Yo-kai Watch Blasters (Yo-kai Watch Busters in Japan) is a spinoff of the Yo-kai Watch series. Playable on the Nintendo 3DS, the original two games came out in Japan in 2015 but were released internationally in 2018.
The game is an expansion on the "Oni Blasters" mode from Yo-kai Watch 2. In contrast with the JRPG main series, in Yo-kai Watch Busters four players face up against other Yo-kai in a beat 'em up style. The game also supports online multiplayer.
There are two versions of the game: Red Cat Corps and White Dog Squad. Like with the main series, several different yo-kai are only available in each game (though they can be traded with). The free expansion Yo-kai Watch Blasters: Moon Rabbit Crew is also available digitally.
On top of the original two games, there's the arcade-exclusive Yo-kai Watch Busters: Iron Oni Army and the sequel games Yo-kai Watch Busters 2: Secret Treasure of the Legendary Banbarayar (which comes in Sword and Magnum). Yo-kai Watch Busters 2 was outsourced to an outside team and it doesn't have a third version due to poor sales.
Yo-kai Watch Blasters provides examples of:
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: Subverted for the first time in the games. The English dub scraps Swampy Marsh's original themes for dubbed versions of the Japanese themes.
- The Artifact: In the western version of the game, part of Whisped Cream's plan had involved marshmallows. This made a lot more sense in the original Japanese version, given the original design of the character.
- Clumsy Copyright Censorship: Yo-kai Watch Busters had to be changed to Yo-kai Watch Blasters in the localized version in order to avoid copyright issues with Sony Pictures regarding the Ghostbusters franchise. Whismellowman was also redesigned to avoid looking too similar to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, as well as having his name changed to Whisped Cream. The Blaster forms of Jibanyan and Komasan were also altered, looking less like jumpsuits.
- Cool Car: The characters have a car called the Yokaimobile.
- Developer's Foresight: With cheat codes to spam soultimates, certain soultimates can stun lock bosses. You'd think this would mean you'd be able to milk running bosses between battles for oni orbs but they actually teleport after a minute or so. This however, is subverted in the fact that they however failed to take into account people using cheats to get infinite oni orbs.
- Early-Bird Cameo: In Japan, Busters was Usapyon's first appearance. He was meant to appear in Yo-kai Watch 3 first, with just a cameo in Busters, but 3 was delayed.
- Metal Slime: Noko and Daiz will run away from you if they see you, but beating them grants you a lot of Oni Orbs and a possible chance to recruit them.
- Money Is Experience Points: Leveling up could only be done using Oni Orbs, which were also used to buy items and equipment.
- Old Save Bonus: Yo-kai Watch Blasters gives a bonus Yo-kai if you link the game with Yo-kai Watch 2. Jibanyan S with Bony Spirits, Komasan S with Fleshy Souls, and Komajiro S with Psychic Specters.
- One Game for the Price of Two:
- Like the main games, they're repeating this success with the Yo-Kai Watch Blasters spin-off, with various Yo-Kai exclusive to either game version or Yo-Kai you can only get in the games if you link up with any of the three editions of Yo-Kai Watch 2. Blasters has a third edition, Moon Rabbit Crew, but it is simply a massive free update to the existing games, with a special bonus if the player bought both previous editions. While each game lets you keep separate saves for its base game and Moon Rabbit Crew, there is no reason not to take advantage of the save import feature to the expansion as soon as possible- all the exclusives from the base game remain in the update.
- Yo-kai Watch Busters 2 comes in Sword and Magnum
- Optional Boss: A challenging optional boss can be fought after placing 1,000 Insignias on the statues in the YBA Hall, but which boss you face depends on your game version. Red Cat Corps players can fight Swirlious Omai, while White Dog Squad players can fight Red Paws.
- Version-Exclusive Content: Red Cat Corps and White Dog Squad feature several different yo-kai that are exclusive to each version (though the games can be traded with). There are also bosses exclusive to each version as well (Although they can be fought if players with different versions play together).
- Voice Grunting: The characters have words and short sentences that they exclaim during text.
- Whole-Plot Reference: As the Japanese title implies, the game is heavily inspired by the Ghostbusters series.
