The Rise and Fall of Yo-kai Watch!

come back? Can Yo-kai Watch make a comeback? Right? So, uh, you know, we're all fans of Yo-kai Watch over here. What is it actually going to take to make that happen? If Level 5 announced a new Yo-kai Watch tomorrow, what would it need to succeed in the West? And no, we're not talking about Holy Horror Mansion, which a lot of people have heard about. They're kind of grasping for Yo-kai Watch is taking a little pivot um into something new. But you know what would it need to succeed in the west over here? Ant — uh watching level five currently is a bit of a struggle. So to take away let's we can remove the element of weird decision-m that's happening with the company right now. I think just like on almost on like a straight up business level that makes the most sense. The kids that grew up with Yo-kai Watch are adults now. there should be an easy way to just capture that market with something a little more advanced. It turns out Yo-kai Watch 4 was trying that like actually aging the protagonist is not something you ever really see. I mean, you look at Pokemon, uh, you can look at Pokemon, the other adjacent Mega Man Battle Network, they always keep things on a kid level. The fact that they were even bold enough to make the protagonist older already shows that there is something there, a little more of an action combat system there. I think the battle systems in those games don't feel as in-depth as they could be. Personally, I know that statement alone might get some people riled up because I've heard how strategic those can get. I think there is a place for Yo-kai Watch. I think you just need to make it bigger. I think you need a snappier battle system. You have to, I think, maybe not commit as hard to the Saturday morning arcade ar uh cartoon vibe with it. And I don't know. I the thing is, man, the Switch alone is such an RPG powerhouse of a console. Yo-kai Watch feels like it should fit in automatically. Just bright, colorful, cartoony, monster catcher. The designs of the Yo-kai are great. Uh there there's absolutely a place for it. It is kind of hard to picture how you would do it differently than Level Five because I know right now they're focused on their mobile game and horror mansion and there's other controversies around this company, but I think something about like a slice of life Japanese life simulator that also is a monster catcher like that sentence if you take your preconceived notions of Yo-kai Watch out the window. There's something compelling about a slice of life simulator, which there are plenty of, mixed with a monster catcher. There's something there. And realistically, Jabanyan, great character. Whisper, great character. There's so much charm and love there. I think the Pokemon clone stigma, sadly, in the West was its big downfall. So, somehow figuring out how to detach itself more from that identity. Uh, and whe maybe that means just more slice of life activities you can do in like maybe follow in like a Persona element where you're also building up relationships with other characters. Hype up the fact that there's a competitive field. Didn't Yo-kai Watch two or three actually have competitive multiplayer. — Yeah, — that's I had no idea. That is an element that completely went over my head. Uh, and it does make sense because it is like Pokemon adjacent, but like man, I just I had no idea some of the strategy that can go into it. So, hyping up the competitive element, like there there's something there. I just I it almost it the disconnect between the decision-making of Level Five and what the game developers actually made to me is like a is something that's hard to parse — because they did not properly hype up what Yo-kai Watch is all about. Meanwhile, Japan knew it automatically. — That was an issue. — Yeah, — I definitely think there's a place now for that. For sure. — I agree wholeheartedly. And it's interesting that you touch on that concept because Yo-kai Watch as an identity itself has been struggling, right? It's been struggling to find out what it is. uh they with Yo-kai Watch 4 and the anime of Shadowside. I don't know if you did any research on that, but it was a concept where um you know, you have the kids being a lot older now and they're like teenagers to young adults and they're like doing detective work and they're finding all these lore of the Yo-kai and it's actually a lot darker, right? There's death. There's a lot more adult concept over there. And truly, that was the spin-off series that I love the most, being an adult and seeing them take those risks with that. But of course, with that risk being taken, it's been shown that Level Five didn't do so hot with that specific line of anime with Shadow Side. Kids didn't like it. Ratings were down. Yo-kai Watch 4 wasn't as good because it was kind of based on that slightly older demographic. So then Yo-kai Watch is like, "All right, well, what are we going to do? Let's go back to our roots and reboot the kid-friendly Yo-kai Watch. " So, they rebooted that like a second time and then it's just like all this like flip-flopping back and forth. They can't really find out what they're going to do. And like you said earlier, the kids who grew up with Yo-kai Watch are all older now. And we're definitely in this nostalgia phase. And I think that one of the things in order to pander to that nostalgia, Nintendo does it very well. We're all learned Nintendo fans because we grew up with Mario or we grew up, you know, Sega, for example, we grew up with Sonic and then now we like continue enjoying that. So, we just got to I feel like there's got to be some sort of collection, right? Like a Yo-kai Watch collection on Nintendo Switch because they were able to port the 3DS version to a Nintendo Switch one title in Japan only. And that game ran fluidly. It was great. It was one to one. So, like if you remade all those other games, give us a collection for it. That's the first step in getting Yo-kai Watch to have that comeback because all of us that are adults now, we might have kids. Um, you know, that we want to introduce that Yo-kai Watch stuff to. So, the odds of you still having your old 3DS and these games and if they work on old technology, it's not conducive to a successful franchise. And I mean, one of the other points that I want to make right now is the concept that competition is way harder now. Honestly, with all the different monster battling collecting games that are out there, it's not just Pokemon, right? You can probably list off two or three different IPs that have come out more recently, you know, there's tons of creature collectors now. So, like, if Yo-kai Watch, a new Yo-kai Watch came out today, is it going to stand out or get lost in the sea of all these good indie games and even first party or third party titles? — Honestly, yeah. I think a collection to me makes the most sense in the world. After playing through the trilogy, it is a shame that they only stopped at one because it feels like one is kind of agreed upon that it's not the strongest one. Two and three are definitely have higher quality and the fact that those are still locked to 3DS exclusively is such a bummer because that just means yeah, there's a whole bunch of the population now who simply can't play it and uh that sucks because there is some good stuff in there and you just can't play it. I mean, another Mega Man comparison. By the time this is being recorded, Mega Man Star Force recently got a collection. That's another franchise, mini franchise that I, as someone who was a little bit older, didn't think much of, but it turns out a bunch of younger people loved Star Force. And now I'm seeing a bunch of people revisiting their nostalgia, uh, talking about how big of a deal Star Force was when they were kids. And then by just by pure nature of it being available on every console and PC, there will be like a slowly growing group who's able to enjoy that game. I think a Yo-kai Watch trilogy released on Nintendo, PS5, PC would go so hard with revitalized on uh online elements. And it's relatively low risk for the company uh to if considering they already did the first game that would be the first step in a

huge and I think a huge push that I think Yo-kai Watch could survive. I don't know if they'll do it. I don't think they will, but it would be, I think, the right decision.