“...beware, because once the yo-kai enters your life, things will never be quite the same.” -a quote by Whisper, the yo-kai butler. Yo-kai Watch is a huge franchise, and I think “Yo-kai Watch 2: Psychic Specters” is a great game. In the summer, Nate’s (the player character) yo-kai watch, which lets him see and summon yo-kai, gets stolen by three evil siblings, and he forgets everything about his adventures. That is, until he very conveniently buys his watch back from a store that wasn’t there before. After he reunites with Whisper and Jibanyan, he gets to start his quest to befriend as many yo-kai as possible. But when he goes to his grandmother’s house in Harrisville, he starts to realize that there’s a bigger evil yo-kai organization, which includes the yo-kai who stole his watch! Some reasons I love this game are that it’s a puzzle game, it has big side quests, it has a long after-game, and it’s funny.

My first reason is that it’s a puzzle game. There’s the abandoned mansion, which Nate will have to eventually go through to upgrade his yo-kai watch to see higher ranked yo-kai. At the beginning, his watch can only reveal E rank yo-kai, which are the weakest. He can only go through the doors from one side, so it’s like a maze, but sometimes more annoying. I’ve gotten stuck there before, but the key is to look everywhere for any secret ways to go. The randomly appearing Gates of Whimsy give Nate tasks to complete to get Gate Orbs. If he gets enough Gate Orbs, he can open one of the four big gates (the fifth gate is only openable by completing the tasks of the other four). The random gates usually make him defeat a certain number of yo-kai, but sometimes they give him puzzles, which I’ve unfortunately never seen before. I’ve only opened the first big gate, a can-kicking challenge, which is a lot harder than it seems. The first level is ridiculously easy, but as you progress, there get to be a lot of chances to kick the can into the void and be forced to restart. This is my weakest of the four reasons why I love this game.

My second reason is that it has big side quests (quests that aren’t really important to the story) because they add so much to the game. Again, there’s the Gates of Whimsy that Professor Gately’s so curious about. Then there’s Directator’s All-Star Cast, where Nate has to get certain people who can see yo-kai without the watch, then play his part as an ogre in Directator’s movie. His reward is a new app that lets him view previous cutscenes. Yo-kai Watch Blasters technically isn’t a quest, but it’s still a fun side thing Nate can access from his Yo-kai Pad. In regular terror time, he has to escape from the boss yo-kai Gargaros and collect oni orbs along the way, which power up a coin he uses at the end in the Oni Crank-a-Kai. Blasters is like terror time, but you can play as one of Nate’s yo-kai and actually fight the boss for a ton of orbs. As he completes certain tasks, he gets to choose between more bosses, like Orcanos, Dame Dedtime, and finally Hinozall. This is my next weakest reason.

My third reason is that it has a long after-game, again because it adds so much to the game. After you beat the game, Nate realizes summer hasn’t ended yet. There seems to be some force stopping time, so he goes to the Infinite Inferno, which is like heck for yo-kai, to find and hopefully stop it. To progress through its levels, he must defeat boss yo-kai that may look similar to bosses he's seen in other places. After he finishes that quest, he has to do something I can’t say because of spoilers. Then, when that’s resolved, he gets to go through Mystery Way, where he sees three doors, each related to a different game in “Yo-kai Watch 2” (yes, there are three 2 games): Bony Spirits, Fleshy Souls, and Psychic Specters. Each door has a different oni boss yo-kai he can befriend: Gargaros, Ogralus, and Orcanos. This is my second strongest reason.

My fourth reason is that it’s funny. First of all, there’s Jibanyan. He’s a lazy cat yo-kai that loves chocobars and can’t remember his own name from when he was alive. He’s the biggest comedian of Nate’s group. There’s also a lot of hilarious quests. One of them is where Nate sees an old woman thinking about her husband, who he presumes is dead. He goes to the past with Miradox, uses Mimikin (a mannequin yo-kai who loves to copy people) to transform into him when he sees him, comes back to the present, and shows the woman, who is very shocked. Afterwards, her real husband comes outside. Another comedic character is Professor Gately, a very hyper woman who can see yo-kai. In the Kyubi quest, where Nate has to bring Kyubi to different women to get heart orbs, he finds Gately is oblivious to all flirtation. This is my strongest reason why I love this game.

I very much recommend that you play “Yo-kai Watch 2: Psychic Specters,” especially if you love puzzle games. You’ll also be satisfied with how much there is to the game, and the abundance of humor. I’ve loved this game since I was seven, and I’ve beaten the game twice, but I’m not even close to finishing everything. But I warn you, once you put on the yo-kai watch, your life will never be the same again. (insert maniacal laughter)