Original Yo-Kai Watch headed to smartphones later this year

As the 3DS’s popularity fizzles out in Japan, developer Level-5 is migrating one of its most popular franchises to smarthphones.

Yo-Kai Watch, the original spirit-catching role-playing game for the 3DS, is headed to iOS and Android in Japan this fall. The company announced the port of the 2013 game, which kicked off a cultural craze in its home country, at its Level-5 Vision 2016 event. This new version will feature the original story combined with better visuals and online battles. Pricing info is going to come later this year. Yo-Kai Watch sells for $30 on 3DS, which is an astronomical number a $36.9 billion mobile gaming market dominated by the free-to-play model.

This shift to mobile is part of a larger strategy for Level-5 and Yo-Kai Watch. The property found enormous success in Japan following the release of its original game, but it has since lost some of that momentum. This is likely due to many younger gamers drifting away from Nintendo’s 3DS in favor of mobile phones. In response to that, Level-5 has already released mobile spinoffs of Yo-Kai Watch for iOS and Android, but this is the first time it is bringing the original game to smartphones and tablets.

We’ve asked Level-5 if it is planning an English and Western release for this port, and we’ll update this story with any new information.

Here’s the Japanese trailer:

This is only one of many Yo-Kai Watch games headed to mobile phones over the next several months. Level-5 is planning to release a quiz RPG and a rhythm game based on Yo-Kai between now and late 2017.

Yo-Kai Watch does have a presence in the United States and other Western countries, but it was only a mild success relative to the phenomenon it stirred up in Japan. But with Level-5 going mobile, the company could adapt new games and release them more quickly around the world due to the more globalized nature of the smartphone app markets.