Games I Played in 2020: Yo-Kai Watch 2 (Bony Spirits)

In the spirit of getting into other monster collecting games after Sword and Shield and Pokemon in general disappointed me (so.... so very much), I figured I should try out Yokai Watch after hearing good things about it from my friends. The concept is one that already appeals to me, being someone who really likes Shin Megami Tensei and media tackling the occult/folklore, and honestly with how much fun I had with it, I regret not getting into this series much earlier.

Yo-Kai Watch 2 is the sequel to the original, developed by Level 5 (Fantasy Life, Professor Layton, Inazuma Eleven, etc) and comes in two different versions: Bony Spirits, and Fleshy Souls, both with different exclusive Yokai to befriend, some different missions and bosses to beat, and a different version of the opening theme. (Though Bony Spirits has the better version in both English and Japanese ). It ultimately doesn't really matter which one you get, much like the different versions of Pokemon, but there is also a 3rd version called Psychic Specters which apparently has a lot of new missions/quests/side stories but I can't speak on it since I haven't played it yet (and also it's a lot more expensive to find....)

The basics are that you play as an 11 year old kid (either a boy named Nate, or a girl named Katie, though you can change their names also), who find the titular Yo-Kai Watch which allows them to see Yokai around their city. Yokai are a class of Japanese supernatural beings, born to explain the 'unexplained' in old folklore, or passed on through stories, much like ghosts, monsters and cryptids. You fight them, befriend them, and do requests for them and the various people who live in this world. Then some major 'wicked' Yokai pose some challenges that affect the time period Nate/Katie's grandfather is in, and so you have to switch between 'old' Springdale and 'new' Springdale to save both time periods.

For the sake of having some kind of visual accompaniment, bear with my shitty 3DS phone photos

You can tell it's the past bc of the yellow-ish filter

 As someone who hasn't played the original Yo-Kai Watch, there were some things I feel like I missed jumping straight into 2, as it starts off with a 'wow the mc forgot everything including how we met' plot. I think regardless, it still does a good job easing you into the different characters, and the game itself is just so fun that I didn't mind. The world of Yo-Kai Watch is AMAZING, and I love how lively the world felt, with it's different towns and just how much you could explore in them. Unlike Pokemon's mostly linear routes between small towns, Yo-Kai Watch has really big and expansive towns with tiny routes and secret passages in-between them. The true fun of it is just exploring every nook and cranny of these towns, finding new dungeons as you do, and even some shortcuts. It really excels at making you feel like a kid on summer vacation, going on an adventure in an otherwise mundane place that feels like it's so much more.

The fact that you can also go into the past and explore these same places is also pretty fun to me. It's really amazing just how many small differences and same architectural foundation there is between the two periods, and the different Yokai that shows up between them.

The battle system is also a lot more fun that I thought initially. You have a team of 6 Yokai in your possession, set in your watch as a circle of 6.

In battle, you will have 3 out of 6 of your Yokai in battle, and they'll act on their own based on their personalities/attributes. They have a set basic attack, a 'technique' which can either be a healing move or an elemental attacking skill, an 'inspirit' which can either buff allies or debuff enemies and a 'soultimate' which you can set off when their soul meter is maxed out, and can either be a powerful attack, or a powerful debuff/buff/healing skill. What those 4 skills do are dependent on the Yokai's species. 

On top of that, the Yokai themselves are separated into 8 different 'tribes', which give different buffs if you put them next to each other in battle, and each species has unique abilities that give different effects in battle. You can give them equipment to augment their stats, and if they use enough of a specific skill, they can raise their level on it and make them more powerful. 

In battle, you rotate your watch to put the right 3 Yokai in battle for the right situation, and follow touchscreen prompts to unleash soultimate attacks or purify an ally who's been debuffed. You can use items to heal your yokai, target a specific yokai, and other things that get unlocked as you go through the game. It's a surprisingly deep system, especially with the big bosses that requires you to really pay attention to them, and finding a group of 6 Yokai that complement each other is really really satisfying. While it does feel a little too easy sometimes, the boss battles REALLY kept me on my toes and made the fights incredibly memorable with how they utilized the system. (ESPECIALLY THE FINAL STORY ONE)

You WILL get stressed over touchscreen minigames

 Aside from the main story, there are a lot of sidequests that flesh out the world and serve as prompts to explore some extra dungeons/routes that you might otherwise ignore, unlock some new areas, and flesh out the various residents of your town and your classmates. You can also catch bugs and go fishing. Because what's an rpg without a fishing minigame?

Wow it's like I'm really a kid in Japan

There's just so much to DO, and a lot of (real time) daily activities too. The online/multiplayer aspect also seems really fun and expansive, since you can trade and battle with your friend's teams, and there's a minigame mode called Blasters where you battle tough enemies in a party of 4, with a real-time battle system controlling one of your Yokai. It seems really fun, but it would probably be more fun if I actually had people I could set up a party with (but alas.... no online). 

The monster designs themselves seem very hit or miss to most people, but I personally really like them. They embody the quirky and sometimes really unsettling feeling of Yokai perfectly, and works with the cartoonish artstyle. 

WHO CAN RESIST THAT TSUCHINOKO HUH?

I had a lot of fun finding the Yokai I like and raising/evolving them, but that's the true appeal of any moncolle game really.

My only real complaints are that recruiting Yokai into your use is incredibly cumbersome and luck-based sometimes, even with skills/food/moves that increases your chances. That and the stamina system, which limits how much you can run before your character tires themselves out, can be incredibly annoying to deal with, but both are so minor that it doesn't hamper the rest of the game for me.

Overall it was a really fun experience and I HIGHLY recommend the game to anyone who likes monster collecting games or just want to live out a childhood you never had. Despite the characters not being particularly deep, they do feel like actual characters in how they interact and banter with each other, which I really liked. Even the main character banters with their Yokai during the story and actually talks to people, so they feel more Real than if you just had a silent protag. It's a very endearing and engrossing game, and during the entire time I was playing it, I'd constantly lose track of time from how long I've been playing it.

On a final note, I think my absolute favourite Yokai designs are these 4.... but you can probably tell for the first one.