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Yo-Kai Watch Gets AR Smartphone Game in Japan
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Level 5 and GungHo Online Entertainment announced during a live stream event on Wednesday that the companies are collaborating on Yo-kai Watch World, a new smartphone AR (augmented reality) game for the Yo-kai Watch franchise. The game is already available in Japan for iOS and Android. GungHo Online Entertainment is streaming a trailer for the game, which features the game's theme song "Bōen no March" by BUMP OF CHICKEN.
Famitsu and the official YouTube channel of Shogakukan's Coro Coro Comics magazine are both streaming gameplay footage of the game.
The game allows players to befriend, collect, and battle yo-kai, and will also have systems that are unique to the world of Yo-kai Watch, such as allowing yo-kai to "possess" other players. Yo-kai who possess other players will travel with them even in faraway locations, and may bring back items and other yo-kai from places that players may not be able to visit. The game will have yo-kai that can only be captured in specific regions.
Level 5 had opened a website earlier this month, stating that it will reveal its "Yo-kai Watch 5th Anniversary Commemorative Title" during a livestream event on YouTube on June 27. The visuals for the announcement both feature two Yo-kai holding smartphones.
Level 5 also revealed an upcoming new entry in the main game series titled Yo-kai Watch 4 for the Nintendo Switch last week.
Level 5 announced the Yo-kai Watch franchise in 2011 with a game, manga, and anime already planned. The first game launched in July 2013 and the first anime launched in January 2014. The franchise is Level 5's third cross-media project after Inazuma Eleven and Little Battlers eXperience.
Yo-kai Watch 3 launched for Nintendo 3DS in two versions — Yo-kai Watch 3: Sushi and Yo-kai Watch 3: Tempura — in July 2016. The company later released a Yo-kai Watch 3: Sukiyaki version in December 2016.
The latest television anime in the franchise, Yo-kai Watch: Shadowside, premiered in Japan in April. The fifth and latest film in the franchise, Eiga Yo-kai Watch: Forever Friends, will open in Japan on December 14.
Sources: Famitsu.com, Famitsu App's official YouTube channel, Coro Coro Comics' official YouTube channel via Hachima Kikō
