,000, with the games selling over 1.28 million units in their first week of sale. The games would go on to become the best selling games in Japan for 2014, selling over 3 million copies by December and outperforming Nintendo's ''Pokémon'' franchise with ''Pokémon Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire'' and Capcom's ''Monster Hunter'' franchise, with ''Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate''. The games join ''Yo-kai Watch'' as two of the best selling games on the Nintendo 3DS. A third version of the game, , was released in December 2014, adding enhancements to the original ''Ganso'' and ''Honke'' versions of the game.

Because of the healthy sales of the first game and the first set of sequels, additional sequels titled '' Yo-kai Watch 3'' and ''Yo-kai Watch 4'' were released initially in Japan in July 2016 and June 2019, respectively.

References

External links

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{{Portal, Video games

2013 video games
Level-5 (company) games
Nintendo 3DS eShop games
Nintendo 3DS games
Nintendo Network games
Nintendo Switch games
Open-world video games
Role-playing video games
Video games with gender-selectable protagonists
Video games developed in Japan
Video games set in Japan
Yo-kai Watch video games
Japan Game Awards' Game of the Year winners
Multiplayer and single-player video games