Yo-Kai Watch 3 Review

Should games be simple? No, I don’t mean increased difficulty, so that some might think the game is for the exceptionally intelligent. Everything should be somewhere in the middle: not too difficult, as you can get stuck, and not too easy, so as to fight boredom where it shouldn’t exist in the first place.

So, we have a world in front of us with two characters that you play alternately, a boy named Nate and a girl with purple hair named Hailey Anne. The characters can be renamed at the beginning of the game as you see fit, just like Yo-kai, of which, as Nintendo claims, there are over 600. Fantasize, fantasize – you can’t fantasize enough.

As in previous series, the player will have to collect Yo-kai. To befriend each one, sometimes it’s enough to just talk, but more often it requires completing a task or battling them. So you find Yo-kai in bushes, trees, and under cars, shoot at them with all your heart, then defeat them in a fight, and they offer you friendship. It’s logical, isn’t it?

So, the game in this battle allows you to do nothing – your Yo-kai will win for you on their own. You can, of course, strategically position them, target the enemy, connect the balls,to scratch the screenSwipe the stylus in a circle, feed your own Yo-kai or even flatter other people’s Yo-kai. But you can also choose not to do any of that, because nothing will change: you will still win. That’s the whole point. Roam around, find cool stuff, and shoot when necessary. The game will take care of the rest for you. By the way, when shooting at strangers, you strongly feel the need for motion controls, which the game doesn’t have. It would be more convenient if it did.

In addition to the main storyline, there are side quests that you can switch to – an arrow on the map will show you where to go. In general, you don’t have to think too much, just enjoy the beautiful music and meticulously designed graphics. The Yo-kai are very cute, and even those that shouldn’t be, still look attractive.

It’s a pity that there is no localization in the game with a 6+ rating. Basic knowledge of English is enough to play, but the dialogues are a significant part, and it’s a shame that some of them may be missed.

At the very beginning of the game, Nate moves with his parents to another place because of his father’s work, where he has no friends at all, and the locals speak a very strange language for the boy. By the way, children also face the problem of moving in real life, and it would be useful for them to see how their favorite characters deal with it. They also cleverly played with the theme of language or dialect. Yo-kai, capable of teaching a new language, speaks a mixture of English, German, and French words that are probably understandable to everyone. Yes, this is a real international language!

I would like to mention the quests separately. For example, you can launch a rocket with the help of Yo-kai’s own abilities, without any adult assistance – this is how children should be shown that they can do serious things on their own. Games should be like this.

Overall, Yo-Kai Watch 3 is simple, but not worse, and in some places even better than various “match-three” and other games of the “play on the subway after school” genre. So, fans of such things, confidently delete your time killers and download Yo-Kai Watch 3 on your 3DS.