While Pokemon is still popular in the US, Nintendo and Level-5’s attempt to recapture that audience through Yo-kai watch is an ambitious one. Finally, the series has hit the West, along with an anime series and merchandise to boot. It’s a good thing that the first entry in the game series is a good one…although, there is room for improvement.

The game’s story starts off with the player choosing their gender, with the avatar being on of the two main characters. The one you pick can be renamed, with the other getting a default name. Once you pick an avatar, a video with the chosen character plays, where the protagonist finds a gatchapon machine in the middle of the forest. They hear a voice that pleads them to insert a coin and turn the crank. In doing this, they released a spirit called Whisper, who then gives the protagonist the ability to find and befriend Yokai. They then get to work finding more friends and solving problems involving other Yokai. The game has a chapter formula that’s not unlike the episodic nature of the TV show itself. Despite the whole game taking place in a whole town, the map is still quite large, with a lot of places to find Yokai like the sewers and back alleys. Although the game does lack any means of fast travel, with the only way to get around fast is a bike you get about a quarter of the way in. This is a relief to the alternative which is to sprint, which runs on an obnoxious stamina meter. It’s not much but it’s there.

Battles on the other hand are much more interesting. Instead of making the player mess with menus, the game takes more of a hands-off approach to battles. The Yokai all have an AI script, with you only issuing select orders like using items, or swapping out your team, which is presented as a wheel you can roll over. The Yokai each have four abilities like a basic attack, a spell, and a buff or debuff technique. The last ability is a super move which operates on a refillable meter. These moves need the player to use the stylus to perform a QTE like sequence. Although if a Yokai gets debuffed, you can bench them and purify them with more QTE antics; this will also grant you extra experience to the Yokai. The way you go about finding Yokai is also a bit neat, as you can use the watch to hone in on their location on the map, and then inspect a location and using the lens to reveal their presence. After defeating a mob, one of them might join you randomly, but you can increase your chances by giving them food that they like. It’s ab altogether better means of ‘monster capturing’. Instead of beating them up and putting them in a ball, you are befriending them, even if in most cases that means testing your mettle in battle and bribing them. You can even adjust the stat growth of Yokai by using books to alter their personality. Otherwise there are accessories to use.

The soundtrack is pretty good, but the track selection is pretty limited. There is voice-acting present, but it’s mainly used in select cut-scenes. While the character models and environments look great, there is quite a bit of palette swapping going on. A few other issues with the game is that you can do any kind of medal trading with players locally, let alone online. One issue which can’t be as easily solved is the localization of the game itself. Many of the character names and things like currency have been Westernized. This is a bit annoying as the arbitrary decision makes for a somewhat disjointed translation. The game wants players to think that it takes place in America, but it’s clearly still in Japan, so having a character named Bob or Kate is just weird. While the game might have a few tiny shortcomings, these can only be improved upon in the sequel, which hopefully makes its way to the West and soon, as the series already has a third game coming next summer, and a spin-off series out in Japan right now. But for the meantime, if you like RPGs but are not a fan of messing with menus, then you can’t do wrong with Yo-kai Watch.

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