Another time period is set 30 years after the other main series games, using playable characters that were introduced in the Yo-kai Watch Shadowside: Oni-ō no Fukkatsu film, including Natsume Amano, the daughter of Nate and Katie.

The final time period is set in the 1960s, approximately 30 years prior to the other games, with characters from the Yo-kai Watch: Forever Friends movie, including Shin Shimomachi.

In addition, human characters absorb the element "Yo-ki" during the battle for redistribution, either to attack enemy Yo-kai, or to heal party members.

Compared to the prior games in the series, which were all released for Nintendo 3DS, Yo-kai Watch 4 uses 3D rendering for both overworld exploration in Sakura New Town and battle scenes.

[10] During the Anime Expo in July 2019, Level-5 abby replied to a Q&A about a future Western release of Yo-kai Watch 4 and showed the Japanese trailer with English subtitles.

[11] However, as of October 2020, a combination of flagging sales for the series[12] and Level-5's decision to shutter their North American operations, including Level-5 Abby, has led many commentators and journalists to bring in doubt of the possibility of a localization ever happening.

Some of the downloadable content would require an additional purchase, while others were available as pre-sale bonuses for related items, such as tickets for the upcoming Yo-kai Gakuen Y: Neko wa Hero ni Nareru ka film.

[15] An enhanced version named Yo-kai Watch 4++ was released for both Nintendo Switch and Sony PlayStation 4 on December 5, 2019, in Japan.