Yo-Kai Watch (3DS)

[Yoshi]

Thanks. It sounds like it may be a great fit for a seven-year old.

[Hero]

Yeah - like, you know how some kids' products feel all ages enough that you miiiight not feel dorky for liking them? Yo-kai Watch is not that.

[Finch]

It's way better in some ways than Pokemon, like it has more personality than Pokemon because it's not taking the safest most sterile route to making money. It also runs and looks really nice in 3D most of the time, unlike Pokemon which has a hard time keeping up its frame rate in the least taxing situations. The biggest negative is that it's more random and the steps to catching Yokai seem like they're an extra step or two more complicated than they need to be. Yokai hide in trees, bushes, under cars, and you have to wait the split second before they load, find them using your Yokai Watch, then fight them, then give them food, then you have a seemingly random chance that they'll join you.

The majority of Yokai, like Pokemon, are silly things that you probably won't get too attached to but Jibanyan is immediately more charming than Pikachu. Like Hero said, while it's still very anime-style, it's goofier and more cartoony than Pokemon. The Pokemon that people consider the "worst", like that garbage bag thing, are almost every Yokai. There's an old lady Yokai and according to the ESRB two with farting butt heads. It's not afraid to be really stupid and that works in its favor. Every once in a while I see a hint of the Layton character designs and it makes me really happy.
I hope it does well. Level-5 tries to make a new franchise every year and sometimes they make some real garbage and for the most part they're at their best when working with someone else, but when they're on track they're great.