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Prerelease:Yo-kai Watch 4

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This page details prerelease information and/or media for Yo-kai Watch 4.

YW4BetaLogo.jpg
Hmmm...
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Yo-kai Watch 4 had a rather uneven development cycle, starting out as a means to shift to a darker tone in an attempt to win back fans and having work on a completely new console. The game was also delayed twice for mostly-unknown reasons. It originally started out as a game focusing entirely on Yo-kai Watch Shadowside before it started to include elements from the original series, the Forever Friends movie, and eventually the short-lived 2019 Yo-kai Watch! anime series.

Despite the graphical upgrade and bigger focus on combat, sales of the game did not live up to Level-5's expectations, causing them to drop support for the game before it could be filled with updates.

Development Timeline

2017

  • Feb. - A Nintendo Switch trailer shows games in development with different companies, with Level-5 being one of the developers.
  • May 17 - Akihiro Hino has plans to "refresh the series" after noticing the declining sales of Yo-kai Watch 3 compared to Yo-kai Watch 2 in Japan, and said that a "new flow" would begin with the Shadowside movie coming later that year.[1]
  • Dec. 5 - Issue 1515 of Weekly Famitsu teases "a new Yo-kai Watch game" coming soon.[2]
  • Dec. 16 - The fourth movie is released in Japan, showing some of the changed-around Shadowside content.
  • Dec. 27 - Level-5 says they want to focus on Switch games in 2018.[3]

2018

  • Mar. 13 - Leaker Ryokutya2089 says that "shocking Yo-kai Watch news" is coming in April.[4]
  • Apr. 16 - Details on the game are revealed, with a release date of "2018".
  • Jun. - A teaser trailer is released, confirming the existence of content from the original Yo-kai Watch games.
  • Jul. - The game is confirmed to be released in Winter.
  • Sep. 20 - A playable demo of the game is present at the Tokyo Game Show.
  • Oct. 10 - Yo-kai Watch 4 is delayed to Spring 2019 without any official reasons.

2019

  • Mar. 12 - Yo-kai Watch 4 is given a new logo and pushed back to June 6.
  • Apr. 5 - A visual of the new boxart cover is revealed, showing several new Yo-kai that would appear.[5]
  • Apr. 27 - Yo-kai Watch 4 is given a CERO A age rating.
  • May 16 - The game is delayed to June 20 for "quality improvements".
  • Jun. 1 - Japanese YouTuber "HikakinGames" gets an early copy of the game. By all indication, it's identical to the final game.
  • Jun. 20 - Yo-kai Watch 4 is released in Japan.

2015-2017

Development Beginnings

In 2015, Akihiro Hino had announced that they would be bringing the Yo-kai Watch brand to consoles, which were of the Wii U (which would come out as Yo-kai Watch Dance: Just Dance Special Version) and the NX (which is the codename for the then-revealed Nintendo Switch), where Hino most notably took more interest in development for the latter. [6] In December 2017, 4Gamer interviewed Akihiro Hino, where he said that the company wants to focus on Nintendo Switch games in 2018, such as Ni no Kuni II: Reverant Kingdom and Inazuma Eleven Eiyuutachi no Great Road.[7]

Yo-kai Watch 4 is the first Level-5 game to be developed for the Nintendo Switch, not counting ports of their existing games. During the Nintendo Switch's announcement in January 2017, Level-5 is listed as one of the companies that were developing for the console.

Franchise Refresh

In an interview with Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino on the website X-Trend in May 2017[8], Hino had noticed that the Japanese sales of Yo-kai Watch 3 had fallen by about four million copies compared to Yo-kai Watch 2, along with additional merchandising sales. Hino also said that he wanted to "refresh the series" after he was asked about what the fourth Yo-kai Watch movie would be like, which would begin with "a new flow" later on in the year.

Hino additionally said that a potential "Yo-kai Watch 4" will be released, and would be "elaborate". Hino goes on to say that the developmental team will have to make "various elaborate things" so he could make the franchise popular again. He also brought up how Yo-kai Watch 2 appealed to all demographics, and wanted to bring back fans of older age groups due to many of them moving from the franchise. This resulted in a decision by Level-5 to give Yo-kai Watch a darker edge with the Shadowside series, while it still retained some of the humor of the original series.

(Source: source needed)

2018

April

Official Announcement

Yo-kai Watch 4 was officially announced in the April 2018 Corocoro magazine, slated for a release in 2018. It featured Yo-kai Watch Shadowside characters Natsume Amano, Touma Tsukinami, Akinori Arihosi and Keisuku Amano along with other Shadowside Yo-kai that have appeared in the anime and movie. Akihiro Hino said that the game is powered up, which was the same thing he said for Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl Gold and would feature a new mechanic that will "surprise everyone".[9]

June

Teaser Trailer

Teaser trailer was released, showing artwork of Natsume, Nate and Shin from three different doors, confirming the existence of characters and Yo-kai from the original anime series and the then-forthcoming Forever Friends movie. The release date was still 2018.

July

First Screenshot

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Was this posted in an earlier Famitsu or Corocoro issue?
Early Final
YW4PrereleaseImage.jpg Yo kai Watch 4 sakuragihills.png

The very first screenshot of Yo-kai Watch 4 was posted on Gematsu's website. It shows Touma walking down Sakuragi Hills with Shadowside Yo-kai and other characters. There's a lot of changes to be found in the screenshot:

  • Akinori is saying "Come on, get going! I’m waiting at the office, you know!" while the objective says "Go to the Yo-kai Detective Office!".
  • Touma wears his school uniform outfit, which cannot be changed into before the game is cleared. It's possible that it was the default outfit before it was changed in the final.
  • Shadowside Jibanyan, Lightside Komasan, Natsume or the running NPC do not appear at the area at any point of the game. It may have been staged for the image, suggesting the total appearance of the NPCs in the map icon on the bottom right.
  • The Map design had house icons instead of "blocks" representing them like in the original Yo-kai Watch 3DS games. The font was also different and the R button was moved to the top in the final.
  • The character was more "zoomed in" and was likely changed to take advantage of the Nintendo Switch's wider screen resolution.
  • Though there did seem to be a playground on the right, the map may not have been updated to reflect that.
  • There was no north-eastern entrance to the park.
  • The brick walls surrounding the park were replaced by fence with greenery covering them in the final.
  • The tree has a shadow reflection which does not appear in the final.
  • The trees in the row of houses were smaller.
  • There was no icon for saving, objective guidance, Watch lens or Watch cleaning. However, it did confirm the existence of the then-revealed Naviwan where the icon would be moved to the left button.
(Source: Gematsu Kaialone (translation))

Corocoro Information

https://kaialone.tumblr.com/post/175964720990/yokai-watch-news-yokai-watch-4-forever-friends

The game was confirmed to be released in the winter of 2018.

August

Corocoro Magazine

Humans can fight alongside Yo-kai. Fourth world was teased.

http://ryokutya2089.com/archives/12931 https://pm1.narvii.com/6915/02301d9189b08f95c7de767f14716498b5df911dr1-1080-1920v2_hq.jpg https://pm1.narvii.com/6915/831023e1b4e39fcd76d9f7d31ca693986ddf2941r1-1600-1080v2_hq.jpg https://www.gematsu.com/2018/08/yo-kai-watch-4-adds-humans-to-battles-fourth-world

Nate's world was shown.

  • If not all, but most of the map from Uptown Springdale is shown. This would end up being the layout for the World Hobby Fair Winter '19 demo.
  • Nate is still wearing his outfit from Yo-kai Watch 3.

September

New Screenshot

https://nintendosoup.com/heres-a-new-screenshot-from-yo-kai-watch-4-before-tgs/

Tokyo Game Show Demo

At the Tokyo Game Show 2018, a playable demo for Yo-kai Watch 4 was showcased, containing a few differences from the final game. It covers the battle of Jinta and Jingeki.

  • The demo begins with a message stating that the final product would be greatly different from the early build.
Japanese Translation
この体験版は開発中のため、実際の製品では実測が
余栄されてい表示・音声の一部が入っておりません。
操作方法につきましてもほんし本仕様ではないため、
実際の製品と大きく異なります。
またローディング時間は製品よりも長くなっております。
ご了承ください。
。。
  • The music is nearly entirely different in the build, with tracks like Sakuragi Hills and Natsume's house not being present in the game's data.
    • The song used for battling Jinta is reused for battling Yo-kai in Shin's World.
    • The unused Victory theme that exists in the final game's data is used.
  • The voices are also different.
  • There is no minimap for the second floor of Natsume's house.
  • There aren't any roaming vehicles present.
  • Natsume's house received some aesthetic changes:
    • The wall cutaways were taller, such as the laundry room not being able to be seen in the lower floor.
    • The door to Keisuke and Natsume's parents' bedroom is locked, though Keisuke's bedroom interior can be briefly seen.
    • The coffee table inside the living room of Natsume's house has a blue glass texture compared to a clearer one in the final.
    • The picture frame inside the bookshelf was different.
  • Sakuragi Hills was slightly different:
    • There are still no streetlights present.
    • The house at the playground was blue inside of white.
    • There was a house present on the west side of the district, and there was originally two apartment buildings that had less detail instead of one.
    • The northern houses on the hill are still present.
    • The apartment blocks on the east side of the area were taller. There also seemed to be no path leading to the Crank-a-kai, as shown on the map.
    • The ground texture for the park had a brighter yellow hue.
    • The house with solar panels on the right side of the park was changed to a different one.
    • The hole on the wall where Jigeki is found is covered up in the final.
    • There were no road markings on the other side of the playground.
    • The gates next to the brown house was closed and front yard was paved over in the final.
    • The red-roofed house was slightly redesigned by it being turned around.
    • Vending machines were added to the northwestern park entrance in the final.
  • Tastumi-kawabata had some changes:
    • The blue barricades at the alleyway were removed in the final.
    • The road markings were not straight.
    • The building at the end of the road is different, the road was also not curved and seemed to have a scrapped intersection that was likely moved to further along it.
  • Stop Watching Mode doesn't exist in this build.
  • The victory screen for gaining money for experience isn't seen.
  • The map isn't expandable, nor displays the time, and the word "MAP" is removed.
  • The scene of Jibanyan, Nate and Whisper stepping into the future world near the end of the demo is present in the final game, but altered to show that they're in the future and is moved to the playground outside of the school. The dialogue is also different.
  • The transition for Tastsumi-Kawabata from Sakuragi Hills happens earlier.
  • At the end splash screen, Kuroi Jibanyan and Rudy can be seen even though they don't appear in the finished product nor has made an appearance in any expansions.

Tokyo Game Show Review

An interview with Akihiro Hino was held at the Tokyo Game Show 2018, where he discussed about the 20th anniversary of Level-5, as well as some other franchises. He revealed that he wanted to "stay away from the initial boom" of the series due to having children flood in at a big-scale game show be dangerous. He also said that he showed them due to time demand, but didn't want people to see how the games looked at the time of it being shown.

Hino also confirmed that there will be a lot more elements in battling in the finished product and said that work is "coming steadily" in development of Yo-kai Watch 4.

(Source: https://nintendoeverything.com/level-5-ceo-on-yo-kai-watch-4-and-inazuma-eleven-ares-20th-anniversary-title/)

October

https://famigeki.tumblr.com/post/179152806721/yo-kai-watch-various-games

Delay

In the October 2018 issue of Corocoro, Hino confirmed that Yo-kai Watch 4 was delayed into Spring 2019 with no official reason given by the company. Despite that, Hino has said that development for the games have been "going well" and is working on making improvements.

To make up for the delay, several new screenshots were posted, which in reality were taken straight from the Tokyo Game Show 2018 demo with hardly any changes, and shows that Touma, Natsume and Nate are the confirmed playable characters.

https://imgur.com/a/9w5zU3A#vYz3iNA

(Source: https://nintendosoup.com/level-5-why-yo-kai-watch-4-and-inazuma-elevens-ares-were-delayed-teases-new-project/)

December

New Screenshots

New images were released. It showed more of Nate's world and the battle system that is completely unchanged from the Tokyo Game Show 2018 demo. https://imgur.com/a/NoHusG1#5AldXHH

  • Nate still wore his Yo-kai Watch 3 outfit, even though official artwork of his original outfit is now officially present.
  • There is a quest to go behind the convenience store, which exists in the final game, but was originally in the place where the Memory Shop was located in Yo-kai Watch 2.
  • Katie is never seen walking down the crosswalk in the final game, meaning that she was still likely a NPC character at this point.

Mass Exodus

Rumors heavily arised near the end of 2018 when multiple Level-5 employees had left the company due to the delay of Yo-kai Watch 4 into 2019. It was likely due to very little new information being shown off in pre-release media, that would later result in the incompleteness of the final product. {{source|1=[Nifty Switchsoku NintendoSoup (translation)}} https://www.gamerevolution.com/news/476805-rumor-yo-kai-watch-4-developers-leave-level-5-in-mass-exodus https://web.archive.org/web/20181231050653/https://news.nifty.com/article/domestic/society/12184-44804/

2019

January

World Hobby Fair 2019 Demo

A demo was playable at the fair again, showing off Nate's world in Uptown Springdale. It's loosely based on the first chapter of the video game, whilst most of Springdale looks unchanged.

  • Nate is now wearing his original outfit from Yo-kai Watch and Yo-kai Watch 2 present in the final game.
  • Uptown Springdale, Mt. Wildwood and the Yo-kai battle Music from Yo-kai Watch are used along with the item obtaining jingle.
  • The early victory jingle is still used.
  • The jingle that plays when you go inside an Everymart store isn't present, along with the audible welcoming voice clip.
  • Yo-kai are now playable in battle.
  • The bicycle bell is reused from the previous games.

February

March

April

May

June

https://old.reddit.com/r/yokaiwatch/comments/ahrgfo/mega_summary_of_yokai_watch_4_news_from_whf2019/

References