New Game: Yo-Kai Watch

Yo-Kai Watch is a series of role-playing games developed by Level-5, the same company that brought us the Professor Layton series and the recent hit RPG Fantasy Life. Playing the first game in the series does feel somewhat like Pokemon because it involves capturing familiars that will do the fighting for the player character - and that's basically their similarity. In terms of story, characters, combat and overall gameplay Yo-Kai Watch is pretty much a new experience (for me, at least).

The game that's been causing a buzz in Japan for being considered to be the next "Pokemon" has finally arrived in the US market. I got my hands on the first game of the sries to be localized today and disregarded my need to complete a few academic requirements for a while to play it. So, Yo-Kai Watch, is it good or is it just a passing fad?

The game starts off with a series of objectives leading up to a story event. Because of these objectives the player is not exactly free to explore the overworld, in this case, the player's home town. There are only a few points of interest in the overworld making the game very straightforward.

Furthermore, it also makes sure that you follow the current object before anything else by flashing it constantly on the top screen - it gets a little annoying.
From what I've played so far the story of Yo-Kai Watch is episodic which makes the game feel a little too constricting seeing as you have to follow instructions rather than having the freedom to advance the story yourself.

The first episode, Welcome to the World of Yo-Kai, starts of with the player character capturing bugs eventually leading up to the mountains where a mysterious looking Gashapon is found. 

After 'feeding' the machine a coin and opening the released capsule a Yo-Kai by the name of Whisper comes out. This first meeting is rather absurd than meaningful further solidifying the fact that Yo-Kai Watch is more of a kid's game than an actual RPG that can be taken seriously.

But wait, that's not all there is to it, yet.
Whisper gives the player character the titular Yo-Kai Watch - a device that can be used to track the location of Yo-Kai.

After a Yo-Kai's presence and location has been determined, the Yo-Kai lens is used to draw out the Yo-Kai engaging it in battle.

I'm kind of conflicted with Yo-Kai Watch's battle system. On one hand I've only tried it once so far and it's part of what can be passed off as the in-game tutorial. But on the other hand the battle system that I found might be the very core already. From what I've played the battle system feels like a distraction - like a mini-game - while the actual battle is played out automatically. I found it hard to get immersed in the game because, even the game said it itself, the Yo-Kai will attack even if "you do nothing". So what's the point? Right now I'm not sure but I do hope I've only scratched the surface.

In the tutorial for the battle system, the player character can have at most six Yo-Kai on hand. It's possible to shift between these Yo-Kai in the middle of the battle altering the flow of combat. While the auto-fight transpires before your weary eyes the player can only influence the outcome of the battle in a few ways such as charging up a Yo-kai's special move and such. After a Yo-kai is defeated the player will befriend it and will join his team.
Like I said, I'm a little conflicted about this part of the game - the part that I consider to be one of a role-playing game's selling point.

The plot of Yo-Kai Watch is still pretty thin going into the second episode, and it's difficult to point out any special and meaningful events with the first episode since the game focuses on humor more than substance. Maybe the story will start to grow on me as I progress through the game, that is if I can find challenge in it before I decide to hang it up.

For now, at least with just an hour of gameplay, Yo-Kai Watch is a child's game. The world looks beautiful and well-built but exploration is hindered by its constant prioritizing of objectives. The battle system is a little on the boring side but this one is on me since I only have one Yo-Kai to start and the first battle was akin to a tutorial. I feel like several parts of the game will, in one way or another, get lost in translation seeing as Yo-Kai Watch's setting is in Japan and the Yo-Kai's are actually based off on Japanese youkai's. I wouldn't be surprised if some plot elements don't translate too well in the localized version.

Well anyway this is just my first impression of Yo-Kai Watch. There's definitely more to discover in the game and I do hope that the game kicks its difficulty up a notch as I advance.
And you know what really grinds my gears?
There's a friggin' stamina system, like whuuuuut?