Yo-Kai Watch's sequel, Yo-Kai Watch 2: Gonzo & Honke, was released in 2014 as two respective editions. Recently, a third entry that takes place in the U.S. has been announced to be in development, while a four-player cooperative spin-off game called Yo-Kai Busters is scheduled to release on July 11 in Japan.
But will Yo-Kai Watch be as popular in the U.S as it is in Japan? It’s difficult to say. Developer Level-5 has a solid track record with RPGs like Ni No Kuni and Dragon Quest IX, so the game’s quality isn’t so much in question. Rather, it’s more a matter of if the game will be able to capture the imaginations of children who might have trouble identifying with its world.
This issue comes specifically from the way the game embraces the ambivalent attitude that the Japanese have towards the dead. One of the major reasons the Pokemon series has had so much international success in the West is because it does not favor the customs of one territory over the other. So this might prove to be a major hurdle for Yo-Kai Watch in its popularity in the West.
Regardless, Western audiences will just have to see for themselves how Yo-Kai Watch does when it launches in the U.S. for the Nintendo 3DS sometime in 2016.
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