Yo-Kai Watch could blow up this holiday season. Nintendo is releasing Level-5’s Pokemon-esque series starring creatures from Japanese folklore later this year, and it might be huge. You may want to impress people with your knowledge of the series before it launches. What better way to do that then by learning about the origins of some of these creatures.

Take Whisper, for example. He’s one of Yo-Kai Watch‘s mascot characters, and resembles a traditional ghost. You know white and billow-y, with a face and amorphous shape. He’s mischievous, but also something of a guide for players as they learn about Yo-Kai.

This is Dulluma, and he was revealed with the batch of E3 screens. He looks a lot like Pokemon’s Darumaka, right? That’s because both are based on daruma dolls. These good luck charms come with blank eyes. You fill in one when you set a goal for yourself, then the other when you’ve achieved it. Dulluma’s eyes are blank, but maybe he’ll still be lucky for people who add him to their team.

Walkappa is an aquatic yokai based upon the kappa. The kappa in mythology was a fearsome, river dwelling, beaked creature that loved cucumbers and had to keep water in a bowl on its head. If the bowl dried out, the kappa would lose power and possibly die. Walkappa has a similar bowl-shaped head, and also carries a bottle of water so he’ll never dry out.

Finally, we’ll close this out with a Zashiki-warashi. If you watched XXXholic, this Yo-Kai Watch character will sound familiar, but certainly won’t look like the cute girl Watanuki interacted with. The character in game game looks much more like a traditional Zashiki-warashi, which means it’s a mischievous house spirit that looks like a small person. He’s got wide eyes and a smirk, so you know he’ll be getting up to something.

Yo-Kai Watch has a Holiday 2015 release window.