The World Ends With You is truly a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. I wish I would've played this game years ago on the DS, but better late than never. I've been playing RPGs for over 2 decades now and I was just blown away by the sheer amount of creativity this game has to offer, I've never played anything else quite like it and I loved absolutely everything about it.
In The World Ends With You we follow the narrative of an anti-social teenager named Neku Sakuraba who finds himself in the Shibuya shopping district in Tokyo, but it isn't the Shibuya he knows, no, this is an alternate plane of existence ran by mysterious beings known as Reapers who are forcing everyone here to play a deadly death game known as the Reapers Game where your only means of survival is to work together with a partner and clear daily missions set by the Reapers themselves, those who fail face the threat of being erased from existence itself. There's one major problem though, Neku has what I call 'J-RPG protagonist syndrome' meaning that he's come down with a bad case of amnesia and is about as clueless as to what's going on as we the player are ourselves. How did Neku end up in this plane of existence? Just who are the Reapers and what is their end game? This and many more questions will be answered as you progress through the 25 hour main narrative and what a narrative it is too! I'm a sucker for a great mystery and that is exactly what TWEWY is, a compelling mystery with many unexpected twists and turns and I was thoroughly captivated from start to finish.
Aside from the plot itself, one of the most important things about a great J-RPG is equally great characters and thankfully TWEWY excels on this level as well. Neku meets many colorful characters during his journey and though he is reluctant to open up to them at first, he has incredible development and slowly learns to trust and work alongside his new friends and partners. All the main characters are complex with fleshed out personalities and relatable human struggles.
Combat can be experienced in two ways, 1) playing the Switch in handheld mode which uses the touch screen or 2) playing docked which utilizes the Switch's motion control features and though it has a bit of a learning curve and takes some time to get used to I really ended up loving it. Neku and friends engage in combat by using abilities called 'psychs' which come from collectible pins that can be activated in various ways like tapping, scratching, slashing and pressing the screen, the enemies on the screen and sometimes Neku himself. The sheer variety in the abilities and how you can fastly chain them together made the combat system continuously fresh and fun. I also liked how all the pins have brands attached to them and attacking with different brands in different areas of the map will increase their power.
Another major thing that defines TWEWY is the art direction and music. TWEWY has a very big urban/street aesthetic to it in everything from the character designs to the backgrounds, hell even all the fashion brands the characters wear in game and the OST as well which is full of hip hop and R&B tracks (Which are bangers btw). All of this combined gives TWEWY a very distinct and one-of-a-kind style that stands out from all its other J-RPG counterparts.
When all is said and done I never got to play TWEWY back on the DS so I have no nostalgia for this game and everything I'm typing right now are 100% my honest thoughts and those thoughts say that this game is simply an incredible J-RPG unlike anything else I've ever played before that is just dripping in distinctive style, utilizing a super fun combat system, featuring a compelling narrative full of mystery and suspense alongside a well written cast of eclectic characters and an absolutely banging OST making it a must play for any J-RPG fan.
In The World Ends With You we follow the narrative of an anti-social teenager named Neku Sakuraba who finds himself in the Shibuya shopping district in Tokyo, but it isn't the Shibuya he knows, no, this is an alternate plane of existence ran by mysterious beings known as Reapers who are forcing everyone here to play a deadly death game known as the Reapers Game where your only means of survival is to work together with a partner and clear daily missions set by the Reapers themselves, those who fail face the threat of being erased from existence itself. There's one major problem though, Neku has what I call 'J-RPG protagonist syndrome' meaning that he's come down with a bad case of amnesia and is about as clueless as to what's going on as we the player are ourselves. How did Neku end up in this plane of existence? Just who are the Reapers and what is their end game? This and many more questions will be answered as you progress through the 25 hour main narrative and what a narrative it is too! I'm a sucker for a great mystery and that is exactly what TWEWY is, a compelling mystery with many unexpected twists and turns and I was thoroughly captivated from start to finish.
Aside from the plot itself, one of the most important things about a great J-RPG is equally great characters and thankfully TWEWY excels on this level as well. Neku meets many colorful characters during his journey and though he is reluctant to open up to them at first, he has incredible development and slowly learns to trust and work alongside his new friends and partners. All the main characters are complex with fleshed out personalities and relatable human struggles.
Combat can be experienced in two ways, 1) playing the Switch in handheld mode which uses the touch screen or 2) playing docked which utilizes the Switch's motion control features and though it has a bit of a learning curve and takes some time to get used to I really ended up loving it. Neku and friends engage in combat by using abilities called 'psychs' which come from collectible pins that can be activated in various ways like tapping, scratching, slashing and pressing the screen, the enemies on the screen and sometimes Neku himself. The sheer variety in the abilities and how you can fastly chain them together made the combat system continuously fresh and fun. I also liked how all the pins have brands attached to them and attacking with different brands in different areas of the map will increase their power.
Another major thing that defines TWEWY is the art direction and music. TWEWY has a very big urban/street aesthetic to it in everything from the character designs to the backgrounds, hell even all the fashion brands the characters wear in game and the OST as well which is full of hip hop and R&B tracks (Which are bangers btw). All of this combined gives TWEWY a very distinct and one-of-a-kind style that stands out from all its other J-RPG counterparts.
When all is said and done I never got to play TWEWY back on the DS so I have no nostalgia for this game and everything I'm typing right now are 100% my honest thoughts and those thoughts say that this game is simply an incredible J-RPG unlike anything else I've ever played before that is just dripping in distinctive style, utilizing a super fun combat system, featuring a compelling narrative full of mystery and suspense alongside a well written cast of eclectic characters and an absolutely banging OST making it a must play for any J-RPG fan.
4 Comments
@Spokey, so am I! Like I said, better late than never and every J-RPG fan should play this game because it is just so amazing.
Really unique game. I was enjoying it a lot until the end, the conclusion lost me a bit. Still pretty fun though, i like Shiki a lot. I need to get around to the sequel
@CtheIronblooded I agree completely, you should totally check out it's sequel, NEO: The World Ends With You because it's also an amazing game that improves upon much of the first
Ess
1 year ago