Yo-Kai Watch has been compared to Pokémon’s success so often that it’s almost a jinx. I myself didn’t think that it would necessarily translate to the western audience the way Pokémon did — yo-kai are part of Japanese folklore, and even after researching them a bit I wasn’t exactly sure what they were. Nothing about Yo-Kai Watch really clicked with me.

After 15 minutes with the game hands-on, it finally clicked. Yo-Kai Watch certainly shares a lot with Pokémon, but its world plays with Japanese folklore in a charming, unique way that sets it apart. More importantly, now I can actually see it succeeding in the West, in part because it explains its world (and what yo-kai are) so well.

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I spent my time with Yo-Kai Watch running around a cute town in search of three hidden yo-kai that were causing trouble nearby. The titular Yo-Kai Watch (and it’s literally a watch) is used to reveal yo-kai, since they’re supposedly all around us, unseen. Even though I didn’t fully understand yo-kai, I wasn’t left wondering about them for too long. One girl I talked to said she had just eaten but was feeling hungry, and I used the watch to find the yo-kai that was causing her problems. Another person said that he was feeling abnormally lazy, and of course a yo-kai was to blame. They’re pretty much spirit trolls. That’s fun even without the cultural background.

Going with the comparison-to-Pokémon theme, I expected battle to be turn-based — it’s not! It’s real-time, and I had to complete little touch-screen mini-games, like tapping bubbles and tracing symbols, to attack effectively. I’m still not quite sure if I actually like it, mostly because it didn’t require much strategy or thought. It’s definitely accessible to kids, though, and my Pokémon preconceptions were effectively shot down.

In the short time I had with the demo, I was able to get the context I needed for yo-kai to be interesting and get it quickly. After that, battling quirky yo-kai with punny names (a wall named Noway and an Aaahh!!! Real Monsters-looking yo-kai named Wazzat were two of my favorites) was fun and funny, and I completely stopped wondering how a game based in Japanese folklore would translate to Western kids. It just does.

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This is where Yo-Kai Watch really separates itself from Pokémon. While Pokémon definitely has its Japanese influences, Yo-Kai Watch is fundamentally rooted in Japanese culture, and yet it didn’t feel like a barrier to entry for outsiders. It retains those influences and has fun with them, like one boss in a traditional Japanese bath house that’s flanked by dancing men wearing towels around their waists. It’s the kind of silly detail that made me want to play more so I could see what else was waiting for me.

That’s what changed my mind about Yo-Kai Watch. It looks like Pokémon, sure, both in its success and widespread marketing as well as its actual gameplay, but it’s not at all the same. I have yet to see any depth to Yo-Kai Watch’s mechanics like I’ve come to expect from Pokémon, but that might come with more time. Its world, at least, is engaging in a unique way, and it preserves and plays with its influences without being too out there. Whether or not it will be “the next Pokémon” isn’t the question — it’s whether it will hold its own despite that comparison.

Kallie Plagge is IGN's own Poké Kid and is sometimes seen on IGN Anime Club and Nintendo Voice Chat. Follow her achievement-hunting adventures on Twitter @inkydojikko.

