Japan Stuff: Yokai Watch is EVERYWHERE

I've had friends ask me if Pokemon is everywhere, if I can find underwear vending machines and if I've eaten my body weight in sushi yet. While the last part may be true thanks to the seven conveinence stores in walking distance from my Tokyo apartment, the one thing I have found to be taking over Japan is a 3DS game and now popular anime series, Yokai Watch.

I've posted a little on Yokai Watch before, but to summarise it's a highly popular ghost capturing JRPG aimed towards a younger audience. It has been compared to Pokemon before by Kotaku and Yokai Watch II was one of Japan's top selling games last year, selling over five million copies.

As someone who has a small interest in the game and a little knowledge of it's popularity, I was still not prepared for the onslaught of Yokai Watch merchandise I would see pretty much everywhere I went. I've seen toilet paper (which I couldn't take a photo of sadly), to candy to I don't even know, here's just some of the Yokai Watch merch I've seen throughout convenience stores and supermarkets in Tokyo.

(Which by the way, this doesn't include all of the toy stores that are indeed full of the Yokai Watch toys.)

In a Japanese supermarket, some sort of Yokai Watch cheese bar?

Trading cards, of course.

Yokai Watch tissues, for when you need a ghost to wipe your nose for you.

A Yokai Watch capsule machine. Capsule machine's are pretty common in Tokyo around convenience stores and grocery stores. While Attack on Titan and Sailor Moon have a presence with these, Yokai Watch will usually always be at least one of the machines in a group of them.

I think these are gum boots? Let's be honest, these are kinda cool.

If you look closely, these are actually some Yokai Watch sausage!

(insert ghost sausage joke here)

Stickers, tissues and lots of Yokai Watch at this Family Mart!

Another Yokai Watch capsule machine....

....With this on the other end of the aisle!

I truly can't remember what this is or where I saw it (probably a grocery store). But it's a drink or an ice block or something!

Oh, of course - Yokai Watch Pocky! I actually want to try this - does anyone know what flavour this is?

Stickers, toys and convenience store 'Yokai Watch' magic.

I think it's amazing how much a game has taken over so many different varieties of products! I can't even think of what it must be like to be a Japanese parent with a Yokai Watch loving child. My wallet bleeds for you.

Luckily, the Yokai Watch monsters are kinda cute and I don't have a child, so I don't mind seeing it everywhere. Thank goodness this isn't Persona or something though, as I would be broke.

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Have you played Yokai Watch? What JRPG would you plaster all over Japanese toilet paper?

I love hearing your thoughts, so please comment below or send a tweet to @JRPGJungle and follow if you want to keep up with these articles. Thanks for stopping by!

Final Fantasy Record Keeper Revealed

After the Final Fantasy Record Keeper website's countdown finished, the rest of the website for the smartphone game was revealed, along with details about the game.

In Final Fantasy Record Keeper, players can access battles from older Final Fantasy games. Each Final Fantasy game will a feature a world that can be accessed through paintings in the game. After clearing the world's dungeons, you can unlock playable characters from each game.

The game will be released in Japan for smartphones and will be free, but will also feature microtransactions.

Source: Siliconera

Read more about Final Fantasy Record Keeper on JRPG Jungle here

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Hyperdimension Action Neptunia U Shows Off It's Opening Video

Photo source: Destructoid

A few months ago, a new Neptunia game called Hyperdimension Action Neptunia U was announced in Dengeki Playstation Magazine in Japan. The details given at that time were that it was an action spin-off of the original series and we could expect it in Japan on the 28th of August 2014 for PS Vita.

The video below is from the Youtube of the game's developers Compile Heart. According to the videos title, it is the Opening Video for the game. The video showcases the characters and gives a small taste of what we can expect from the game.

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Persona Q: OUT IN JAPAN TODAY!

Persona fans, rejoice! This is the beginning of the 'new Persona games season' that we heard about back in November. It's finally real!

If you're lucky enough to have Japanese 3DS and/or have a decent grasp of Japanese, tomorrow you can enjoy Persona Q. Persona Q features characters from Persona 3 and 4, plus new mysterious characters, all with a brand new 'chibi' look!

Persona Q's story revolves around a new mystery - a bell tower that appears at Yasogami High. When this bell's chimes are heard, people die. The mystery comes to life with dungeons, Personas and a brand new story featuring all the main characters from Persona 3 and 4. The gameplay seems to be a deeper dungeon crawling experience, complete with maps to draw and many character combinations to choose from. The game also may attract multiple playthroughs, as depending on which party you choose (between the Persona 3 or 4 cast), you can get a slightly different story in the game.

Atlus has been nothing but generous in providing plenty of hype for the fans. Many Youtube videos have been uploaded featuring gameplay and character trailers, all in Japanese. For us waiting for the English localisation, it's a bit of a tease but for those receiving their pre-orders and purchases today, I can only imagine how excited you are.

Also out is the incredibly sexy Persona Q Japanese 3DS (below). I would be buying this if I knew more Japanese (it is a Japanese 3DS for Japanese games after all)...instead I'm just going to look at it and cry.

Comment below if you're getting the game and let us know how you're enjoying it so we can all get pumped and be jealous! :)

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Persona Q is available from Play-Asia.com in Japanese and English (which is due in the North American Fall) for the 3DS. Always note - the 3DS is not region free.