Yo-kai Watch 2 review: Soul food for the inner child

On American store shelves now is the second game in the Yo-kai Watch series, available in two flavors;  Bony Spirits and Fleshy Souls. Much like different versions of the Pokemon games, the only real differences between the two boil down to version-exclusive Yo-kai, so you won't really be missing out on much from one version to the other. Guide your purchasing decision based on whether the phrase "Fleshy Souls" or "Bony Spirits" makes you more uncomfortable. Anyway.

At this point, you're likely thinking "Hey Sam, that sounds an awful lot like Pokemon!" And you'd be right. It sounds a lot like Pokemon, before you actually play it. The Yo-kai Watch games operate in a completely different way than Nintendo's flagship mobile RPG series. Unlike the Pokemon games, you don't control the Yo-kai that fight for you – you simply swap them in and out and coax them into using special "Soultimate" moves. It's a lot more strategy-based, forcing players to think laterally about how a battle will progress before it even starts. In addition, the Yo-kai themselves are vibrant and lively, legitimate characters in their own right. Yo-kai like Whisper, your ghost butler, and Jibanyan, the series's mascot, all engage with the player in a way that establishes them more as fully fledged characters than as pets that you train.

All this is to say that there's room at Nintendo (and in your gaming collection) for both Yo-kai Watch and Pokemon games – they scratch similar itches, sure, but they play fundamentally differently, from befriending Yo-kai by finding out their favorite food to seeking them out in suspicious areas with the 3DS's touch pad. Battles are often the result of a misunderstanding – your main character, hilariously, is very much against fighting Yo-kai, only resorting to battling when all other options have been exhausted. In general, the player character is a bit of a goody-goody. If you examine your sink at the player's home, they will remind you to brush your teeth every day. In a game that features a character that is literally a butt, this is pretty laughable.

 

If you've played Yo-kai Watch, you probably know what to expect from Yo-kai Watch 2. It's an adventure that speaks directly to a child-like sense of wonder regardless of how old you actually are, kind of like a Pixar movie. It's clear that it's being marketed to kids, but the writing staff makes sure to throw in nodding references to older players. Soon, in playing the game, no matter what your age is, you re-enter that innocent state of mind where nothing is funnier than a fart joke, and that's key to the game's appeal.

The game is an RPG at heart, which means that you'll be putting in some significant time across different towns and dungeons (you'll even be doing some time traveling), but unfortunately, the majority of the missions you'll be taking on are very similar. Do you like talking to someone, then going across the map to get something for them, and then going back across the map to deliver that thing back to them? Do you like doing that with a character who can only run for about 3 seconds before getting winded? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Luckily, this is a small annoyance in a game that is otherwise full of charm and promise. It's legitimately exciting to try and learn how to befriend different Yo-kai given the fact that they're all so distinct. The game doesn't need to tell you to catch 'em all, you end up wanting to anyway. The game's writing expertly transitions from endearing to poop-joke-juvenile – it really does play like a cartoon. This can be a blessing and a curse. At the end of the day, your enjoyment of this game will be dependent on whether or not there's still that little piece of you that still wants to watch Saturday morning cartoons and pick out the marshmallows from a big bowl of Lucky Charms. The game is soul food for your inner child. Or, if you're still a kid, your outer one.