Yo-Kai Watch 2 – Episode 1.1 Review in Progress

Yesterday, we began our YO-KAI Watch 2 review – in partnership with Abdallah – and broke down a few things you learn within the first 20 minutes of the game. You can read all about starting the game, the background, and how to catch bugs here. In this review, we will finish off with a few things Abdallah – and ourselves, although not on stream – played through at the end of his first video, and continue on to what we discovered in the next half hour of gameplay!

Our review will be spread over a number of articles, each corresponding to one or 2 thirty minute walkthroughs from Abdallah himself. You can find his entire walkthrough list here. We have embedded his second video down below.

You can also follow Abdallah’s twitter here.

Near the end of Episode 1 of Abdallah’s YouTube playlist, you can see him acquire his first YO-KAI. For those who played the original YO-KAI Watch, what I’m about to explain next is pretty familiar. After wandering down a very sketchy looking alley and into an even more sketchy pawn shop, you’ll come out with an item – more on that later – and a dollar coin to use in the Crank-a-kai machine outside the store. The Crank-a-kai machine is essentially one of those little money sucking machines that frequent malls. You put in money – loonies and toonies in Canada – and out pops a prize. Assume it’s the same concept here, except the prizes are much better…YO-KAI!

After releasing Whisper from his orb, and getting back all your memories form YO-KAI 1, Whisper and Nate set off to find everyone’s favorite YO-KAI, Jibanyan. Finding Jibanyan will serve as your tutorial for using your YO-KAI Watch. It really is fairly simple. Once you’ve brought up your radar, you will be able to locate hidden YO-KAI by watching the meter rise or fall. Sometimes the YO-KAI will be interactive characters found on the main screen, but generally – like bugs – they will be found in smaller, more zoomed in areas.

When zoomed in, the game will notify you that a YO-KAI is nearby. Like in bug catching, you use either the circle pad or the stylus to move the sensor around the screen. Once you’ve found a YO-KAI, you will need to follow it as it will try to run, which is demonstrated within the first 5 minutes of Abdallah’s video, above. Although you can use the circle pad to catch bugs, I find using your stylus to track moving YO-KAI much more accessible, and highly recommend using that control mechanism. Once you’ve locked onto the YO-KAI a battle will commence.

Unlike Pokémon – or other monster fighting games that are generally turn based – YO-KAI will actually fight all on their own without you prompting them. Each YO-KAI can also perform a Soultimate move, which varies depending on which YO-KAI is attacking. For Jibanyan, it is his very powerful, Paws of Fury. When your YO-KAI Watch is full – which means you have six YO-KAI you can take into battle – you will be able to spin the watch to decide which 3 YO-KAI will be battling, and which will be on your ‘bench.’ Mini games played throughout the battle will allow you to charge up powerful attacks, purify your YO-KAI and get him back into fighting shape, and a variety of other things which we will touch on later.

When you complete a battle, you will be awarded XP for your battling YO-KAI, a small bit of money, and random item drops. From time-to-time, enemy YO-KAI will give you their YO-KAI Medal, ultimately allowing you to use them in future battles, and yes, to even trade online. There are tons of YO-KAI to collect, and like Pokémon, you just have to catch them all…or…well…steal / borrow their medals.

We’ll have more for you guys in the next couple days as we continue through our own – and Abdallah’s – play throughs. Keep it with GamesReviews.com!