Straight from their Twitter. From the Google Translate, it looks like this might be download only for now. Also mentions a deluxe version for "buying paid items"? Hmmm
I'm not going to bother hoping this one leaves Japan.
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Yo-kai Watch Jam - Yo-kai Academy Y coming August 13th (Japan only obviously)
- Thread starter DanarchyReigns
- Start date
Straight from their Twitter. From the Google Translate, it looks like this might be download only for now. Also mentions a deluxe version for "buying paid items"? Hmmm
I'm not going to bother hoping this one leaves Japan.
I've posted this on my website too.
Note that this will release first on Nintendo Switch. the PS4 version will release some time until 2020 ends (Japan Only too)
Brazillians: switch-brasil.com/?p=55487
Note that this will release first on Nintendo Switch. the PS4 version will release some time until 2020 ends (Japan Only too)
Brazillians: switch-brasil.com/?p=55487
OP
OP
Level-5 really needs a restructure.
Maybe moves like buying out Keiji Inafune's company is a bad idea.
It looks kind of cute. Hope they bring it to the west.
Level-5, between other things, needs to improve the speed of translation/localization of their games. Same day worldwide releases.
Its sad that they're losing fans of their big franchises (Yo-Kai Watch, Inazuma,...) because they can't manage their games better.
Level-5, between other things, needs to improve the speed of translation/localization of their games. Same day worldwide releases.
Its sad that they're losing fans of their big franchises (Yo-Kai Watch, Inazuma,...) because they can't manage their games better.
What fans are there left to lose? No, really. Their entire business is circling the drain. If they had a stable, active revenue stream, Yo-kai Watch would be put to sleep like a dying pet. Bigger franchises have been killed for far less. But it's all they have right now, so any low-effort attempt to milk a couple drops of blood out of the stone cold corpse of what was once a competitive, healthy IP -- that's next month's rent for them. It's soulless and everyone can smell it a mile away.
There will be no attempt to improve the speed of their localizations. After all, this IS the improvement. They have a whole subsidiary devoted to their global efforts. What you're seeing now is a development pipeline so convoluted and chaotic that simultaneous localization is impossible. Without getting into the details, Abby was founded 5 years ago and has had absolutely no success on any level whatsoever and that should tell you how fundamentally broken Level-5's approach to the global market is. It's a much, much bigger problem than just, "Improve the speed of localization." I mean, Abby is a joint venture with Dentsu, one of the biggest advertising agencies on the planet. That the years since it was founded have seen Level-5 fade almost completely into obscurity is genuinely astounding to me. It's not a coincidence that they're the only ones who can't seem to crack the code. The entire Japanese game industry cleared this hurdle a decade ago.
3 years ago they were in trouble, but there was a path to redemption. Today? What is there at Level-5 to even enjoy anymore? It's all low-effort mobile games rife with predatory gacha microtransactions and 10$ indie games with a "high profile" IP slapped on it to justify a 50$ price tag. Oh, and if we're REALLY LUCKY, once in a blue moon they'll toss out a full-price game with moderately high ambition behind it -- and pray you don't discover it was rushed through development at a pace that could break the sound barrier and consequently has all the optimization (and actual content) of a trade show demo.
The only Level-5 project I'm looking forward to is an exhaustive postmortem detailing how they fell from grace so historically.
Yokai Watch is still doing okay in Europe and Latin America (France in particular), but with the way Level 5 has been handling, both local matters, as well as international territories where it's been successful in, has been really frustrating. The PS4 releases definitely seem to be made in mind for International markets the most (specifically Latin America, notably Brazil, due to Nintendo's support being incredibly rough there), but we haven't heard anything about Yokai Watch 4's International release in awhile. Meanwhile, the anime continues to be dubbed in the markets it does okay/well in, but the general lack of coordination from Level 5 outside of the licensors has been bizarre.
Dentsu USA was recently change, and it's unclear what that means for Level 5 Abby that was managing all aspects of International specifics (as Dentsu USA is consolidating their branches under a new name and the lack of Level 5 Abby mentioned is extremely concerning). It feels like they're as much of a problem as it is Level 5's Japanese branch, and with now unknowns with Level 5 Abby, I'm beginning to wonder at what point their International distribution may stop and/or change hands. Most dubs, nowadays for Yokai Watch in the Western markets, are just dubbing from Japanese, compared to the initial dubs using the English as the basis (some dubs even started leaving the songs in Japanese, too). They actually didn't even use the last Season as the basis (which was heavily edited down, likely as a way to cut costs/corners, and the dub switched from Union to Non-Union) for the International dubs.
But yeah, the whole thing is a mess. Yokai Watch still has some success, which we can owe to the IP itself, but Level 5's strategy has been a mess with it. It's an absolute miracle it's still alive. Somehow. But I don't know how long Level 5 can keep this up. Every year I'm surprised that they didn't successfully kill the IP. Maybe the fact that it has some International presence where it does Well and Okay in certain markets is what prevents it from having a total crash. But we still have so many unknowns.
Dentsu USA was recently change, and it's unclear what that means for Level 5 Abby that was managing all aspects of International specifics (as Dentsu USA is consolidating their branches under a new name and the lack of Level 5 Abby mentioned is extremely concerning). It feels like they're as much of a problem as it is Level 5's Japanese branch, and with now unknowns with Level 5 Abby, I'm beginning to wonder at what point their International distribution may stop and/or change hands. Most dubs, nowadays for Yokai Watch in the Western markets, are just dubbing from Japanese, compared to the initial dubs using the English as the basis (some dubs even started leaving the songs in Japanese, too). They actually didn't even use the last Season as the basis (which was heavily edited down, likely as a way to cut costs/corners, and the dub switched from Union to Non-Union) for the International dubs.
But yeah, the whole thing is a mess. Yokai Watch still has some success, which we can owe to the IP itself, but Level 5's strategy has been a mess with it. It's an absolute miracle it's still alive. Somehow. But I don't know how long Level 5 can keep this up. Every year I'm surprised that they didn't successfully kill the IP. Maybe the fact that it has some International presence where it does Well and Okay in certain markets is what prevents it from having a total crash. But we still have so many unknowns.
A game for the Switch/PS4 likely to have microtransactions? That can't be good for the gameplay itself...
I really liked YW4, spent about 60 hours with it. That frame rate though? Dear lord...
I've mentioned this before, but being in Fukuoka doesn't really help their cause. People want to be in Tokyo or Kansai! And if they already work for a game company, they sure don't want to move to Fukuoka to change to Level 5.
I really liked YW4, spent about 60 hours with it. That frame rate though? Dear lord...
I've mentioned this before, but being in Fukuoka doesn't really help their cause. People want to be in Tokyo or Kansai! And if they already work for a game company, they sure don't want to move to Fukuoka to change to Level 5.
All the problems you mentioned concerning Level-5 sounds awful.
Other users said similar things when Level-5 management was brought up. But I never wanted to believe them.
I always thought that they were exaggerations, unhappy fans or at least that their problems weren't as bad as they appear to be.
I guess there's little to no hope for us. :(
Btw, Thanks to the previous users for their long explanation.
Other users said similar things when Level-5 management was brought up. But I never wanted to believe them.
I always thought that they were exaggerations, unhappy fans or at least that their problems weren't as bad as they appear to be.
I guess there's little to no hope for us. :(
Btw, Thanks to the previous users for their long explanation.
It's really sad to see how Level 5 just ruined themselves, I get it, they make good IP that sell incredibly well, and milk it until they make another one.
But it's been far too long since Yokai Watch's peak popularity, The Snack World was a failure and they kept making bad decisions since. A shame because I loved their IPs and now Inazuma Eleven is still MIA after several years of development.
I'm aware they rebooted it multiple time and the latest date is 2021.
But it's been far too long since Yokai Watch's peak popularity, The Snack World was a failure and they kept making bad decisions since. A shame because I loved their IPs and now Inazuma Eleven is still MIA after several years of development.
I'm aware they rebooted it multiple time and the latest date is 2021.
I'd still like Yokai Watch to be a thing because I really enjoyed the mainline games. Their worlds were a treat to explore, but the constant switching of combat systems and move to super simplistic action combat hasn't done them any favors.
When their charm hits, it hits hard. It's just a shame they keep forgetting they're making games.
When their charm hits, it hits hard. It's just a shame they keep forgetting they're making games.
They went multiplatform and Nintendo is not helping them with it anymore
Unless Bamco pays for it, Level 5 tends to take 1-2 years for localizations. Best case maybe we'll see YW4 this year Q4.
OP
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I think the only thing that's making Level-5 money now is Yo-kai Watch Puni Puni. It's still a somewhat successful gacha game. Right now it's doing a crossover with Kamen Rider so that probably earned them a few more months. Getting paid to feature, and Kamen Rider fans dumping money into premium currency to try to get their favorite Rider.
There's also a Yo-kai Academy anime, but I have no idea if that's doing okay.
Level-5 is always slow with localization. Even worse now with no Nintendo helping.
There's also a Yo-kai Academy anime, but I have no idea if that's doing okay.
Level-5 is always slow with localization. Even worse now with no Nintendo helping.
OP
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It's been out for two years now. Only in Japan of course. It's now called "Fantasy Life Online"