the news came out of nowhere today with the monthly refresh. the game is being shut down on every region except for Japan, so hopefully this isn't indicative of the future of the franchise in the west
pour one out for one of the great gacha games
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Yo-kai Watch Wibble Wobble shutting down on May 31st
- Thread starter newmoneytrash
- Start date
the news came out of nowhere today with the monthly refresh. the game is being shut down on every region except for Japan, so hopefully this isn't indicative of the future of the franchise in the west
pour one out for one of the great gacha games
Yo-kai Watch failed to get traction in the west. I think maybe they will try again with the new series, that is a bit darker.
This game is actually quite fun but like all F2P mobile games you will hit "The Wall". I believe it is still fairly popular in Japan however.
I'm always curious about how these games will be preserved in the future. I wonder if there will be a scene for retro mobile games in the future.
I'm always curious about how these games will be preserved in the future. I wonder if there will be a scene for retro mobile games in the future.
Its pretty well liked in europe and the anime is airing all the time in kids tv. The games sell well here
Sure. I think they still expected more, but the problem is mostly the US.
I hope this doesn't hurt the other games. I know Busters is likely coming as a composer accidentally leaked he was working on it.
I know that the 3DS (and possibly Switch) games are under Level 5's umbrella, and WibWob is surveyed by NHN (who also do Disney Tsum Tsum and similar games). So as long as Level 5 does okay, I think we'll see mainline games and Busters (probably not Three Kingdoms).
I've deleted it off my phone. No point now as I've pretty much gotten everything.
There were a number of factors when you think about it. Droughts of no content, an over-reliance on a single type of event (Scramble Battles), little effort put into the events overall. It would have been nice had they told us before with that big "All SS Ranks in the Gacha" event. Probably just one last cashgrab before pulling the plug...
Maybe once the world is caught up with Japan, we'll see a reboot, but that's unlikely.
I know that the 3DS (and possibly Switch) games are under Level 5's umbrella, and WibWob is surveyed by NHN (who also do Disney Tsum Tsum and similar games). So as long as Level 5 does okay, I think we'll see mainline games and Busters (probably not Three Kingdoms).
I've deleted it off my phone. No point now as I've pretty much gotten everything.
There were a number of factors when you think about it. Droughts of no content, an over-reliance on a single type of event (Scramble Battles), little effort put into the events overall. It would have been nice had they told us before with that big "All SS Ranks in the Gacha" event. Probably just one last cashgrab before pulling the plug...
Maybe once the world is caught up with Japan, we'll see a reboot, but that's unlikely.
OP
OP
Yeah I just started getting back into it a few days ago, it's really fun and like the perfect 2 minute time waster game
oh i hadn't heard about the busters leak. with nintendo supporting the 3DS into 2019 with Bowser's Inside Story i was secretly holding out hope for Busters and Yo-Kai Watch 3
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Yeah, 3DS support to 2019 is a little beacon of hope.
I imagine Busters 2 will get a Switch port. It runs on the same engine as The Snack World and that's getting a Switch port. Plus a Shadowside game is likely happening.
Yep. There's sadly too many Pokesheep here in the US that see games like this as just a "Pokemon ripoff", despite Yo-kai Watch being so different (and better IMO), and won't even give the series a chance.
I'm very confident YW3 will come over. Probably be announced at E3. First two games for Sept/Oct of this year and then the third game maybe around March 2019.
The first game actually sold great in the US, better than Europe iirc. The issue is more that the multimedia end never took off here and sequel flopped.
The anime did well, when it aired new episodes. Though that might change when it comes back with new voice actors.
Reading into it, apparently Gamespot and IGN gave the sequels middling scores (5 and 5.5 respectively). That probably didn't help.
And yeah, Pokemon fans that immediately discredit it as a rip-off really hurt it. They're the worst (like Genwunners).
Reading into it, apparently Gamespot and IGN gave the sequels middling scores (5 and 5.5 respectively). That probably didn't help.
And yeah, Pokemon fans that immediately discredit it as a rip-off really hurt it. They're the worst (like Genwunners).
OP
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level-5 did just say all of their games will come to the switch ;)
Oh man. I committed a hell of alot of time to this game. I ended up quitting when the gacha aspect became a massive part of the post-game, and obtaining the best Yokai became a test of endurance and luck rather than skill.
A real shame, cos the core game is absolutely fantastic.
A real shame, cos the core game is absolutely fantastic.
If you're considering switching to the Japanese version, I would advise against it.
A major change was added in November. Y-Points, a second currency that's used for the special gacha and events. They're harder to obtain than Y-Money, often making people buckle down and spend money for it. Many Japanese players even left the game, left negative reviews. I heard they migrated to WibWob, but clearly that didn't have an effect.
You can try if you want, grind like crazy for Y-Points.
A major change was added in November. Y-Points, a second currency that's used for the special gacha and events. They're harder to obtain than Y-Money, often making people buckle down and spend money for it. Many Japanese players even left the game, left negative reviews. I heard they migrated to WibWob, but clearly that didn't have an effect.
You can try if you want, grind like crazy for Y-Points.
I doubt this. This is a younger audience game, so older people complaining about it on the internet doesn't do much to affect it. The IP simply stalled in America. I kinda think Nintendo massively overshipped the first game, while the second was a lot more reasonably shipped
That's pretty much me and Yo-kai Watch and that's exactly how I feel about the games. I hope the 3rd games come soon. I think they fixed the random luck based crank-a-kai system. Here's hoping!
I realized something. Assuming we're getting the third game, how will we have access to Puninyan and Punikoma? Two Yo-kai that act as a tie-in to Puni Puni (Japanese Wibble Wobble). The way you got them was doing missions in Puni, granting you the two Yo-kai in game and a code to unlock them in Yo-kai Watch 3. So how's it going to work now that Wibble Wobble is dead outside of Japan?
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I would have to imagine if they don't patch them into the game it will just be free DLC
It's an Anglosphere thing. I'm pretty sure YW flopped in Canada and the UK, too.
I really hope we get yokai watch 3. I loved both yokai watch 1 and 2.
2 had so many awesome improvements over the first game. But i did enjoy some of the story elements a bit more from the first. The time traveling, while a cool concept in 2, coupled with the subway traveling got kinda crazy until you got mirapo.
2 had so many awesome improvements over the first game. But i did enjoy some of the story elements a bit more from the first. The time traveling, while a cool concept in 2, coupled with the subway traveling got kinda crazy until you got mirapo.
OP
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Yeah it'd be nice to get 3 over at least, even if they just have to do it digital only or something
The game officially dies in a month.
I've thought about the reasons, and there were definitely quite a few.
1. It came out too soon.
When Puni Puni came out in Japan, they already had all three versions of YW2 and both versions of Busters, along with the second movie coming out. When America got WibWob, we only had the first game and the first 26 episodes of anime. Because of this, the game went through several event droughts. Meaning a new event wouldn't come out, or it'd be something weak like "Better chances at S-Ranks in the Crank-a-Kai". So people dropped the game. Yo-kai that came out early in Japan (Usapyon, Enma, Zazel) wouldn't come out until late in the game's life. You could tell they tried to make up for it in the last few months by adding several YW3 Yo-kai even though that game is still ways off in America (we still don't fucking have Busters!). Unfortunately, it was too late.
2. Dumb decisions.
For whatever, the American NHN branch made some really terrible decisions that probably really hurt the game.
The one that stands out for a lot of people was their handling of the Legendary Yo-kai Slurpent. A very OP Yo-kai that's viable in the meta, and still has use in Japan. To get a Legendary Yo-kai, you need to unseal it by obtaining six specific Yo-kai. For Slurpent, one of these was Unikirin. In Japan, he was simple as you simply had to get him out of the Crank-a-Kai. But in America, they made you jump through hoops. The only way to get him was getting the top prize in the Scramble Battle. The way that worked is you had three teams, and you'd grind on that team getting a certain item. The team part wasn't important, but what was important was contribution points. The more of those you got, the better the prize. In Japan, getting the Top Prize require you to be in the Top 100, that's fair. But in America, it was the Top 5. Meaning only 15 people had a chance per round. And each round lasted four days (only three in Japan) so it was a painful marathon. NHN seemed to realize this was a major fuck-up so they added Scramble Battle Coins to the next event that have Unikirin and others. Eventually he got easier in various ways but that really got people angry.
Another was the Thanksgiving Coin. A special holiday coin? Well it was just a regular Five-Star Coin that had Komajiro S, a useful Yo-kai. There was only a finite number of Thanksgiving Coins. They knew they fucked up again as they had an entire week of "Komajiro S is in the Crank-a-Kai"
There was also the 1st Anniversary Coin, which was also just a regular Five-Star Coin. Compared to Japan's 1st Anniversary Coin which had rare Yo-kai. What were you thinking?
Similarly a Christmas coin that was the only way to get Sailornyan, Robonyan F, and Robokapp. Eventually they were all added through other means but why did this keep happening?
Though I think the one thing that really killed the game for people was the addition of Partial Soul Secrets to the Crank-a-Kai. Soul Secrets are your true source of power, 34 are needed to get their Skill Level to max. In Japan, Mini and Small Soul Secrets were added with YW3's Dream Roulette, where if you maxed out one of the B or A-Rank Yo-kai, it wouldn't disappear like the regular Crank, instead it would give you one of the Partials. In America though, they were put in the regular Crank, so players that were looking for that specific Yo-kai or trying to max it out were bombarded with items they didn't need. I feel this was the move that truly killed the game, having players leave in droves and several angry videos being made about it. This lasted a month until they finally brought in the Lucky Crank-a-Kai, a more expensive version like the one Japan has, maxing out a Yo-kai gives you a Soul Secrets that way. But it was likely too late.
3. No Money
At the end of the day though, this is the real reason. A F2P app game needs money to survive, and Wibble Wobble just wasn't getting people to pay for it. Though the above reasons lead to this
WibWob had a very weak monetization system. The most you could do was buy more in-game currency, but it was overpriced and with the gacha aspect you really didn't get a good bang for your buck. I think it was $80 for 98,000 Y-Money. That bought you 32 regular Cranks (3000 a piece) and 21 Lucky Cranks (4500 a piece). Those were not good chances to get the Yo-kai you wanted.
There were attempts at further monetization, like Select-a-Coins. Buy a special Coin that would let you decide which powerful S-Rank Yo-kai you wanted. Unfortunately this promotion was rare and mostly limited to newcomers. Hell, Japan just re-added the Select-a-Coins showing they are more commonplace there. They also added slightly more powerful Soul Secrets you could buy ONCE, but most people saw that as a scam.
When Koma Star, T. Energison and Maiden Ruin were added to the game, gaining Y-Money became really simple, and thus people had no reason to buy it.
Even Japan eventually realized this and started doing extra monetization incentives. Events like the Slingshot and Tournament added items you could buy for a yen or five for that event. There was the special Nyanbo Crank-a-Kai that's all S-Ranks and above, only one free coin was offered and you had to buy your way to more (6000 Yen for 11), and then there controversial Y-Points for the Lucky Crank and events. Getting them on their own is tough so cha-ching.
But they didn't even try, and why should they? The player base dwindled thanks to the above reasons.
Perhaps what they should do is relaunch the game on a global scale. See, different countries had different servers for each. This was likely a big mistake as it meant smaller pools of people. Relaunching the game so that it covers America, Europe, Australia and anywhere else all in the same net (while Japan stays where it is since it's still going), I think that would be enough to keep the game going. But who knows...
I've thought about the reasons, and there were definitely quite a few.
1. It came out too soon.
When Puni Puni came out in Japan, they already had all three versions of YW2 and both versions of Busters, along with the second movie coming out. When America got WibWob, we only had the first game and the first 26 episodes of anime. Because of this, the game went through several event droughts. Meaning a new event wouldn't come out, or it'd be something weak like "Better chances at S-Ranks in the Crank-a-Kai". So people dropped the game. Yo-kai that came out early in Japan (Usapyon, Enma, Zazel) wouldn't come out until late in the game's life. You could tell they tried to make up for it in the last few months by adding several YW3 Yo-kai even though that game is still ways off in America (we still don't fucking have Busters!). Unfortunately, it was too late.
2. Dumb decisions.
For whatever, the American NHN branch made some really terrible decisions that probably really hurt the game.
The one that stands out for a lot of people was their handling of the Legendary Yo-kai Slurpent. A very OP Yo-kai that's viable in the meta, and still has use in Japan. To get a Legendary Yo-kai, you need to unseal it by obtaining six specific Yo-kai. For Slurpent, one of these was Unikirin. In Japan, he was simple as you simply had to get him out of the Crank-a-Kai. But in America, they made you jump through hoops. The only way to get him was getting the top prize in the Scramble Battle. The way that worked is you had three teams, and you'd grind on that team getting a certain item. The team part wasn't important, but what was important was contribution points. The more of those you got, the better the prize. In Japan, getting the Top Prize require you to be in the Top 100, that's fair. But in America, it was the Top 5. Meaning only 15 people had a chance per round. And each round lasted four days (only three in Japan) so it was a painful marathon. NHN seemed to realize this was a major fuck-up so they added Scramble Battle Coins to the next event that have Unikirin and others. Eventually he got easier in various ways but that really got people angry.
Another was the Thanksgiving Coin. A special holiday coin? Well it was just a regular Five-Star Coin that had Komajiro S, a useful Yo-kai. There was only a finite number of Thanksgiving Coins. They knew they fucked up again as they had an entire week of "Komajiro S is in the Crank-a-Kai"
There was also the 1st Anniversary Coin, which was also just a regular Five-Star Coin. Compared to Japan's 1st Anniversary Coin which had rare Yo-kai. What were you thinking?
Similarly a Christmas coin that was the only way to get Sailornyan, Robonyan F, and Robokapp. Eventually they were all added through other means but why did this keep happening?
Though I think the one thing that really killed the game for people was the addition of Partial Soul Secrets to the Crank-a-Kai. Soul Secrets are your true source of power, 34 are needed to get their Skill Level to max. In Japan, Mini and Small Soul Secrets were added with YW3's Dream Roulette, where if you maxed out one of the B or A-Rank Yo-kai, it wouldn't disappear like the regular Crank, instead it would give you one of the Partials. In America though, they were put in the regular Crank, so players that were looking for that specific Yo-kai or trying to max it out were bombarded with items they didn't need. I feel this was the move that truly killed the game, having players leave in droves and several angry videos being made about it. This lasted a month until they finally brought in the Lucky Crank-a-Kai, a more expensive version like the one Japan has, maxing out a Yo-kai gives you a Soul Secrets that way. But it was likely too late.
3. No Money
At the end of the day though, this is the real reason. A F2P app game needs money to survive, and Wibble Wobble just wasn't getting people to pay for it. Though the above reasons lead to this
WibWob had a very weak monetization system. The most you could do was buy more in-game currency, but it was overpriced and with the gacha aspect you really didn't get a good bang for your buck. I think it was $80 for 98,000 Y-Money. That bought you 32 regular Cranks (3000 a piece) and 21 Lucky Cranks (4500 a piece). Those were not good chances to get the Yo-kai you wanted.
There were attempts at further monetization, like Select-a-Coins. Buy a special Coin that would let you decide which powerful S-Rank Yo-kai you wanted. Unfortunately this promotion was rare and mostly limited to newcomers. Hell, Japan just re-added the Select-a-Coins showing they are more commonplace there. They also added slightly more powerful Soul Secrets you could buy ONCE, but most people saw that as a scam.
When Koma Star, T. Energison and Maiden Ruin were added to the game, gaining Y-Money became really simple, and thus people had no reason to buy it.
Even Japan eventually realized this and started doing extra monetization incentives. Events like the Slingshot and Tournament added items you could buy for a yen or five for that event. There was the special Nyanbo Crank-a-Kai that's all S-Ranks and above, only one free coin was offered and you had to buy your way to more (6000 Yen for 11), and then there controversial Y-Points for the Lucky Crank and events. Getting them on their own is tough so cha-ching.
But they didn't even try, and why should they? The player base dwindled thanks to the above reasons.
Perhaps what they should do is relaunch the game on a global scale. See, different countries had different servers for each. This was likely a big mistake as it meant smaller pools of people. Relaunching the game so that it covers America, Europe, Australia and anywhere else all in the same net (while Japan stays where it is since it's still going), I think that would be enough to keep the game going. But who knows...
The game dies tomorrow. *pours one out*
I think what annoys me more than the game shutting down is Level-5's complete silence on ANYTHING Yo-kai Watch related. No anime news, no Busters or 3 news, not a damn thing. Say something already! Are we just going to have to starve until E3?
I think what annoys me more than the game shutting down is Level-5's complete silence on ANYTHING Yo-kai Watch related. No anime news, no Busters or 3 news, not a damn thing. Say something already! Are we just going to have to starve until E3?