I've heard lots of stuff about this game for years and finally took a shot at it and now I love this game, so heres a poorly written disjointed review of most of the stuff I loved in this game.

The game is amazing and for a DS game i'm shocked at the amount of stuff Crammed in it, there's so much music, voice acting etc I really am shocked at how they managed to do it, I really thought it would be bigger file size wise but looking it up and it's only a 128mb cart shocks me, square truly were wizards at this stuff. The ost in TWEWY is amazing too, though I have to say that listeing to it outside of the game makes it seem like the DS version is playing underwater, but you get used to it. Honestly the ost is one of my favourites now.

In terms of story I loved it as well. As soon as I saw Neku and realised what his charcter was like I kinda knew the very clear path his character would go on, I mean it's super obvious but I still loved his development and thought it was done pretty natural and was believable, also just his interactions with the rest of the cast and how that changes was great to see too. I loved Shiki I thought she was pretty great despite her only real interactions with Neku being before his character development, still really loved their interactions. Joshua was great too and again loved interactions with Neku, same can be said for Beat. I guess the only character I didn't love was Rhyme but I mean for obvious reasons she didn't really have any time to be on screen due to being dead and all (well being more dead than before) she was cool though, I just wish she had more screen time I suppose. I also guess the not composer guy the one playing the game with Joshua ( i don't remember his name) but he was kinda boring, at least until the ending during the last few interactions with him I liked him but for the rest of the time he's just boring. the best character is sho though, no doubt in my mind.

Gameplay is great the bottom screen is really fun and has lots of options, I liked the pin system but I also found that so many pins have similar interaction methods, such as tapping or swiping a enemy that just overlap so those pins are just unusable in combat which is really annoying when testing out new pins. I also mostly just stuck to a couple of pins ones i found the ones I liked, though I suppose that's a fault of my own rather than the games. Bottom screen gameplay is super fun but I'll admit the top screen gameplay is kind iffy, it's not bad and I found at times I really liked it, but you can't really pay attention to both screens at once and I found 9 times out of 10 that the bottom screen was where my attention needed to be, so just spamming a direction on the D-pad usaully worked out, which isn't how you're meant to play but there really isn't a whole lot of options. Cool concept but in execution kinda lacking saddly, still really liked it and the differneces in it between partners was cool to, though i found beats was the worst if only because you can't activate that one through sheer luck like the rest.

The shopping and outfits aspect of the game I didn't really get, I was impressed with the effort and amount of stuff in the game but I just found the brands way too much of a hassle to try and deal with unless it was a reaper mission, otherwise I just wore whatever the bravery allowed and what had the best benfits , which maybe when I replay or do the bonus post game stuff I'll figure out, but for now I just don't get it.

I also really liked all the extra stuff like TIn Pin slammer, kinda really easy if you spam the special moves but still a fun game, and I don't even know what the mingle option does but that seems cool, and from what I could tell like some sort of street pass thing before steet pass? not sure but still seemed pretty cool.

I loved the day system, really fit the console and just allowed me to finish a day or two then just stop playing and I never found myself lost even after not playing the game for a week or so, very easy to pick up and go even with a pretty big complicated(kinda) story, which also reminds me that the story had a million differetn twists which I had no clue about, like Joshua being the composer and also killing Neku etc lots of cool stuff, also I knew the game was 2 weeks long but 3 !? I had zero clue, just amazed at how much stuff is in the game as well as how it never really feels like it's dragging it out, though I suppose a cost of this is that some days feel really short.

My only real issues with the game is that it's super easy to not know where I'm going, I know theres sometimes a map type thing but if the game tells me to go somewhere half the time I just don't remember the name of the location or how to get there, so I just spend time wondering to every corner of the map trying to get there, obviously not exactly a problem on replays or anything and maybe it's just me but the main reason I was annoyed was on the penultimate day looking for Mr Hs shop and just not knowing where it was, which would've been fine if the game didn't have on that day the random encounter with the reapers between each screen. Also again the pin system having too many overlapping pins are my only real issue with the game, well that and the fact playing on a DSI XL was a mistake because at times it's just super uncomfortable, I got used to it but at first that was a bad idea.

Also while there isn't a lot of VA work in the game I loved what there was I thought they all did a great job and do a pretty good job at being recognizable despite the limited amount of voice clips you ever really hear.

Anyway Visuals, Music, gameplay, story and just pretty much everything in the game is so well done, and then on top of it even after beating the game theres lots of extra content with the secret reports and Another Day (both of which I've yet to do, but I plan on doing it before I do NEO) just a amazing game, with lots of care and effort put in it. And also it's just impressive on a technical level for the amount of stuff crammed into a ds cart (and also I wouldn't be shocked if it wasn't since it's apparently only on a 128mb cart, which is still impressive, Considering just the amount of stuff on it)

Anyhow again, games really great and all should play (though this being spoiler tagged makes that Irrelevant I suppose) I haven't played NEO yet but I really hope that Square doesn't abandon this franchise completely, because this games amazing one of if not my favourite DS game and I would like to see more of it, though I guess I should play NEO first before making any further judgement .

Bonus thought added later: While the message of the game didn't exactly hit me in the same way I'm sure lots of other people were (maybe if I played when I was younger it'd do something more but eh, I can very clearly see how people can relate so heavily to it) I still really love it and something I think about, maybe with time this thought will evolve but for now it's not hit to the extent it may have some other people. still a amazing game throughout, though I'm sure my review already made my thoughts on that clear