Yo kai Watch 2

Gameplay

Much like its predecessor, Yo-kai Watch 2 is an open world role-playing video game, where the player is given control of player character Nathan Adams, or alternatively, Katie Forester. Players navigate around the open world using the Nintendo 3DS' touchscreen to find and befriend various Yo-kai, which are scattered across the overworld. Players befriend Yo-kai by giving them a food that they like before beginning battle, and after defeating the Yo-kai it approaches the player character and gives them its Yo-kai Medal, allowing it to be summoned at will. A new feature in battles is using the touch screen to find a particular sweetspot on an enemy Yo-kai to increase the likelihood of befriending it at the end of the battle, or other sweetspots for extra damage, extra money, or extra experience. Yo-kai can also be acquired through an in game Crank-a-kai (Gasha Machine) by collecting in-game coins or using Play Coins. Certain Yo-kai are necessary for completing the game's main quest, and special rare Yo-kai are acquired through various subquests. Yo-kai have the capability to evolve into more powerful versions of themselves if they reach a certain level, or they can evolve by combining with particular items or other Yo-kai. The Yo-kai are divided amongst eight different classes, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. There are also Legendary Yo-kai that can only be obtained by collecting a particular set of Yo-kai listed in the Yo-kai Medallium, a compendium of the different Yo-kai the player has encountered or befriended. When the player encounters a Yo-kai, he enters into battle with it using six Yo-kai that the player has befriended previously. The touchscreen is used during battles to rotate amongst the player's Yo-kai in battle at will. It is also used either to clear up status effects on the player's Yo-kai or to charge up the Yo-kai's Soultimate abilities. While the original Yo-kai Watch featured nearly 250 Yo-kai, Yo-Kai Watch 2 features nearly 450, including several that were featured as bosses in the original game.

Development

The games were developed in the wake of the booming popularity of the Yo-kai Watch franchise in Japan. Sequels to the original Yo-kai Watch game were planned from the very beginning, including the plan to split the sequel into two versions, Ganso and Honke. The decision to create two different versions of the game came about as a marketing strategy to appeal to children, and a response to the development team finding that many children and their parents were playing and sharing one copy of the game with each other, thus, two copies of a game would be a plausible resolution.

Marketing

The Yo-kai Watch 2 games were originally revealed in an April 2014 issue of the Japanese manga magazine CoroCoro Comic. The announcement notably came shortly before Level-5 announced that the original Yo-kai Watch had surpassed a milestone of 1 million units shipped. The game's premise and release date, along with improvements upon the original Yo-kai Watch, were detailed in the game's original announcement, which also stated that both the Ganso and Honke versions of Yo-kai Watch 2 would feature Jibanyan Yo-kai Medal toys exclusive to each game, each unlocking a unique Soultimate move for the Jibanyan the player befriends in the game. The games were released on July 10, 2014, both as a physical copy and as a digital download on the Nintendo eShop. A version of the Nintendo 3DS XL, featuring the series' mascot character Jibanyan pictured on the front and the back of the console, was also released concurrently. However, it did not come bundled with either of the Yo-kai Watch games, and was sold separately. The limited edition of the console instead came bundled with the six AR cards and a data card featuring the Golnyan Yo-kai, which can be read by the 3DS and used in-game for Yo-Kai Watch 2. Unlike the original game, a demo was not released on the Nintendo eShop prior to the games' release, however, an exclusive Nintendo Direct presentation was broadcast on June 4, 2014, highlighting the many new features of the games.

By the time Yo-kai Watch 2 was released, the anime series, airing on the TX Network and TV Tokyo and originally created to promote the first Yo-kai Watch game, had aired over 25 episodes and had become a major contributor to the franchise's growing popularity and sales. The television commercial created to advertise Yo-kai Watch 2 capitalised on the success of the anime series by staging a crowd performing the dance to "Yo-kai Exercise No. 1" by Dream5 (Nathan Simpson in the UK Broadcast of the original Japanese Version), the ending theme song for the television series. Under a thousand people were gathered in a shopping mall decorated with Yo-kai Watch banners and imagery to film three commercials that aired during the month of the games' release in Japan.

After the successes of Ganso and Honke, an additional third version of the game, Yo-kai Watch 2: Shinuchi, was unveiled by Level-5 in October 2014, once again in an issue of the CoroCoro Comic magazine. Physical releases of the game included a Buchinyan Yo-kai Medal toy, which could be read as a QR code by the Nintendo 3DS system for use in-game. Digital download versions of the game include an additional "Maskednyan" Yo-kai. The game's December 2014 release coincided with the theatrical release of Yo-kai Watch: Tanjō no Himitsu da Nyan!, a film based on Yo-kai Watch 2.

Merchandise

Level-5 teamed up with Japanese manufacturers Bandai and Bandai Namco Holdings to create various merchandise to further promote the games. Many different lines of toys were manufactured, the most notable of which are models of the Yo-kai Watch itself, which became one of the best-selling and fastest-selling toys in Japan. The watch, which can be used interactively with separately sold Yo-kai medals, was notable for its constant sellout of stock, and difficulty in finding and obtaining. The short supply of the toy had prompted high second-hand sales of the watch through online auction sites such as eBay, and also caused retailers such as Toys R Us to adopt a raffle ticket system to sell the product. A partnership between Bandai and with fast food restaurant chain McDonald's also saw sets of Aikatsu! cards, featuring Yo-kai Watch characters, being included with the chain's trademark happy meal. The popularity of the Aikatsu! cards also caused congestion in many McDonald's restaurants across Japan. Other merchandise released in the wake of Yo-kai Watch 2 include school utensils and office supplies, plushies, tissues, shampoo, bicycles, and even food such as Yo-kai Watch branded cereal, bread, drinks and furikake, amongst other available products. Bandi Namco have reported to have earned ¥10 billion yen (equivalent to $93 million US dollars) off Yo-kai Watch toy lines alone, from April to September 2014. Japanese chart and statistics company Oricon named the Yo-kai Watch brand the second best selling in 2014, behind Disney's Frozen. This kind of love for the Yo-kai Watches transferred to America. The Yo-kai Watch Model Zero was replicated from Japan's Zeroshiki. It has differences, such as: it's louder, it's medals were not translucent, and it had an exclusive feature that only America got: Yo-Motion, which is a 3-frame projection feature with Season 2 Medals. This watch is the 2nd U.S. watch. Japan currently has 4 major models. This would later be a predecessor to Yo-kai Watch U Prototype, and then the Yo-kai Watch Dream officially dubbed with Sushi and Tempura. The Normal, Z, and Classic Medals were high in numbers for a Yo-kai Watch collector. Season 1 Medals would be sold in any area that sells toys. The Season 2 Medals are not that easy to find. Only about 10 different toy sellers sell these. S1 Medals would come in packs of 3. S2 Medals would come in packs of 2. Season 3 (U, Merican, and Song Medals) Medals and Season 4 (Dream Medals) Medals are fully impossible to find in this period of time.

Critical reception

Reviewers from the Japanese video game magazine Famitsu scored both Yo-kai Watch 2: Ganso and Honke a 36 out of 40, with all of the four judges of the review giving the game 9 out of 10; identical to Famitsu's scores for the original Yo-kai Watch The magazine also gave the same score to Yo-Kai Watch 2: Shinuchi upon its release in December 2014.

Western reviews were more mixed, with critics praising the games charm and inclusion of more Yo-Kai, but criticized it for not fixing issues that were present in the original version and the padding present in the game. It currently holds a 72 for Bony Spirits and a 70 for Fleshy Souls on Metacritic.

Sequel

The sequel games, also featuring a dual release with the titles Yo-kai Watch 3 Sushi and Yo-kai Watch 3 Tempura, were released in Japan in July 2016.