Comments on: A Response to Negative YO-KAI WATCH 2 Reviews

By: Norman Fong Ochoa

Norman Fong Ochoa — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 02:49:38 +0000

I think Yo-kai Watch 2 fame in Japan is well-deserved because it actually makes several changes to the “monster-collecting-and-battling” formula both in concept and gameplay. Also, it gets truer to its Japanese folklore roots with the introduction of the Classic Yo-kai and several others which further play into the concept.
I found Yo-kai Watch is far more popular in Europe than America if we’re talking about the west. American rewiewers come in many flavors: in big sites like IGN and Gamespot are both experienced and reliable rewiers as well as second-rate, biased and outright in-name-only gamers who do so as well. I don’t hold sites where any user can rewiew games and other forms of media with high regard (such as Metacritic) because most of the users either are immature, have no clear concept of what makes a game truly memorable or don’t take the task with the seriousness it must have (there’re rewiews of just two lines of text and scores made just for trolling).
As such, due to superficial stuff like graphical quality or amount of violence, most games get scores that they don’t deserve, both the truly good, memorable ones and the ones which will be swept under the rug in a few months. I think if IGN and Gamespot want to save at least a bit of credibility, they must purge the negative assets in their ranks without further ado.

By: Norman Fong Ochoa

Norman Fong Ochoa — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 02:31:49 +0000

In reply to Blake Good.

True… very few M-rated games have little more than just bangs, violence and stuff like that, and many of those games are way too similar to each other for said stuff. I think even Japan can produce really outstanding games regardless of rating because the most important factors in a game are: gameplay, replay value, and the overall grade of fun. Take Nintendo for example: it only supervises very few M-rated games, but said games try to be noticeably different at least, same with any of its other games.
I’m glad Level-5 choose a Nintendo Platform (the 3DS) to release most of the Yo-kai Watch games for it has enough tools to unleash its creativeness.

By: Norman Fong Ochoa

Norman Fong Ochoa — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 02:23:58 +0000

In reply to J.

Well… Since in YW2 it’s Nate’s Grandfather who created the Yo-kai Watch, the plot shows that Nate is more important to the world than it seemed in the first game. Even in the first game, Nate inspired several of the Yo-kai he befriends to fight in the final chapter because he helped them with their issues in the first place, and therefore this is when those who wear the Yo-kai Watch are of sum importance: the need to bridge both worlds, as it is explored in both the anime and the games.
Also, Akihiro Hino (the creator of the franchise and CEO of Level-5), said the human characters were supposed to be flawed in order to be relatable (in short, nobody is perfect and that’s the best thing that could happen to a main character), because heroes with weaknesses and flaws are more likable than those who never make mistakes.
As for the pacing, Japanese people are more accustomed to pacing to JRPG’s -like this one- because there’re enough events to happen and keep the world and its characters interesting.

By: Norman Fong Ochoa

Norman Fong Ochoa — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 02:13:00 +0000

In reply to AppDude27. Hehe... A YW3 did got released in July 2016, and it even has more updates than YW2. There's St. Peanutsburg, USA, where Nate's portion of the story takes place, whereas Inaho, the new female protagonist, explores Springsdale and Aobahara. You can (and need to) play with both of them in the same file, so it's like a larger plot by itself.

By: J

Thu, 20 Jul 2017 06:58:22 +0000

In reply to J. Also i really love the battle system, i agree with you there i think criticism was undue in that regard. Its really the pacing and poor narration choices that bog the game down (for example does anyone actually care about nate? They should have made the protagonist more anonymous like in the pokemon games. Instead the whole franchise is bogged down by this super irrelevant and annoying protagonist, where the focus should be the monsters)

By: J

Thu, 20 Jul 2017 06:43:56 +0000

Id like to elaborate on my comment more. I totally love the yokai watch anime and the wibble wobble app. However im finding the ds game to be completely tedious. Its too bad because i really want to love it. Im about 6 hours in the main quest, have the d rank watch. There has been very few times to pursue yokai on my own, everything has been mediated by linear quests with really tedious dialogue. I was hoping that the beginning of the main quest was like a tutorial and eventually things would open up, but so far its just the same format of “go to the next arrow, maybe fight a yokai or two, next arrow, go home and go to bed next arrow”

By: J

Thu, 20 Jul 2017 06:32:40 +0000

Just because something is “successful in japan” doesnt mean it should be reviewed differently. The game is totally on rails. I was hoping for more honestly

By: Blake Good

Blake Good — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 00:55:09 +0000

Every video game critic: We only like M-rated games, especially shooters. We don’t care about games like Yo-Kai Watch.

By: Justin

Justin — Sun, 27 Nov 2016 01:51:59 +0000

In reply to Johne. Johneawesome, is that you? But besides notification. Thanks for taking the time to explain all of the ideas and how much you care about this franchise. Though some people may have different opinions to the game, whether they still call it a Pokemon Ripoff, I still think you've nailed things more than I ever had. Thanks for addressing these concerns Pikmin

By: Grey Jedi 25

Grey Jedi 25 — Sat, 26 Nov 2016 20:59:16 +0000

I’m glad to see people feel this way, I preorder and bought yo kai watch 1 and 2 and thoroughly enjoyed the first and still play the second. Too many people won’t give these games a chance because they are Pokemon fans, and I think it’s wrong. I have played Pokemon since the red and blue versions on game boy up to Moon, and I honestly prefer to play yo kai watch 2 over Pokemon moon, this is just my opinion, but the yo kai watch games deserve more positive attention. Most of the bad yo kai 2 reviews said it was too similar to the first, but honestly how much variation has Pokemon done with its games until recently? Also in my opinion, I think yo kai watch has the more varied and memorable characters. I still play both series, but people should be more open minded to the yo kai watch games.

By: AppDude27

AppDude27 — Sat, 26 Nov 2016 14:50:32 +0000

I really enjoyed reading this response to the negative Yokai Watch criticism. I’ve loved Yokai Watch from the very beginning, but there are a few things that weren’t mentioned in the response that I would like to bring up:
– The Japanese culture in the game. Besides the small number of anime shows I watch, I don’t know much about Japanese culture or how certain customs are compared to the West. I live in the United States, so playing Yokai Watch isn’t just traveling to a new world like any other video game, it’s a culture awakening that educates you a lot! From the ancient temples and shrines, to the houses of individual characters, the game really shows you what society is like in another country. I think the issue here is that people don’t have an open mind and do not want to learn a new culture or care to know more about a society, and that’s what is disappointing because YW2 is all about learning in so many ways.

– The train system teaches kids how to navigate trains in real life. I wish I would have been on Yokai watch 2’s trains before learning how to take my city’s train system! The YW2 train system is a very accurate representation of what it is like in real life to ride a train and make sure you get to your stop! I loved every minute of it! I even got all the train stamps and got the “special surprise”. The train, in my opinion, is one of the BEST additions to the entire game!

– I will agree with the negative reviews that the YW storyline has some issues with it. The first game’s ending to me felt rushed and introduced a new character way too late. I have yet to finish the second game so I will have to update my post.

– Befriending Yokai is not reliable. In Pokemon, you know if you’re going to catch a Pokemon or not. You know the chances of catching one due to the HP a Pokemon has. In Yokai Watch, you can’t see that chance. I have failed at befriending so many Yokai that I’ve given up on some of them. I definitely wish that the befriending system could’ve been updated in the sequel to make it a little less random and more strategic to befriend Yokai.

– The YW2 world did feel a like a copy paste job. I feel like YW2 is leaps and bounds better than the first game. It really is. The GPS system is way better, the world is bigger, the story is better, a lot is better. But they had to use the same world…the fun in pokemon is exploring a new world. Nate is only in 4-5th grade so the boy himself has a very limited world.

– The trading system is not working. I tried to trade Robanyan with a friend and simply could not do it. The trading system doesn’t work. It took us forever to establish a connection that let us trade together. Pokemon never had this issue and worked the first time. I still don’t understand why trading Yokai is more difficult.

As I mentioned earlier, great response! There are a lot of things in that article that I never knew before prior to reading it. I also thought that Pokemon Sun and Moon felt Yokai-Watchy with it’s Rotomdex as well. And that the Rotomdex can speak English? That’s a nod to Yokai Watch alright.

I do hope that we see a YW3 sequel. Also Komasan puts all Pokémon to shame.

Oh my swirls!!!

By: Johne

Johne — Sat, 26 Nov 2016 07:46:12 +0000

Good read right here, everyone might not agree with you but Im glad you got your feelings out there