Yo-kai Watch 2

Much like its predecessor, Yo-kai Watch 2 is an open world role-playing video game, where the player controls player character Nathan Adams or Katie Forester. Players navigate around the open world, using the Nintendo 3DS' touchscreen to find and befriend various Yo-kai scattered across the overworld. Players can give enemy Yo-kai a food item that they like before or during battle to have a chance at befriending them after winning the battle. After the battle, any of the enemy Yo-kai may approach the player character and give them its Yo-kai Medal, allowing it to be used in the player's team.

A new feature in battles is using the Yo-kai Watch Model Zero to use "G Soultimate" moves, which are more powerful Soultimate moves that consume the Soul meters of all adjacent Yo-kai. The Model Zero also allows the use of “Poking”, which uses the touch screen to find a particular sweetspot on an enemy Yo-kai to increase the likelihood of befriending it. Other sweetspots can be poked to gain extra damage, money, or experience. Yo-kai can also be acquired through the Crank-a-kai by collecting in-game coins or using Play Coins.

While the protagonist is sleeping, two evil Yo-kai steal the Yo-kai Watch and erase their memories of Yo-kai. The next morning, their parents argue over two donut brands: Spirit and Soul Doughnuts. The protagonist went to the Memory Shop, where they re-obtain the Yo-kai Watch and their memories, and reunites with Whisper and Jibanyan. A few days later, the protagonist goes to Springdale Elementary and discovers the Gashadokuro Yo-kai Gutsy Bones there, whom they defeat.

The next day, the protagonist encounters a large cat Yo-kai Meganyan who hypnotizes them into traveling to Harrisville, where their grandmother lives. There, they encounter a dispute between two Yo-kai factions: the Bony Spirits and the Fleshy Souls. The following day, they encounter the large Yo-kai Meganyan again, who turns out to be Hovernyan, a cat flyer Yo-kai from 60 years ago who grew drastically after absorbing soul energy over time. Hovernyan tells them that their grandfather needs their help and transports them 60 years in the past using the Time Stone.

The games were developed in the wake of the booming popularity of the Yo-kai Watch franchise in Japan. Sequels to the original Yo-kai Watch game were planned from the very beginning, including the plan to split the sequel into two versions, Ganso and Honke. The decision to create two different versions of the game came about as a marketing strategy to appeal to children, and a response to the development team finding that many children and their parents were playing and sharing one copy of the game with each other, thus, two copies of a game would be a plausible resolution.

When planning the first Yo-kai Watch, I already thought to release the sequel as 2 different versions. Children like having things that other people don't have, so from a marketing perspective, having 2 versions is a good idea. Also, a lot of people play Yo-kai Watch with their parents. Where people would have some hesitation about getting 2 copies of the same game, if you have different versions, it is a lot easier to buy both.

Reviewers from the Japanese video game magazine Famitsu scored both Yo-kai Watch 2: Ganso and Honke a 36 out of 40, with all of the four judges of the review giving the game 9 out of 10; identical to Famitsu's scores for the original Yo-kai Watch The magazine also gave the same score to Yo-kai Watch 2: Shinuchi upon its release in December 2014.

Western reviews were more mixed, with critics praising the game's charm and inclusion of more Yo-kai, but criticized it for not fixing issues that were present in the original game and the padding present in the game. It currently holds a 72 for Bony Spirits and a 70 for Fleshy Souls on Metacritic.