I played the demo. Don't plan on going further.

All I have to say: Yo-Kai Watch? More like Yo-wish-yo-was-pokemon

(Sorry I stole your joke, Chief)

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.

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.

Te sigo amando como la primera vez. Las unicas cosas que sigo detestando es que Fausto es un personaje que aparece de la nada y disque que es importante (pero luego el propio canon lo hechara para el tres), la manera de obtener yokais me sigue pareciendo una mierda y que para obtener a Komasura de ahuevo requieres a Kyubi, pero kyubi solo lo puedes obtener en el post game, pero debes pasarte unas misiones de otros culiaos y esos culiaos requieren mierda especifica que sueltan ciliaos especificos, y el juego ni dice donde obtenerlos, por lo que si no buscaste en internet, pues jodete.

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.

Me lo rejugué hace poco (no me acuerdo ni por qué) y me ha gustado muchísimo.

Lo que más brilla de este juego es el control que pilla sobre la consola, se nota el empeño que le han puesto en que todo vaya fluido y que casi todos los botones tengan uso en combate. También tengo que destacar la maravillosa traducción y doblaje al castellano que tiene este juego, chistes súper silly aprovechando también la traducción de los nombres, trabajos de doblaje buenísimos como el de Nathan o Whisper...

En general, me ha gustado muchísimo y ahora estoy yendo a por el 100%, pero creo que si no lo jugaste en su momento es OBLIGATORIO si cuentas con una 3ds y un mínimo de tiempo libre, muy muy divertido y carismático.

A really fun game, the friendship system with food was slightly annoying, but I got used to it. Story was okay, not really that crazy good, but okay. Gameplay, man, if you thought this was a simple pokemon copy, you would be dead wrong, the gameplay is auto and each yo-kai has a special skill which you can activate yourself! All the Yo-Kai designs are great, my personal favourite being the best, Jibanyan. Summoning legendary yo-kai is an interesting way of doing it, I managed to summon Shogunyan and I love them. Not to mention fusing yo-kai together is a thing too. Please play this game, Yo-Kai Watch is a super fun time and you will not regret it. 8/10