celerystalker
06-19-2016, 11:31 PM
95029503950495059506950795089509
The World Ends with You was a game I initially kind of ignored. I'd hated Square games repeatedly for years when it came out, so I just wasn't looking that hard into it. The time came that I really needed a good portable game to keep occupied with for a bit, so I decided to roll the dice when I saw a new copy for $20 only a few months after its launch. Glad I did, because I fell in hard with it!
The World Ends with You is an unconventional RPG to say the least. Set in Tokyo in the early 2000s, it puts you in control of some lost teenage hipster souls trapped playing what is called "The Game," which is either a mysterious competition or a self-important rapper. Assuming the former, The Game puts players in teams of two in a seven day long contest to complete missions, and is officiated by creepy individuals called "Reapers." If the players don't complete the mission before the time is up, they are erased, which is super bad news. They are given powerful pins to use to channel psychic powers with which to solve the daily riddles and fight enemies. The team that wins The Game is granted their greatest wish as a prize... but what was the cost of entry, and what of the other players?
Just about everything about this game goes against the grain for both Japanese and western RPGs. The modern day setting is different, the focus on fashion branding for battle and experience bonuses is wild, the use of pins for weapons, the odd and creepy story, and pretty much everything about the combat. All of your movement and interactions can be stylus controlled, but d-pad movement is allowed outside of combat. Inside of battling, though, gets pretty bonkers.
Battles use both screens simultaneously with one team member on each to fight enemies called "noise." So, yeah, feel free to say, "fuck that noise" over and over to yourself and feel hilarious. Anyway, the main character, Neku, is always on the bottom screen, and his partner is on the top. Neku is controlled entirely with the stylus, fighting in real time with slashes, taps, and drags. At the same time, the partner is controlled with the D-pad or face buttons, and inputs combos in order to unleash powerful attacks on the top screen. All enemies must be cleared from both screens to win battles, and there are loads of benefits to using varied fighting techniques. You can even earn combination attacks by successfully entering combos, allowing both partners to team up for a massive dual screen attack. It's utterly unique, and takes a lot of getting used to. However, it's super fast and crazy, and you'll feel like a genius when you start nailing it... or you can give up and put your partner on auto like a wuss. Your call.
The pins gained all have unique powers, and are leveled up individually by gaining pin points, which are gained through active and passive means... and to make it crazier, pins can evolve, and how they evolve depends on the type of experience used! If that wasn't enough, pins are used in a mini game that can allow you to earn even more pins, so if you like collecting stuff, holy shit, this is your jam. There are so many pins with tons of uses... it's bonkers. On top of the pin system, there are food bonuses, fashion bonuses, sticker bonuses... and somehow, if you just roll with it and don't try to just bulldoze the game, it eases you into it all so smoothly that it never feels like I'm micromanaging too much.
On top of all of the innovative systemic concepts, the story is unique as well. Without any spoilers, the whole Game, the Reapers, everything, is full of fun if predictable twists and turns, and the dialogue is comically dated yet not terribly written. It is fun, lengthly, and offers up a lot of fun questions to keep players interested. Altogether, I'd call it a strong point, even without the insane amount of new game + stuff to do.
I loved The World Ends with You when it was new. I played through it a few times in new game +, and replaying it now still feels great. The characters were always a little silly, but the story is interesting, and the combat is fun and really engrossing. It's probably my favorite DS RPG, and a game I'll play several more times in my life. Fun stuff!
Played it?
The World Ends with You was a game I initially kind of ignored. I'd hated Square games repeatedly for years when it came out, so I just wasn't looking that hard into it. The time came that I really needed a good portable game to keep occupied with for a bit, so I decided to roll the dice when I saw a new copy for $20 only a few months after its launch. Glad I did, because I fell in hard with it!
The World Ends with You is an unconventional RPG to say the least. Set in Tokyo in the early 2000s, it puts you in control of some lost teenage hipster souls trapped playing what is called "The Game," which is either a mysterious competition or a self-important rapper. Assuming the former, The Game puts players in teams of two in a seven day long contest to complete missions, and is officiated by creepy individuals called "Reapers." If the players don't complete the mission before the time is up, they are erased, which is super bad news. They are given powerful pins to use to channel psychic powers with which to solve the daily riddles and fight enemies. The team that wins The Game is granted their greatest wish as a prize... but what was the cost of entry, and what of the other players?
Just about everything about this game goes against the grain for both Japanese and western RPGs. The modern day setting is different, the focus on fashion branding for battle and experience bonuses is wild, the use of pins for weapons, the odd and creepy story, and pretty much everything about the combat. All of your movement and interactions can be stylus controlled, but d-pad movement is allowed outside of combat. Inside of battling, though, gets pretty bonkers.
Battles use both screens simultaneously with one team member on each to fight enemies called "noise." So, yeah, feel free to say, "fuck that noise" over and over to yourself and feel hilarious. Anyway, the main character, Neku, is always on the bottom screen, and his partner is on the top. Neku is controlled entirely with the stylus, fighting in real time with slashes, taps, and drags. At the same time, the partner is controlled with the D-pad or face buttons, and inputs combos in order to unleash powerful attacks on the top screen. All enemies must be cleared from both screens to win battles, and there are loads of benefits to using varied fighting techniques. You can even earn combination attacks by successfully entering combos, allowing both partners to team up for a massive dual screen attack. It's utterly unique, and takes a lot of getting used to. However, it's super fast and crazy, and you'll feel like a genius when you start nailing it... or you can give up and put your partner on auto like a wuss. Your call.
The pins gained all have unique powers, and are leveled up individually by gaining pin points, which are gained through active and passive means... and to make it crazier, pins can evolve, and how they evolve depends on the type of experience used! If that wasn't enough, pins are used in a mini game that can allow you to earn even more pins, so if you like collecting stuff, holy shit, this is your jam. There are so many pins with tons of uses... it's bonkers. On top of the pin system, there are food bonuses, fashion bonuses, sticker bonuses... and somehow, if you just roll with it and don't try to just bulldoze the game, it eases you into it all so smoothly that it never feels like I'm micromanaging too much.
On top of all of the innovative systemic concepts, the story is unique as well. Without any spoilers, the whole Game, the Reapers, everything, is full of fun if predictable twists and turns, and the dialogue is comically dated yet not terribly written. It is fun, lengthly, and offers up a lot of fun questions to keep players interested. Altogether, I'd call it a strong point, even without the insane amount of new game + stuff to do.
I loved The World Ends with You when it was new. I played through it a few times in new game +, and replaying it now still feels great. The characters were always a little silly, but the story is interesting, and the combat is fun and really engrossing. It's probably my favorite DS RPG, and a game I'll play several more times in my life. Fun stuff!
Played it?