This month's questions cover a lot of Zelda, the state of the limited edition, and some niche (and not so much) RPGs. Let's dive in. Remember that you can send your questions to mailbag @ nintendoworldreport dot com.

As always, these are actual questions from actual readers.

Q: How long was Skyward Sword actually in active development for and how does it compare to Zelda Wii U? Is there much cross over between the staff of Phantom Hourglass/ Spirit Tracks/Link's Crossbow Training and Skyward Sword? - Anthony, UK

A: According to the Iwata Asks for Skyward Sword the team began working on Skyward Sword right after Twilight Princess was completed and took about five years to complete it, so it would have entered active development in late 2006. If you assume that they went right into Zelda Wii U/NX immediately following the release of Skyward Sword, that will mean about five and a half years of development time for the next mainline Zelda game.

In general, the senior staff of Zelda would have worked on at least the "full" games mentioned (leaving out Link's Crossbow Training): the director of both Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks is Daiki Iwamoto who was credited in Skyward Sword as a planner. Hidemaro Fujibayashi, who was the director on Skyward Sword, was an assistant director on Phantom Hourglass and also famously directed the Oracle games while at Capcom. Skyward Sword, which had a much longer development time, had a lot more people cycled in to work on its development and get experience while the veteran staff tackled the DS projects.

(Special thanks to the Kyoto Report for providing the credit information: Skyward Sword, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, Crossbow Training)

The next three questions were all sent in by Robert from Canada, so they'll be tackled inline.

Nintendo's special/limited editions of their games have always felt pretty lackluster to me. How do you feel they stack up to other companies? Do you usually splurge for the limited version or do you find it not worth it?

The most distressing thing about Nintendo's actions with limited editions compared to other companies is that Nintendo actually understands the concept of keeping these limited. As such, every website that sells these limited editions temporarily turns into one of these for a few hours. Compare it to the Halo 5 limited edition, which went on sale for half off within a couple of months. Or, if you want to keep it Japanese, I managed to get the $100 Canadian limited edition for Persona 4: Dancing All Night for $30 just before Christmas last year. (And since I already had the game digitally thanks to Atlus...)

For the most part, I personally prefer digital, so I'm not apt to go for a limited edition, especially in Canada where these editions can go for $40 - $50 above standard (inflated) MSRP. If they included an option for a code, I might've given it a shot. As far as quality of recent limited editions – not counting ones that come with amiibo like the Twlight Princeess/Woolly World ones – I'd go Fire Emblem Fates for the coolness of having the 3 games, Bravely Second for having an art novel, then Xenoblade Chronicles X brings up the rear because of the stunt they pulled with DRM-laden music files.

Was Yo-kai Watch's reception and the recent announcement of the second game coming westward a sign that the series is poised to become a world wide phenomenon or is Nintendo just pushing with all they have in a vain attempt to make it so?

Yo-kai Watch is actually following the plan hatched in Japan for the series's success: the first game crawled to a million sales in Japan, then Yo-kai Watch 2 launched to over 1.3m copies there in its opening week because of anime hype and big game improvements. The first game also launched before the toy line did in North America, and now that the toys are in the wild and the anime is on Netflix – and doing quite well there, apparently – Nintendo's counting on the second game being a pre-Pokémon hit this fall. The first game doing well in Europe should also help it become a big deal worldwide, but there is the matter of some competition on that date. (Allegedly. I think E3 will change this.)

I like Medabots. They are cool. Is there a 3DS compatible game in English that would satisfy my robot collecting and battle craving? Have you tried any of them? There is some on the Wii U VC (I recommend Medabee version of not the AX games). Anyone have love for this wonderful underdog series?

I've had several recommendations from my roommate to pick up Medabots as well, but haven't had the time to do so as of yet. Japanese players can pick up Medabots Girls Mode (complete with... sigh... clothing damage) but the closest thing North American players have is LBX: Little Battlers eXperience – a game I had the pleasure of reviewing last year, but is more of a pure action RPG than the Medabots system that combines elements of Pokémon, Mega Man Battle Network and the turn-based timing of a Child of Light or the Grandia games.

Aside from Yo-kai Watch 2 later this year, you're probably not going to see anything in that vein on 3DS unless one of the Japanese-only Medabots games gets a late localization. Which, given the way the 3DS is going with localizations this year, I wouldn't rule out completely... but I still give it a 5% chance at best. If you expand to Wii U, all of the Mega Man Battle Network titles are on Virtual Console, and the aforementioned Child of Light is there as well. But it's a very small niche to deal with.