Hello everyone. I know it's been a while since I first started talking about Yo-Kai Watch, and with E3 coming soon; I thought I would address the series in its current state since I last did a recap of it in June 2017; among other points to ask a question that I've been wondering for some time: will Yo-Kai Watch 3 be localized?
In order to give my answer to this question; I will be going over a rough timeline of the series so far, so I can provide some perspective and address some points that I've been meaning to in this dry spell. I've never talked about the series unless I personally had motivation to do so, so let's get started.
In 2011, the initial pitch for “Youkai Watch” was shown at Level-5 World in Japan. While there are some small differences in this version, the overall concept is there. Occasionally referred to as “Ghost Watch”, this is the earliest evidence I can find of the series surfacing,
and this video you can see here was uploaded to YouTube in 2012.
I must also point out that at the time, I was just starting this blog and enjoying the fifth generation of Pokémon at the time; so I hadn't even heard much of Level-5, let alone what they had planned for the series. In the past, I tried to avoid using the p-word in comparison, but in this case, I couldn't. I will say that the series definitely didn't rip it off, since that idea is actually far too simple to truly explain the contrast between the two series.
The original Yo-Kai Watch was released in Japan in July 2013, which wasn't a phenomenal hit at first; did eventually break 1 million copies sold as the anime began airing in Japan in 2014. Pokémon X and Y launched in October 2013, and to this day are the bestselling games on the 3DS with 16.3 million copies. Though Sun and Moon are quickly catching up, I will come back to that later.
As for the anime, when it began airing in Japan in January 2014; it presented something that had not been seen since the likes of Pokémon in terms of popularity, and helped the series emerge as a major competitor. The anime started off with ratings that were highly competitive to the XY series, and with the launch of the sequel games that July; the series began to take shape at being the first real competitor for Pokémon in years, with Yo-Kai Watch 2 selling millions of copies; going toe to toe with Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire without even leaving Japan, and the anime going head to head with the XY series for ratings dominance.
It was around this time that plans started to be set in motion for an international release, and when I first heard about this. Here is where things start to get complicated, as I've learned in my time doing this blog.
I was skeptical about the idea, like many were, though I knew it wasn't a ripoff of Pokémon like many erroneously insinuated. However, I submit that stigma was the least of the challenges the series faced outside Japan. Although I rejected many requests to stop watching the show, the ratings of the anime didn't really reach the levels of Pokémon in its early days when it started airing on Disney XD in 2015; let alone the levels of the network's other programming such as Gravity Falls, Star Wars Rebels and Star VS The Forces of Evil, among many others. While this did try to ape the strategy Pokémon used when it first came stateside, this kind of marketing was problematic for a number of reasons. Least of all, the media landscape in this time period is much different than it was in 1998.
Now, I'm not saying that the idea of yokai in themselves are bad, nor am I saying that games with roots in Japanese culture are a deterrent. One example I often cite is the Tanuki Suit in the Mario games. While not as many people are aware of the folklore of the tanuki outside Japan, let alone it being a real animal; a player young or old can easily suspend disbelief for an Italian plumber being able to fly and turn into a statue with an enchanted leaf. It's also far from the first form of media being released after the success of one franchise. While science fiction blockbusters certainly existed before Star Wars, the success of that series brought about numerous other space operas in the 1970s and early to mid-1980s to varying degrees of quality. Same deal with the trend of the "cinematic universe:" while Marvel has managed to turn the concept into a billion-dollar venture over the past decade; other attempts like the Dark Universe have not made it past their first installment.
However, one of the main problems with bringing Yo-Kai Watch to the states in this time may be one that sounds somewhat unorthodox. Arguably, one of the biggest obstacles the franchise faced to succeed outside Japan was its success in Japan. It also didn't help that many bemoaned the continued success of established series that launched around the same time, least of all shooters such as Call of Duty: Black Ops III and the 2015 version of Star Wars Battlefront. In the former case, Bobby Kotick definitely knows his audience; despite his infamy. In the latter, a man that I am only referring to as Murdoch suggested the servers would be shut down in 2017. Not only did this not happen, but the sequel that year did something that proved even more controversial: implement a highly-polarizing microtransaction system, but that's not important right now. What is important is that the game only sold 71,000 units at launch in November 2015, and has only sold around 440,000 as of this writing overall.
To this day, this is still a large catalyst in the debate of the series' future.
So, the game's North American launch in 2015 wasn't exactly in the same league as it was in Japan; especially not in the order of magnitude that many were expecting to be. Even in a year where neither Pokémon nor Yo-Kai Watch had any new games released on their home turf, this was not the best footing for the latter series being positioned as "the next Pokémon" in the eyes of its fans and many video game media outlets. I mean, this was a game that was offered as an alternative to Pokémon while Generation VII was still in development; but was ultimately outsold by the spinoff title Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon. Before I go any further, it's been my experience even before this blog that the more I talk about content creators; the better. The more I talk about how a work is managed on the business side, well; that's definitely reason to worry. In general, the video game industry is one of the most reactive in my experience. They often look at games that sold well, and ones that didn't in order to see where to go. The problem is they often act on the wrong conclusions.
The rationale for the series being a hit outside Japan was because of Pokémon establishing itself in a similar way. The main problem with that way of thinking is that despite both being Japanese "mon" series, the actual execution of both was entirely different. While the exact motifs of Pokémon have changed over time, the core concept is one that's easy to sell to most people: a young 10-year-old partners with unique monsters and engages them in battle across a land influenced by our world; but is easily marked as a land of fantasy, in the same vein as Hogwarts or the Mushroom Kingdom.
Yo-Kai Watch, on the other hand, was a more comedic series that focused more on exploring the daily life of a small town in Japan; all through the eyes of a young child. While this is a key reason why this game did well in Japan; this was a big roadblock to it breaking out in other regions. Trying to distance the series from this origin rather than embracing it just furthered the problems it faced rather than solved them. So yeah, while the themes of Japanese culture may be a deterrent to some circles; the game itself is actually not that bad as an RPG on its own. The game also isn't a masterpiece, either; but it's definitely not worthy of being lumped in with shovelware tie-ins for Barbie or Ben 10. Yet, it doesn't really have the same easy to identify audience outside its home country that other RPG series do. It admittedly lacks the same universally accessible appeal of Pokémon or the haunting, dark atmosphere of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. Even so, while I am definitely saying that I'm still not a fan of Yo-Kai Watch; I'm definitely NOT saying that there wasn't ANY audience for the games outside Japan. If they had just worked on catering to just that niche audience and gone from there, maybe things would have turned out differently. Instead, the people in charge of marketing tried to take the contents that could fit in a shot glass and tried to use them to fill the entirety of AT&T Park. As the series continued into the next year, things would continue to proceed on rocky ground.
In January 2016, the first waves of Yo-Kai Watch toys started appearing in stores around the United States. This is roughly the same method of distribution for the series in Japan, where the titular watch and its medals were highly-sought after. For the uninitiated, it was essentially the same scenario as the Cabbage Patch Kids in the 1980s or Power Rangers in the 1990s.
This anecdote from Kotaku details the escapades of the author trying to find the watch for his young son, and it's one of many that was an example of the fever at its peak.
Hasbro handled the release of the toys outside Japan, much like they had in the past with Pokémon. Many wondered if the toys would cause a similar craze in the United States. Unfortunately, they didn't. Though Hasbro soldiered on through 2017, even teasing more for this year; so far, nothing has materialized in North America. There have been some toys shipped in Europe, but nothing has been confirmed or disconfirmed here as of this writing. Speaking from personal experience, my closest Target and Walmart locations have cleared out the bulk of Yo-Kai Watch merchandise on hand; and there's only a small trifle left at my two closest Gamestop locations. Late last year, I also went browsing at Ross before Christmas; and even in a shop that specializes in the discount sector, kids still passed over Yo-Kai Watch merchandise in favor of other series such as Minecraft, Five Nights at Freddy's and Mario. So, as you can imagine; it's not looking good for the toys to continue outside Japan. While Hasbro hasn't outright said anything just yet, it wouldn't surprise me if they moved on. Especially when they have more successful IPs in their wheelhouse such as Star Wars, Marvel Comics, Transformers and now Power Rangers (they took over the toyline and now the show itself from Beast Morphers onward, but that's a whole other story).
Beyond all this, however, is what happened with the sequel games; which were released in 2016 under the titles "Bony Spirits and Fleshy Souls." As someone who did play through the main quest of Fleshy Souls (which is something I was unable to do for the first game), I do feel that it was an improvement over its senior in many respects. Still not on the same order of magnitude as a Pokémon game or Level-5's previous RPG, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch; but it's much better than many of the admittedly mixed reviews would suggest. However, this did end up creating further problems as the franchise continued outside its home country. Akihiro Hino, despite the game not meeting all its lofty expectations, suggested the games would follow the same pattern they did in Japan, and that the series would "bloom like a flower" in a year's time. A year later, this proved to be pure spin; as the games have only sold 200,000 copies in the US as of this writing; a 55% drop from the first game and significantly less than what they sold in Japan.
As the franchise continued into 2017, what was once being groomed as "the next Pokémon" started to face an uncertain future. The games may have still been pulling sales of over 1 million; but the time to reach that figure kept getting longer and there were noticeable declines in terms of TV ratings and merchandise sales. To this day,
debates still continue over the future of the series outside Japan.
Despite Psychic Specters being seen as an improvement over the previous sequels, a sort of version of the game in the vein of Yellow, Crystal or Platinum if you will; promotion of the series had more or less dried up by the time it got announced for release. In my area (Oregon, to be precise), both toy shipments and TV ads steadily declined before all but stopping altogether. Despite Disney XD still promising a third season of the anime, an official air date has yet to materialize as of this writing. Most telling of all, Hino didn't even attend Nintendo's E3 conference at all that year; instead choosing to attend the one for Namco Bandai to promote Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom.
Even though the spinoff Yo-Kai Watch Blasters (changed from the initial title of "Busters" to avoid legal problems with Sony) did recently get a release in South Korea; so far, there has been no word of its release outside Asia, let alone any other game despite it being leaked that it had an English translation. While region coding has often led to gamers importing foreign hardware and software to play some releases, the game probably won't warrant even the most avid fans importing it along with a South Korean 3DS just to play Blasters.
Even a year later, there's still an aura of doubt that the third game will get a Western release.
Even people who are fans of the franchise are now expressing doubt over more content being released outside Japan; given how the editing of the anime and game are much more extensive; and it's unlikely that more toys will be released due to less-than-stellar sales, which will also deal a blow to Blasters and the third game. It definitely doesn't help that Psychic Specters has only sold 70,000 copies as of March 17 this year in the US; well below the Japanese sales of the game and barely a single percentage point of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. This also marks another drop from the previous versions, roughly 65% less through the same time frame.
So, in order to answer the question I'm asking here; let's try to put ourselves in the position of the companies that are or were involved with the series' western release. In the case of Hasbro: you have a toy license that was lucrative in its own country, but didn't really catch on in the way you were hoping. For Disney: you have a TV show that doesn't really fit your brand, despite its international success. For Viz: you're hyping the project as the second coming of one of your most lucrative licenses; without realizing that both IPs were successful for different reasons in their home country. For Level-5: you have an uphill battle in a highly competitive market that's not as aware of your reputation. Lastly, for Nintendo: you have a game that's emerged as a notable competitor to one of your biggest franchises.
Given all this, the pressure was huge for just about everyone. The result was akin to a roulette wheel getting a double zero: they bet everything on the series being a hit and it didn't pay off at all.
With all this in mind, the only question remains is the same one I've asked before: will Yo-Kai Watch 3 be localized? My personal answer is similar to before: it's unlikely in my eyes; but definitely not impossible.
I concede that based on the budget cuts and other factors such as the bulk of the original cast and crew being let go; that Level-5 will most likely have to go it alone like they did in Japan in handling distribution. That will also go with coming up with a whole new strategy to market the series in foreign territories for future content like Blasters, the third game, and Shadowside. Just advertise the game on its own merit. Try not to focus so much on the wackiness and more on the actual merits of the series. Also, abandon all pretense of it being "the next Pokémon," since both sides of this argument have realized that was never going to happen. With one month remaining till E3, people are still chomping at the bit for news; since both the US and Japanese branches of Nintendo have reaffirmed their support of the 3DS through 2020. However, it's more likely that the US release could go the way of the Switch Virtual Console: it was an interesting idea on paper, but maybe it wasn't meant to be.
Even as someone who has been most assuredly not a fan of the franchise, I still have the same plan: I will not cover season 3 of the anime unless I get an official air date for it; and I will not do the third movie unless I get official confirmation of the third game being given a US release. Even a vanilla release on eShop for 3DS will be enough for me; but depending on what happens, nothing else will change about my plans for my final year of this blog. That will be all for now.
Later.
