Yo-Kai Watch 2: Fleshy Souls 3DS Game Review

Reviewed by Max C. on Oct 17, 2016

Rating:

Is the follow up to Yo-Kai Watch more than just a Pokémon clone? Check out our thoughts and review of the Yo-Kai Watch 2: Fleshy Souls 3DS game at Kidzworld!

By: Max Cannon

Yo-Kai Watch is clearly trying to emulate the successes of Pokémon. It's a game about capturing monsters around the world and battling them against each other, the bread and butter of the Pokémon franchise. It's mostly successful in being a fun alternative to the series that inspired it but the sequel, Yo-Kai Watch 2, is too familiar to the original game which is too similar to another game.

If you wanted an excuse to replay the first game then you are in luck because most of the game is an exact retread of the original.

Meeting Whisper is a familiar section in Yo-Kai Watch 2.Courtesy of Nintendo

Back To Basics. Really, Really, Back To Basics.

The game begins with our player character, either a girl or boy with a name of your choosing, waking up to find their beloved yo-kai watch missing, the device that allows them to discover yo-kai in our world. Yo-kai are monsters, some of them kind and some of them not so much, that are already exploring our day-to-day world, we just can't see them. When your character finally finds their watch, the game is an identical retelling of the first one, aside from a line or two acknowledging some serious deja vu. Story and setting are both sweet and charming, albeit too familiar.

The opening finds you spending a regular day in the town of Springdale. You'll go run errands with your family, stop for desert, catch bugs at the park with friends, and then the real show begins as you recover your missing watch. At risk of spoilers for both this game and the original, I'll keep it short, but you have to rediscover all of the yo-kai, that includes all of the ones that were found in the previous game. At about the halfway mark of the game you start to get some new story beats and the reason for the repeat makes itself clear, but that halfway mark is about 12 hours into the game - a lot of time to waste on a story that you may have already seen.

A multi-character fight in Springdale.Courtesy of Nintendo

Smooth Sailing on the Battlefield

The battle system in Yo-Kai Watch 2 is also near identical to the original. When entering a fight you'll see a small handful of your typical turn based options, however in this game the "Fight" button is already selected. Your yo-kai of choice will hit the battlefield and begin attacking immediately, the entire battle is on auto pilot and many of the fights don't require you to lift a finger. The only part of things you'll really get involved in are Soultimate Attacks and the boss fights.

Soultimate Attacks are special abilities that are tied to a timer, once the timer runs out you're free to use the attack that will require you to tap the screen, or spin the circle pad, or tap buttons. Upon finishing up your quicktime attack you're able to unleash a damaging, and often deadly, attack. Bosses ask a little bit more of the player which normally requires a focus on tapping the enemies weakness.

One of the earlier boss battles of the game.Courtesy of GameSpot

Final Thoughts

The world of Yo-Kai Watch 2: Fleshy Souls is charming, pretty, but too simple and too repetitive. Walking around the open town of Springdale is fun, if you haven't done it before that is. If the game updates its world and fighting system any upcoming games can really be something special.