Quick Look: Yo-kai Watch

WooHoo! Been looking forward to this one!

New Pocket Ghosts, let's go.

I'm really loving this game. My only real issue is I wish you could switch to the Japanese voice track. The english version is just weird sounding as they used mostly the actors who do the english dub of the anime.

YEAAAAAAA

paws of fury would be the most adorable way to die

I ain't afraid of no rolley-coaster

Less than 45 seconds into to this video I think I understand why Yo-kai Watch is so popular...

Well then, I now know what to get my niece for Christmas.

wow Drew is really bad at reading maps

I bet most of the clever puns got lost in translation and were replaced with inferior English puns.

I... I just don't get it.

It only took me a few minutes to get the "Nom Burger" joke. I'm so proud of myself.

@bummerman: yeah he kept missing the flag telling him exactly where to go, he walked RIGHT by it too

I really want to play this. The long wait for a European release begins!

"Here, have a cucumber. Ima ghost!"

Jeff does have a history with Rollercoasters...

The first minute of this Quick Look is sensational.

@dudesupreme said:

I ain't afraid of no rolley-coaster

DEVASTATOR.

Pleasant looking game. Not something I'd get into though, probably.

SHADY!!

This game is pretty fun! It's a very strange combination of Pokemon and Shin Megami Tensei mechanics.

I really like the art style and the over world, but the battles are too easy.
Having auto attacks is silly to me.
The different touch mini games for the specials is cool though.

The combat in this seems 100x more engaging than pokemon. Full disclosure, never played either.

It's official, Jeff is shady.

That opening is INCREDIBLE.

Oh my God. This is hella Pokemon. I had heard this was like Pokemon but wow. WOW.

So level 5 just went full on pokemon with Ni No Kuni. That sounds pretty awesome.

While Pokemon is probably the larger influence, it's worth mentioning a few other sources which this game takes some pretty heavy inspiration from judging by this video.

Fusing monsters together to get new ones has been in Shin Megami Tensei and Dragon Quest Monsters for quite a long time.

Giving yokai food to befriend them is also very much a Dragon Quest Monsters thing, though in the case of Dragon Quest Monsters food is simply tiered and this seems to be more about figuring out which yokai likes what, which makes me think that it's again pretty close to trying to figure out a demon's personality in order to win them over in Shin Megami Tensei.

Lastly, the whole 'monsters fight on their own and how they use abilities is based on their personality, which can be changed by making them read books' is straight out of Dragon Quest Monsters (though in that case you could also choose to manually control them outside of tournament fights).

This game does look cool overall though since it combines all these neat systems from other games with several of its own and it clearly has a lot of charm and personality. That said, I do hope it only sticks to a day/night cycle as far as time goes; I fell off the Pokemon wagon pretty hard once they started adding in Pokemon that could only be caught on specific days of the week, let alone ones that only appeared during certain seasons with each season lasting a full real-life month.

I've been having a ton of fun with this game since last week. It really scratches that Pokemon/Shin Megami Tensei itch of collecting and fusing everything.

I actually want to play this more than Fallout 4 now.

"Nom Burger."

"Do we get to win this time?"

DEAD. Cause of death: Laughter.

thats what ya get for not using the cross-walk button.

Nice little faux-Miku in the arcade.

And I totally expected this to be a re-skinned Pokémon game, seems to be much more than that. Looks kind of cool.

I still really want the GB guys to try Fantasy Life. It has the same pleasantness. None of the Pokemon, but more dungeon crawling and if you're a carpenter you fight boss trees to get wood and that delights me.

That said, this looks pretty neat. Might pick it up.

The QL honestly really failed to get across to me how the combat really works I much prefer to pick my attacks than to watch them just attack and lose through no fault of my own. Is is just the Soultimate attacks you start and everything else is automatic? If that is the case that is a straight up regression of the PKMN battle system which is counter to what I was told this game was.

I'd say definitely the opposite. All attacks are automatic in Yokai Watch except the Soultimate (touch mini game attacks).
Pokemon has a pretty standard turn based combat system with strategy.

Pokemon is already a fairly straight forward and easy RPG, and this is even simpler.

This is everywhere in Japan. Stoked.

Now I know why some friends I have who like anime have screamed YO-KAI before

Yokai Watch's battle system gets fun on tough bosses where switching, targeting with the pin, and overall timing becomes important. I definitely wish I could "queue up" moves myself though. I hear post-game is tough.

YW is definitely similar to Pokemon in that there's a lot of "independent learning" you can do about your yokai and their moveset (including their passive skill aka "5th move"), tribe affinities (important for passive battle buffs), and their personalities. There are ways to alter their role in battle to a degree, and that's cool.

I definitely like the fleshed-out overworld though. The quests, Terror Time at night, and bug/fish catching too.

Re: Inactive quests, they are quests that are flagged on your map, but you haven't "activated" them by speaking to the person. I also wish the map was easier to navigate sometimes.

Have you seen what happens when you don't use the crosswalk light properly? EDIT: YEP, YA DID

Yeah I hear 8-4 talk about this franchise all the time but I've never actually seen it in any shape or form. Despite being a total Pokemon ripoff it actually still feels imaginative and whimsical in it's own unique way. Plus this premise actually seems well thought out unlike Pokemon's insane voyeuristic exploitation of pet monsters via prize fighting tournaments. Thanks for this Quick Look. It was both enjoyable and enlightening. If I had a 3DS I'd play this.

The first :40 sold me on this game.

I love everything about this except the monster designs, which kills it for me. Pokemon is an inferior game in some respects but I can't stand these designs. Yokai show up in the latest Phoenix Wright game and they looked a lot like this so I'm guessing it's a style deeply ingrained in their culture.

@alistercat: I'm feeling the exact opposite. The world and designs look charming as hell, but I don't care for the Dragon Warrior Monsters-styled combat. Also, I didn't encounter navigation problems after playing the demo, but seeing Drew fumble around here put the final nail in the coffin.

I guess I'll just watch the anime instead.

Hot Man Mountain Rock reference from Jeff.

I wanted to play this game but the map stuff look like more pain than I want to deal with,

Theres not alot of people in Japan, im learning new stuff everytime i click a video on Giantbomb.

Most fucked up and greatest intro to a quick look ever.

Arcade Man: "Stop these kids from putting so much money in my machines."

"...fuck." INDEED.

If I wasn't about to get crazy deep into Dragon Quest IV-VI, I might be up for this. Cockfighting with monsters from Japanese mythos? Sure!

FTFY. It's why I gave up on Metal Gear Scanlon, it would be an hour plus video to make ten minutes progress. I got to MGS3 and bailed, Dan pulled me through.