Why Yo-kai Watch Deserves The World | A Retrospective Video Essay 

I love how the Yo-Kai watch community is waking up

Even though I've played all the games at this point, when the Yo-Kai are disappearing at the end of game 1 and Jibanyan says "bye bye nyao", it still gets me every time. I know they're coming back but it's so well done and so emotional. I remember finishing the first game for the first time, in my late twenties, and just sobbing on my couch going "but...but my friends...". This is most definitely my favorite game series of all time, and probably always will be. Awesome job on the great retrospective!

This hits too hard. Yo Kai watch has a very special place in my heart, it was the game that held my hand when I had no one to talk to. The ending was really magnificent, almost brought tears to my eyes, and I m talking about not only the ending of the game, but of this video. BRING BACK YO KAI WATCH

Usually I cant watch videos this long and I just put them in the background as I do other things while still paying attention the the video but I really just watched this whole thing without doing anything else and I enjoyed all of it. Its a great video and I cant wait to see more from you.

These games released while I was in college and I loved every entry and collecting the toys that the states would see. I was lucky enough to grab Yokai Watch 3 but never had the foresight to pick up Psychic Specters because I was feeling a bit of the franchise fatigue. I am a longtime fan of monster raising games; Pokemon, Digimon, Monster Rancher, Tamagotchi, Sonic's Chao Garden, etc. Yokai Watch was an amazing new direction to take that genre. My hyperfixation for this franchise has return recently and it makes me mad to see the Switch games not have a localization yet. Here's hoping we get news in April!

Bro even got johnneawesome, that's how good this series is

No matter what, yokai watch will always be one of or my absolute favorite series of all time

I love this you just got another loyal subscriber

my whole fucking childhood bruh. praying ghost craft is the comeback we need brooo

I LOVE YO KAI WATCH

As a younger fan (around 7 years when the first game came out) its nice to see you enjoying these masterpieces even after its perceived age rank

The fact that you got to talk to Johneawesome is so so so cool. I had watched all his yokai watch playthroughs and his Persona 5 LP and he’s such a cool guy. This video is one of my favorites of all time because it shows just in a perfect light how amazing this game was for everyone who played, and I hadn’t even known that a new game was in the works. Thank you for that news, truly. #LocalizeYW4

i loved the video, you should really talk about 44, i would love to hear your opinions on all the changes they made

Gera Gera Po~ Gera Gera Po~ Gera Gera Po!

1:10:29 As a Wisconsinite, I have never been so offended by something I reluctantly agree with.

I think yo kai watch was my first ever special interest, it's an autistic thing, watch toon ruins video about it, for the longest part of my life I had a guttural hatred towards pokemon due to the "'similarities'". Good thing it wasn't the other way around.

Hey friends this guy is friendly! You can get out out of the cave!

It seems Yo-kai Watch is getting a reboot.

I’ve been enjoying this video but man, you gotta cut out the takes that have to literally stumbling over your words or something 💀 1:47:52 I also agree pretty well with this, especially now. It’s insane that shit like Palworld (which I know has it’s fans) having so many designs that feel pretty similar to Pokémon get so much praise while YKW basically ended up just being a cult classic is wild

34:21 and then the Game got shut down while ITS japanese Brother puni puni got crossovers with kamen Rider, Layton, and final Fantasy. IT even Had unique yokai and IS basically a Harder wibble wobble

Am I the only one who thinks blunder and folly are a x files reference to Mulder and scully???

yokai watch 5 might release over in the west

Blame the developers for not releasing the switch releases in the West even though it has been repeatedly proven the Switch can revitalise series perceived as dead in Western markets.

No way me and bro agree on way to much o thought I was the only one that liked this as well until I saw the youtuber @interactus I think is there channel

Forst time i played the forst game on 3ds, i really hated the combat. I gave it another try years later, and now im obssesed with it.

Is yo kai watch wibble wobble still a thing?

I WILL NEVER NOT LOVE YOKAI WATCH

how the hell does a channel with 11 subscribers get JohneAwesome on their video

I'm an older fan of yokai watch (i was in highschool when the first game released) and it was so frustrating to have it be written off by all my friends calling it "pokemon for kids" (pokemon is pokemon for kids) when the game was legitimately mind blowing to me. It had so many little details that I'd never seen before in games. The second game made me fall in love even more with the side quests changing the map, the cursed boxes, the gates of whimsy, and later whispers backstory and the yokai theme park. When the third game finally released in america just the opening cutscene amazed me with how smooth it was, 100 hours later and I still hadn't seen all the game had to offer I was so hooked I'd play it in my car before work and on break. While I never got to watch the show (and probably never will) the series will always hold a special place in my heart for the games alone, especially ykw2 letting me relive being a kid and spending summer with grandma.

yo-kai watch doesn’t deserve the world, it deserves an apology

Awesome video! I'm so glad I was able to be a part of it :D I'm pretty bad at talking especially in stuff like interviews but I'm glad I did an okay job at it for this video! With Level 5 back in the west, all we can do is hope that we get a new yokai watch game. Fingers crossed 🤞

I used to love Yo Kai Watch, i honestly feel i wouldn't have abandoned it if they kept making games internationally, fingers crossed they eventually rerelease these great games

1:29:12 I remember that boss vividly because the name they give him in the Italian version was hilarious to my 12 year old self They called him "mastercheffo" "cheffo" mean "untrustworthy guy" basically and I'm glad they kept the the cooking show pun in different versions

I‘ve been a fan of Yo-Kai watch for almost 8 years and I’ve put at least a 100 hours in all the mainline games, so it’s always nice to see new video essays about the franchise. It’s so sad how many people just said that it’s a basic Pokémon clone, even though most of them haven’t even played or watched the anime for more than a minute. Let’s just hope that levels 5 current strategy to grow globally will work and that we can finally get new Yokai watch content in the west, more people need to experience these games. This video is extremely underrated, just like Yo-Kai watch. Keep up the good work!

Mum look my freinds are famous!

its almost 5am and instead of going to sleep i just sat down and watched this video this is fr one of my favorite yokai watch retrospectives, it better gets the attention it deserves i really hope that ykw4 might come out one day and if that happen we possibly could even get a 5 in the west #bringbackyokaiwatch

Unbelievable! You actually got Brent Pendegrass for this?! That’s awesome!

I have no idea what your talking about when it comes to YKW3. It's my favourite game and I don't know of a single person besides you who dislikes it. I don't hate you for it or anything but you talk about it like it's something most people agree with, and I believe you, but that's not my experience with this fandom. I don't even know what the point of this comment is anymore, I just wanted to point that out.

I know I am extremely biased because I grew up with Yo-Kai Watch, but this video really is something special and probably one of the best video essays I’ve seen in a very long time. You mentioned that you believed you were “average” at most things, creating RU-vid videos is not one of those things. I really hope you keep making more videos!!!!

I love the approach you took by explaining the game's story instead of the development's story.

i genuinely wouldn't be the person i am today if it wasn't for yokai watch. it literally raised me, and i'm somehow still loving it today. it's honestly like losing an old friend. although, the fact that there's been a sudden rise in interest as of late gives me some kind of irrational hope, even if i know it's almost impossible.

Ermm I actually didn’t know much ab ykw before watching this video (I only watched the anime on Netflix..) but this video essay was actually really fun and nice to watch and I did watch it all in one sitting (proving it’s an adhd approved masterpiece ^_^) but like, it’s really sweet and cool to see how much effort you put into this video as a fan of the series and just showing your love to it too!! This was really nice and a fun watch so ya! I enjoyed it a lot and I actually learnt quite a bit ab the series from it too, so wowsers two in one!!!! 😛 But like it was really cool seeing how you brought together not only yours but other fans of the series too to like comment here and there which I found really cool!! (Hazel I’m ur biggest fan) But yeah, keep it up!! Your video was rlly good and I’d love to see if u put out anymore ykw essays that I could indulge myself into… ya!! so thank u for making this very splendid video!!!

I fell in love with the Yo-kai Watch anime when I was just a little kid sleeping at my uncle’s house. I never forgot and always liked the franchise but the interest settled down a bit. But when I found out about the games a few years after I met the series, everything changed. The series became my favorite franchise oat and I still replay the same games, listen to the music and everything. This franchise marked and is marking my entire child/teenhood and I am all for it. Thanks for the awesome video

I still clearly remember my first experience with the Infinite Inferno, coming across the shed while taking a break from Sproink, who i was stuck on, and then visiting the Stones' house completely on a whim, AND THEN the eureka moment of knowing immediately where to go, was such a cooll accident for me

I’m glad that at least there are at least some people still love this game and hasn’t forgotten about it yo Kai Watch is definitely my top favorite series

I first heard about Yokai Watch from a family friend who was persistent (a bit too persistent) to get me invested. Give it a few months later during a vacation, I saw some ad on TV on the anime and Wibble Wobble. So, I took a gander into it and have been hooked quickly. It’s really unique and really deserves another chance!

Yokai watch 3 is my favorite game in the whole series, also I love how in the rhongo swirl cutscene jibanyan is just back there pulling a Travis Scott😂

It's so great to still see people have so much great stuff to say about Yo-kai Watch. I'm still the only person I know irl who like the series, but it's still nice to see the fanbase not completely dead after all these years. I'll still keep enjoying Yo-kai Watch, and I hope more people can too. Thanks for making such a great and comprehensive video!

The ending scene with the cherry blossoms framing the city is just perfect. Perfect ❤ 😭

The ending of this video made me tear up 😅, a wave of emotions hit me watching this video. Thank you ❤

Bring back Yokaiwatch👍

Yo-kai watch is my childhood. It’s been years since I heard of it, someone just mentioned it to me a couple minutes ago, and here I am on a nostalgia train. I am highly disappointed to see the series has stopped production, and I definitely think it deserves more. Yo-kai watch was one of the most entertaining series’ that i’ve ever had the pleasure to watch.

I definitely think that the series had an identity crises after 3. Level 5 pushed Busters 2 out as a lazy cash grab, and when they realized that the hype around the series was dwindling, they thought they needed to change, introducing the Shadowside era. Shadowside had some really cool potential, but when it wasn't doing well, they just abandoned it altogether and went back to where they left off at Busters 2. That made 4 a mix between the two very different eras of Yo-kai Watch, so they couldn't fit all of the concepts of Shadowside and the reboot. Then, that didn't do well, so they took another U-turn, making Gakuen Y. I don't speak Japanese, but I can assume that the game's story isn't fully comprehendible without the anime, because they follow the same story, just the game glazes over so many details, excluding so many things just from the first two episodes. It's like a representation of the anime's story. It made the game better, because rather than having the story and graphics as the most important part of the game, they focused on the gameplay. Then when that didn't work, they went back to the beginning of the franchise and restarted the timeline, and this time, with no game, just the anime and merch. Ever since the Switch era, it seems like the games are an adaptation of the anime, rather than the other way around. The games feel incomplete now, the 3ds games are representations of the era of Yo-kai Watch they released in. The first game had everything that the original era had, the second same, and so on. But now they're just a fraction of a greater picture, the games expect you to have context from the anime, neither the games nor anime truly define their era. That's probably a big part of the games not being localized. The anime and merch (a little bit) are crucial to be able to comprehend the worlds of Yo-kai Watch 4 and Gakuen Y. I've played lots of 4 and am finally got to playing through Gakuen Y, and I really want to love the games and, again, I don't know Japanese, but I don't think that dialogue is gonna solve the fact that there's like less than half of the new Yo-kai introduced in the Shadowside anime aren't in 4. I pray that whatever "Ghost Craft" is, it actually has it's own identify. A return to form would be cool, but Level 5 proved incapable of that twice now (that's a half joke, they probably could do it right with enough time and focus less on making money and more on making quality products). What's really important is that it's a complete picture. Let's all pray that Kat Kraydel's strings tell a bright future.

Yes let’s go, Yo-Kai Watch 2 is my favorite game

Don’t mind me, I’m just another die-hard Yokai Watch fan in the comment section I just wanted to say something about how meaningful and great this video was, so much that I was legitimately starting to cry in the last couple minutes. Thank you for taking the time to make this video, from the bottom of my heart

It's currently 2am for me, and despite being so tired, I am absolutely gobstruck by this video. From this I am so motivated to go and replay all of the games again. And with the additional annoucement of Ghost Craft the other day I am so excited. I would just like to say that it is incredible how this is your first video and you only have a couple hundred subscribers, because the quality of this video is fantastic. I can tell that there was so much time and thought put into it, I would just like to say congrats. Hopefully we can see yo-kai watch finally start to come back.

Can't watch the *whole* video yet since ive only played YW1. ill definitely come back sometime in the future though. PS. Can someone advise me on what game to play after yokai watch 1? like theres three versions of yokai watch 2 right? i presume you play the third (presumably definitive) one, but like. idk. sometimes the third version of a game edits the story in negative ways. is there anything like that to worry about? no epoilers pls. just wondering what people recommend.

#bringbackyokaiwatch

This is exactly what Ive been hoping for, it is obvious that a lot of care was put into this video too. Great job, man!

Oh my swirls! As a fan of Yo-Kai Watch.. I love this video. As a fan of YT video essays.. I love this video. Great job!

This is the best video essay I've seen on yokai watch. I like how you interview the fans and cover the games, instead of solely focusing on how the franchise failed in the west. All I can say is I hope maybe some day yokai watch can make it's comeback.

Yes, we want yokai watch to make greatest comeback of all times. We Need it!

Honestly i miss this franchise. It was irritating and annoying to hear people say *"Yo-kai Watch is a rip-off of Pokémon".* back in the day (2015). Those people don't exist nowadays anymore and eventually became the National Dexters and the ones who lost interest in the Pokémon franchise after Sword & Shield and Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl. I was very lucky and fortunate to get Yo-kai Watch 3 and Yo-kai Watch Blasters Red Cat Crops. (Still need White Dog Squad) but man those games are worth a fortune now for how little copies that were made. Not sure if it'll ever come back but I Hope it will. The Anime and Movies can stay dead because *honestly* no one really cares for them, they only care about the games most specifically. But yeah #SaveYokaiWatch

I LOVE YO KAI WATCH

Genuinely one of the most underated and best video essays I've seen. As someone who's loved yokai watch since a young age, this really helped me relive all of those forgotten memories. Keep up the amazing work.

Man this show was hype, I remember spending my time rewinding to rehear the summoning themes I really liked tough

I’m still lucky enough to have bought Yokai Watch 3 when it came out so I don’t have to mortgage my house

wow. how did this video escape me for so long? this truly was amazing and so well put together, and for it being your first and only video on your channel at the moment, i’m thoroughly impressed. thank you so much for making this and for bringing more awareness to this wonderful series. with the possibly new game “Ghost Craft” recently being announced, Yo Kai Watch may or may not be back, in english no less! i hope that those who watched this video will play these games whether it be for the first time or for a replay. and once again, thank you.

YO KAI WATCH IS THE GOAT

I’m playing Yo Kai watch 4 on emulator with the fan translation right now it’s so good

People who call this a Pokemon clone are mentally not ok first off yo-Kai could be actually real in real life i don’t think that you can find a mouse that has electric abilities

So underrated

Man, YW2 is such a peak video game, the only thing that drags it down is the ball-crushing finale where you gotta do multiple runbacks to get leveled up like 20-30 more times for each of your party yo-kai to even stand a chance against Dame Damona. That was probably one of the few instances a game had me get into the trenches to actually beat it, and that feeling would only return when I played Strange Journey Redux's Neutral route on my first NG.

I was in college when the first game came out. Prior, I heard musings about it and checked out some of the designs, and I fell in love with how the characters looked and interacted with each other, not to mention the size of the world on the 3DS. I was in a pretty down, almost depressed state during my years in class, but when I played, the series always found a way to make me laugh, and I always found a way to have a good time with the games. In fact, each time I fell to that depressive feeling, a new game gets localized or announced and cheers me up once again with laughs, memories of what I did as a kid back then, and so much more. The games just had a special charm and attention to detail that always brought me back to my younger days, and always cheered me up each time I boot the game. No surprise that YW2 was #2 on my most played game chart (#1 being Pokemon Y and #3 being Fantasy Life). And yes, I even played Yo-kai Watch 3, which is essentially peak 3DS game design as a whole for me. Everything in one place. Just beautiful. While it is sad that the series may not be localized again anytime soon, the series as a whole helped me each time I fell into that depressive state, and it held my hand long after the series cool until I was finally able to stand on my own two feet. I remember seeing a lot of people not liking the series because it being a Pokemon-like, and then hating on the series for NOT being a Pokemon-like. It was essentially being beaten around as a chew toy. But these retrospectives I see show that there was a genuine audience for the series, and that makes me truly happy. Thank you for covering the series as a whole too. It's always nice to see someone else have great passion for the game. I still have all my copies of the game that I still play with now and then to this day. It is a shame that the online play is shutting down for 3DS as a whole, but I'll never forget the times I had with it. P.S: Although Yo-kai Watch World is shut down, there's a toy version of the app called Yo-kai Watch World Memories (妖怪ウォッチ ワールド メモリーズ), which shows off all the Yo-kai that was released in that game. I'd try and get the apk while you can, since the official JP website hosting it will pull it offline by Christmas of this year. While there is no gameplay, you can still use AR functions to take pictures with the Yo-kai!😄

A fan of Yokai Watch AND Simisear?! You are my new favorite person

As a pokemon fan I'm mad yokai watch didn't take off

I love this series so much. My 3DS will survive till the heat death of the universe so my kids can play this franchise. Fighting eldritch horrors was fun, almost getting my heart ripped out by a insane surgeon was fun, fight the mafia was fun, almost every aspect of it was fun. Level-5 please localize 4 and the remaster of 1. This series brings me so much joy.

I have to give you the biggest props for this retrospective. Not only is it put very well together with valid criticism it was made with a passion of a real fan of the series. It honestly brings joy to my heart that although the series went low for a while the fandom is still very strong and this alone was a clear example. And as of now the fandom is stirring Evermore now due to the confirmed release of Ghostcraft will be coming later in 2025--( go look at it if you haven't😉) it as if im watching spring break through winter as the fandom re -awakens in a excitable buzz! We have no idea what Ghost Crafts will bring, but I can say with confidence as I see Yokai tubers come back sharing the news--it makes me happy to know I'll be able to be a part of of the Resurgence of the series in a new light and hopefully with a bright future. And now I have *you* to look forward to for more YW videos and hopeful new Content/streams. I look forward to playing with you someday is someone who also Longs for people to play yo-kai watch with.❤😊 Thank you for your hard work on this Retrospective.✌🏾

I got into the series when I was in second grade and was OBSESSED with it. Now I’m replaying all the games I didn’t experience and am having a blast. This series is so charming and just keeps getting better, the sheer amount of content in every entry to the series is staggering

Little late to this video but I enjoyed it so much! We’re the same age too, I got my 2DS when I was 9 and got yokai watch. Absolutely loved it and still my favourite game from Nintendo and one of my favourite game franchises of all time. I remember when I named my character Katie (my real name) and a year later found out her canon name WAS Katie🤣I especially love yokai watch 2 and like you said, the music sure is great… I have a playlist of it. I’m still holding out hope for YKW4 localisation or a YKW1 English version for switch. This video was honestly really good, the ending made me tear up lol… I wish the creators would realise that there’s such a big fan base waiting for them, I reckon sales would skyrocket now if they released an English version of 4. They don’t know how much support they actually have for this franchise.

As Yo-Kai Watch 2: Fleshy Souls was the first game I ever bought by myself as well being one of the first (of a certain amount) games I played AND finished the main story AS WELL that I played it in my early high school years (maybe first year? I don't remember). I am completely biased to Yo-Kai Watch and would absolutely prefer this over pokemon games any day. I would replay if I had my old nintendo 3ds (but I cannot remember if it was the new nintendo 3ds or 3ds xl or whatever the name was, they all confuse me a bit).

i always say, if you dont like where the game going, there's other options. I support games trying to be different, sure indie games try to make their own catching monster game but alot of them to me fail is they to on the books being pokemon, even some digimon games try to hard to be pokemon, trying to make themself the next "pokemon killer" Which of course would never happen, i also fine it so weird people like them go on and on how bad pokemon is.. but choose not to look at other games or give the game the time of day and say its the poor man pokemon. I think we should stop with the mind set of "pokemon killer" or "the pokemon clone" and just treat these catching monster game as their own thing trying to put their own spin

As a game series that means alot to me, it's always sad to see how Level-5 won't localize amymore of the games, but a part of me always hopes. I remember just seeing the game in Walmart and looking at the cover and back, knowing nothing about it, but it intrigued me to buy it. I remember playing Yo-kai Watch for hours, all day, all night, almost all the time. I remember just loving every second of the game. Almost everyone I knew kept calling it a Pokémon rip-off, even my family members, but I didn't care what they said. I bought lots of the toys, watched the anime and movie on Netflix, read some of the manga, played Wibble Wobble and World on my tablet, and getting that watch toy was amazing. I remember just pulling out every medal I had and playing all them by tribe. When the second game came out around my birthday I was so excited, my parents took me to a GameStop and I got a copy of Felshy Souls and a free promotional Hovernyan and Sargeant Berley keychains, and I played that game for hours too. When I met one of my best friends he too was a fan of the series, and he had a copy of Bony Spirits, and we would play locally and swap for hours. I remember lending him my 3 Snartles I used to defeat Dame Demona with. So when the Oni Update and Psychic Specters came out, me and him got it on our upcoming birthdays, which was a few days after launch. We played locally and swapped even more, and I just loved finally getting to try the content that I saw was at the time exclusive to the Japanese version. I sadly lost my copies of 1, Fleshy Souls and Psychic Specters, and while I hope to one day get new ones, the memories I had in those were something I'll treasure forever. I did later get a copy of Yo-kai Watch Blasters: White Dog Squad luckily from my grandparents physically, and I still own it, and it's so good. While I haven't played 3 yet, I hope to one day find a copy that won't cost me half a thousand dollars, maybe one day I'll even check out more of the Japanese exclusive games too. But this series really is something special too me, and I'll always appreciate it for being something just so charming (ha) and fun. Here's to the future of the wonderful and imaginative series, Yo-kai Watch. ❤

I love Yo Kai Watch so much! This video was incredible and I enjoyed it so much! You have earned my sub and I cannot wait to watch more of your videos and to watch this channel grow! Keep going man, you’re doing incredible!

Hey so looks like I gaslit myself in 7th grade because I misread the dialogue saying that there's a Yo-Kai in my VIP room thinking it was because I reached 10 not it's in room 10 so for years I've had one of the rarest Yo-Kai In Yo-Kai Watch 2 and I've been thinking it's easier to get lmao. I even gave it the nickname Tuxenoko. I'm actually gonna use it in my next Yo-Kai Watch 2 playthrough because that's hilarious

i have over 500 hours in ykw2 and i still play it i was able to download psychic specters a day before the eshop closed and im so happy i did

This video was so cool! It'd be nice if their was a bit of background music though haha

Omg. They put Mulder (Blunder) and Scully (Folly) from the X Files in this game series. Takes me back to MY childhood.

1647 days of waiting for the English release of ykw4 😭 I feel like yokai watch just has more charm then pokemon nowadays

Simisear is my favorite monkey Pokémon I used him in my biz Locke really good.

Funny thing, I never actually knew you could pin the time stone in the kin and gin fight so I had gotten both very very low and hit them both at the same time It worked

As much as I love Pokémon, I can say that yo Kai watch is much better in some aspects. It’s a shame that it got done so dirty, it’s truly a unique game series and it needs more recognition tbh.

Only ever played the first game. Fantastic and wholesome fun.

one of the BEST franchises ever

Pretty great video, though just a suggestion, please add some background music

My hot take is that the best Yokai designs are leagues better than any of the best Pokemon designs. I will die on that hill if I have too.

I got YKW3 before the eshop closure. One of my best purchases ever

My favorite line in this entire franchise: "No no, he's not talking about a hose. Hes talking about.....T H E F O R C E."

a friend of mine also told me; 'hey, you should play this game', when yokai watch came out. And i bought and played ALL of them on 3ds with him, i loved the series, I hope they bring it back for the switch and modern generation hardware, it's such a cool series. And no, it has nothing to do with pokemon. I like it waaaay more than pokemon.

Thanks for talking about this amazing game, ill love yokai forever