History VideoGame / YokaiWatch

** ''[[UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame Yo-kai Watch Busters: Iron Oni Army]]'' (December 2015 Japan)

* ''VideoGame/YokaiWatch4'' (2019 Japan, UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch and UsefulNotes/Playstation4)

[[caption-width-right:300:''He's got a Yo-kai, Yo-kai Watch!''[[note]]For your information this is NOT a spinoff or ripoff of Pokemon or Digimon, even though they're all alike.[[/note]]]]

->''"Come on out my friend! Calling (insert Yo-Kai name here)! Yo-Kai Medal, do your thing!"''

''Yo-Kai Watch'' is a multimedia {{Mon}} series by [[Creator/{{Level5}} Level-5]]. After the original video game came out in July 2013, ''Yo-Kai Watch'' took over Japan, with an anime, sequel video games released while the original was still selling well, a CollectibleCardGame, a collectible card game that ties into an arcade game, [[Manga/YokaiWatch multiple different manga]], and merchandise out the wazoo, including the titular Yo-Kai Watch and all the collectibles that go with it so kids can pretend to summon the over 400 different Yo-Kai. More overall information can be found [[Franchise/YoKaiWatch here]].

The game series, which remains the flagship product of the franchise, is about a fifth-grader (with the player's choice of a boy or girl, although the rest of the franchise leans on the boy as being canon) who finds a capsule machine in the woods while looking for bugs one day. When they open a capsule from the machine, they release a [[{{Youkai}} Yo-Kai]] called Whisper, who becomes their ghost butler out of gratitude for his freedom and gives them the titular Yo-Kai Watch. The Yo-Kai Watch enables the player character to see other Yo-Kai by shining a light on them. Using Yo-Kai Medals, gained from befriending Yo-Kai, the PC can also summon their Yo-Kai friends to battle other Yo-Kai who are causing trouble in the neighborhood. As the tale unfolds, however, the stakes our hero faces grow, and it turns out they may have a deeper connection to the Watch and the world of Yo-kai than anyone involved first realized...

[[caption-width-right:300:''He's got a Yo-kai, Yo-kai Watch!'']]

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Springdale boasts a huge underground sewer system you can explore in the games. You need to poke your head in for one of the mandatory watch-leveling challenges, but exploring all of the sprawling passageways, opening enough doors to [[DoorToBefore connect the entire city together]], and finding and beating the BonusBoss hidden in them is entirely optional.

* BonusBoss:
** Gargaros the red oni can be fought when Terror Time arrives, though he is very strong and it is not recommended for players to fight him until the epilogue rolls around. [[spoiler:Players can fight Ogralus the blue oni after defeating Gargaros, and defeating Ogralus allows players to fight Orcanos the black oni.]]
** Duwheel can be found in the Abandoned Tunnels. However, players need to upgrade their watch to Rank A to access the eastern part of the Tunnels to find the rest of the materials that allow them access to the boss.
** Chirpster can be fought in the first game after a lengthy series of sidequests in the Abandoned Mansion, setting up a party for the Yo-kai there.
** ''Almost every main boss'' from the first game can be fought in the second one as an optional encounter. Plus, some of them can be befriended in special FunSize versions after the fact.
** The second game has [[spoiler:Kat Kraydel]] in [[spoiler: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.

* GameGourmet: You can feed the Yo-Kai all sorts of foods to befriend them or to recover health and raise their Soul Meter, and they've all got their own preferences and dislikes; Pizza, Hamburgers, Oden, Curry, Candy, Hot Dogs, Ramen...

* LuckyTranslation:
** Spoilerina is able to keep the "ballerina" wordplay in both the English and Japanese version (her Japanese name is Netaballerina," a portmanteau of "netabare (spoilers)" and "ballerina").
** Snailspace is able to preserve the pun of its Japanese name (Maimaipace, a play on the English loanword, "My-pace," which means to go at one’s own pace), thanks to "snail’s pace" being an actual English expression.

* ExportedCharacter:
** Introduced in ''Yo-Kai Watch'''s Update 4.0 are Indy Jaws, a literal shark expy of ''Franchise/IndianaJones'', Steve Jaws, a literal shark expy of the late Steve Jobs, and Mark Orckerberg, who is a literal orca expy of Mark Zuckerburg. Further exemplified by the fact that Indy Jaws wears a fedora just like Indiana Jones, Steve Jaws is a tech expert and the founder of a tech company just like Steve Jobs and Mark Ockerberg wears the exact same outfit and has the same hairstyle as Mark Zuckerberg.
** There is a California expy in the Yo-Kai World called Yo-kai-lifornia.

* PortalNetwork: After you reach a certain point in the games' plots, you unlock the ability to awaken Mirapo around the locations that you visit. By talking to an awakened Mirapo, you can warp to any other one, no matter the distance between them, making for a convienient fast travel system.

* NighttimeBathroomPhobia: In the second game, 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.

* LuckyTranslation: Spoilerina is able to keep the "ballerina" wordplay in both the English and Japanese version (her Japanese name is Netaballerina," a portmanteau of "netabare (spoilers)" and "ballerina").

* YourSizeMayVary: In battles, enemy Yo-kai are much bigger than they are in the overworld, towering over your team, which can be seen most clearly when put up against each other in ''3'''s grid-based battle system. In contrast, recruited Boss Yo-kai are smaller than they are as bosses in both the overworld and battles.

* YourSizeMayVary: In battles, enemy Yo-kai are much bigger than they are in the overworld, towering over your team, which can be seen most clearly when put up against each other in 3's grid-based battle system. In contrast, recruited Boss Yo-kai are smaller than they are as bosses in both the overworld and battles.

* YourSizeMayVary: In battles, enemy Yo-kai are much bigger than they are in the overworld, towering over your team, which can be seen most clearly when they are put up against each other in 3's grid-based battle system. In contrast, recruited Boss Yo-kai are smaller than they are as bosses in both the overworld and battles.