Incredibly thorough video from someone who is obviously, finally knowledgeable about the franchise. Thank you so much for making this; You said basically everything I've said scattered throughout various places in one great video! Really, really, REALLY wish this whole thing was handled a whole lot better. Yo-kai Watch could've been so much more internationally :( Just one thing you missed: The ball ISN'T in Nintendo's court now; it's in LEVEL-5's. LEVEL-5 will now be self publishing all of their future releases, including Psychic Specters. Nintendo now has nothing to do with the franchise, as far as I know.
Feli Kun Just because someone releases a game for a specific series of consoles doesn't mean that property belongs to the company that produced said series of consoles. Look at Megaman Legends, it was released in the PlayStation series of consoles but Sony certainly didn't own it as the planned Legends 3 was to be released on the 3DS rather than the Vita if Jackass Inafune didn't abandon the project half way.
I'm pretty sure the Katie watch didn't get localized because they were trying to promote this franchise to boys (something that's odd to me considering every Yokai watch fan ive ever met irl is a girl) Ill always hate the stigma the monster genre has with being called Pokémon clones left and right, jesus Christ, theyre all different!
Klonoahedgehog THANK YOU! I love Pokemon as much as the next person (I've played all the way up to sun/moon) but I also adore Digimon (Adventure and Tamers are my fave seasons) and most definitely Yokai Watch (Team Fleshy btw). Now if only I could play Cyber Sleuth and one of the Shin Megami Tensei games....
Crystal Keyblade honestly that’s why i didn’t buy a watch at first, i kept waiting for katie’s version once i saw it. i was gonna use it for a katie cosplay, i’m a girl aswell so i can’t say your points wrong with it being a very enjoyed with girls, after all most of my friends i talked to during the original run of the first game where girls too.
How about those awful reviews from people who didn't even play an hour of the game before hand? Special shoutouts go to IGN for the normal worthless garbage, GameXplain for not talking about anything past the 1st chapter showing the fact they didn't play past that in reviews for the 2nd game. Jimmy Whetizul (or however it's spelled)and the most bias review ever of the 1st game. And all the people who jumped right to "it's a pokemon ripoff" with out knowing anything about the game at all.
I address this in the video. The reviews for YW2 are slightly justified because it takes between 8 and 11 hours for anything really new or interesting to happen. Also, anything in the Mon genre is gonna get compared to Pokemon. It's kind of unavoidable.
Funny thing about what you said about Yo-Kai Watch being a bad introduction to Japanese mythology, it was my introduction. And now I have such a fascination with it that I have drawn one historic Yo-Kai a day for well over a year now. I’m certain it wouldn’t have that same effect for other people but it sure did to me.
I personally hope this ends up like earthbound. At first, the fan base is low and marketing is bad, but soon enough it starts to gain traction and eventually becomes popular with many people.
I think it’s going towards that imo. Especially now level 5 is trying to market again in the West. We still have a shot at reviving Yokai and especially rn that Pokémon is slowly being exposed for being pretty much lazy/rushed work. I dunno. I used to be a big Pokémon fan in elementary-middle school. Now I’m in HS I prefer Yokai watch because how creative they try to teach/reference Japanese folklore.
I for one want to see Yokai 3 release in America! Even if it's just the video game, or has minimal merchandise support. Best way to vote yes for it is to buy the next Yokai Watch game psychic spirits!
Actually, Pokemon Sun/moon outsold Yokai Watch 2 20-to-1 in their first weekends in France according to my research. 400k vs YW2s 20k. YW2 has sold 140k copies across Europe, meaning that Pokemon Sun/Moon nearly tripled its sales in France alone. The anime also dropped off the Nielsen ratings several months ago, with shows like DBS and SnK kicking its behind like nobody's business. Netflix is helping, I'm sure, but we'll have to see.
erikholmysti I want the type zero in the Netherlands. Yokai watch 2 did not even come with the special jibanyan even though the items are still translated and dubbed in Dutch
It's sad to see yokai watch being slowly killed off and putting up no fight. I really was hoping for YW3, but that is looking like less and less of a possibility as time goes on.
that still confirms nothing, pushing things to a shite mobile app game means nothing when theres just no real push for YW anymore. they want it to quietly fade into a small niche of obscurity, and really Spectors may be their last shot at possibly localizing the third games if it sells well enough.
Yo-kai Watch Wibble Wobble got one million downloads in Europe on the first month, and it's getting great events and updates consistently.. It's not doing THAT terribly.
I remember when I first watched your Yokai Watch review. It was March 31st, 2015; a rainy Friday afternoon. I got home from school, and I only had one hour before going to my extra-curiculum English classes. Before going, I had fish-sticks for lunch and I was eating in on my lap while sitting in my bed, still in my casual clothes. While I was eating it I was watching that video of yours. I can't believe it's only been two years, yet I feel old.
As a person who actually really liked the second game (wowie) I would actually LOVE to see a yo-kai watch 3. It would give me reason to use my 3ds again, cause not too many games have been good on the handheld recently.
I honestly really love YoKai Watch, and I sincerely hope Specters does enough to keep it going in the states! I try and get merch when I can to support it but man is it hard to find. Hasbro's handling of the property is kind of upsetting really.
I actually finished the 1st game and thought that the game was really fun and enjoyable, I also watched the TV show. I get why the game is not getting as much love as Pokémon.
This is an old video and all, but daily reminder that the official English Yo-kai Watch RU-vid channel _did_ host the English dubbed episodes on their channel. *Which eventually all got deleted. Because why throw your backlogs in an easily-findable place when you can charge people who can't record shows to rewatch it?*
Never label or market something as an (x) Killer. Remember when a bunch of shooters were labeled as Halo killers and they either failed miserably or haven't had an entry in years.
Yeah. Comparing itself to Pokemon was basically a death sentence; not only because of the idiotic "ripoff" complaints but also because it blasted expectations into the unattainable stratosphere. I mean, I knew going in it probably wasn't going to resemble Pokemon that much, but that was only because I had heard of Yokai Watch before. To an outsider, it looked like a rookie taking on the champ...when, in Japan, that could not be further from the truth.
I do agree that Hasbro was the one who dropped the ball hardest on it, but for Disney, they didn't actually do the dub. Though I do wish a few more actors were hired for the dub. Maybe in the Third Season? Speaking of, me thinks Inaho might get more love in the west. Characters like Mabel Pines and Jade (From Jackie Chan Adventures) have been very popular over the last few years.
True, Mabel does get some points, especially if they have the foresight to grab her VA(I can see Inaho with Mabel's VA) but she's also a bit less annoying than Inaho.
There was real effort into next harmeowny they have proper elegant outfits that look cute like real clothes there was a believability to those images being on posters whereas bikini magazines would be torn to bits to obtain wallhangers like I did with shonen jump for decorating my room.
5:04 My wish for 2021 : we will never see this Yo Kai again in any Yo Kai Watch game , anime , manga , toy or movie . He shall never exist again and go fart in another game .
Tbh, yokai watch 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. Compelling story and characters, cool designs with interesting inspiration, great music, cool bosses and a perfect combat system.
It didn't help that as I'm in Walmart, picking up a copy of the first game the clerk comes up to me and says "We're doing a promotion. Everyone who bought a copy of Yokai Watch gets this nice little wall mount you can hang up on the wall" and then proceeds to hand me a large cutout of Cheeksqueek.... meaning the poor clerk is trying his damnest to hand me a literal butt while I'm backing away and insisting that "No, I *really* don't want it".... nearly demanded a refund on the spot just on the account of he wouldn't leave me the fuck alone so long as I had the game.
CyberSurferXD i’m not gonna lie to you, i would’ve found that the funniest thing to be handed and i would’ve regifted that shit to the first person i see laugh at the game design, or maybe even kept it because i’ve never actually seem that before, it would’ve been kinda funny to see.
I played Yokai Watch 2 Bony Spirits for the first time over the weekend. It was my first introduction to the franchise other than the abysmal television English dub *insert shiver & cringe*. But I've always like the art design (bought a toy years before purchasing a game 😅). I'm enjoying the game thus far!
I got yo-kai watch 1 when it came out and I loved it, but when 2 came out, I didn't even know and was like "get pokemon sun or wait for a game that I don't even know exists?"
Yo kai watch 2 is one of my top 10 favourite games in the series it sold well over here in Europe and I got it on release day it kind of sucks how most people call it a rip off
I used to be obsessed with this game... but when sun and moon came out, I went to target and legit spent a solid 10 minutes deciding if I should get one or another.
I mean YEAH WE NEED TO KEEP THE GAME THAT SELLS ALMOST A 100$ WORTH OF YEN (10000¥) MEDALS THAT HAVE NO USE but seriously why are those medals so pricy even the bad ones were 10$ or something also the battle system......😑
@Daddy Feli so you think repeating every Pokémon game again is better than everytime a good story with so much detail ? idk if you have seen it but ykw4 looks hella awesome
The thing that i hate the most about Yokai 2 is that L-5 stopped supporting all other 3ds to make room for it. Inazuma Eleven GO 2 and LBX were left with half the post gane content locked behind weekly updates that never came.
Kohdok As ad there's support I'm good. I also agree with you about the heavily underrated LBX. Unfortunately this fall looks like it will be another battle with Pokemon USUM, Monster Hunter Stories AND YW2: Psychic Specters. I'm getting all of them but....yikes.
140k is disappointing for something with such a big marketing push. Remember, it sold six MILLION in Japan. 300k internationally is VERY disappointing by comparison. That six million includes Shinuchi, though.
I feel like Nintedo was tryin to kill it off from the start. They were gonna release Psychic Specters in between Pokken Tournament DX, Silver and Gold coming September with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon in November. Fall is definitely unforgiving. Fans rather them release Busters over a 3rd sequel which could have DLC instead of a full game. Third versions are not demanding everywhere which is why i think Pokemon stopped doing that.
Owain Kun stop being ignorant YW still has big fanbase world wide Pokémon had been around for years. Comparing the too is really unfair since time affects lasting impact
jacobspencer04 ignorant?! funny bitch I'm being fact full and so what just cause you say so I can't compare? shit like bakugan and digimon came around when Pokémon was out and big like it still is NOW and they still stood there ground nicely heck digimon is still alive and kicking to this day there's no excuse here so fuck off little cry baby don't get salty just cause FACTS!! are being thrown and you can't handle it lol
Owain Kun it only popular in Japan because Yokai is culturally ingrained in Japan. America is harder to grasp. Pokémon and Digimon literally assimilated other cultures into to be recognizable by anyone so you are ignorant know there's factors that contribute to this. And curse prove you have a limited vocabulary.
2:05 - 2:14 really shows how much we were gonna get. I don’t think we ever got any of those other watches shown at toy fair. And they look so cool. Especially that figure that looks like it was darkyubi because we never got any of those medals
Just to be clear, in my Japanese Saturday school, this was actually a big deal... Everyone brought their 3ds to school and played the game tho... Well, it was the Japanese version tho, not the English version.
It's sad that Yokai Watch was hyped here in our country (Philippines) and was expected to rival Pokemon back in 2016 yet... It stopped airing here for some time and English medals had funny translations that I wished they just kept the Japanese romanization since it's still good (we can't understand Japanese language so we prefer English translation). With the watered down popularity here, toys like the watch even went to a 90% discount, and Hasbro had stop translating medals for some time that toy stores rarely put stocks. I bought both Sun/Moon versions instead.
even in asia yokai watch stuff is slowly dying.Korean yokai watch wib wob has been offline since 20/07/17 and also most stores that have yokai merch are trying to sell them as quickly as possible by discounting as high as 70%.Well its been awesome learning Japanese folklore from yokai watch 😔😔🙁
I’m going to be real with you, the marketing seriously turned me away. At Th time Yo-Kai watch began airing on Disney XD I was 12. I was certainly interested, it gave me a Pokémon vibe so it felt familiar. But that god awful marketing really pushed me away, I was an anxious socially awkward 12-year-old. Playing a game, or even watching a show that people knew as “that one bad show with fart jokes” was definitely not an image I wanted for myself. So I avoided it. Now I’m more knowledgeable on the franchises source material. So I want to give it another shot, at a time that it is declining here in the states :/
NightKnight-77 on the up side it means a lot of the games are currently cheaper in a way, hell i went into a gamestop near my place and got a copy of the original game for 15 dollars. but from what i’ve heard we’re still getting the 3rd for the 3ds and the 4th for nintendo switch, which is moderately interesting in the case of level 5, but a very welcomed addition in my opinion though, i thought we wouldn’t get the 3rd considering everything is kinda an americanized stereotype for the game, but i will find it funny regardless if the writings done well.
I really hope they release at least an eshop version of Yo-kai Watch 4 and the Original reissue for Switch outside the Japan, I wouldnt be mad if it was subbed to cut the cost for them since I just wanna experience it! ❤️
for this series to survive we all must support the games and any merch we see and get our hands on HELL ONCE I GET A SWITCH I'M DOWNLOADING YOKAI WATCH 4
It really does not suprise Yo Kai has taken this route outside of Japan. I mean I heard my younger brother and his freinds who are 10 years old saying "Yo Kai looks like Low Budget Pokemon" or "Yo Kai is like Pokemon but without the cool fights", In The UK ASDA was lining their toy shelves with Yo Kai toys but after a month or two it all just vanished and the Anime stopped airing too.
I love both Pokemon and Yo-kai Watch. sure I prefer Pokemon, but I found the second games (Bony Spirits, Fleshy Souls, and Psychic Specters) Really fun. both are great games altogether, and if you havent played Yo-kai Watch, I recommend you play it.
YW1 got a tepid release and YW2 doesn't give you anything new to do for several hours, rehashing literally the same maps from the first game until ~6 hours in.
I feel Appmon would have a hard time in the US because of Bandai of America itself. Remember they didn't even want to port Cyber Sleuth till fan demand pushed them to it.
In fact Bandai of America seems to be hit or miss recently, especially with their treatment of Sixth ranger roleplay toys (gotta love the role play toys for Dino Charge's gold ranger which had no electronics what so ever!).
I think the biggest problem with yokai watch is how most of the yokai are just recolors of the mascots/yokai sure Pokemon has a pikachu clone in every generation but at least they weren't recolors of it.
skelanimaldiego we’re getting the 3rd game in 2019 and a forth aswell, so that’s pretty good. the forth is for the switch though, thanks mostly to level five.
I don’t care if people forget Yo-kai watch. I don’t care if people say that was just a pokemon rip off (which is not). I don’t care if people say that Yo-kai watch is dead (It isn’t). Even if hasbro stops the content for the other parts of world, I will keep being in the fandom. Who else joins? Edit: also I need that toilet paper.
Well some good news is that we are getting Yokai Watch Busters (renames to Blasters to avoid copyright) pretty soon, and season 2 has already started airing on Disney XD (too bad Inaho is still annoying :/ ) But I agree with a lot of the points you've made in the video, the way they marketed Yokai Watch in the states was incredibly lackluster and now they're not even trying to make such a push like before. Hell, Busters wasn't even announced until AFTER E3! But given that we are still going to get Busters here in the states means that Level-5 still wants the series to sell outside of Japan. I still have hope that we will get a localization of Yokai Watch 3 sometime in 2019, and if we do then I hope it'll be marketed way better compared to how they marketed the first game.
Napoli GioGio well good news my fellow yokai watch enjoying friend, we are getting the 3rd game in 2019, and the switch is getting a 4th. so for me as long as the writing is still top notch i have no reason to not buy it. i already have enjoyed the others, nothing is stopping my hype train yet! woot woot.
One thing I hated was that for season 3: No merch in the us (even though it was designed) They changed the va’s They didn’t give us a satisfying ending (just a standard episode (though admittedly it was a good one)) They did this weird thing where the characters Would pause on the middle of a scentence
Hopefully Yokai Watch 3 will revive the franchise, considering the huge change in gameplay and the fact that it will be appealing to American audiences.
You're just stupid, its not a rip-off of Pokemon, its based off of japanese myth from 200 years ago, You don't CAPTURE Things in a ball, and you can use 3 (at a certain time) in one battle.
I have so much trouble remembering anything but the first game. I have watched the anime and played the games and nothing has stayed in my memory. Not a good sign. I still draw Jibanyan but the rest is erased after the first games.
I don't the series is dead by any means. At the very least, I believe it will always stay as that little niche series outside of Japan. Also, people find Inaho annoying? I've seen lots of people that love her.
Its not dead but most people in America will always see it as a pokemon rip off therefore you cant expect it to get fair treatment. As soon as Pokemon Ultra Sun/Moon comes out, you better hope hard it wont die by then.Importing has always been an option.
I actually severely doubt that. Despite the obvious angle of its appeal, it's pretty guilty of some stereotyping. I mean "O-BAGAH" is a mashup of two American stereotypes: Hamburgers and "Oh My God!"
Well... We did get the dream in the English dub of the show, so maybe we’ll get the watch itself? EDIT: Also, I heard that (maybe from a certain American youtuber getting noticed idk tho (Abdallahsmash026)) busters and possibly Yo-Kai watch 3 are being released here in America! I’m exited and hope that this comes true!
