The reason I never got into yokai watch was the battle system. Very stupid the way you scroll through your "Pokemon" I really hated it and couldn't get used to it.
Couldn't they just make it turn based so we could of had a GOOD Pokemon alternative finally instead of trying to change the wheel and ending up with a terrible battle system from trying to hard to be diffrent.
lol get a life. Color Splash is not considered RPG by nintendo so you can't compare it to Yokai Watch 2. At least compare YW2 to something that is comparable. Stupid post
Whilst I'm not a fan of the Yo-kai Watch battle system, it's not that bad and can get quite hard post-game. It eventually requires a lot of micromanaging.
As for which one to buy, you don't need to play the first game to play the second (there is a lot of repetition but also a lot of new content), but they both have different stories (the first game has a weaker story though), and the beginning of the second game won't make as much sense if you haven't played the first. It basically reintroduces the game for people who haven't played but does this temporary deja vu then where it's a sequel but characters have temporary memory loss or something like that (they explain it better than I have, anyway).
If you've watched at least a few episodes of the anime, then I'd say don't even bother with the first game at this point, unless you really want the bonus Yo-kai that you can get with it.