Yuru-i GeGeGe no Kitarou: Youkai Dotabata Daisensou

Yuru-i GeGeGe no Kitarō: Yōkai Dotabata Daisensō (ゆる～いゲゲゲの鬼太郎 妖怪ドタバタ大戦争, "Yuru-i GeGeGe no Kitarō: The Great Yōkai Slapstick War"), also known as just YuruGeGe (ゆるゲゲ) or YuruKita (ゆるきた), was a Japanese-exclusive tower defense game released for the 50th anniversary (Nov. 1st, 2018) of the GeGeGe no Kitarō franchise. Developed by PONOS and DeNA, YuruGeGe played very similarly to The Battle Cats, but in many ways was more polished due to being a more recent game.
As of January 16th, 2023, the game has been discontinued and can no longer be downloaded.
==What is GeGeGe no Kitarō?==
The GeGeGe no Kitarō series chronicles the adventures of Kitarō, who strives to maintain peace between humans and Yōkai. Beginning as Hakaba Kitarō, a kamishibai written by World War II veteran, mangaka and yōkai enthusiast Shigeru Mizuki in 1960, the series helped reignite interest in yōkai throughout Japan and spawned countless games, anime, movies, novels, merchandise, and even a wiki with over 3,000 articles.
For an in-depth look at the franchise's history, see these articles:
*Wikipedia article
*Fandom article
*Hakaba Kitarō
==Gameplay==
Gameplay was best described as The Battle Cats cranked up to eleven—more polished but even more unforgiving. While the game itself played almost the same, unit stats were generally more extreme than in The Battle Cats, and there were many challenging new enemy types, abilities and mechanics to learn. However, the game was also filled with numerous "quality of life" improvements, including a more detailed Character Guide which showed units' exact stats and abilities, and a more in-depth "Enemies Appearing" window that also showed said info as well as strength magnifications.
==Characters==
As its name suggests, YuruGeGe used the character designs from the Yuru-i GeGeGe no Kitarō line of merchandise and LINE stickers, hence most of them were based on their 2007 anime depictions. Playable characters were listed in the Team Yuru-i (ゆる～い団 Yuru-i-dan) section of the Character Guide, yurui meaning "loose", "lenient", or "easy" (as in "take it easy"), while enemies were found under Team Yaba-i (やば～い団 Yaba-i-dan), yabai meaning "dangerous", "risky", "highly concerning", etc.
===Playable===
A wide range of friendly GeGeGe no Kitarō faces major, minor and everything in between appeared as allies, including the many iterations of Kitarō, Medama-Oyaji and Neko-Musume as well as characters like Aoi, Aobōzu and Nezumi-Otoko. Allies were sorted into six rarities: Normal, Rare, Super Rare, Uber Rare, Legend Rare and SP (Special).
An outdated list of playable characters can be found here.
====Roles====
Playable characters had an official classification system called Roles (ロール Rōru). The filter allowed players to sort units by Role in addition to rarity, targeted trait, abilities, etc., making it easier to find units of specific classifications.
Name 	Icon	Characteristics
Attacker(あたっか～ Atakkā) 	 	Used for their offensive capabilities.
Long-distance(えんきょり Enkyori) 	 	Long-ranged units that could stay safe from harm in the backlines. Most had either Long Distance or Omni Strike, but a few were given this classification simply for having long range, such as Aoi, who had 1,000 range in her Evolved Form.
Tank(たんく Tanku) 	 	Units with strong defensive capabilities that allowed them to withstand a lot of hits. Equivalent to the unofficial Tanker classification.
Mass-production(りょうさん Ryōsan) 	 	Units with high spammability.
Support(さぽ～と Sapōto) 	 	Used to debuff/knockback enemies and/or buff allies.
Unique(とくしゅ Tokushu) 	 	Specialized in more unique roles such as dealing Critical Hits or helping the player gain more income.
Balance(ばらんす Baransu) 	 	Well-rounded units with a good balance of both offense and defense.
Some units had multiple Roles or even changed Role as they evolved. For example, Nurikabe's Normal and Evolved Forms had both Attacker and Tank Roles, while his True Form, Nuristal, was purely a Tank, trading most of his attack power, health, cost-efficiency and recharge speed for the Metal ability.
===Enemies===
The enemy lineup was a whole rogues gallery of antagonistic Yōkai from all parts of the GeGeGe no Kitarō franchise, including Backbeard, Nurarihyon, Shu-no-Bon, Vampire Elite (Johnny), Zambia, Vodyanoy and many more. For the most part, enemy variants were grouped together in the Character Guide, even if some were introduced much later than others: the first enemy listed was Maruge, followed by each of his traited variants; next came Kemedama and his variants, etc. Those with multiple traits at a time were always listed after those with only one.
Some bosses in this game had multiple phases. An example is Qi, who would switch to his Nine-Tailed Fox form after his first health bar 
was depleted, though this did not happen in every stage.
An outdated list of enemies can be found here.
====Traits and Types====
Like in The Battle Cats, some enemies had additional strengths and weaknesses in the form of nine different traits; those with none were either Normal or bases.
Name 	Icon	Characteristics
Normal(ノーマル Nōmaru) 	 	Equivalent to Traitless. Generally white and gray, though Event and GeGeGe Histories enemies sometimes had other colors. The base variants of most enemies.
Gorgeous(ごーじゃす Gōjasu) 	 	Gold with a black star over one eye. Dropped Treasures in most stages of the Japan Arc and World Arc.
Hercules(へらくれす Herakuresu) 	 	Brown with a Hercules beetle horn. Usually faster than their original variant.
Amaterasu(あまてらす) 	 	Light yellow with a blue-and-yellow heavenly aura. All had a guaranteed chance to inflict knockback or a status effect, and most dropped little to no money upon death.
Abyss(あびす Abisu) 	 	Black with a faint crimson gradient and a red skull mask over their face. All had the Critical ability.
Metals(めたるす Metarusu) 	 	Robotic design, with gray metallic plating, yellow eyes and a red antenna similar to Metal Doge's tail. All had the Metal ability, which reduced damage from non-Critical attacks to 1. Unlike in The Battle Cats, Metals could have more than one trait at a time; multi-traited Metals still only took 1 damage from non-Critical attacks.
Serious(しりあす Shiriasu) 	 	Purple with sunglasses. All had the Yaba-Yaba effect, the ability to summon one minion for every playable character they defeated. Pure Serious enemies spawned Normal Yaba-Yaba, the Sanga Clan (サンガ族 Sanga-zoku) were Serious/Hercules enemies that spawned Hercules Yaba-Yaba, and Serimetals (しりめたるす Shirimetarusu) spawned Metal Yaba-Yaba.
Death(です Desu) 	 	Demon horns, soulless eyes, extra shading on their head or face, a small orange flame above their head. Most pure Death enemies could teleport units they hit; Amaterasu/Death enemies could all inflict Seal, disabling units' trait-specific abilities; Abyss/Death enemies all had Forcefields, a Barrier-like defense that could not be broken through damage alone; and Metal/Death enemies could all burrow.
Virus(ういるす Uirusu) 	 	Covered in a pulsating green viral envelope. All had Toxic attacks and were immune to Great Witchcraft (the Cat Cannon's equivalent), and most also possessed Secret Arts (Surge Attacks' equivalent) and/or the ability to burrow.
Noise(のいす Noizu) 	 	Digital-themed enemies, black with neon green accents and an aura of green flickering pixels. All had high speed and the Seal and Secret Art abilities.
Other 	 	Enemy bases were considered neither Normal nor traited.
===New Abilities===
YuruGeGe contained most abilities from The Battle Cats, but also introduced an array of new abilities. For more information about all abilities in the game, see here.
====Trait-specific====
Name 	Effect
Target Attack Power Up(対象攻撃力アップ Taishō Kōgekiryoku Appu) 	Not actually related to traits, despite being grouped with trait-specific abilities. While on the battlefield, characters with this ability would passively increase the attack power of all characters on their side by a set percentage.
Target Attack Power Down(対象攻撃力ダウン Taishō Kōgekiryoku Daun) 	The opposite of Target Attack Up, characters with this ability would passively apply a weaken effect to the opposing side's characters as long as they were on the battlefield. Allies could only weaken enemies of their targeted traits, while enemies would weaken all allies.
Seal(封印 Fūin) 	Equivalent to Curse. Worked the same, but also disabled the Yaba-Yaba ability.
Teleport(転移 Ten'i) 	Equivalent to Warp. Worked the same, but was also usable by one playable character, Hanako Blue Magenta (albeit only at a 5% chance).
====Neutral====
Name 	Effect
Annihilation(消滅 Shōmetsu) 	Units with this ability would automatically perish after a set amount of time, regardless of health. Was technically already used by the Iron Wall Cat in The Battle Cats.
Forcefield(結界 Kekkai) 	A small pentagram that appeared in front of certain enemies. Similar to a Barrier, but could only be destroyed by a Forcefield Breaker, not damage, and would be visible at all times, even when not being attacked.
Rebirth(転生 Tensei) 	Upon reaching 0 HP, would spawn a specific other unit of the same level/strength magnification at the site of death. Most playable characters with this ability were Evolved/True Form units that would spawn their Normal Form upon death, while enemies were usually bosses/mini-bosses with multiple phases.Some stages applied this property to enemies that didn't actually have the Rebirth ability. For example, the stage Mutenka Sanmyaku (無添加山脈, "Additive-free Mountains") was unique for having three Gyūki that turned into traited Gyūki variants when defeated. The first turned into the Metal Jūki, the second became the Hercules Gyū-Kaku-Oni, and the last was reborn as the Abyss Ushi-Maō.
Resistance is Useless(わるあがき Waruagaki) 	Exploded upon death, dealing a set percentage of the user's attack power as area damage. The percentage was nearly always above 100%, hitting harder than an actual attack from the unit.
Yaba-Yaba(やばやば) 	Characters with this ability would spawn minions called Yaba-Yaba (Yuru-Yaba for playable characters) for each unit they defeated. Yaba-Yaba would spawn at the site of a unit's death, and up to 10 could be present at a time. They couldn't spawn on or behind bases, so some enemies could be lured to your base to prevent them from spawning Yaba-Yaba. There were several types of Yaba-Yaba, each with its own stats, abilities and trait; the type spawned was dependent on the character using the ability.
Forcefield Breaker(結界破り Kekkai Yaburi) 	Gave the user's attacks a set chance to destroy Forcefields.
Target Type Killer(対象タイプキラー Taishō Taipu Kirā) 	Increased the user's attack power by a set percentage against certain enemy categories besides traits. For example, Rei Isurugi had this ability set to target the Four Treasonous Generals, dealing 100% more damage against them.
Target Type Killer Effect Up(対象タイプキラー効果アップ Taishō Taipu Kirā Kōka Appu) 	Buffed the effect of certain Target Type Killer abilities, with an upper limit of 300%. Exclusive to the Evolved/True Form of Sunakake-Babaa, who increased the effect of allies' Western Yōkai Type Killer abilities by 100%.
Target Type Attack Power Up(対象タイプ攻撃力アップ Taishō Taipu Kōgeki-ryoku Appu) 	Buffed the attack power of all allied characters from certain groups, with an upper limit of 30%. For example, Agnes the Witch improved the attack power of all playable characters from the 6th anime by 10%.
Target Type Health Up(対象タイプ体力アップ Taishō Taipu Tairyoku Appu) 	Buffed the health of all allied characters from certain groups, with an upper limit of 30%. For example, Tengu Headmaster gained the ability to improve the health of all Tengu units by 10% after being upgraded to +1.
Target Type Critical Up(対象タイプクリティカルアップ Taishō Taipu Kuritikaru Appu) 	Buffed the Critical Hit rate of all allied characters from certain groups, with an upper limit of 5%. For example, Angel Amabie improved the Critical rate of all Yuru-Family units by 2%.
Target Type Movement Speed Up(対象タイプ移動速度アップ Taishō Taipu Idō Sokudo Appu) 	Buffed the movement speed of all allied characters from certain groups, with an upper limit of 30%. For example, 6th Anime Neko-Musume improved the movement speed of all playable characters from the 6th anime by 10%.
Target Type Recharge Time Down(対象タイプ移動速度アップ Taishō Taipu Shutsugeki Machijikan Genshō) 	Buffed the recharge time of all allied characters from certain groups. For example, 5th Anime Yuki-Onna Aoi decreased the recharge time of all Yuki-Onna units by 5 seconds.
Great Witchcraft Initial Gauge Up(大妖術初期ゲージアップ Dai Yōjutsu Shoki Gēji Appu) 	Allowed Great Witchcraft (the Cat Cannon's equivalent) to start with its gauge already filled up. For example, Yumeko allowed it to start 50% full.
Soul Level Initial Value Up(魂レベル初期値アップ Tamashī Reberu Shokichi Appu) 	Allowed Soul Level (the Worker Cat's equivalent) to start already leveled up, with an upper limit of 2. All units with this ability increased the starting level by 1.
Soul Amount Initial Value Up(魂量初期値アップ Tamashi-ryō Shokichi Appu) 	Allowed the player to start with some soul (money) already available to use. For example, Halloween Zambia increased the player's starting soul by 500.
Soul Upper Limit Up(魂上限値アップ Tanashī Jōgen-chi Appu) 	Increased soul capacity (wallet size) by a set percentage, with an upper limit of 10%. All units with this ability increased max soul by 5%.
Secret Art(秘術 Hijutsu) 	Equivalent to Surge Attacks. Unlike Surges, Secret Arts could have different effects/abilities and damage values from the attack that created them, as well as different designs and animations depending on the unit.
Immune to Great Witchcraft(大妖術無効 Dai Yōjutsu Mukō) 	Units with this ability were unaffected by Great Witchcraft. For playable characters, this meant they were unaffected by animated enemy bases. For enemy characters, this meant they were unaffected by the Cat Cannon's equivalent.
Resist Great Witchcraft(大妖術軽減 Dai Yōjutsu Keigen) 	Reduced the damage its user took from animated enemy bases by a set percentage. Unlike Immune to Great Witchcraft, no enemies had this ability.
Other New Immunities 	Other new immunities included Immune to Seal, Immune to Teleport, Immune to Yaba-Yaba annd Immune to Secret Arts.
Other New Resists 	Other new resistances included Resist Seal, Resist Teleport and Resist Secret Arts. Unlike its Battle Cats counterpart Warp Resistant, Resist Teleport was actually used.
====Notably Different Abilities====
*Slow only reduced units' speed by 66%, but also tripled their time between attacks.
*Wave Attacks originally didn't inherit special effects. However, this was later changed in an update.
*Wave Shield only had a set chance to block waves, although the chance was still 100% for most units.
*The Burrow ability, which doesn't have an official name in The Battle Cats, was named Kage-ka (影化, lit. "Shadowization" or "Shadowfication"), reflecting its different animation.
==Stages==
Just like The Battle Cats, YuruGeGe had three main story arcs or sagas with three chapters each. Rather than having 48 stages in every chapter, YuruGeGe had 50-52 stages per chapter. Every chapter of each arc added one more stage: the chapter ones had 50 stages, chapter twos had 51 stages, and chapter threes had 52 stages.
*Japan Arc (日本編 Nihon-hen): The only arc available at the beginning dealt with the hostile Yōkai rampaging throughout Japan, culminating in a fight against Nurarihyon and Kani-Bozu at the end of Chapter 3.
*World Arc (世界編 Sekai-hen): At its name implied, the World Arc took place all across the world, introducing the Serious enemies and most of the Western Yōkai; Chapter 3 of this arc introduced Forcefields, animated enemy bases, the Death trait and the first dual-trait enemies, ending with Backbeard as the final boss.
*Jigoku Arc (地獄編 Jigoku-hen): This arc only had one chapter released before the game was shut down, which took place in Jigoku itself and featured many Death enemies as well as Akuma like Belial, pitting Kitarō and friends against Enma-Daiō in the final stage. Like Cats of the Cosmos, most stages in this arc had restrictions.
*Gaiden (外伝): Roughly meaning "Side Story" or "Another Story", Gaiden stages were the equivalent of Stories of Legend. Taking place in another dimension with new enemies, a total of 35 sub-chapters were released for this mode. Each sub-chapter had 5-7 stages, some of which dropped exclusive Special units. They were available in 4 difficulty levels, applying different strength magnifications and rarity restrictions depending on the sub-chapter:
Sub-chapters	★3 restriction 	★4 restriction
1~10 	Rare, Special 	Special
11~25 	Rare, Super Rare, Special 	Super Rare, Special
26~30 	Normal, Super Rare, Special	Super Rare, Special
31~35 	Normal, Rare, Special 	Super Rare, Special
*GeGeGe Histories (ゲゲゲ史 GeGeGe-shi)): 11 extra-difficult mini-chapters based on story arcs from the 4th, 5th and 6th GeGeGe no Kitarō anime series, with 31 new enemies and high buffs on old ones. Unlike Gaiden sub-chapters, GeGeGe Histories chapters had their own Treasures. Some of these stages also had non-rarity-based restrictions which only allowed you to deploy units of certain groups.
*Event (イベント Ibento): Time-limited event stages with their own challenges and rewards, including monthly and seasonal events, Awakening Stages, Advent Stages, Collaboration Event Stages and more.
**Rampage Event (暴走イベント Bōsō Ibento). Equivalent to the Arena of Honor. Rampage Events contained three timed score stages each, with potential for bonus rewards depending on how well each player did by the end of the event. A new Rampage Event was held almost every month, usually featuring either enemy versions of the latest Uber Rare units or collab enemies during certain collabs.
==Yōkai Yokochō==
In this game, Yōkai Yokochō (ようかい横丁, "Yōkai Alley") referred to a feature that worked as both a scene builder and sound test. Using this feature, players could build their own scene using unlocked/encountered allied and enemy characters, decorations, frames, backgrounds, weather effects, and any non-collab music track in the game, selectable from a list with the official names of every track. See this video for footage and here for more information.
==April Fools' Jokes==
From 2020 to 2022, YuruGeGe had its own news articles created for April Fools' Day, which have been preserved by the Internet Archive. At the bottom of every page was a ranking of fake news articles' popularity that would hint at the next True Forms to be released.
*2020
*2021
*2022
==Collabs==
YuruGeGe had multiple collabs with Nyanko Daisensou, introducing Kitarō, Medama-Oyaji and Neko-Musume as both Cat Units and Enemy Units. YuruGeGe's side of things featured Cat, Tank Cat, Gross Cat and Fish Cat as both friends and foes as well as Gorgeous and Hercules variants of the aforementioned cats, Macho Leg Cat, Mythical Titan Cat and Hurricat exclusively as enemies. Later versions of the collab added Valkyrie Cat and Miko Mitama as Uber Rare units, and both were rendered in the Battle Cats art style.
Units 	Units
Normal: ネコ (Neko, Cat) 	Evolved: ゲゲゲネコ (GeGeGe Neko, GeGeGe Cat)
 	
Normal: タンクネコ (Tanku Neko, Tank Cat) 	Evolved: ぬりネコカベ (Nurinekokabe, Nuri-cat-kabe)
 	
Normal: キモネコ (Kimoneko, Gross Cat) 	Evolved: キモネコ娘 (Kimoneko-Musume, Gross Neko-Musume)
 	
Normal: ネコフィッシュ (Neko Fisshu, Fish Cat) 	Evolved: ネコフィッシュミンツチ (Neko Fisshu Mintsuchi, Mintsuchi Fish Cat)
 	
Normal: ネコハリケーン (Neko Harikēn, Cat Hurricane) 	Normal: ネコハリケーン (Neko Harikēn, Cat Hurricane)
 	
Normal: ネコヴァルキリー (Neko Varukirī, Valkyrie Cat) 	Evolved: ネコヴァルキリー・真 (Neko Varukirī Shin, True Valkyrie Cat)
 	
Normal: 巫女姫ミタマ (Miko Hime Mitama, Shrine Princess Mitama) 	Evolved: 白無垢のミタマ (Shiromuku no Mitama, Pure White Mitama)
 	
Enemies 	Enemies 	Enemies 	Enemies
Gorgeous 	Gorgeous 	Gorgeous 	Gorgeous
ネコ☆ゴージャス (Neko ☆ Gōjasu, Cat ☆ Gorgeous) 	バンク☆ネコ (Banku ☆ Neko, Bank ☆ Cat) 	キモ☆ジャス (Kimo ☆ Jasu, Gross ☆ Geous) 	ネコ☆キャッシュ (Neko ☆ Kyasshu, Cash ☆ Cat)
 	 	 	
Hercules 	Hercules 	Hercules 	Hercules
ツノネコ (Tsuno Neko, Horned Cat) 	ツノタンク (Tsuno Tanku, Horned Tank) 	ツノキモネコ (Tsuno Kimoneko, Horned Gross Cat) 	ヘラクレスネコカブト (Herakuresu Neko Kabuto, Hercules Cat Kabuto)
 	 	 	
Normal 	Normal 	Normal 	Normal
ムキあしネコ (Mukiashi Neko, Macho Leg Cat) 	ネコハリケーン (Neko Harikēn, Cat Hurricane) 	ネコハリケーン (Neko Harikēn, Cat Hurricane) 	ネコダラボッチ (Neko Darabocchi, Mythical Titan Cat)
 	 	 	
It also had two collabs with Kyoutou Project, bringing characters such as Kyosaka Nanaho into the game, and one with Hikakin, adding a Hikakin version of Nurikabe. Other collabs included Yo-kai Watch, Ojamajo Doremi, the GeGeGe no Kitarō anime and manga as well as Miracle Gucchi.
==Trivia==
*YuruGeGe had the "show and deploy from both rows at once" option 2 years before it was added to The Battle Cats.
**YuruGeGe also had the ability filter separated by ability type (neutral and trait-specific) and the static, more organized Catfruit Storage layout from Version 11.4 3 years before The Battle Cats.
***Despite being exclusive to enemies, the Toxic, Burrow and Forcefield abilities were present in the filter.
*The Battle Cats' Colossus Slayer, Behemoth Slayer and Sage Slayer abilities are similar to YuruGeGe's Target Type Killer abilities in that they increase the user's attack power against special enemy subcategories distinct from traits.
*The Gorgeous enemies may have been a reference to Japanese YouTuber Gor☆Geous, whose signature makeup also includes a black star over one eye.
**Gor☆Geous likely also inspired the names of the collab enemies Neko☆Geous and Kimo☆Geous.
*The Abyss enemies may have been a reference to the Yatterman character Dokurobei, whose red skull masks and logo are often drawn identically to those worn by the Abyss enemies.
*The Serious enemies may have been a reference to Meanie from Neo Mushroom Garden, who is also purple and wears the same exact sunglasses.
*Due to their demonic looks and Forcefields, the Death enemies from this game may have inspired the Aku enemy type in The Battle Cats, which are also demons with a Barrier-like ability.
*Kagami-Jijii's attack animation in this game was strikingly similar to Dark Emperor Nyandam's.
*While most of the enemies in YuruGeGe weren't exact equivalents of those found in The Battle Cats, there were two that directly mirrored Ms. Sign and Assassin Bear. The former was simply Kemedama holding a wooden sign with Ms. Sign's message written on it, while the latter was an extremely powerful flashing Type 2 Penanggalan which served only to punish players who took too long on timed stages. The Penanggalan variant had much shorter range than Assassin Bear but dealt insane amounts of damage with each attack, pushing just as hard if not harder.
==External links==
*Yuru-i GeGeGe no Kitarō: Yōkai Dotabata Daisensō on the GeGeGe no Kitarō Wiki
*Official website
*YouTube channel
*YuruGeGe x Battle Cats collab announcement
Category:Games