 I admire anyone reading this review. In fact, I would say that you have taste. You have taste because you are reading about a game that you have probably only heard about; you are also reading about something truly unique and something that is a bright, shining beacon of light in a hazy, foggy genre. You are reaching out for something new, something fresh, and something exciting. You are reading about the DS's best RPG to date.
Innovation: critics want it, gamers love it, and most developers do anything they can to create it. Enter Square Enix and The World Ends With You, perhaps one of the most interesting video games in the last decade. Every facet of the traditional RPG is thrown completely out the door, replaced with a vivid style and incredible sense of freshness. If it were a box of cookies, TWEWY would have nothing in it but strange-looking cookies stuffed with the wildest imaginable treats.
This is a bizarre game. A fair disclaimer would tell you to simply accept everything you read and to play the game if you have any further questions. There is nothing new about most of the concepts, but they are all presented in such a strange way that the game takes sevearl hours just to get familiar with. In fact, I would say that some players will still be slightly confused after five or six hours of playing.
Learn more after the jump.
What makes this game so fresh? What makes it so unique and so strange? The people in charge of Kingdom Hearts created a wild new battle system that only the DS could ever handle. They integrated so much depth into everything that there is a feeling of mastery just from properly equipping your character for battle. Best of all, they have created a world that reaches out and pulls you into itself, gluing the DS to your hands with a solid storyline to go alongside everything else that stands out about it.
The wacky story is set in a parallel form of Shibuya in Japan, where a life-or-death game is held by the Reapers. The Reapers challenge the players to form groups of two partners, threatening their very existence if they should happen to fail a mission. With a special pin, they have to use psychic powers to scan for and defeat the Noise summoned by the Reapers to clear up trouble in Shibuya. The Noise often surrounds characters, making troublesome situations and other interesting things happen.
Here is the battle screen, with Neku on the bottom and Shiki on top. The World Ends With You has one of the best and most robust fighting systems in any RPG to date, particularly on the DS.
The three chapters in The World Ends With You tell the story of a few specific players. Neku, the protagonist, is initially hard to like. He is snappy, bitter, cold, and very rude. His personality is reserved and self-centered, and he shuns anyone who attempts to reach out and get close to him. He also cannot seem to remember anything before appearing in the strange new Shibuya and taking part in the game. He meets his first partner, Shiki, at the start of the game. With her, he performs his first missions in the first chapter. Other characters are unlocked as the game goes along, and each of them control differently in battle.
The mission structure is very simple. Neku and Shiki are given a goal for each mission, and a destination. Neku must move toward that destination, stopping at invisible walls set up by Reapers to perform objectives and complete challenges. Once these challenges are complete, the barriers come down and Neku can continue forward. After a big event, the mission is usually over, and the day comes to a close. Each chapter has seven days, and each day has several different missions.
Running around Shibuya is fun, because Neku can constantly stop and scan the area to read thoughts and find Noise to fight. Reading thoughts is interesting enough, because some of the characteers in the game have some strange random thoughts and ideas. Also, it is important for imprinting, which helps progress the story at many points. Imprinting is done when Neku actually interacts with another person's mind, inputting different ideas to come up with real-life results. For example, he will "hint" someone via psychic powers about a certain event, and the character will immediately think about that event and react to it.
Battles utilize the Stride-Cross system. In short, Neku is controlled on the bottom screen with the stylus and his current friend is controlled on the top screen with the d-pad. In combat, Noise materialize into all kinds of vicious monsters. Neku can use his special psychic powers to use pins that attack enemies and support him in battle. Shiki and the other support characters can attack with different combinations of d-pad buttons, and stars can be earned to perform special Fusion Attacks.
Characters on the top screen have different attack styles, but for the most part, Neku gains more pins and sticks to them throughout the game. New abilities are unlocked throughout for all characters.
Fighting on two screens simultaneously sounds daunting, and that's because it is. The game is quite self-aware, however, because it warns the player constantly to take it slow and learn the ins and outs of fighting over time. To help players with this issue, Square Enix implemented a combo system that uses a green puck to indicate which character to focus on. If the puck is floating around Neku, the player is supposed to use the stylus and attack with him momentarily. Then the puck will bounce to the other screen, where supportive attacks are necessary to return the puck. By bouncing the puck, combos are done, and attack power is raised. It also helps to make the game flow smoothly and become less confusing; after time, it is less difficult to pay attention to both of them and fight very well.
The battle pins are interesting and are also a great way to go about using several special attacks quickly. Each pin has an attack that is activated with a specific touch screen movement, like a sliding, drawing, or tapping motion. Some pins are really cool; one of my favorites was one where huge icicles came blasting out of the ground, damaging everything standing nearby. Some of the pins are support pins that act like typical support magic. As one may have already figured out, most RPG trends are found in this game - just in a very, very different form.
For example, consider equipping your character in a typical RPG. You would usually buy armor, perhaps a helmet and boots, gloves, and accessories to boost different stats and provide different abilities. In TWEWY, knowing fashion and apparel are the keys to success. That's right, paying attention to trends matters in this game. Basically, almost all clothing items that can be equipped (like armor) to the characters has a brand. Even pins have brands. Different regions of the game have different popular brands, and using items of a popular brand will usually result in some sort of status boost for that item. Using a lame object will result in a reduction of attack power or other stats. This reminds me a lot of the ideas in Pokemon where certain attacks temporarily power up specific elemental attacks, only this has to do with equipping characters. It can be annoying to equip and unequip items constantly (because the trends change quite frequently), but it is very helpful in battle to have trendy stuff. Food can also be consumed over time (by completing battles), and this results in permanent status boosts for Neku and his friends.
What helps you through all of this madness and chaos is Neku's cell phone menu, which has a lot to look at. Neku can monitor Noise information with a bestiary, equip items and pins, and more. The phone is used for the overworld HUD, which actually tells a lot about the current area. There are all sorts of little icons; an envelope indicates a message from the Reapers, a pig icon indicates an elusive and rare pig Noise that usually drops rare items, and a low reception indicates a heavy presence of Noise in the area. Using the HUD well is important to playing this game, not to mention using the fashion list found on the phone menu to keep track of brands.
This is the phone menu, activated with the pause button. Here you can see the bestiary (Noise), your items, and more. The yellow line adjusts Neku's level and the brand chart lists the current hot fashions.
There are all kinds of other concepts I have chosen to leave out of this review, but one idea I simply have to talk about is the adjustable battle level. While roaming around Shibuya, Neku's battle level can be adjusted. A lower level will increase the chance of enemies dropping better items, which is an absolutely brilliant idea. Basically, by lowering Neku's level and chaining together tough battles, rare items and a lot of money can be earned. Money is important for buying everything, of course, and is gathered by winning battles, selling Yen pins, and completing objectives.
The unique gameplay is married with a fantastic Kingdom Hearts art style, and the characters are brought to life by well-done still shots and excellent text-based dialog. Although the presentation is the most basic and traditional part of the game, the story is interesting enough that it does not become a problem. The graphics are decently impressive, with tons of characters filling the streets of Shibuya at all times. Other than some stiff animation, this game is a lot of fun to look at. The style is everywhere, from anything written on the screen to the twisted depiction of different areas of Shibuya.
The World Ends With You is one of the DS's top titles. It is definitely one of the best RPGs in years, and could make a strong run at Best RPG of 2008. If you have a DS and an open mind, check this game out. Its battle system is difficult to pick up, but the game eases you into everything so comfortably at points that it is hard to fault it for just trying to be different. It eventually succeeds at everything and can eventually be impossible to put down. For the most part, it just..."gets it." It is a game that is addictive and great, and at times I could not even tell you why. There is an unseen connection between your hands, your eyes, and the game that bonds you to it and doesn't let go.
Final Score: 9/10
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