An incredibly charming game with pretty mediocre gameplay. The story, characters, and world are nice and simple in a way that taps into a feeling of childlike adventure by combining the supernatural elements with the contemporary setting. While the game’s really charming, the gameplay is kinda mediocre. You equip 6 Yokai to your team and they attack randomly, and while you have control over battles by rotating which Yokai are active, purifying them, and charging their soultimates, there’s barely any strategy involved. The only strategy comes from choosing which Yokai to use, but you can get away without much planning (unless you’re doing the postgame challenges) for most of the game. The bosses are definitely a high point, though, as they all have a special gimmick that adds a bit more thought to combat, and their unique designs make them exciting to fight. An enjoyable time, but not something I’ll go back to anytime soon.

It's really cute and pretty unique. Feels too simplistic at first but the battle system demands more out of you as the game goes on. I wish befriending Yokai wasn't even more luck reliant than SMT Negotiations but getting one feels great.

This game really truly excels in its world. It really feels like you're a kid in a small town, a little nostalgic even. It's filled with these little details like taking your shoes off when you enter the house, or a jingle plays if you make sure the light is green before crossing an intersection with no other reward. Or how two of the final trials are 1. Are you a helpful person around town and 2. Always be honest. It's nice to encourage good morals like in this fun little game.

But it is very child-like, just going on a bunch of random adventures with these Yokai, you know in SPRINGDALE which is filled with YO-KAI in AMERICA. We could talk about how much of a marketing blunder it was in the west and how Level-5 can't maintain a hit franchise even in just Japan to save their lives, but I'd rather focus on the game.

I got to be a cute girl, the monsters are varied and unique (and again, were destined to never catch on outside Japan but boy did they try), music's good and battle system's fun. Once falsely labeled as a Pokemon killer (though Pokemon took the wrong notes from this game sadly), I consider Yo-Kai Watch a hidden gem that I recommend.

I really had a great time playing Yo-kai Watch.

Doing the story while exploring and unlocking new areas really did give me that cool pokemon feel of discovering new creatures for me to fight and capture. The combat system is really nice and addicting, encouraging you to use all of your 6 yokais in combat and the Yokais themselves all look fun and creative.
There are some flaws here and there like the basic and episodic plot and a lot of RNG BS in capturing Yokais but other than that, it was a very good time.

Ngl, this is better than Pokémon. (sorry Pokémon fans, I tried with Pokémon it didn't get my instert) I feel their fun moments in this game than I thought, including my favorite Yo Kai characters, Blizzaria, Fidgephant, Everfore, and Spronk! The bosses are Fun! (especially Spronk, Hoggles, and McKraken!) Terror time is fun to defeating to Oni's! (Thankfully they brought the good one back in the 3rd installment) The songs are great too! The story is a bit confusing and all over the place but thankfully it gets on track in the end. This is a good Pokémon "Competition" it's a shame that it didn't get this attention around the world unlike on there home place (Japan, which even then is losing popularity). I hope one day this series get the good treatment like Pokémon did.