It seems the Yo-Kai Watch bubble is bursting fast in the Land of the Rising Sun. In fact, it burst a while ago, but the game and its accompanying media and merch were so incredibly popular in Japan that residual interest keeps the whole shebang running on fumes.
While the craze never quite took off over here, the game's popularity created lines around the block outside Tokyo toy stores back at its zenith in 2014. Commentators forecasted the death of Pokémon as kids pleaded with their parents for all the plastic watches, medals and assorted merch they could get their mitts on.
However, as Kotaku reports, all things must - and pretty-much have - come to an end. After a meteoric rise which led to a shortage of Yokai merchandise of any kind, a sudden influx of goods covered with every conceivable character and logo just missed the boat and left shop shelves and bargain bins filled this Yo-Kai-branded tat.
The article cites incompatibility between different medal sets and watches, plus alterations to the anime's theme song (and accompanying dance) as further reasons for its continued decline. It also speculates that the enduring success of Pokémon is down to its deep core mechanics; Yo-Kai Watch works fine for kids, but doesn't have the complexity to draw you back as you grow older. As Pokémon fans for over two decades now, we'd have to agree with that.
As games like Fortnite shift suddenly from mere video game to worldwide phenomenon in a matter of weeks, it's fascinating to see the approaches taken to riding those waves of popularity and turn these IPs into flourishing businesses and not just a blip on a graph. Unfortunately, it looks like Level-5 failed to do that here. Still, the bewilderingly fast cycle of modern reboot culture means the company need only wait twelve months before having another crack.
Are you a staunch Yo-Kai defender? What could Level-5 have done differently? Let us know your thoughts.
[source kotaku.com, via mama-n.net]
Comments 48
The Switch game looks ace!
Wasn’t the Switch game gonna change up the gameplay considerably? I guess the boom is over, but if it’s a good game maybe it can survive in its own niche.
It all goes downhill as soon as Pokemon Gen. 8 is out for the Switch.
i think yo kai is pretty legit. definitely has its own thing goin on
Im actually looking forward to Yokiwatch 4 game looks really good.
The Switch game will hopefully revive it. I've not played much Yo-Kai Watch, but I've liked what I've played so far, really nice presentation.
I’m a big fan of both Pokémon and Yo-Kai Watch. Yo-Kai Watch definitely deserves more popularity, and if 4 ever makes its way to the US, I’ll absolutely buy it. Still need to pick up 3
These games really just need to find an audience and stick with it.
Love the series, and really looking forward to 4. I bet it'll do more with the Switch than the next Pokémon will, but will still be beaten by it.
There is something about the artstyle that puts me off. I can’t figure out what it is. I will add 3 to my backlog since it is one version though.
Yo Kai definitely has its appeal - but Pokemon is just more popular and has a greater tradition with many adult fans. I played 1, got 2, and will buy 3 when its cheap. Yo kai 4 looks great
The Yo-Kai Watch tv show is great, and the dialogue in the original 3DS game is great. And I really enjoyed collecting the medals. I'm not trying to hate on the game, but it really wasn't very fun for me. It was the first time I played a Nintendo-published title that I felt the game was only made for children and not all ages. Kind of put me off from wanting to continue watching the show and collecting the medals too. (but if you like it, that's great!)
Loved the TV series (although they didn't translate enough for the UK) but found the 3DS game a bit boring if wonderfully presented. Collected a bunch of the medals too, but they're not wrong about medal compatibility. It's a nightmare.
I remember being so excited about giving this series a try when the first game was announced to be coming to the west. Back in my 3DS gaming days, this was a game I seemingly couldn't miss, but for someone I never made the plunge and decided to purchase it. I still to this day don't know why I never took the chance on it.
I think 4 will give it a resurgence in Japan and could even be the game that makes it a breakthrough hit in the West, it looks that good.
I just recently finished the first game and loved every minute of it, already bought 2 and Blasters, can't wait to play them
Still trying to understand Yokai Watch's appeal. For very young children in Japan, I think the appeal goes something like this as a comparison for us overseas: Nickelodeon/Cartoon Network made a cartoon show about ghosts and such and this is its accompanying "Pokémon-like" game.
I guess Yokai now will go the way of other shows/franchises that rivaled Pokemon in some way like Digimon and the like, it'll still be around but only ever doing "okay" in sales and new anime. Never seeing anything like a Pokemon Go boom, just a small but loving fanbase that will support it the best they can.
Kids them to be over these types of "collect them all" franchises these days, which is probably why it never took off outside of Japan. Sure there are still toys out there, but lot of kids shows nowadays seem to be ether more story or comedy based, not "I gotta get all the things to be the very best!" type shows all that much.
No franchise ever truly dies in the Land of the Rising Sun.
The gameplay in Yokai Watch is actually a lot like Final Fantasy XIII, IMHO, which I personally loooove but can see why people might not like. That kinda reflex/timing-based gameplay where WHEN you block, heal, and attack is more important than the actual attack/ability used.
The games and anime are better than Pokémon, IMHO, especially considering how formulaic Pokémon still is. I have to say that the character designs in general are complete garbage by comparison, however.
I really like Yokai watch nothing gets me laughing than a kid making sarcastic remarks to ghost.
Odd really, while lots of people on Nintendo forums increasingly demand Nintendo make Pokémon more like Yokai Watch, Yokai Watch slowly dies.
Never been a fan of either the Pokémon or Yokai animé, played a little of the Yokai Watch games & got bored pretty quickly.
@ALinkttPresent I'd (sadly) argue the newer Pokemon games outside the competitive scene, which most fans don't bother with, aren't made for all ages anymore either...
I found the first game a breath of fresh air after playing Pokemon. I'm a fan of both, but the presentation and story in Yo-Kai Watch seemed a little better IMO. Pokemon's core mechanics are better though.
Despite some changes for a Western audience, I also quite enjoy the anime.
I think Yo-Kai Watch is pretty great. The first game was good enough, but the second one was just awesome. I haven't played the third one yet.
Sure, it does have its flaws, like its combat is not the best out there (and they knew that, and were bold enough to change it completely more than once), and the TV show is really bad from what I've seen, but I would love to see it stay. I would even go as far as say that Jibanyan is worthy of being in Smash.
@Angelic_Lapras_King That's a sad happening too. While I can't say anything about Yo-Kai Watch having never played it, I'd argue the newest Digimon games have been insanely better than the newer Pokemon games.
Could never get into it. I bet it is good, but it never clicked for me. I guess I don't like the designs
Though I cannot judge Yo-Kai Watch's quality as a franchise due to the fact that I have never played it, it truly is a shame that Pokemon has yet to have a powerful, enduring competitor; it could certainly use one, in my opinion. No matter how high-quality its competitors may be, especially in relation to Pokemon itself, Pokemon is functionally destined to triumph due to its nigh-immortality.
@shoeses That might be, but Bandai Namco (Thats who make these games right?) is never going to heavily promote a Digimon game again to try since I don't think the sales would pay back all that promoting. They could go down the route of tapping into people's nostalgia by making a game heavily based on Adventure 1 and hope for a Pokemon Go boom but then wasnt those Tri films meant to be a nostalgia trip?
I used to love Level 5, but apart from Ni No Kuni, they've spent a decade making games that felt like they existed purely to sell merchandise. Inazuma Eleven and Yo-Kai Watch both had so much promise, but they didn't make the most of it.
Not cared to even download the pokemon free Demo on my Switch
Yo-Kai Watch is day 1 for me - every preview video looks fantastic.
It's a real shame as personally, I love both the games and TV show but it was obvious even when the first game launched in the West that there just wasn't any 'buzz' or excitement like you get with a Pokemon release, and a lot of people just took one look at the merchandise and wrote it off as a 'kiddie' Pokemon rip off not worth wasting time on. However, it's also true that the games are a bit more simplistic than Pokemon and the character designs aren't quite as appealing, and Level 5's done a bit too much 'coasting' on it's existing success rather than make any proper effort to shake up or evolve the gameplay. I hope Yokai Watch 4 revives interest a bit....I'll certainly be picking it up and it's not a franchise I wish to see die out. The anime's been excellent and genuinely funny for the most part, more people should give it a shot.
I've played both 1 and 2 and currently playing 3 and Blasters. I love this series a lot and hope it gets some of it's popularity back with the release of 4.
not surprising to me in the slightest. yokai watch while fun for some is very shallow compared to pokemon
I remember playing a demo for a Yo-Kai game a few years back. Couple that with the anime, it became apparent, for me at least, why it would never supplant Pokemon. Its concept is a bit on the convoluted side and honestly there is nothing, I personally, find memorable about the franchise to get me hooked and ultimately invested. Obviously, others here feel differently.
Been saying this for a while now. None of my students talk about it anymore, and they don't want the stickers anymore either. But Pokemon and Dragon Ball remain.
It's been down for a while. Blasters 2 was a critical flop and Shadowside Anime only gets a fraction of the views the original series did.
I think YW4 will reinvigorate the franchise a bit, but it's going to stay a niche in both the west and Japan.
It's also possible the franchise is simply in a slump like Pokemon was in the mid-2000s.
But we're not going to know until the first media create records of YW4 sales.
So much for "We're gonna be the ones to top the Pokemon craze!"
Like honestly... was this game EVER popular in North America?
Being a long time pokemon fan I was always on the defense about the series, but honestly Yokai Watch 4 looks too good to be missed on, I'm definitely gonna try it out!
@Oat With that statement, you've pretty much proven you've never actually played the game or done any kind of research, for that matter. Pokemon on its own is arguably just a Dragon Quest battle system watered down for babies with no real difficulty to it since fans have to make fanmade rulesets like the Nuzlocke challenge to get any hardships out of playing Pokemon. Meanwhile, the minibosses alone in Yo-Kai Watch such as Snartle, Awevil and a ton of the other daily battles are designed to beat bad players to a pulp if they can't construct proper team composition with postgame bosses like Kat Kraydel being even more brutal on top of that. Not to mention the official competitive metagame allowing for far more variety compared to Pokemon's official VGC Doubles metagame where half the PokeDex gets banned yearly but despite the fact bans usually help aid diversity, the metagame continues to have some of the most awful variety. Just look at the laughable top 8 results of VGC 2016 where you notice a pattern of teams either forced to support or try to beat Primal Groudon, Kyogre and Mega Rayquaza. On the other hand, you have Yo-Kai Watch's official competitive banlist that's fair, consistent and forces smart team composition much like fanmade metagame of Pokemon's Draft League meta. Also helps that you have to take a ton of factors into account in battle in Tribe Unity, optimal debuffing momentum, Soul Gems, redirection support and even more depth added onto that in the transition to YKW3 with Soultimate synergy, Linking for combo damage and blocking, Sub support, etc.
TLDR: Yo-Kai Watch's level of depth makes Pokemon's look stupid easy.
It's impossible to lose at a Pokemon game due to how easy it is (unless you're just that bad) while Yo-Kai Watch expects you to reach some insane levels of skill and dive deep into the game in order to accomplish something against the harder bosses. Try taking on Gargaros sometime and see how "shallow" you think it is.
@Ryu_Niiyama The franchise is doing fine, tbh. Love how none of these articles mention the fact the recent Forever Friends movie made like 10 million dollars.
@SinnohGeek It was never supposed to be a Pokemon killer in the first place. That was honestly just dumb American game journalist propaganda that got the insecure Pokemon fans to click on the articles and feel threatened about another game in the monster collecting RPG genre for no reason, ignoring that Pokemon arguably just rode on the hype of Dragon Quest being the top dog in RPGs by the time Pokemon came out and had monster collecting years prior to Pokemon.
@Bobb You must have questionable taste if mermaid milfs like Mermother can't click with you.
@ALinkttPresent Yo-Kai Watch isn't even published by Nintendo. Level-5 does all their own publishing. Also, if you think the myriad of gay sex jokes, murder stories and Dante's Inferno complete with the 7 Circles of Hell among other things YKW is filled with are things for children, you are SORELY mistaken.
@Haida Considering Game Freak's recent patterns and how they've ALREADY claimed Switch development is "5 times harder" while every other game development is handling the transition just fine, ESPECIALLY Level-5, I'd tell you not to count your chickens before they hatched since I personally gave up on that series after buying the scam that is USUM.
Ah, Yokai watch...I watched the anime (japanese voices with english translation) and liked it. But I stopped after episode 30, other things took my attention. I might continue it someday, but I am sooooo far behind...
@Henmii It's not a show I'd recommend watching till the end.
Episodes 24-76 is what I consider to be the peak. It's still worth watching past that point, but the quality drops well before the series ended at episode 212.
@Seacliff,
I expected as much, the decline of the quality. I didn't know the show stopped though.
@Henmii It did, but it was recently confirmed it's continuing in April with a new approach. Not much else is known about it though.
@Seacliff,
Thanks for the information.
yokai really doesnt deserve the hate it gets. those pokemon fanboys who call it a pokemon ripoff have never played it. i play both pokemon and yokai, they are completely different games. they have similarities, but they're very distinct from each other.
Yokai use to be good, but they completely messed up the story due to cash grab of their Puni Puni game app (similar to TsumTsum).
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