Yo-kai Watch, at heart, is a monster-collecting role-playing game that draws a lot of comparisons to Pokemon. Outside of collecting monsters to use in battle, everything else is completely different. The game follows a story, where you go from place to place that will be marked on your map. You are free to explore pretty much anytime you want, finding random Yokai to battle, doing sidequests or what else you can find. That is pretty much the flow of the game.