Yo-kai Watch News Teased On Its 10th Anniversary

Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of Yo-kai Watch, and Level-5 opened up an anniversary website to celebrate.

There isn’t much of note for those of us outside of Japan, especially since the Switch games were never localized (not even the port of the first game).

What’s much more interesting is a tweet from Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino, in which he talks about the anniversary.

If Google’s translation is accurate, his tweet says the “next work” is progressing even though it isn’t ready to be announced yet. This follows a tease back in February, in which he similarly commented on “the next amazing thing” in the works for Yo-kai Watch.

It’s been a long time since we’ve had any reason to discuss Yo-kai Watch.

For a while, the series seemed like it was poised to become the next big thing. It was huge in Japan and had begun to gain ground in the west. Yo-kai Watch, three different versions of Yo-kai Watch 2 (following the Pokémon model), the first Yo-kai Watch Blasters spin-off (also with two versions), and Yo-kai Watch 3 were all localized.

Then Yo-kai Watch localizations ground to a halt.

We never got Yo-kai Watch 4 or any other spin-offs, despite persistent hope for 4. Back in 2021, the trademark of “Y School Heroes” made fans hopeful that the spin-off Yo-kai Watch Jam: Yo-kai Academy Y was set to be localized, but nothing came of that.

(Then again, in that same blog post where I discussed that trademark, I mentioned that nothing had come of the Baten Kaitos trademark, and the Baten Kaitos remaster was finally announced this year.)

Now we have another chance. With Level-5 already having announced Decapolice, Fantasy Life i, Megaton Musashi: Wired, and Professor Layton and the New World of Steam this year, with a new commitment to worldwide releases, I’m hopeful that the next time a Yo-kai Watch game is announced, we’ll finally get it again in the west.

Back in March when the 3DS eShop was being shut down, I played through the start of Yo-kai Watch 3 to get far enough to download the free DLC before the eShop closed. It was fun, and it made me sad that we never got more Yo-kai Watch. While I still need to play 2 and 3, here’s hoping there is a new Yo-kai Watch game in our future!