Level-5 and GungHo Online Entertainment have just launched a Yo-Kai Watch game for iOS and Android smartphones in Japan.

Yo-Kai Watch World is a location-based title not entirely unlike Pokémon GO, where famous Yo-Kai characters appear "in the real world" around you. The objective is to fill your Yo-Kai Encyclopedia by visiting different locations and searching for signs of Yo-Kai activity. Using AR, your phone will display the Yo-Kai, at which point you'll enter a battle phase.

Battles are semi-automatic and are won using special moves; victory allows you to befriend the Yo-Kai, and you can then train them, which results in even stronger Yo-Kai appearing. The trailer also hints that raid battles - where players join forces to take down powerful foes - will also feature.

In an interesting twist, your Yo-Kai can "possess" nearby players and travel with them to new areas for a short time; this may result in them returning with new Yo-Kai or bonus items.

Finally, it's possible to plant "Yo-Kai Trees" at various locations in order to attract new Yo-Kai. This sounds a lot like using a Lure Module at a PokéStop in Pokémon GO. In fact, the more we look at it, the more this seems to be Pokémon GO with a different skin; perhaps when we eventually get to play it we will notice significant differences.

Speaking of which, Yo-Kai Watch World is only available in Japan at present. Would you like to see it come to the west? Let us know with a comment.

[source gematsu.com]