Yo-Kai Watch Critic Reviews

Yo-kai Watch is a surprising hit that builds on itself the more you play, demanding more thought and focus than its cheery exterior suggests.

This could easily be the best Leve-5 game so far. The dynamic rock-paper-scissors battle system will keep you definitely entertained for more than fifty hours.

It’s a great start to a new franchise, one of the best looking 3DS games I’ve ever played, and if you’re looking for a RPG with heart and spirit, Yo-Kai Watch is the right choice and a great start to a new franchise.

Yo-kai Watch is Pokémon's new, modern, more dynamic evolution.

So, while Yo-Kai Watch is pitched firmly at children, I found it to be utterly delightful, absorbing, and lengthy. I'm about 60 hours in, at the end of the main quest, but still have enough side quests to keep me going for a while.

Level 5 has created yet another brilliant JRPG with a huge amount of content. Yo-Kai Watch is a neat game with some great absurdist humour and an incredibly original combat system. We believe the hype.

Yo-kai Watch is the best game for Nintendo 3DS in recent months. Its combat system is deeper than it looks, and collecting is very present throughout the game. Pokémon has a serious competitor.

With its fantastic soundtrack, gorgeous visuals and sky high production values, Yo-Kai Watch belies its years to deliver one of the better looking game on the Nintendo 3DS. It’s unlikely to match Pokémon’s success in the West, but judged upon its own merits, this is one of the better 3DS games released in the last few years and a genuine match for the ever-popular Pokémon franchise.

Derivative but not too much, aimed to children but also to many grown-ups, we can finally understand why Yo-Kai Watch has unleashed, in Japan, a craze second only to that of Pokémon itself.

If you love to sit by the fire and train your Pokémon for hours, perfecting their EV and IV levels so you can be the very best, you likely won't find the same depth in Yo-Kai. Its world and philosophy is much simpler than that. But as a result, none of it feels frustrating or like work, and I'm constantly tempted to jump back into my adventures with Nate and Whisper.

Comparing Yo-kai Watch to Pokémon is more than fair as the game borrows from the series that helped establish what has become its own genre, but there’s no reason to pick one over the other. Yo-kai Watch is a worthy competitor that stands comfortably next to Nintendo’s monster collector as a distinct peer.

Though Yo-Kai Watch does borrow a lot from the Pokemon franchise, the game does strike out a spot for itself in the monster-collecting market. The game is still really fun to play, and the feeling of collecting and discovering new Yo-Kai is exhilarating.

Yo-Kai Watch is an endearing, charming title with some minor missteps, but it overcomes those with the pure joy of discovery and intrigue that can only come from a well-crafted collection-RPG, reminiscent of my youth spent behind a dim GameBoy light.

Yo-Kai Watch on the 3DS is a fun RPG that targets the younger gamer or those older gamers who want to reminiscence about those classic Gameboy titles!

Yo-kai Watch is a story-driven JRPG with one of the funniest, detailed and rich universes we've ever played, with a tons of quests and secrets waiting to be discovered. Be sure to wear your nostalgic shorts, before jumping in the life of a kid who's about to live the most exciting adventure of his life.

As the beginning of this new and ambitious series, it effectively introduces the charismatic Yo-kai and the peculiar (and fun) battle system. On the other hand, the plot is simple and there are no online battles. But as an alternative to Pokémon, it's one of the greatest ones so far and has its own essence.

Yo-Kai Watch is better than expected. It's a long game, with an enjoyable difficult balance and a great sense of humor after all. And take this into consideration: this is not Pokémon. This is a Level-5 game.

RPG veterans won’t find the journey all that difficult, but younger fans and the young at heart will find plenty to love.

It’s deep, but not overly complex.

A spirited good time.