Yo-Kai Watch 2 is the direct sequel to the original smash hit Yo-kai Watch by Level-5 and released for Nintendo 3DS
One night two Yo-Kai steal the Yo-Kai Watch from Nate or Katie (the player) along with their memories. After re-buying it from a “Memory Store”, they open a capsule from a nearby Gashapon machine and re-release Whisper, and then reunite with Jibanyan, restoring their memories. From there, the player will deal with day-to-day supernatural phenomena in and out of Springdale, travel through time, discover the origins of the Yo-Kai Watch, and get caught up in a feud between two Yo-Kai gangs.
Three versions of the game were released. The first two are Bony Spirits (JP: Ganso, “Originator”) and Fleshy Souls (Honke, “Head of Family”), which have exclusive Yo-kai and some story differences. The third version, Psychic Specters (Shinuchi, “Headliner”) was released later, which added new post-game content and a new “Psychic Blasters” mode, although some of this content is accessible in the other two versions via free updates.
Yo-Kai Watch 2 contains the following tropes:
- Achievement Mockery: The "Klutzy Kid" trophy, obtained by falling over 30 times.
- Ancestral Weapon: Sort of. While the first Yo-kai Watch the player gets isn't the Model Zero - they get that in this game, fresh off their granddad's childhood workbench - the Watch is the overall invention of the chosen player character's grandfather and was designed, first and foremost, to help fight Wicked-tribe Yo-kai.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- Upgrading your watch will now give you the ability to see an enemy Yo-kai's alliance (Bony Spirits or Fleshy Souls), favorite food, elemental weakness, and whether or not you have their medal (for the Yo-kai of that faction) from the Target and Poke interfaces. Considering how many more types of food there are in this version, and that elemental weaknesses aren't based on the type of element the specific Yo-kai uses anymore, it cuts down on information you might have to memorize.
- The game now tells you the level and rewards of requests and favors before you decide to take them on, as well as giving you the option to set objective navigation for them in the Quests menu, so you can be automatically directed where you're supposed to go for them if you so choose.
- A new addition to the menu is the Critter Collection, which is an encyclopedia of all the catchable bugs and fish in the game, like in Animal Crossing. It'll tell you the general location of any critter, even ones that you haven't yet seen or caught.
- Bag of Spilling: Losing the watch at the beginning of the game also meant losing the medallium. It’s never recovered, forcing Nate/Katie to start over with Jibanyan.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Whisper on occasion, as per the usual for his character. One moment of this of note is when the player character finds that traveling through doors in the Infinite Inferno will warp you across seemingly empty space. Whisper doesn't know how this works, but notes that "anything's possible after you beat the game". The player character is confused by this statement.
- But Thou Must!:
- Right from the start, when Nate/Katie’s parents leave you to choose which donuts to buy (Soul Donuts vs. Spirit Donuts), you can only buy the donuts associated with your version. Psychic Specters actually lets you choose.
- Nate/Katie and Jibanyan have a spat that results in the latter running away. Despite simply being one of the Key Quests needed to properly continue the story mode, the game forces you to search for Jibanyan first before you can tackle other quests. Also, until you finish this quest, Whisper is required to be your follower Yo-kai.
- Cultural Translation: The English localization keeps most Japanese cultural references intact, but noticeably they changed a major food item in the game: In Japan, the donuts were manju (a type of steamed cake similar to mochi). The food is obscure so it was changed with a more international equivalent.
- Dem Bones: Gutsy Bones and its Palette Swaps Goldy Bones and Glitzy Bones, all based on the Gashadokuro
. For added Pun, they use gashapon (Crank-a-Kai) machines. - Downloadable Content: By purchasing the digital versions from the 3DS eShop, you get a one-time use code to unlock and befriend a new Yo-Kai. They are as follows:
- Bony Spirits: Robonyan F
- Fleshy Souls: Sailornyan
- Psychic Specters: Machonyan
- Dude Magnet / Chick Magnet: One type of Bizarre Room you can get from a Gate of Whimsy has you entering Katie's house (if playing as Nate) or Nate's house (if playing as Katie) and finding all of your classmates of your chosen character's gender fawning over Katie/Nate. To clear the room, you have to convince them that Katie/Nate isn't actually that attractive or interesting.
- Easy Amnesia: Nate or Katie’s, Whisper’s, and Jibanyan’s memories are taken in the opening cutscene and recovered the next day.
- Fashions Never Change: Remarked upon. Oh yes they do, and both Nate and Katie draw some attention for their odd way of dressing in comparison to all the mid-20th-century folk around them.
- Fishing Minigame: Replaced the original roulette used for fishing in the first game. (Catching bugs and turtles is still done by roulette.)
- Fusion Dance: Defied by Jibanyan, who is unwillingly fused by Coughkoff or Ruffraff (player’s choice) to become Thornyan/Baddinyan, respectively, only to separate shortly after. You still get that fusion’s medal and can use it and Jibanyan at the same time.
- Gotta Catch Them All: A bit more difficult this time around as the three versions have exclusives and thus require trading, plus some can only be obtained by having the original Yo-kai Watch game.
- Guest Fighter: Don-Chan is a once-per-day encounter that you can battle and befriend.
- Guide Dang It!:
- Completing the Collection Correction request can be pretty tedious. You have to bring several historical items to the Gourd Pond Museum to display in their Springdale: 60 Years Ago exhibit. The issue is, you're never hinted to what the items are or where you can find them. The items can be found in both past and present Springdale, and some of them are obtained while doing other requests, while others you can simply get by talking to NPCs. There's no indication that taking on a certain request will net you a historical item, as it will never be listed as a reward. The items you receive from NPCs are even more obscure, as the necessary people you have to talk to are generally indistinguishable from the other NPCs around Springdale.
- Obtaining soba, one of the categories of food. You can't buy them anywhere, so the only way to obtain them is by following a delivery man carrying boxes of soba and waiting for him to drop some. You're never told this at any point, and it'd be easy to assume that the deliverymen are simply regular NPCs with no importance.
- Healing Boss: When Kin or Gin lose all their health in battle, the still-active sister will take out a magic stone that reverses time to heal the other one. You will have to use the pin to destroy the stone so you can defeat both of them.
- In-Universe Game Clock: Given slightly more attention this time around. Certain requests and story events may require you to wait for an in-game day to pass, or require you to do something at a specific time of day. The day is also subtly split up into in-game hours instead of a simple day/night split, determining locations of certain NPCs and activating events based on the time—for example, characters will no longer go to sleep as soon as it hits nightfall, but will instead hang around for a few hours before going to sleep (and preventing you from entering their house).
- Karakasa:
- Pallysol (Karakasa-obake in Japan) is Famed In-Story as a generations-old “classic” Yo-Kai. He also has a wicked version, Shamasol.
- There's also Brokenbrella, who is an auto-befriend.
- Mega Neko: Meganyan. Though after his spiritual pressure is let out quite literally like air in a tire, he becomes Hovernyan again.
- "Miss X" Pun: Mister E, the man at Mt. Wildwood who tells you about the Crank-A-Kai, has a name that's a pun on "mystery".
- Monochrome Past: Of the sepia-toned variety. All of Past Springdale is like this. While it's helped by the fact that so much of it is made out of wood and brick - not unlike Japan during the immediate postwar reconstruction period - even non-browns are made a little more sepia-tinted in the past.
- Mundane Made Awesome: This game gives you the ability to kick around loose cans on the ground. Kicking a can into a recycling bin will cause your character, Whisper, and Jibanyan to dance around in celebration, which also rewards you with an item.
- Night Parade of One Hundred Demons: The "Kaos March". In order to trigger it, the main character must walk around the Downtown Springdale area on a clear night, when the in-game clock is between 9 and 12 PM. There is a chance that he or she will stumble upon a group of marching Yo-kai that will invite him or her to join them. The player must move the stylus and tap the touch screen in sync with the music in order to win. Once the Kaos March has first been discovered, it can be triggered again by speaking to a certain NPC Yo-kai.
- Nighttime Bathroom Phobia: Jibanyan wakes up having to use the bathroom pretty bad, so he wakes up Whisper and the player so that they can take him to the outhouse. When he orders them not to leave him alone, Whisper asks him if he's afraid to use the bathroom at night, and Jibanyan denies this, saying that Yo-kai fear nothing.
- No Fair Cheating: If you change the system clock, time-based activities such as the Crank-a-kai will be unavailable for two days.
- Old Save Bonus:
- If you take a photo with the first game’s Yo-kai Cam, save it to your SD card, and show it to Mister E within two hours, he’ll give you a Select-a-Coin+. This is the only way to get Buchinyan, Komasan, and Noko.
- Psychic Specters allows players to copy save data for either Bony Spirits or Fleshy Souls to the game, allowing players to skip over the game's main storyline to include just the new stuff introduced in the third edition.
- One Game for the Price of Two:
- True to older Pokémon tradition, two versions were initially released with the third, Psychic Specters, coming out later. Specters allows the player to experience either versions’ story but has its own new Yo-kai instead of those found in only Bony Spirits or Fleshy Souls.
- The Psychic Specters version added even more Yo-kai, as well as a linking system (added in an update to the others as well) to either cleared game files for Bony Spirits and Fleshy Souls, opening up new dungeons to explore in all three games, either relying on your own save data or linking up with a friend. However, that doesn't excuse all of the content you can only get from physical copies of the game (limited edition toy Yo-kai Medals) or download versions (exclusive Yo-kai). Nor does it excuse the link system giving you an exclusive Yo-kai encounter based on whether you chose Nate or Katie at the start of the game.
- One-Steve Limit: There are potentially two Kenny's: Katie's grandfather if you play as female and a classmate of Katie's.
- Optional Boss:
- Most of the main bosses from the first game reappear as optional encounters. Some of them can be befriended.
- Kat Kraydel in the Divine Paradise, unlocked after beating the Infinite Inferno and talking to Arachnus or Toadal Dude depending on your version.
- Psychic Specters adds Kabuking, the owner of Gera Gera Land who battles you after completing all the Gera Gera Land sidequests.
- Pals with Jesus: It’s possible to befriend Mermother through the Crank-a-Kai in the past using Light-Blue, Five-Star or Special Coins or in the Infinite Tunnel, who is implied to be the Yo-kai Watch universe's version of God in her Medallium entry, and is outright Izanami in the Japanese version.
- Pocket Dimension: This game introduced Gates of Whimsy, hidden doorways to dimensions no larger than a building where the player can complete a challenge and acquire Gate Globes. A larger quest in the game requires collecting 105 of them.
- Posthumous Character: Nathaniel and Kenny died before Nate and Katie were born. However, through time travel, Nate/Katie are able to interact with their deceased grandfathers (who are also the same age as them) for the first time.
- Ret-Canon: Personalities are tweaked to be closer to the anime's portrayals.
- Schrödinger's Player Character: Not Nate and Katie themselves, but the one chosen erases two other characters from the game.
- Their respective grandfathers Nathaniel or Kenny can only be met by their own grandchild.
- By linking all three versions, Psychic Specters players playing as Nate can fight and befriend Moximous N, while Katie can get Moximous K.
- Silly Reason for War: There's been a several hundred year feud between two Yo-kai factions called the Bonies and the Fleshies. Eventually, the two sides end up in a war. The feud and war are entirely based on disagreements over which donut filling is better: cream or custard?
- Soft Reboot: The game acts as a soft retool of the original game.
- Something We Forgot: After defeating Gutsy Bones, Nate/Katie and Jibanyan forget to unseal Whisper from his capsule. They retrieve him off-screen the next day.
- Special Guest:
- Kumamon, a Yuru-chara mascot from Kumamoto Prefecture. He's even completely unchanged in the localization.
- The Taiko no Tatsujin mascot Don-Chan shows up.
- Taken for Granite: Nathaniel/Kenny's friends, the Classic Yo-kai, have been turned into statues. In the present, the curse has weakened enough that Whisper can cure them with the "Rockaway Extract" he bought online.
- Time Travel: One of the cruxes of Yo-kai Watch 2, as you travel back in time to help your own grandfather invent the Yo-kai Watch and save your hometown of the past from the Wicked-tribe Yo-kai after they tried meddling with time.
- Time Travel for Fun and Profit: Both discussed and used. Firstly, Whisper does acknowledge that your money from the 21st century wouldn't be worth the same amount 60 years prior. However, to keep things simple (read: keep money balanced across the whole game) he does "something" to make it all seamless and tells you not to worry about it. Katie, as is usual for her as protag, stops just short of accusing him of counterfeiting for convenience's sake. Secondly, a major sidequest involves getting together displays for the museum in the present on Springdale, 60 years ago. It's a bit easy for the PC to pull this off when they can take artifacts from the time period itself.
- Toku: The protagonist's grandfather is obsessed with a Show Within a Show about a character called Moximus.
- Unintentionally Unwinnable: A bug in the English version of Psychic Specters makes it impossible to buy songs from the music store, and thus impossible to get every single trophy without transferring the save from another version.
- Version-Exclusive Content: Each version has more than a dozen exclusive Yo-kai, including three only given to digital versions. Copying a save file to Psychic Specters transfers any exclusives already befriended, but no more of them can be found in the new save file.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The present Springdale during a Bad Future, as well as Old Springdale while the Ded Cloud is about to Inspirit everyone, with you trying to stop it.
- Wham Episode: Yo-kai Watch 2 does one with style, and one that helped its fame in Japan: everything seems normal early on and it's just a re-hash of the first game, ho hum... and then, in rapid succession, you travel to Harrisville, you meet your grandmother who drops some hints about the wider world, you then meet Hovernyan (as Meganyan), and then Hovernyan whisks you off into the past to save your grandfather and help him build the Yo-kai Watch, complete with a whole new Past Springdale. The time travel and train access explodes the scope of the game and narrative, and reveals that the player character is far more important to the narrative than first thought.
- Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour: Nate, Jibanyan, and Whisper go to Nate's grandmother's house in Harrisville, and late at night, Jibanyan awakens with the urge to pee. He wakes up the protagonist to take him to the outhouse. The protagonist groggily asks for five more minutes, but they become fully awake when Jibanyan says he can?t wait any longer.
