Yo-Kai Watch 2: Psychic Spectres follows on from last year’s Bony Spirits and Fleshy Souls. Think of it like the third version of a Pokémon; e.g. Yellow, Crystal, Emerald. Psychic Spectres is the ultimate version of Yo-Kai Watch 2 and adds some new content that makes it worthwhile though your mileage will vary.
Having only received the code for Psychic Spectres a day prior to the embargo, I’ve not yet been able to fully play through. I have played Fleshy Souls though and I’ve sunk a good few hours into Psychic Spectres already. The differences aren’t readily apparent, though there are certainly enough of them that it makes playing again worthwhile. At least it did for me.
For those who’ve never played, Yo-Kai Watch 2 casts players as either a boy or a girl who has their memories and titular watch stolen by two nasty Yo-Kai. Yo-Kai are spirits who have crossed over into the spirit world with unfinished business so cause trouble for the living.
After the events of the first game, the player character is forced to relive events and travel through time in order to preserve their own timeline and save their own life. As I wrote at the time of release, “Yo-Kai Watch 2’s story focuses on time-travel and ensuring that events in the past occur as they’re supposed to, in order to preserve your own timeline. It’s actually quite high-concept for a story aimed at younger gamers.”
The target audience for Psychic Spectres is players who’ve not played Yo-Kai Watch 2 before. The sequel was already a bit of a Groundhog Day experience, so playing it again, even a year later, feels like a bit of a chore. Not that it is, it just suffers from repetition for those who’ve played before.
A neat little bonus for me, having played Fleshy Souls was the ability to transfer my save data and unlock some cool new areas, quests, Yo-Kai and more. It took a while for me to actually find any of the new content, but when I did it was a nice change of pace.
Psychic Spectres, as far as I’ve played, doesn’t change up the gameplay in any significant ways. Battles are still very much automatic with minimal input from the player and exploration involves hunting Yo-Kai, completing quests and unlocking new areas to play in. A big new addition is the ability to capture 15 Wicked Yo-Kai who were previously only available as enemies.
These new Yo-Kai enable you to significantly change up your party and change how you do battle. Outside of this, I’ve not really been able to discover much other new content due to time restrictions. Based on that, I’m not yet ready to give Psychic Spectres a score. It is a lot of fun to play, much like any Yo-Kai Watch game and it’s definitely filled to the brim with content.
The real question will be, whether the additions to Psychic Spectres make it worth playing again. First-time players should definitely pick it up, but the jury’s out for veterans. I’ll post my full review soon, so make sure you check back.
Yo-Kai Watch 2: Psychic Spectres was provided to PowerUp! via digital promotional code by Nintendo.
