Hello everyone. Well, I thought I would try something a little different from normal. With the release of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, I thought I would make a sort of counterpoint/rebuttal to an article on the Financial Post debating Pokémon Sun and Moon and Yo-Kai Watch 2.
My perspective is clearly the polar opposite of the writer from the Post, since I openly admit to being a lifelong Pokémon fan that has had mixed feelings towards Yo-Kai Watch. My dislike of the anime is quite well-documented; though the video games are somewhat decent.
Before I get to the meat of things, I shall also disclose that while I found Yo-Kai Watch 2 to be a bit of an improvement over the first game; it didn't impress me the way Sun and Moon did. However, rather than just focus on the minute details of the games (though I will still mention them as I go), I will be basing my comparison of the two on criteria that I can easily go through to illustrate my thoughts: graphics, sound, gameplay, and story; as well as how I feel overall about them. Normally, I wouldn't be spoiling too much about them, but in this case; I will have to make some exceptions. ...
And. Here. We. Go.
First off, I thought I would address the graphics of the two entries. In the case of Pokémon Sun and Moon, it was a natural progression over 20 years of the franchise up to that point. With full 3D camera angles and flashy, vibrant colors, it showed how far we've come from black and white graphics (or monochrome color if you had a Game Boy Color in those days). It definitely felt a lot like how Super Mario Galaxy took advantage of the technology they had. I personally never understood how people found Yo-Kai Watch "more realistic," since it always came off to me like a low-rent Saturday morning cartoon.
That's not to say that Yo-Kai Watch isn't without its own unique flourishes, however. I understand that the games originally came out in Japan in 2013 and 2014, and from a purely technical point of view; it seems fine. The framerate is relatively consistent with minimal to no slowdown, and it has a wide range of colors displayed onscreen. Even the more rustic areas of the past timeline in the second game look distinct, though they still didn't really reach the same level as Lumiose City or the Alola region for me. Granted, I wasn't expecting anything quite like Level-5's own Ni No Kuni (which was codeveloped by Studio Ghibli for the first game and still is heavily influenced by them for the PS4 sequel); but I felt a bit underwhelmed.
The sound of each game also differs significantly, with each one having a different way to bring its world to life. Even though I didn't really care for any of the remixes of the theme music by Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, overall, the music and sound design seemed decent. Nothing as memorable as the music in Mario, Metroid or Zelda, but definitely not horrible. The voice acting, however is still kind of awkward; though there's thankfully not as much as there is in the anime. (note: I am still on break from doing Yo-Kai Watch recaps, and I won't tap my backlog of episodes until I get an official airdate for the third season of the dub.)
Generation VII took full advantage of the sound capabilities of the 3DS, with some of the trials being linked to sound cues (most notably a whole audio quiz under Sophocles in Hokulani Observatory). The music also contains a host of new music cues and remixes of favorite themes from past games, and apart from Pikachu being voiced by Ikue Ohtani, all the Pokémon have unique sounds and cries. Again, we've come a long way from having ones with the same voice in the old days.
The gameplay and story are going to have some of the biggest details here, so I'm going to spend the longest on these sections. Postgame content will not be a factor for the most part, and neither will the metagame. I'm going to primarily focus on the main storylines and the main gameplay to make things easier for me to explain. I will, however; address an odd bit of confusion with the ESRB ratings of each game. Sun and Moon are rated E for "mild cartoon violence," yet it deals with subject matter that spoke to me on many levels as an adult fan, as well as from the perspective of an 11-year-old child in a similar vein to the player character. Bony Spirits and Fleshy Souls are rated E10+ for "Comic Mischief and Fantasy Violence," and even though there are some admittedly risqué jokes (including a location that's a very thinly-veiled tavern masquerading as a "snack shop"), overall, the battles are no more violent than a Looney Tunes cartoon. I also note this isn't the first time I've dealt with this. My copy of Super Smash Bros. Melee I got when I was 11 was rated T, even though there was no blood in my brawler starring all my favorite Nintendo characters, but that's not important right now.
What is important, is detailing how vastly different each gameplay experience is. Even though multiple parties, least of all the fans of both series have suggested that the redesigned gameplay of Generation VII was influenced by Yo-Kai Watch 2, I shall once again play Darkrai's advocate and state that I disagree.
There were hints of the Alola region in the titles released in Generation VI, through the words of an NPC Backpacker as well as the Strange Souvenir item. This most likely meant that Sun and Moon were in development well before anyone had ever heard of Yo-Kai Watch, least of all anyone at Game Freak. Apart from de-emphasizing gym battles in favor of the Island Challenge and putting more focus on exploration, I highly doubt Hino had much sway over Ohmori and the others' design choices.
The main difference between the two is easily the gameplay experience itself. Both games offer two very distinct versions of the turn-based RPG. Even though the mechanics in Yo-Kai Watch 2 do have many improvements over the original game, for the most part; very little has changed about the battle system in Bony Spirits and Fleshy Souls. While making the combat on autopilot is by no means a bad thing on its own, the way it's implemented here wasn't that challenging to me. While the later bosses (including the final fight against Dame Deadtime) rivaled the difficulty of games such as Ghost and Goblins; for the most part, I didn't feel very challenged by the yokai skirmishes in my playthrough of the game. While some of the puzzles were interesting (such as "Baffle Boards" that could help clear mission objectives through quizzes), overall; I got tired of the lion's share of "key quests" just to advance the story further. That element has often been a point of contention between critics and fans of the sequels. While the fans of the games have often defended this idea, I actually agree with many media outlets that had problems with this. When I as a player am taken out of the narrative to fetch an item for another character in the game, it's generally synonymous with tedium. However, I didn't find the train system as bad as many others, since many of the people complaining about it didn't seem to realize you could just tap the touch screen to skip the cutscenes until you reach your destination. It's not as bad as the elevator load screens in Mass Effect or the Metroid Prime trilogy at least. Still, it can often be tricky trying to get certain yokai you need for your quest; so those who are unfamiliar with the series often need to do research more than other games in its genre.
On that same note, the experience in Sun and Moon was easily worth the wait for all the time that was spent on them in development. They managed to craft an experience that paid homage to the 20 years the franchise has been around as well as provide one that makes it easy for newcomers to get into. The games' battle system may have a learning curve for those used to gym battles to acclimate to the trial system; but once one learns it, they're some of the best ways to play the games I've had yet. They didn't worry at all about competing with YKW. It's the simplest thing that still makes the series so endearing after all these years: they are easy to pick up and play, but tough to truly master.
Now, before I get into the story, I thought I would address a few reasons why some folks prefer Yo-Kai Watch over Pokémon, least of all those who would be uninitiated. The most common things I see or hear include, but are not limited to: "The yokai have more personality than Pokémon," "the experience is simpler," " the experience is better than Pokémon in many ways," "the story is distinct," and "it's like Pokémon with a pulse." Let's explore these a bit, shall we?
The idea that the yokai have more personality than Pokémon is somewhat subjective; given how both games draw from Japanese folklore in their own ways for designs. However, the execution is different for both. While Pokémon pull inspiration from not only creatures but objects from the past and present; but also visions of the future, the yokai do have an interesting premise of putting greater focus on Japanese mythology and applying them to some of life's foibles. Not a bad premise, but the execution more or less distills that mythology into something that's more like a roadside theme park attraction than an accurate depiction of their folklore. The simplest things can come from their origins in both series. Pikachu, of course; comes from "Pika", a term for electricity, and "chu," a sound that mice make. Literally, it can translate to "Electric mouse." Bushinyan, or Shogunyan in English is a bit more blatant; given how he's a cat dressed in samurai regalia. As for newer creatures: I can tell you everything I like about characters like Incineroar and Ash-Greninja just by looking at them. I can't really say the same about Komasan or Manjimutt, which is a deterrent in some ways. Even among my favorites, I can tell you way more about Lucario than I could about Venoct/Orochi.
Moreover, just because the experience is simpler than Pokémon isn't enough for me to make it better. Again, it might be part of my mental block; but given how long I've been playing games, least of all RPGs, I am hard-pressed to find anything YKW does better than Pokémon; or any game in the genre for that matter. I will address the story very soon, but I am skeptical of the idea that Yo-Kai Watch is "Pokémon with a pulse." If you are getting something out of it that I'm not seeing, then I can already tell you're going to disagree with what I'm going to say next; just as I disagree with you. Pokémon has always had a pulse, as well as a heart; mind and soul. The only pulse I got from Yo-Kai Watch was when I traded the games back in toward Sun and Moon as well as Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
Now, I shall address how the two sets of games have vastly different stories. This is going to be the biggest reason why I admired Generation VII so much, and why I found Yo-Kai Watch 2 to be a bit of a letdown.
I also usually don't include spoilers, but this time, I will have to make exceptions in order to explain this. If you haven't played these games, then this is your last chance to click away to something else. So, let's get into it.
Even though the games launched during the same season last year, their stories could not be more different in style and tone. I have spoken multiple times before that I had mixed feelings toward Fleshy Souls using a tired amnesia plot thread to justify the early hours of the game being largely a rehash of the first Yo-Kai Watch. Even if the game does get more interesting as it goes along, by the time I finished the main quest, I felt very underwhelmed if not outright disappointed. Maybe if I were younger and more idealistic, might have enjoyed the concept of the game and how the story was executed more; but as someone who's grown increasingly cynical over the past few years, I can't say that I share people's praise for the story. It doesn't really help that my experiences as a child were not at all like the ones presented in the game. Maybe I'm crazy, but a side quest involving finding parts of a map in a toilet seat (no, really) didn't really amuse me like it would some other people. It also doesn't help that the games, much like the first still have a problem with an inconsistent tone; which is something that still hasn't been rectified. I mean, it's very hard for me as a player to absorb the emotional impact of paying respects to my late grandfather when the very next scene shows comical antics in the bathtub and an outhouse. While I admit that it's often a good way to recover from a tense scene to follow it with a more lighthearted one, the shift is so jarring that it's hard for me to accept. I may also concede that Katie's route is at least more engaging than Nate's, but overall; the story of Fleshy Souls didn't really make me want to check out much more of the postgame. After 72 combined hours of gameplay, it didn't leave much of an impact. Though I was actually able to beat the main quest, unlike the first game; and it was an improvement overall, I still had no real problem trading the game back in towards Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. I guess after playing Ni No Kuni, Level-5's previous RPG that dealt with many of the same themes, I wanted to be challenged more from many standpoints.
On that note, I definitely enjoyed Sun and Moon for how it handled the story. In stark contrast to the writer of the Post, I found that the games crafted a storyline that not only made it easy for new players to get invested; but also was rife with nods to the lineage of the series for its 20th anniversary. Moreover, because the player characters didn't have specific constraints like Nate or Katie, it made it that much easier to imbue them with qualities that I could identify with rather than just being given a character with a predetermined role and then being told I have to identify with this person. That's almost a guarantee that I probably won't. My headcanon influences on my Generation VII player characters in Sun and Moon included films such as "Dazed and Confused," "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" and "Kingsman: The Secret Service." This also extended to other characters in the game, since it dealt with themes that I had yet to see from the series such as corporate corruption, broken families and realizing that maybe what you wanted to do your whole life isn't what you thought. It also delved deeper into subject matter that previous generations introduced such as abusive parents, Pokémon being depicted as much more menacing creatures than the cute companions of yore and had villain factions with motives that were much more devious than just putting Pokémon in burlap bags: and it doesn't let you forget that many of the characters (including your player characters) are just young men and women dealing with issues that are quite adult for their age. Maybe it's just the skeptic in me, but I can't really get invested in doughnuts being the catalyst for a game's story the same way again after seeing the Ultra Beasts wreak havoc on Alola. I am aware you don't have to have your story make sense for it to be good either. It's the reason why Mario goes after Bowser for kidnapping Peach on her wedding day, which has to be a new low in my book.
I know lot of this might be hard for the fans to accept, but I just had to get this off my chest; and no one, least of all people I am only referring to as "Rupert Murdoch" and "Nelson Muntz" to protect their identities.
Even though I do admire Hino's optimism despite the first game selling below expectations, I held his statement about the series "blooming like a flower" by this year with a lot of skepticism. Unfortunately: it hasn't. As of September 30, one year after the launch of the games in the US; Bony Spirits and Fleshy Souls have only sold 170,000 copies, a fraction of what they sold in Japan and less than half what the first game sold in the US. Through the same time frame, Pokémon Sun and Moon have sold well over 15 million copies, with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon set to continue this trend.
It has been written that a symptom of insanity is doing the same thing multiple times and expecting a different result. I did say that the primary catalyst for the third game coming to the United States would be how well Psychic Specters performed. Based on the initial launch figures, I can officially say that it's all on Nintendo and Level-5 now. I'm not writing a eulogy for the series outside Japan just yet, but based on this data; it's not looking good.
I was hoping in some way, that I would be proven wrong when Psychic Specters launched simultaneously in the US and Europe on September 29; but I was proven exactly right. While the game sold over 2.69 million copies in its native Japan, the simultaneous launch sold all of 26,726 copies in the US and Europe on launch day. It sold just 8,576 copies in the US and a meager 18,150 copies in Europe. It definitely didn't help it launched the same day as the SNES Classic and FIFA 18. Seriously: even the last-generation versions of FIFA on PS3 and Xbox 360 sold more than Psychic Specters in Europe. Even if the game did better in Europe than America, it's very damning that the "definitive version" of a Japanese hit got outsold by EA's long-running sports games. I mean, the fans and the companies involved bet everything on the series breaking out with the sequels outside Japan and it did not pay off at all. It gained a cult following at best, but the flower has withered and died; and the dubious claim that the series would be "the next Pokémon" has officially lost whatever chance it had left. Cue the Price is Right loser horns.
Still, it will be rather interesting to see where the series goes from here, in both Japan and overseas.
While Hino was initially optimistic about how the series would do in the future, the news that the series is declining in popularity in its native Japan changed his mind. It's the same reason why I have been so selective about what content from the series I've covered here, and why I'm on hiatus from doing recaps of the anime until I hear more. However, in light of the sales of Psychic Specters hitting their lowest yet for the series here, I am officially putting my foot down on recapping the third movie: I will only do it if I get official confirmation the third game comes to the US. Otherwise, I won't be addressing it any time soon.
With the launch of Psychic Specters in the US barely selling a fraction of what the game did in Japan, I still have largely the same mindset. I won't do any more of my backlog of the anime until I get an official airdate for the dub's third season in 2018. "Early 2018" is just not concrete enough for me right now, and it's the same for the toys. I may also consider getting a used copy of Psychic Specters in the near future, but that most likely won't be until 2018; so I can see how the game performs and if the reception of the series in the US improves. That, and I will be addicted to Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon for some time; so even if I don't get a Switch right away, those will keep me plenty busy. That will be all for now. Bang.
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