What are you playing? c'mon, tell me punk!

[Monobrobe]

I just got Yo-kai Watch for Hanukkah, and I'm having a blast with it! It's funny because when it was first announced, I didn't want anything to do with it. I thought it was too similar to Pokemon. But then I watched the first episode of the anime on the eShop and then I downloaded the demo and next thing I knew I was hooked. My friend made fun of me for it.
Though there are some frustrating mechanics...

You can't control how your Yo-kai fight. The only attack you can control is the Soultimate, which is their special move. You can change their personalities so they fight more how you want, but it's not exact. There's also a chance they'll end up loafing and wasting their turns. There's an item that makes it so they loaf around less often, but it doesn't seem like there's an item to permanently stop it. Well, the good thing is the enemy can loaf too.

Catching fish and bugs is completely random. You just gotta hope the cursor lands on one of the marks.

Befriending Yo-kai is even harder. Giving them food supposedly increases your chances, but it's been very rare that I actually managed to get the Yo-kai I want. If you give them their favorite food, it's supposed to really increase their chances of befriending you, but so far it's just been luck-based. It's gotten to the point that I just skip looking for Yo-kai and keep the team I've had for a while now.

There's also one little thing that's never explained. When you complete a quest, you get a bonus scene. It's a short animated clip. The catch is, you interact with it much like Dragon's Lair. You have to press A at the right time and the clip changes. If you're successful, you get an extra item. The tells aren't too hard, I suppose, but it's still kinda tricky. I wish they explained it somewhere. I checked the help section in the menu but it's nowhere to be seen.

But overall I do enjoy the game. The designs are really neat. It's pretty different from Pokemon. It's only similar in that you catch monsters, but there's tons of games like that. Oh, and I guess its popularity (in Japan, at least).

I do like that I haven't even beaten half the bosses and I'm at 18 hours. I have a knack for beating games in 24 hours without even intending to, and there are few exceptions to that (Tales games, Persona). Of course that could be because of the types of games I play... But anyways, I think this may be another one of those exceptions. I'm hoping it is, anyways. I try to do everything I can when I play games.