I don't think this game is getting localized anytime soon, we don't even have YW3 yet, but with the Switch being region free, I might get this when it releases later this year.
@Seacliff
After i watched from Youtube, my fear was proven.
Yokai Watch 4 was NOT Kawaii Yokai Watch anymore.
It taken from Yokai Watch Shadow, the scary version.
Looked like a Teen rated Digimon games.
Yo. Game is out in Japan. Downloaded it from the Japanese Eshop.
First, I want to say the visuals are great. The individual Yokai look fantastic. I was indifferent of the human models when the game first announced, but they grew on me. Environments are detailed enough with nice effects such as tree branches swaying in the wind.
The animation is also great. The Yokai have unique animations for most of their skills in battle, and the cutscenes are decently directed and never feel too stilted.
It does, however, all come at the cost of framerate. That said, I don't know if it's the game or what, but it seems less prevalent as the game goes on. I think a day-one patch did improve the performance. That said, starting out it's really distracting and gives the game an undeserving 'unpolished' feel to it, even at it's best I don't think it hits the cap.
As for the story, while I don't know everything that's going on I will say I'm a bit underwhelmed. A lot of scenes from Chapter 2 are ripped straight from the Shadowside anime and I don't understand how they are relevant to the current time-traveling plotline. Speaking of which, the use of time traveling feels more like an excuse to combine the different eras of YW for the sake of fanservice rather than they believed they had a good story to tell using Time Travel. I hope I'm proven wrong in later chapters.
I do really like the new battle system. It's like a mixture of Ni No Kuni and the Blaster Spinoff games. There are enough elements to achieve depth without overwhelming the player in unneeded complexity, along with welcome additions such as a skill tree for human characters and the ability to switch out skills for the Yokai. While normal battles can sometimes feel button-mashy, it backs itself up with the mechanical depth of teambuilding. The new method of recruiting Yokai takes practice, but so far feels less random than the prior befriending system.
I'm really enjoying this game, but with everything above melded together, I can't help but feel that I'm playing a high-budget spinoff rather than a true 4th entry. The huge roster cut and the less frequent sidequests only emphasize on this feeling. While a lot of time went into how the game plays, it feels like less time went into creating situations to test your skills in combat. Despite multiple delays, the game still feels rushed and I'm fulling expecting an Upgraded release within the next year just like with YW2 and YW3, which will probably be disappointing for those who paid full price for this game.
Sorry if that felt long and scattered. I just wanted to share my thoughts and maybe bump this thread to see if anyone else imported the game.
The 810 thing was proven to be a misunderstanding, unfortunately. Considering there's just over 100 right now, that's a lot to expect from just free updates.
I am glad they do plan to update the game with more new and returning Yokai.
Owh that's too bad. Then again I don't need too much... will see if I can pick it up once my money (and Japanese) gets better.
Then again, with all the recolors and such, the cuts can be beneficial. All but a few of the recolors (the ones that are actually popular, at least) are gone.
Also, the game is actually pretty user-friendly. I actually don't know any Japanese, but after ten hours of play I only had to resort to google translate two or three times. And if you're studying Japanese, the game actually features the Hiragana equivalents of any Kanji in the text, likely for the younger Japanese audience.
Then again, with all the recolors and such, the cuts can be beneficial. All but a few of the recolors (the ones that are actually popular, at least) are gone.
Also, the game is actually pretty user-friendly. I actually don't know any Japanese, but after ten hours of play I only had to resort to google translate two or three times. And if you're studying Japanese, the game actually features the Hiragana equivalents of any Kanji in the text, likely for the younger Japanese audience.
Yeah that's why I wanted to buy it! But since my grammar's not super good yet I'm still uncertain since I want to understand the story.
@CanisWolfredYo-Kai Watch 3 had a VERY limited print run unfortunately. Like you, I found out too late. I was so irritated that I've written it off for now.
Currently playing: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)
So I finished Yokai Watch 4. I'm going to list some general thoughts I have about the game for now. But later on, I'll work on a more extensive review. There's a lot to talk about!
First, length. The main campaign took me about 27 hours, which is a bit longer than the 23 hours I took to finish YW2, but a little less than the 30 hours I took to finish YW3. Keep in mind I normally don't do many quests over the course of the campaign. I'm aware of some people taking about twice as long as me to finish YW games, so interpret this as you want.
The quantity of content, saving the number of Yokai, I think is about on par with the base versions of YW2 (Boney Spirits/Fleshy Souls). However, I think those were meaty games in their own right, especially when compared to YW1.
My opinion on the combat has really improved since my initial thoughts I posted last week. Almost every Yokai plays differently. Rather than being separated by their stats and element, there's a lot of new elements that separate Yokai from each other such as how the Yokai moves or the available skill pool which is much larger than the prior Yokai Watch games where the available skills of a Yokai are static. From the perspective of playing the game, the battle system does justify the massive cut in the roster.
However, from the perspective of the quantity of enemy Yokais, there are points where I feel like they should have added a bit more than 99 Yokai even if they had to resort to bringing back more recolors. There's a sense of Deja-Vu when you're fighting the same Yokai a bit more often than you think you should be.
The majority of the game's focus is on Shadowside. Over half the chapters are either within the Shadowside world or still involve Shadowside Yokai. The Shadowside chapters are adaptions of episodes from the Shadowside anime and the overarching plot is very similar to the plot from the anime. Springdale 2040 is by far the largest town in the game, it's roughly the size of Springdale in YW1. Modern Springdale, the Yokai World, and 1950s Tokyo feel like sub-areas in comparison.
The game continues to impress with its visuals throughout the game, I won't spoil, but one of the late-game dungeons looks really pretty. And some other various setpieces were screenshot-worthy for me.
So in conclusion, I do really like this game. Not as much as YW3, but it might come in second depending on how the post-game unfolds. I won't deny the game still feels rushed in several areas though. If you are skeptical about importing now, I'd say wait until we get word on what the future updates contain, as they seem to hint there will be a bit more than just new Yokai.
@Snaplocket Unfortunately not in the sales department. Didn't even hit 200k after it's second week.
As said prior, YW had its own cut of about 650 monsters... I'd at least say a cut at all is justified since the change to an action battle system that has a lot of varying elements like hitboxes, knockback, movement, etc, but 99 playable monsters is also low for this kind of game.
That said, when the localized version comes I still recommend the game as a really fun Action JRPG.
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