A new entry in the Yo-kai Watch franchise has been announced, and it’s apparently going in a different direction than previous titles in the series.
Entries in the Yo-kai series are typically role-playing video games, with heavy emphasis on encountering and befriending creatures called Yo-kai. In the mainline games, players usually have control of six Yo-kai during a fight, and they control all them with an in-game function called the spin-wheel.
The games are developed and published by game studio Level-5. The president and CEO of Level-5, Akihiro Hino, today posted a screenshot of a new Yo-kai Watch game that is currently being developed.
テレビアニメ妖怪学園Yいかがでしたか！これを見た後に映画に行くと大惨事になりそうですがwそれはそれで大いに楽しめると思います！そして開発中のゲーム画面を少々。妖怪学園は妖怪ウォッチはとはまた違うタイプのシステムになります！お楽しみに！ pic.twitter.com/7OtI3AeU2P
— 日野晃博 (@AkihiroHino) December 27, 2019
A loose translation of the tweet, provided by Twitter’s embedded translation function using Google Translate, says: “How was TV anime Yokai Gakuen Y! Going to a movie after watching this is going to be a catastrophe, but I think it’s a lot of fun! And a little game screen under development. Yokai Gakuen is a different type of system from Yokai Watch! looking forward to!”
According to an article from Gematsu, the new game is going to be based on the new anime series Yo-kai Watch Jam: Yo-kai Academy Y – Encounter with N. This new anime is a continuation of the movie, Yo-kai Academy Y – Can a Cat be a Hero. The new anime takes place in the Y-Academy, where the protagonists must solve the many different mysteries surrounding the school.
This new game is supposed to be different from the mainline games in the franchise. Based on Hino’s tweet, the new game is going to use a new type of system. This possibly hints that this upcoming game will have a unique gameplay function from past entries, and have new features.
Yo-kai Watch is a multi-media franchise that has several spin-offs, animes, and merchandise. The series became a big hit Japan, becoming a legit rival towards the Pokémon franchise over the years. The most recent entry in the series, Yo-kai Watch 4, was released on the Nintendo Switch in Japan on Jun. 20, 2019.
