Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

Oh gosh I just discovered the Pokedance! Adding that to my wind down dance rotation at night. (Usually includes Nanchu soran bushi and whatever Perfume dance is in my rotation).

@Tyranexx If the remake does fix issues the original Yooka-Laylee had, I would like to try it, cuz I love anything that reminds me of Banjo. Even though I am a fan of 3D collectathon games, I really don’t feel like playing any right now, cuz last month the Pure Xbox game club was playing Banjo-Tooie (which I actually requested) but I was out of it and didn’t continue playing it. I think I will get into the collectathon mood again one day! Just not right now.

The anime was great, but I only got to watch the first season and first anime film on Netflix since they didn’t have the remaining two seasons or the other anime films, so I never got onto the season that introduced USApyon or characters and elements from Yokai-Watch 3, but, I really like USApyon’s character design a ton, so I made him my avatar. Apparently, from what I read, Hulu has all the anime’s and films in Japan, so they are really lucky cuz the first anime series is split on multiple streaming services where I live. They didn’t localize the films that came after Yokai-Watch: The Movie, but I’d have to assume it was because of how poorly the anime did in America in terms of viewership. I remember the catchy theme song for the dub. A cool fact was that they got Jeff “Swampy” Marsh (one of the creators of Phineas and Ferb) involved in the dubbed song since Disney had licensed the anime to air on Disney XD.

I think Holy Horror Mansion is interesting from how it’s replacing characters, concepts, and elements from previous games, like using a new protagonist and new yo-kai, the yo-kai being associated with dance moves instead of tribes, and a camera replacing the watch. I am hopeful the AI art is only just apart of the concept and not something that will be in the final product, cuz it looks artificial and off, and I’d prefer they get actual artists to draw it. I also may want to get it since America hasn’t had a Yo-kai Watch game since 2019. If I did know the release of 3 was limited, I would have bought a copy, but I didn’t since I saw little to no marketing or talk about it when it came to America and I was uninterested in Yo-kai Watch at the time. I really, REALLY regret not buying it. I tried to have some hope that GameStop would sell a cheap copy, but I saw that it was expensive there too. Like what you said in a reply, I don’t want to emulate it and would prefer to get it on the 3DS cuz I don’t think the game mechanics will work well on other hardware. I am hopeful I can find a cheap copy somewhere at a store near me, but it’s really hard to.

Definitely agree on the concept being more popular in Japan than here. I was reading a few old Reddit posts that asked why it failed in America, and a lot of the responses said it was the concept not being well-known in non-Japanese countries and the character designs of the yokai being more appealing to Japan. Most of the yo-kai’s designs are based on creatures and figures in Japanese folklore, and a lot of people in the West are likely not aware of Japanese mythology (maybe besides a few deities) or the concept of yokai compared to other mythologies like Greek and Norse. Another person said that if the game included yo-kai alongside creatures from mythologies and folklore originating in other countries and cultures, then it could have done better because the wide variety of characters from many different folklores could have had universal appeal everywhere. The English localization attempted to Americanize the setting to give it more appeal in the West while keeping the concept of yo-kai, like changing the setting from Japan to America (as well as making the human characters American) and giving the yo-kai punny English names instead of keeping the same Japanese names. It’s a shame that yo-kai are not super well known outside of Japan. I am not Japanese, but I did read on Japanese mythology a lot for an unrelated story I was writing (but didn’t finish) and it has lots of interesting characters and stories.

I don’t really mind the wheel-based combat, but I can understand why some aren’t a huge fan of the gameplay, most criticisms came from how the yo-kai attack themselves and you don’t really command them besides the Soultimates and having them attack a specific enemy by pinning them. I have also heard that 3 has the best gameplay out of the three mainline 3DS entries, plus NL rated it really high, so it seemed like a really good game and outdoes the second game a lot. Even though the gameplay isn’t the greatest, a lot of the stuff you mentioned, like the characters and the huge cast of yo-kai, humor, stories and the world-building and lore make up for it. The yo-kai designs are one of my most favorite aspects of the series; the designs of the mascot characters are my favorites.

I would love if Yo-kai Watch 4 was localized, but given that there are characters and concepts from anime films and series that were never released in America, Level-5 moving on to Holy Horror Mansion, and 4 selling poorly in Japan, I am very doubtful it will come to the West, plus with the Switch nearing the end of its lifespan, I feel like it’s too late now for the game to get a release in English… 😔

Also, jeez, I wrote a wall of text again! I had to reword so many things to make it readable…

@Pastellioli Thanks, I'm definitely liking the game. I'm decently far in it, maybe like halfway through as of this post? For me, I finished Tears of the Kingdom before getting Echoes of Wisdom, I played a pretty good amount of Zelda over the last year and this one. Last year, I finished Breath of the Wild before TotK came out, so that felt good. I've never played Tri Force Heroes, I wasn't too interested in a multiplayer-centric Zelda game at the time and I didn't know anybody who had the game anyway. I'm starting to prefer shorter games overall actually, with the occasional long game if I can get into that. That's cool you're enjoying that update, it's for that Hatsune Miku game I'm guessing? It does sound a lot like Splatoon's Splatfests, lol. That sucks about the players disconnecting. I never disconnect on purpose when I play an online game, either. If I do disconnect, it's because I got the dreaded "a communication error has occurred" message, haha.

Yeah, I find the boards at Nintendo Life are generally pretty chill. Although the comment sections in articles in NL can be a bit toxic a lot of the time. Except for the "what are you playing this weekend?" articles, those comments tend to be OK.

That's cool, I've heard of Yo-Kai Watch but I've not played or watched it. Glad you're enjoying it. In terms of Pokemon clones, I used to watch quite a bit of Digimon way back when I was younger, and had a few VHS tapes of the show. I think I saw a little bit of Monster Rancher back in that time too, but not much.

@Tyranexx I saw one of your other posts. Happy belated birthday! I hope you had a lovely day.

Thank you, I've been having fun with both that game and making my passion project. Ah gotcha, that's understandable, I did put a decent amount of progress into Echoes of Wisdom, but things have also been a bit busy for me as well haha.

OK, will do. I think that's the best course of action for me anyway, when I'm actually up for it. Thanks again. Good to know that it might help if I didn't eat too much for a while, too. Ah gotcha, that would've sucked if your cookies actually dropped, haha.

That's cool, my mom's side of the family grew up on a farm as well, if I recall correctly. My great grandparents used to have a lot of cats as well. On a slightly related note, one of their wall clocks was shaped like a cat as well, with the moving tail as the pendulum. It's so cute!

Yeah, the Luigi playthrough is a bit more difficult thanks to his slippery traction. I remember the Cosmic Luigi races being pretty dang hard too, and I already found the Cosmic Mario races being hard to begin with when I first played Super Mario Galaxy. lol

That's cool, sweet potatoes are pretty good. I agree, I think they're sweet enough as they are. They don't call them sweet potatoes for nothing, lol. Boos are indeed fun pranksters, haha! I remember a long time ago, I gifted my brother a Boo amiibo. If I recall correctly, it was a birthday present. On a somewhat related note, I have a Bob-omb plush that I got from Nintendo's New York store long ago.

@Pastellioli Definitely don't force yourself to play a game if you aren't up for it! I'm sure you'll be back into 3D collect-a-thons when the time is right.

I liked what I did see of the Yo-Kai Watch anime and found the theme song (Both the original and localized versions) very catchy. Komasan and Jibanyan are my favorite characters. I like the series's humor too, even if some of it does come across as a bit juvenile sometimes - but this makes sense considering the audience. I do know a few bits of the anime were censored overseas however. My knowledge of Japanese mythology isn't very expansive, but I do know some of the more popular stories and of yokai. My curiosity was piqued when I first played Okami on the Wii over a decade ago and became interested in Japanese mythology, particularly its Shinto influences.

I like Holy Horror Mansion as a concept and think it could do well if Level-5 has learned from their Yo-Kai Watch missteps. The camera concept reminds me of the Fatal Frame series, just way toned down lol. I'm out if they use AI art in products they actually intend to sell however. I'm fine with AI use if nobody intends to profit off of it or pass it off as their own original work - though I do admit this is a gray area. Unfortunately, since Yo-Kai Watch 3 had a very limited release, even secondhand cartridges are ridiculously expensive. I kind of doubt I'll ever buy the game physical unless I locate it in a very out of the way place where an individual or store is selling it way below its value.

You've listed almost all the reasons I suspect why Yo-Kai Watch 4 will never be localized. In addition, since the Yo-Kai Watch ship has sailed even in its native Japan, I don't see Level-5 putting more effort into the original series in general. Regarding the earlier games' combat, I didn't mind the auto-attacking, I just wish the AI was better even if you issue certain attack commands. I didn't like how finicky the purification and Soultimate mini games could be too. Along with what I mentioned before, I'm a huge advocate of the 3DS family's 3D effect - when applied correctly by developers and set at a lower setting, not full blast - and think the Yo-Kai Watch games are among the best examples not made by Nintendo.

@MarioVillager92 Thanks! My bday was one reason of several why I've been pretty occupied IRL lately lol. Thankfully things are settling down a little now.

I hope your passion project continues to go well. I've barely played Echoed of Wisdom over the past week sadly, between general craziness, going to see the new Beetlejuice movie, and trying to progress more in Ys Seven. I shouldn't have started Zelda until I finished Ys.

Regarding rides: no prob! Yeah, don't overeat before doing much of anything thrilling. I have a pretty strong stomach - if some of the disaster and medical drama videos I sometimes watch while eating are why indication - but even I have limits lol.

I've seen one of those cat wall clocks before! They can be pretty cool, but there are some dated designs I've seen online that are a bit cringe lol. I love cats. Heck, we had a stray kitten (spring, so medium-sized; not tiny) show up at work earlier this week. Nobody claimed it, so a coworker took it home. It was very tame, so my guess is it was either a stray who got out or a very lucky one who hitched a ride. My job is along a very busy road.

Cosmic Mario and Cosmic Luigi...I will always be haunted by those freaky laughs lol.

Sweet potatoes are also very versatile and have a lot of culinary uses. I've even had them in pie form! Boos are amazing pranksters! I might try using King Boo in MK8D sometime. That Bob-Omb plush sounds pretty neat. I've had to take a break on plush collecting, but I pick up a smaller one now and then for my car or work desk.

@Tyranexx Indeed, it would be cool to see in person knowing my state still has one. I've been good, aside from a cold I had a few weeks ago. But I'm all better from that. I've mainly doing chores, errands, and playing a few games. As someone who read up on the Statellaview, I'm glad those tracks made it to F-Zero 99, and played that a bit.

Hope things are going good with you and your family.

@Pastellioli Funnily enough, the first time I saw Subway Surfers this year was a reference to a meme video. I did play a few mobile games since getting my smartphone, first one was Trolls Pop and Sonic Dash, then sometime after Trolls Pop ended, I downloaded Minion Rush remembering I tried it once at an in-store iPad display. I remember Talking Tom, I remember watching cartoons on YouTube about that cat on my Wii U (wow, that long ago), I didn't have a smartphone then. I still used a flip phone.

Yeah, I remember playing Splatoon the last week it was online too. To be fair Splatoon has offline modes and could still be played. I was thinking more of games you can't play anymore. It does make me miss community run servers that use to be common in PC games. I could still play a game like Wolfenstein Enemy Territory online 21 years after release, mostly because the game allows players to host their own servers.

Cool, I didn't even know they did a collaboration with Mega Man and Persona. Kinda cool knowing a Nintendo mobile game had different crossovers.

Oh wow, I need to look into this. Some footage of an early version of Conker before it became the M-rated one is something I'd like to see. I still remember one of the old magazines I use to look at had screenshots of Twelve Tales, but were using the new Bad Fur Day name (I think it was Electronic Gaming Monthly IIRC). That's something about old print media, they often had a goldmine of screenshots and info on early versions of games. Even manuals too. In December, I got a PC game called Jagged Alliance from GOG, the quick reference card had a slightly different map than the final game. I also recall the Sonic 2 manual had a different title screen in the manual than the final game.

@MarioVillager92 That's fine, things do happen. I find myself stopping by at least once a week because I get busy with other things. Yes, I saw the F-Zero 99 update. I love the Satellaview tracks are in the game.

I'm glad my cold got better, honestly it lasted shorter than I thought it would have so I got over it quickly. I spent one day in bed and had on a livestream of someone playing Mario Party that day.

SNES Online, the only place to play Puyo Puyo and Kirby's Avalanche on a Nintendo console. I don't think I unlocked Pac-Attack when I played Pac-Man World 2, I did have it on Game Boy. It's a good game, if you're familiar with Pac-Attack, you may like Cosmo Gang The Puzzle.

Hope you enjoy Trolls if you ever watch it, if you have Netflix the first and third movie is on the service. It should be coming really soon to NSO's expansion pack. I don't need to worry too much, I can play F-Zero GP Legend on Wii U, I still have my Wii U hooked up and will play games on it too.

I've played both of those. I always liked the games id Software did, actually working through Return to Castle Wolfenstein, albeit using the RealRTCW mod. I also played Half-Life and Halo as well, I have two of the Master Chief Collection games on PC, and an original Halo PC disc. I can imagine, the M-rated RPG I've played are a few Shin Megami Tensei games on 3DS and Switch (actually have the steelbook edition of SMT V). Indeed, still sucked because I got bullied for liking a cartoon that literally everybody was watching when I was a kid. I can't think of one person who did not watch Rugrats, I'll still put on the cartoon from time to time.

Would be fun, I'd just worry if it takes up too much time since I know Mario Party is a board game.

@MarioVillager92 Yep, that Hatsune Miku game. It’s so fun, but I hate how online players disconnect from it the entire time when I play. It’s why I always prefer to play it offline.

Yo-kai Watch was my thing so many years ago. It was a pretty fun concept and I am glad to be falling in love with it again recently. I can remember watching Digimon and liking it. I think Netflix aired the 4Kids dub of it years ago and me and my siblings watched it. I think there was a Digimon game that they released a few years back? I do not know most of what it was but I remember following Nintendo Life before making an account and I remember seeing that Digimon game pop up a lot on this site. I recall hearing it got delayed a ton.

@Tyranexx I was listening to the Japanese theme song on repeat and I absolutely love the enthusiasm the singers have, the sax is so funky and it works so well. It’s probably one of the best anime songs I have heard.

Komasan was my sister’s favorite character in the games and anime lol, I think he was one of the main yokai in the anime. In the anime, I remember he sometimes had these short segments centered on him at the end of the episodes where it was about him getting adjusted to city life, and his brother Komajiro starred in those as well. I can vividly recall there being an episode where he transformed himself into a human with a special leaf and the segment focused on his friendship with him and a writer, and an episode where he was hired by a toy company and unknowingly exposed a fraudulent employee. Some of the extra yokai segments were insane sometimes. There’s another yokai called Manjimutt and in all of his segments he got arrested for doing something small or dumb, and it got so bad to the point he got imprisoned on Alcatraz! I cannot believe that is one part I remember from the anime so much. I need to see where I can watch the anime. Apparently the official YouTube channel has episodes on there, but I don’t know if it’s just several clips from episodes put together to make an hour long video. DisneyNOW had it too, but the mobile app closed recently and you can only access DisneyNOW on the website, but I don’t know if the anime is still on there given it’s been so many years since they removed the show off of DisneyXD from bad viewership, and I don’t know if they still have the license for it.

For Komasan, I want to befriend him in Fleshy Souls, but for years I never got to. I only have his S-rank version Komasan S (but I’m sure I only got him from trading with my brother) but I still don’t know where I can find the normal version of him! I do have Komajiro though. I really do like Komasan too.

The anime had parts that were censored in the English dub? That’s interesting, cuz I only watched the first season and the first film. I probably didn’t know because of that.

I do think that Holy Horror Mansion could be good despite how it seems to be not following the previously established concepts, stories, settings, and characters from its predecessors. Again, hoping they don’t use AI art in the final product and have artists draw the environments. I definitely would love to try it when it releases, I think it has the potential to be really good, but given that a concept trailer was all they had for it, it could be too early too tell. Hopefully, the spring 2025 showcase they have for it shows a more final version of the game. I was considering spending a lot of money on GameStop’s listing for Yo-kai Watch 3, which is about $100 (around $90 if your a Pro) but I think it’s best I still try and find someone or a store that sells it less. It’ll be hard, but I’m hopeful I can maybe find one.

Yeah, I heard that Yo-kai Watch has kinda been dying in Japan in terms of popularity, and I think all it has gotten as of late was a few Japan-only Switch spin-offs, an anime series that ran from 2021-2023, and an anime film that released last year. I do wonder if they will ever continue the original story and characters told in the 3DS games and the Japan-only anime shows and films from how bad 4 did commercially, but I would maybe have a feeling that they could be trying to reboot the series or start a new story with Holy Horror Mansion since they said it was going to be a new cross-media project for Yo-kai Watch. I didn’t mind some of the auto-attacking in the games and some of the purify and Soultimate minigames, now experiencing them again, I don’t like how much tapping they require since it feels like I’m about to break my 2DS lol, but I still love the games. Yo-kai Watch was probably one of the best non-Nintendo game series on the 3DS, and I wish America showed it more love.

@Sunsy I remember playing some of SEGA’s Sonic mobile games. I did play the Sonic Boom version of Sonic Rush and I liked that one for a bit. I was so into Talking Tom and Friends with my siblings and thought the show was funny, but I think I dropped it and lost interest in it around the time they introduced Becca the Bunny into the main group alongside Jeremy the Germ. I heard that they stopped making episodes for the show and didn’t give it a proper ending, but it apparently hasn’t been cancelled either. I am shocked that around the time Talking Ben was a meme sensation, no one was really talking about the show since some of the moments with Ben are pretty meme-worthy, the only meme I can remember seeing for the show was a screenshot was from an episode where he was with a comedian robot he created that got damaged and started to tell mean jokes to everyone.

I also remember that there was a show that came before Talking Tom and Friends that aired on Disney Channel, but I remember the cast being slightly different; was a parrot named Pierre and Ginger had a toy giraffe named Gina, Hank wasn’t created yet, and Angela was more of a guest character. I can’t remember most of it besides a music episode where Ben goes “in the 60s they never took showers.” I remember finding that line funny for no reason haha.

Splatoon does still have the story mode and the battle dojo, but I am a bit sad its main features cannot be accessed anymore. Back in late September when I booted my 3DS up to play Yo-kai Watch, I tried to access the internet browser and eShop just to be told that I could not get in range of an internet connection and it made me so sad, seeing and hearing a ton of games that can’t be accessed anymore permanently. When it was the final weeks of internet on the WiiU and 3DS, I didn’t jump in but I wish I did. Maybe I could have found a few people to play with in the games I have. Really makes me sad that now I’m late to actually playing the 3DS after most of its features were disabled.

It is interesting that the game did have crossovers with non-Nintendo media. Usually Smash is the game that comes to mind for everyone when they think of a game made by Nintendo that features characters they don’t own.

Yeah, I think either Tim or Chris Stamper posted a short 1-minute video on Twitter showing the opening sequence in action, but I saw it through an article NL’s sister site Time Extension wrote last year and being so amazed with the footage and how the cartridge still worked after so long. It was pretty cool seeing that Rare’s founders still have some parts of early versions of released games. I honestly do wonder what the full version of Twelve Tales would be if they did release it. There are some former Rare employees that have shared early material and footage for games. I can’t remember his name, but I recall that someone who worked on Banjo-Kazooie showed an early artwork showing a Jinjo with fur, and in the final version, the Jinjo’s lack fur. Looking at early versions of games is so interesting.

@Miss_Moon the Nintendo museum opened, Zelda Echoes of Wisdom came out, and my tamagotchi died of old age.

I just realized something I've seen no one else talk about yet: with NDCube's rebranding to Nintendo Cube came a new logo...one that's in the exact same format of 1-UP Studio's logo. Both are colored rectangles with an identical font inside; Nintendo Cube is just using blue.

I hope this isn't a sign of a trend where Nintendo's going to sterilize the logos of their subsidiaries to fit a consistent, extremely bland format...

@Sunsy I'm glad you're better from your cold! Can't say there are many times in my life where I enjoyed being sick, but I had a bout of Hand, Foot, & Mouth Disease when I was in HS that was, on the whole, enjoyable. I didn't feel that bad and pretty much got to hang out at home on my own. The only thing that stank about it was the slight fever and makeup homework.

Things are going well with me and my family, thanks. I'd like to say I'm less busy than usual with no haunted house work this year - we're not permanently done, just not open since the owners are going through a lot right now, including a baby due anytime now - but that wasn't the case the last couple of weeks. Things should be slower the rest of the month however.

@Pastellioli That would be Gera Gera Po, correct? At least that's what I know the song as. I really like the dance too! Komasan was one of the main Yo-Kai; he and his brother Komajiro's mini-segments were pretty wholesome - but the former is borderline oblivious sometimes lol. Magical beings disguising themselves as humans using leaves is pretty common in Japanese folklore. It was neat to see how some Yo-Kai actually looked disguised as humans when we know what they actually look like. The Manjimutt segments were...weird. I kind of felt bad for him, but also...sort of indifferent? It was a running gag that I think outstayed its welcome IMO. I need to watch the anime again sometime, but I'm gradually working my way through another subbed anime and am about halfway through...with 24 episodes left. I usually watch one a day, sometimes two, and sometimes go a bit without watching it depending on my schedule.

There are a few censorship examples depending on the region/country. The first one that comes to mind involved a TV program when Nate went to a sleepover with his friends, and they were trying to catch a Next HarrMeowny segment. But the channel kept flipping from them to some muscular dudes instead. In the censored version, the main girl's swimsuit is less revealing, and the TV flips to a cooking show instead of the muscular guys. It's of little consequence, and I can see why it was changed (especially the swimsuit part), but the cooking show change makes little sense IMO.

I still plan to keep an eye on Holy Horror Mansion to see how things pan out. I'm out if they're committed to using AI in the final product though. I hope I can find a reasonably priced copy of Yo-Kai Watch 3 as well. It's to the point where I wish I could just download the Japanese language straight to my brain so I could import the much cheaper Japanese version lol. Yo-Kai Watch does still have some presence in Japan, but I'd consider it a fading fad by now. Especially with how bad 4 did as you mentioned. I do think Holy Horror Mansion is their attempt to reboot the concept and try to capture a wider audience again, especially since the concept of ghosts (not necessarily yokai) is more universal. The main reason I'm not a big fan of the purify/Soultimate mini-games is I'm not one who likes using my 3/DS systems' touch screens much since that means more wear and tear. I learned this the hard way with my OG phat DS a long time ago. What ultimately killed it was an accidental drop due to my mom trying to avoid rear-ending some moron that cut right in front of us, but the touch screen had seen much better days even before that. I think the biggest contributors were Nintendogs, WarioWare: Touched, and the various Guitar Hero: On Tour games.

Scale of 1-10, how insane am I for wanting to watch this all the way through?

@CaleBoi25 10. Insanity. Was it worth it?

@Tyranexx Yeah, Gera Gera Po! That song is such a banger and I was repeating the song so much. It’s so iconic for me and I think both the Japanese and English versions are amazing. I can’t remember the dance for it since it’s been a while since I watched the anime.

I do think I have heard that creatures turning themselves into humans or disguising themselves as them is common. It is kind of related, but I believe that there was a Japan-only Yo-kai Watch spin-off and anime where it was set at a high school and Jibanyan and Komasan were ordinary human students. I don’t know much about it, but I do think that their human designs there did a really good job resembling their yo-kai designs.

I can’t remember a lot of the Manjimutt segments besides the one where he got sent to Alcatraz, but I remember that in one, after he was let out of prison one time, he got a job making pastries and was trying to resist the urge to eat one, but failed and got arrested again! I think that with some of them, you are supposed to feel bad for him but I think at the same time you do feel like that most of the trouble he gets into is all on him, especially with the pastry segment and how he couldn’t control his hunger. Most of the time him getting arrested by the police was played for laughs, mostly for the reasons why he gets arrested. I do sometimes watch subbed anime on Crunchyroll, but a lot of the shows on there are locked since I have yet to get a higher tier on there, but I do like the anime I did watch with the free tier, last anime I watched on there was JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and I do plan to get a higher tier to watch the remaining seasons, but I have gone onto YouTube movies and they offer a couple of anime films on there and I did go ahead and watched a few. Unfortunately, Crunchyroll doesn’t have Yo-kai Watch on there or any of the movies.

Oh, I see. I wonder what season that was in. Maybe I did see it in the first season but can’t remember. I do think that standards for stuff like that is a bit different in America than Japan from what I am assuming, but that change they did with the Next HarMeowny thing on TV does make a lot of sense.

Yeah, I do hope that Holy Horror Mansion could be good, I do worry about the AI thing and the quality a bit because I heard Level-5 is constantly delaying games years away from their initial release dates, and it’s been taking them a bit long to release a game in America. But, the game was an early concept and it’s likely a few years away from actually being finished. I do think that game steering away from calling the creatures yo-kai and more like ghosts is to make the game more appealing universally, also from the fact that the game isn’t using the Yo-kai Watch name or branding besides the “Yo-kai Watch concept” text they showed at the beginning of the concept trailer.

I wouldn’t mind them rebooting it, cuz I did read a few old comments on some Yo-kai Watch articles NL wrote, and a lot of people say that it would be too late for them to localize the 4th game and it’s films, mainly coming from two things: 4 performed poorly out of the four mainline games, and the fact that it’s an unpopular choice to have people watch multiple shows and movies to understand the story or characters in a piece of media they want to get into, and in this case, people wanting to play 4 would likely have to watch two movies (Yo-kai Watch Shadowside the Movie and Yo-kai Watch: Forever Friends), two anime series (the original 2014-2018 Yo-kai Watch anime and Yo-kai Watch Shadowside) and have played the previous 3DS games with Nate to understand some of the characters, story, and concepts that 4 introduced. That’s quite a lot! Reminds me a bit of some cinematic universe film series like the MCU where you need to watch most of the films to understand the events and know the characters in big films like Avengers: Endgame. People think that Yo-kai Watch would benefit if they started a new story or rebooted it so newcomers can join in without having to play multiple games or watch anime shows and movies that haven’t been localized in English, and I do think that would be the best route for it if Level-5 wants the series and Holy Horror Mansion to do well internationally.

My handheld hasn’t really broken besides the volume slider being busted and the screen having a small scratch on it, but because 3DS and 2DS systems are no longer being made, no longer get official repairs, and it being hard to find them cheap online, I need to be extremely careful with how I handle mine, and the minigames in Yo-kai Watch 2 make me feel like I’m damaging the handheld or am a few seconds away from completely breaking it. I just really don’t like the feeling those purify and Soultimate minigames give with how much you need to use the bottom screen. When I do those minigames, I try to be soft and gentle when using the stylus to reduce wear and tear. Having your DS break sounds terrible. I’d be completely broken and sad for a few days if I had a game console or handheld that broke in front of my eyes…all that game progress and data being gone in the blink of an eye would hurt.

@Pastellioli I like both versions of Gera Gera Po! It's so catchy despite the fact I was definitely not part of the target audience when I did manage to watch some of the anime lol. There are still plenty of YouTube examples out there. I've heard about that Yo-Kai spinoff, but haven't seen it. I'm sure watchifm Jibanyan and Komasan as high school students would be very entertaining. Especially with Komasan since he isn't used to city living. Manjimutt getting constantly arrested was definitely a running gag. Sadly, it doesn't seem like his life was much more remarkable when he was a living human either. Poor guy.

I catch most anime on YT, though I don't constantly watch it and mostly fit in N episode or two some evenings. I've considered using Crunchyroll, but as you mentioned there are different subscription tiers. I don't sub to anything visual since then I'd feel like I'd have to use that sub and would feel like I was wasting time doing other things. I only sub to Spotify premium since I use it at work.

I think Holy Horror Mansion is still in its early stages, so the franchise's overall direction remains to be seen. But yeah, so far I think the appeal will be more universal. I also share concerns about localization speed...and even Level-5's project scopes. They've delayed several titles into next year and beyond already. I can understand multimedia pushes - if successful, this means more revenue and recognition - but you've definitely listed some downsides. That's a lot to catch up with for some people who may not have the time, patience, or resources. I know going multimedia was one of the complaints with Final Fantasy XV, if I recall. Those are reasons why I believe Yo-Kai Watch 4 will never release outside of Japan as I'm sure Level-5 doesn't see the point this late in the game.

I am very careful with my retro systems. When that accident happened, regular DS systems were no longer manufactured, but they were still easily available to buy secondhand. I don't like buying hardware secondhand unless I know the source it directly comes from. Otherwise, it's a mixed bag. It took awhile to find a replacement DS Lite since I kept finding little issues with each unit I tried. I had to make an eBay return and think I drove a GameStop clerk nuts by going through pretty much all their refurb inventory back then. That phat DS's death was gradual as the top display had ghosting and eventually stopped working altogether. I COULD get it to work properly by moving/holding the hinge a certain way, but this became less reliable and more finicky over time. Pretty sure there was a damaged connection. It became a glorified GBA unit. But you've nailed it on the head why I'm not a fan of using the touch screens much. I try to be very gentle when I do use them.

Ok, I haven’t been super active on here as of late, but now they added Banjo-Tooie to NSO, so that’s cool and it makes me happy when Rare’s games come to Nintendo consoles even though I don’t have the Expansion Pack anymore, but gosh they took way too long to do it…

@Tyranexx The anime theme song just makes me so gosh darn happy hearing it, even though I am older than its target demographic haha, it’s just a really catchy and joyous song. The spin-off with them as human high school students does sound interesting, but because it was Japan-only, I don’t know much about its plot, but I did read a Yo-kai Watch wiki page on their human forms and it did kind of tell a bit of the plot. In that one, if I am recalling correctly, Jibanyan is a new student a special boarding school and he and Komasan are best friends and know each other. From what I saw in the original anime and games, I don’t think they were friends at all or knew each other, but then again, I only watched the first season of the original anime and the first movie and haven’t seen the countless series and movies that came after those because the streaming services we had didn’t have any Yo-kai Watch media besides Netflix. The spin-off is called Yo-kai Watch Jam, and it has an anime film and show alongside a game, so maybe I could find an English subbed version of the anime, cuz I did find it interesting that they both have human forms and it would be nice to see them interact. Though to my surprise, from what I saw on the wiki, it appears that the rest of the cast is composed of original characters rather than human versions of other yo-kai besides Jibanyan and Komasan, but I do recall reading there was a girl character in the spin-off who was inspired by USApyon rather than being a human version of him. I am a bit curious about that spin-off.

I haven’t used Crunchyroll since September mostly because I haven’t been interested in watching the newest anime, but some of the anime films I have watched on YouTube are pretty enjoyable, in my opinion, so far, I’ve watched Poupelle of Chimney Town, The House of the Lost on the Cape, and finished a film called The Wonderland today, which had some of the best visuals and animation. Those films aren’t very well-known though, but I enjoyed them all a lot. I would maybe sub to a Crunchyroll tier, but probably just to only watch more seasons of some animes I enjoyed a ton on there and would cancel later. Not really interested in subbing to one of Crunchyroll’s higher tiers, but I will probably one day. Binge watching shows on there was fun, but I maybe only got around 1 or 2 episodes in every night and fell asleep in my bed, so anime sometimes does take me a while to watch and complete.

I do think that them delaying their other games a lot, like that Decapolice game by two more years is a bit concering and surprising. I never was really into Level-5’s other game series besides Yo-kai Watch, but I do feel like that them constantly delaying their other games does make me wonder if development of those upcoming games are going well, which I do hope they are and that the games’ will release to positive reception since Level-5 hasn’t been on the international market for a few years after their North American localization studio was shut down.

I still do want Yo-kai Watch 4, but the multimedia thing they had going on with it and how you have to have watched and played a lot of the shows and games beforehand to really get into the story and the characters is kind of something I don’t really want to do because of time, and reading wiki entries on the characters and stories wouldn’t help a lot because even after all that reading you still wouldn’t really know or understand what is happening. I do maybe feel like that could have played a role in 4 failing in Japan since newcomers would have to spend a bit of a long time with previous Yo-kai Watch games and shows before jumping in, but I really do wonder if there were other factors that caused 4 to sell the worst out of the previous entries despite being a Japan only game and the series being a sensation. I know the biggest factor for 4’s commercial failure was that the series lost popularity around 2016 with the release of Yo-kai Watch 3, mainly coming from Pokémon Sun and Moon from what most people say and cite. Stinks that the commercial failure and multimedia approach they took for 4 is likely why they won’t release it in English. I did read that the game did get localized in Chinese back last year, which does give me a small bit of hope they will eventually localize it into English and other languages, but Yo-kai Watch is more popular in Asian countries than American countries, so it would make more sense that it would get a Chinese translation.

I try to be careful with any electronic device I have besides game consoles. I get extremely worried when I’m playing my Xbox and it overheats, so I always let it cool off and I unplug it, mostly cuz I’m paranoid the thing won’t work anymore if I let it stay warm, but nothing has happened and likely won’t, and I get really afraid when it falls off the table I have it on cuz I don’t want it to stop working and there’s a lot of game progress and other games that might strike my fancy. But, since 2DS and 3DS systems can no longer get official repairs and my handheld is slightly damaged, I gotta take really good care of it the most and I really get afraid when I need to do the purify/Soultimate mini games when I need to tap the heck out of the screen with a stylus, didn’t realize till now that the mini games in Yo-kai Watch 2 were terrible and really require you to be rough with your handheld. I remember that my brother’s old handheld did break and become unusable, but it was for another reason relating to the battery. I think that what happened was that the battery overheated somehow and acid spilled out from the back and the back of the handheld was damaged, but he luckily got a new one to replace it because 3DS and 2DS systems were still being sold at the time. It did hurt me to see his handheld get damaged like that unexpectedly though.

@Pastellioli Cool, I actually remember playing Sonic Boom's version of Sonic Dash on my mother's iPad. Even though I didn't have a smartphone until 2020, I still tried some games and used a few apps on there for the time being. Wasn't as flexible as a phone though since it was big, lol. Yeah, I remember putting Talking Tom livestream on one fall on my Wii U. I was really surprised it was an app, since I just thought it was another cartoon. The "Disney Channel" version sounds new to me, I'm guessing it was an acquired show Disney got for their channel (something like Bluey comes to mind, Disney airs it, but they didn't make it). I just thought it was a cartoon on YouTube, and a bigger one since I did remember seeing Tom Kenny was credited as one of the voices.

Yeah, I was actually surprised the gear store in game was tied to online, which is weird since the game didn't use microtransactions. I just assumed the stores would still be accessed and the rotation of items was just an in-game thing. I haven't tried the web browser on 3DS or Wii U in some time, I assume they could still be used online. For the longest time, the Wii's Internet Channel still worked well after the shut down of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

Indeed, usually it's rare if a Nintendo game has any sort of crossover. The only one I can think of is Mario + Rabbids, I should play that more since I've been getting into turn based strategy the past year thanks to playing Jagged Alliance on my PC.

Cool, I need to look for that article then on Time Extension, I don't visit it much so I was unaware there was an article on it. My guess it could have been a 3D version of Pocket Tales. Twelve Tales was going for that older Conker idea they had in Diddy Kong Racing and Pocket Tales. At least from the magazine screenshots I remember seeing a long time ago.

@Tyranexx Yikes, the most I was sick was a flu I had when I was in my teens. I ended up having the flu for three weeks straight. No idea what happened or why I had it that bad. I did get better from it.

Glad things are going well. That's understandable, didn't know you did haunted house work. For me, Halloween's always been a day to dress up as a character I like, never was big on the horror aspect. Tonight, I watched some Halloween cartoons, and they were on the cuter side than spooky side. Which is funny since I have played zombie themed games like House of the Dead and Resident Evil. Here's hoping the rest of the month will be slower.

@Sunsy I did kind of download a few Sonic games on my phone in the past, but the only one I have right now is Sonic CD. I’ll probably try to download a few more Sonic mobile games to build up some hype for the third Sonic movie. The release for the film is nearing slowly but Iget excited just thinking about it.

Yeah, a few years before the Talking Tom and Friends show with Hank, there was an older, more short-lived Talking Tom show, which was actually called Talking Friends and ran for one season and 10 episodes. I am reading a bit on the show’s production, and it seemed to have been animated and made by another studio rather than Disney themselves, so they likely were distributors on that show and acquired the rights for it. The show had a different voice cast and setting compared to Talking Tom and Friends. Now looking at the voice cast for that one, I am a bit surprised they did get well-known voice talents like Tom Kenny in that one.

I remember a few moments from the show, and it was for sure way more memorable than Talking Friends, but a lot of the memorable moments from Talking Tom and Friends were from Ginger and Hank; a few of Ginger’s lines did make me laugh a bit when I was watching it back then. The show was a YouTube web series, but I remember that Netflix had the first two seasons of the show on there once, but I kind of didn’t see a reason why they put it on there since all seasons of the show are free to watch on the official YouTube channel. I can remember how fast they were with releasing episodes, but they slowed down with episode releases later on and apparently the show didn’t get a proper conclusion and appears to have abruptly stopped.

I also don’t visit Time Extension a ton compared to Nintendo Life and Pure Xbox, probably because Time Extension isn’t super popular compared to NL and it’s hard to start conversations with people on there because of how it has a small amount of users, but I do occasionally read articles on that site for Rare articles, especially the ones that are on Conker. I think you can find the specific Twelve Tales article if you look for a tag saying “Rare” on an article, but you can look through archives for March 2023 articles. I can remember that Time Extension and Nintendo Life have made articles on info on Pocket Tales and cancelled Conker games, and I always found the info on them really interesting. The information on the cancelled Bad Fur Day sequel is probably my favorite because of the crazy storyline they wrote for it and the ideas they had planned to use for the gameplay. There also was a cancelled spin-off prequel called Conker: Gettin’ Medieval that sounded interesting from its premise and the name alone, but I believe that there is not much info on it besides the fact that it was going to star a different protagonist and a different cast of characters and was a prequel to the story in Live and Reloaded’s multiplayer mode. I honestly would have loved to see more info on that game. Unseen64 doesn’t have an article on it!

The director of Bad Fur Day usually talks about some cancelled Conker games online and the ideas he had for them, and I once read an article here on NL where he shared old drawings and doodles he made of Conker, and in those I remember he resembled an actual real life red squirrel and wore overalls. It was really cool to see how he was originally supposed to look, but because the director doesn’t have Instagram and only posts on Twitter/X and how you can’t view tweets or accounts on the site unless you make an account, I can only see the scrapped game info he shares via embedded posts and links NL has on articles and sites like Unseen64, and he probably has posted more stuff that I haven’t seen or heard of, so it’s very hard to see if he has shared more game info.

Taking a break from the site this weekend. I'm going on a day trip tomorrow that'll involve a lot of driving and hiking. Outside of using my phone for photos and navigation, I don't plan to use it for much other than a little Pokemon Go while waiting for food or something. I'm a bit overdue for a slight internet detox lol. Especially with how my life has been lately.

@Pastellioli Heck, I enjoy the anime theme song, and I wasn't part of the target demographic even when there was some Yo-kai Watch hype outside of Japan lol. I don't think Komasan and Jibanyan ever crossed paths, at least not in what I did manage to watch of the anime. I recall the spinoff's name being Yo-Kai Watch Jam now that you mention it. I might check out the subbed version sometime (like there's another version lol) when I get the chance. Layton Mystery Tanteisha is enough for me for now since I'm watching it very gradually. I am sure it has some charm, but if I were to guess, the main series anime seasons had more legs. I admit I haven't heard of any of those anime films, but I'm sure they're very entertaining. I admittedly watch very little actual TV unless I'm at my parents', and that is very rare since I'm usually preoccupied with entertaining/wrangling my toddler-aged nephew these days. I find enough to preoccupy my spare time without watching much of anything. I typically game or read when I'm not exercising, doing chores, cooking, doing laundry, trying to keep up my house/yard, etc.

Level-5 has a decent library of games. The Professor Layton series is my favorite, but I'd rank what I've played of their Yo-Kai Watch games second. I was interested in Ni No Kuni at one point, but I was convinced to skip the game after reading/watching that the actual gameplay...wasn't great. Still, the plot and visuals are amazing since Level-5 collaborated with Studio Ghibli for the game's visuals. The studio certainly has talent. I'm just concerned their multimedia pushes within the last decade or so have been too ambitious.

Don't get me wrong; I'd LIKE a chance to play Yo-Kai Watch 4, but sadly I don't think it will ever receive official support in languages besides Japanese and Chinese. Wiki entries can be beneficial, but they're typically summaries and don't dive into the gritty details. There are some good wiki examples out there in general though. I kind of wonder if part of 4's failure in Japan was how much of a change it was from the original series since they were trying to reach an audience who would've grown older by then...and the multimedia homework involved didn't help either I'm sure.

It's generally good practice to try to keep electronics on the cooler end in the environment they're in. Definitely take gaming breaks and invest in fans and other ways to cool devices if possible/financially feasible. As for portable systems like the DS, 3DS, laptops, etc., I cringe with how common it is for people to leave them in piping hot environments long-term. At best, that treatment will sap the battery life faster. At worst, it'll irreparably damage that battery and possibly other system components too. This isn't to say don't use those devices at all; people just need to be mindful of how they treat them. And of course despite all that, accidents do happen. I've traditionally tried to be very careful with my systems. I grew up in a frugal environment and knew that if I callously mistreated something, I would NOT be getting a replacement. Especially if it was expensive.

@Sunsy That...is a very long time to have the flu. Were any reasons given as to why you had it so long? I am glad you recovered at any rate. I'd say the sickest I've ever been was when I had pneumonia in 8th grade. It was over Christmas break - thankfully after the holiday - and MAN did I have some crazy dreams. That was when I received my OG phat DS for Christmas. Let me tell ya, WarioWare: Touched! can lead to some pretty insane fever dreams lol.

I like some of the horror aspects. It depends on what it is. I'm way more attracted to classic monsters than all the ghost and serial killer stuff. I actually find stuff like Friday the 13th and Freddy Kreuger boring since I usually call what happens lol. It's more that I get a kick out of improv acting and scaring people. It's on them; they paid for it. XD There are rules that we and the guests have to follow however. If they're broken, someone gets tossed out. I haven't played many true horror games since many tend to be shooters, which aren't my cup of tea. I have played some House of the Dead and the campy Typing of the Dead, and I did try the demo for Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water back on the Wii U. I think I prefer atmospheric horror that makes one think, rather than blasting everything with a gun.

Today is the inauguration day of our 8th Indonesia president, Prabowo Subianto with vice president Gibran (Jokowi's first son).

The event is aired live since this morning.
I personally thinking the president candidates for this year 2024 was not good enough.
Whoever got elected as our president they should work seriously because our current exchange rate with USD is reached more than 15K IDR.
Our country Indonesia is keep being a big joke and ironical things all the time. 😑

@Anti-Matter oh you unblocked me nice

@Tyranexx I do remember looking at the list of Yo-kai Watch movies, and there was one called Yo-kai Watch♪: Jibanyan vs. Komasan - The Big Amazing Battle, Nyan which I don’t know what it is about, but it seems that they have actually had interactions with each other in that movie alongside Yo-kai Watch Jam. I really do want to catch up with the Yo-kai Watch anime instead since getting the third game is so expensive, but the first anime is on more than one streaming service, and the following anime series and films after that are Japan only. I recall reading that in Japan, Hulu has almost all of the shows and movies, but I unfortunately can’t speak or understand Japanese at all. I believe that only all three seasons of the first Yo-kai Watch anime and film were localized and dubbed in English, and the animes released after that never received dubs. They were considering dubbing the Shadowside and Forever Friends animes when they were initially localizing Yo-kai Watch 4, but they sadly didn’t.

I did enjoy the anime films I did watch, they are aimed toward younger audiences, but I liked them a ton. I thought Poupelle and The House of the Lost on the Cape had heartwarming and beautiful stories, plus I loved the character designs and setting of Poupelle a ton. I didn’t think the story in The Wonderland was really memorable compared to the other two and I found its story a bit generic, but it has really gorgeous and stunning animation and a nice art style. I am now a bit more open to watching movies now, and I have been taking a bit of a break from my usual hobbies like drawing sand gaming. I really forgot how nice it is to just unwind and sit down or lay in bed while watching a film late at night, and I find that some of the movies I have seen have themes that are very important and valuable. I was also watching a few other animated non-anime movies alongside those. I wouldn’t call myself a movie or TV person, also since I don’t keep up with any new movies and the only 2024 movie I want to see this year is Sonic 3. But, despite not being a film fanatic, I love movies a lot, and I am really open to watching movies of any kind of genre or style.

My dad did play Ni No Kuni and its sequel, but he never finished the sequel despite being close to finishing it, but I think he did like Ni No Kuni. Level-5 does seem to have a nice selection of games and game series under their belt besides Yo-kai Watch, I always hear that the Professor Layton games are amazing and there was a good amount of hype here when they revealed that upcoming Switch game, so maybe I could give the games a try one day.

I think I did look at a wiki article for Yo-kai Watch 4 and tried to read up on the plot, but I think the plot summary only went up to the opening parts of it and didn’t delve much into the rest of the plot and what happens in it. Its why I really want the game in America since details on the game’s plot and summary seem very scarce on English language wikis, likely from the fact that no one has really tried to make a translation for the game. However, I remember reading on a site where a person mentioned that fans did make an unofficial English translation and posted videos of the gameplay with the translation online, but the translation was short and apparently only went up to chapter 2 and left most of the game largely unadapted. The change they did go for with Yo-kai Watch could have also been a factor. I think in the late 2010s, around the time the series was losing popularity, they released the Shadowside anime and film and made the themes and story in it darker than the previous animes to rejuvenate interest in it and possibly appeal to older audiences, and they kind of did that with 4 since people mentioned that it’s story was way more serious and kind of darker than the previous games. Maybe the change in tone could have been a factor, since some people do react negatively to a loved franchise suddenly shifting in appearance or tone and being significantly different than before, since Yo-kai Watch is a series that is more well-known for its goofy, absurd, and strange humor and eccentric characters rather than its story or being super dark.

I always avoid leaving my electronics in areas where it will get hot or won’t have any way to emit heat and cool down and will suffer from irreparable damage. I always left my handheld in its pouch in my closet and my Xbox always stands up and has space to emit heat when it’s working itself too much. When my Xbox gets super hot, I stop the game I am playing, turn off the console, and unplug it, and then I turn it back on a little later when it fully cools down, but I get the most anxious with my phone. I sometimes fall asleep with my phone in hand, but I heard that leaving your phone on any bed or linens is bad, especially leaving it underneath a pillow while sleeping since it can start a fire from not having any space or air to emit heat, and it’s worse when you have it charging, so I instead leave it on a table to charge.