Alright Level-5 this time we wanna see what you have behind those Japanese borders! Japan has been giving us English gamers mixed signals for a while now, localizing games such as Ni No Kuni and Project X Zone but not so sure if we deserve Hatsune Miku while also making people in North America petition to receive some of their games and not to mention that we probably won’t be getting E.X. Troopers….Well here is another game to watch.
Level 5 has been known for their excellent portable games of the Professor Layton series and around late last year they also released the well received Ni No Kuni. One could definitely say that if you are looking for gameplay that just feels different from the slog of repeated iterations these games are really fun to jump into. But Level 5 has surprised me, releasing footage for their new upcoming game Youkai Watch, also known as Ghost Watch to us English speakers.
Youkai Watch looks to combine the studios past projects’ gameplay elements from Inazuma Eleven and Professor Layton. Utilizing the touch screen of the 3DS the main protagonist Keita searches around his town looking for ghosts to battle using his newly found watch he received from an old Japanese capsule machine and with his new ghostly butler Whisper. The video shows Keita searching his environment to find ghosts, bugs and fish to add to his collection. These segments you use this strange new watch to analyze environments and see things that aren’t normally seen.
Battles are old school turn based with a new spin, you can switch in and out your befriended familiars with a wheel that sits on the bottom screen. So if one of your ghosts are taken out you can simply spin the wheel and bring a new one into the battle. While that may not sound as easy as just sending a new one into the battle by choice it looks like it will actually bring more complexity and fun to the battle system as some ghosts will have different abilities that other ghosts are weak or strong against. There also appears to be parts of battle where you must save your pet ghost from being poisoned or affected by other enemy abilities by tapping or rubbing the screen rapidly.
Not only does this game look really fun but the music is also incredibly fun and catchy! Kind of brings back those old memories of Mario Party 2 on N64. Add all these up and the fact that Level-5 wants to also bring an animated series and a manga into the deal and this game sounds like it is going to bring a party along side of itself.
If you would like to check out the trailer then look no further than below!