Yo-kai Watch is a Level-5 franchise with a cult following in Japan but modest success in the US. My discovery of the franchise began at a Walmart in 2014. Yo-kai Watch, Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, and a bunch of generic releases were on the shelf. I was familiar with Dragon Quest and the JRPG genre in general, so of course, Dragon Quest is my first pick. But I kept thinking about Yo-kai Watch after I left. I find that it’s common to leave Walmart with Komasan’s coy eyes staring at your back from the glass window.
japanese
Review: 206
Warning: Story Spoilers Ahead
206 is a short narrative-adventure game created by solo developer Yo Fujii. It was released as a demo in April 2020. Japanese independent game developers are relatively unknown in English speaking spaces. So 206 was one of many games that I had stashed in a folder with no pre-decisions or research done before downloading and storing. I know absolutely nothing about it other than that it was made by a Japanese independent developer, which is a demographic of games that I only found in the RPG maker horror section of indie games (i.e. Kikkiyama of Yume Nikki).