I had a buddy named Vinny...
He could stuff an entire pizza in his mouth...
All without drugs!
If you're a cool teen...
D-d-don't insert a bean!

A list of reasons for why I chose Dark Souls 1 over all the other souls games:

Starting as an underdog and growing up

Hub world - You're never sure in 1 who is actually your friend or not. Even if they are in the hub world they could be evil and turn on you. 2 and 3 basically have you as the lord already and people who gather in the hub world are all your subjects. Everyone in 1 seems like they are/could be equal to you at least at some point. They might even be someone you look up to. At the very least, they aren't coming to the hub world to be your subject which is basically what happens in 3. Seriously, this is one of the best parts of this game. This isn't even counting the interconnectivity.
No clear starting path - You could go to the burg, new londo ruins, catacombs, etc. in 1. 2 does this fine as well, but 3 starts out basically linear.
Perfect tutorial area - The asylum is great because it fits perfectly with the narrative and is not too hand-holdy but not too vague at the same time. The atmosphere is great and meeting the knight who saved you and seeing him go hollow introduces you to that theme early and in a powerful way. It's even cooler that you can go back to a powered up version of the area later.
You can learn smithing etc. - The ability to get the repair box and smith kit in 1 made me feel so much more like I was progressing to becoming more self-sufficient. It was also just so much more satisfying to not have to go back to the hub world for stupid stuff like basic upgrades. In the same vein it made bigger upgrades feel more special because you had to go to the right smith in the right place and have their specific ember etc. It didn't feel tedious and it actually felt more fun and adventurous. 2 at least had 1 other blacksmith.

Hollowing balance

Humanity - Best item. I love that it can stack and there are pros and cons to doing so (item discovery but you have more to lose when dying). It working as a healing item is understandably a little broken, but the stacking/risk/being able to recover them with souls made them sooo much more fun to use. Also it was easier/more fun to farm them. Also being able to use humanity to buff bonfires was way more rewarding than just finding estus shards in random places. You always have to be strategic with your humanity.
Summoning - Connected to humanity is your ability to summon/be invaded which is carried on except in 2 you could still be invaded whenever. I don't like 2s approach because it only gives you one path that you can take whereas in 1 and 3 you can take the risk of going through with humanity and experience the bonus of being invaded but decide to play it safe by staying hollowed if you want.
Losing health - Yeah it does up the stakes in 2 when you lose health as a hollow, but it was not as fun as it was in say Demon's souls. You already lose the ability to summon as a hollow so why make us fight alone with less health than we have earned by leveling up? I think there is a "the more you lose the harder it gets" mentality behind these games, but everything is better when that isn't implemented fully.

Lore

Basis of everything - I don't know if there's much to say here other than 2 and 3 are just trying to copy what was good about 1's lore and feel much less original. They also feel a lot less developed and interesting.
More realistic - This connects to what I mentioned in the hub world. Every character feels like they have their own agenda and could easily backstab you anytime. Bosses also have much more of an agenda then: "you come in my room I kill" which seems more prevalent in the other games. I never felt bad about any bosses I killed in 2 or 3 except for maybe the old hollowed king in 2 but the stupid giant souls mechanic mostly made up for that. 1 is the only game where I could see myself as actually playing the villain.
Character backstories - Were actually emotional and meaningful if not difficult to keep track of and execute properly. It was crazy to see characters that had helped you end up chasing something only to end up hollow. Fighting them afterwards was brutal. Then you have all the betrayers like I talked about above. Everyone is so memorable. There's also a good balance of mysterious characters that are not explained as much, making them fun to speculate on. Domnhall of Zena for instance is my favorite.
Meaningful consequences - Kill Gwynevere or Gwyn? The bois are mad at you now. You even get dark Anor Londo. Failure to kill the gold boy means you lose your bonfire at firelink. Yeah you can still kill friendlies in the other games with consequences but they didn't feel as meaningful and were a lot more completionist in nature. Also you can get indicted for invading etc.
Covenants - While their mechanics are for sure improved in other games the covenants in 1 felt much more real and were clearly connected to the world. This is enhanced by the fact that you meet lots of npcs associated with a lot of the covenants. Also you always have a living entity that you make your covenant with. It's never just with an item you find. There is the exception of sun bros covenant which is just the statue, but Solaire's prevalence helps to make up for that easily. Also there hasn't been a covenant that affected normal gameplay quite like gravelord servant ever since. Covenant special items were also a lot of fun (gravelord sword, darkhand, etc).

Connected map

Not much to argue here

Balanced fighting

Rolling isn't your only option - This was improved in 3 but 2 basically nerfed shields and parrying into the ground. Parrying is so freaking satisfying and although it is kinda cheap that is what makes it fun. Same with backstabs but I am more indifferent to them. Rolling is awesome and 100% necessary, but I always felt like I could choose different options when taking on enemies and bosses (and I don't mean magic vs melee which is always present, I mean melee approach variety) by using shields or using different timing etc.
Poise - It could be learned in 1. 2 and 3 do have some kind of poise mechanic, yeah but it is undecipherable to an average player and just feels like it was completely removed. In 1 it was easy to see "Ok if I use x weapon it will stagger y enemy after z hits" based on enemy type and weapon heaviness and it allowed you to calculate when you could take risks. 2 and 3 this is much less transparent and lots of enemies/bosses just have moves that you can't interrupt no matter what, not to mention random invincible sections. Your own character also has poise which you could clearly adjust with your stats, armor, and shield choices.
Fair but hard bosses - There are plenty of these across the series but I felt like there were the least cancer bosses in 1. Bed of chaos is cancer for sure but everyone else had pretty fun mechanics for the most part. 2 and 3 add in more bosses that introduce bed of chaos style pits and ridiculous timing dodging not to mention invincibility.
Stamina - This of course depends on your build and weapons but I felt like I did a lot more strategizing with stamina in 1 than the other 2 because I usually had a lot to spare in 2 and 3 but that might be hard to confirm and based solely on how I played each game.

Stuff that still sucks

Great Hollow - Nothing fun about the terrible platforming here. Challenging platforming is done well in blighttown and that is enough.
Spell uses - FP in Dks3 is a huge improvement
Rings - You can only wear 2. I honestly don't mind this though because individual rings were better
Matchmaking - It's basically impossible to play with a specific friend unless you get lucky although I've never specifically tried so it's hard to say
Blocking is a little too good - Should eat stamina more I agree

Stuff I'm on the fence about

Weapon infusion - On the fence about this in every game though
Farming - I actually kind of enjoyed it here though
Pacing in second half - Feel like it's a trade off for making things more open ended
Useless stuff - crossbows, whips, etc

BONUS CONTENT


DKS1 BEST BOIS: GIANT BLACKSMITH, DOMHNALL, ANDRE, VAMOS, SOLAIRE, GOUGH, BIG HAT LOGAN
DKS2 BEST BOIS: GAVLAN, SCORPION BOI
DKS3 BEST BOIS: …….IDK YET

NEO: The World Ends With You has impeccably recreated and improved on an impactful part of my childhood in an even more meaningful and engaging way. What a wonderful world it truly is.

FULL REVIEW BELOW
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(I played this game with Japanese text and audio. Eventually I'd like to post another review comparing and contrasting it with the localized English release.)

Introduction
Set in the urban metropolis of Shibuya, a real life ward in Tokyo Japan, NEO (as I'll abbreviate it from here on out) is a follow up to its Nintendo DS predecessor back in 2008. It moves from the 2D dual screen layout and stylus of the DS to a fully 3D environment with cel shaded graphics and a new controller friendly, large party based real time combat system. All aspects of the game, in my opinion, faithfully replicate the feelings elicited by the original while also improving them greatly. Unfortunately, the game was released to very little fanfare and marketing and a few areas feel half baked or compromised on, likely due to budget constraints. However, the game overcomes these restraints to deliver an incredible experience, shooting it into its rightful place as one of my favorite games of all time.

Gameplay
-Combat 93/100 Weight 2
The original TWEWY was all about controlling two characters at once on each of the screens, and NEO continues this tradition of controlling multiple characters with the new twist being that each character is assigned a single button instead of the gestures they used before. As someone whose favorite games tend to be detail focused action RPGs, I was initially turned off by the seemingly shallow nature of the combat. Sure, there's a dodge button, but can you really have fun with one button per character? The answer is a resounding YES, especially as your party continues to grow throughout the game!

Characters are equipped with badges like in the first game that grant them a psychic power with different attributes. The most exhilarating moments in the combat come when you set up combos and assists between the various psychic attack types. For example, you might have an enemy caught in a whirlpool… before another move launches it into the air where it crashes into a massive boulder from another move! This is improved further by your special move that charges when you chain attacks within a certain timeframe.

My main issues with the combat are mostly centered around movement. Since you can have so many party members in battle, it is impossible to control the positioning of them all at once. Instead you only control the movement of one character at a time (decided somewhat arbitrarily based on attack types I think?) and the AI handles the movement of the rest of the party members. Party members constantly teleport or zoom quickly towards their targets to increase the chances their attacks will connect which is a great QOL feature, but it can be disorienting when you are controlling one character who is standing still to charge up an attack when suddenly the camera snaps over to another character flying across the stage to connect their melee attack. You get used to this quickly but it can be frustrating when these things cause you to take damage because you didn't know the character you were switching to was in the path of an enemy attack.

In all though it's an awesome new formula for real time combat that includes a lot of party members. It also seems to borrow a lot from MMORPGS with attack cooldown management and symbols on the floor to help you anticipate certain attacks. I almost forgot to mention that the party has a shared healthbar which reduces a lot of party health management stress that other RPGs tend to have.

-Navigation/Overworld 90/100 Weight 1
My biggest annoyance with NEO lies in the fact that you cannot control the camera outside of battle at all. The urban setting is beautifully recreated in 3D, but you can't control the camera to get a good look at it. I thought at first maybe they could only afford to model everything from a certain angle or something, but the fact that you can fully rotate the camera during battle (unless you're auto-locked on which is about 98% of the time…) proves that wrong. Someone should make a freely rotatable camera mod!

One unique overworld feature lies in how NEO deals with enemy encounters. There are no random encounters and instead NEO has visible enemy signs that float around the overworld. However, you don't see or interact with them unless you hold down R1. This is neat because it means you can just zip through any area without worrying about encounters if you don't feel like it.

Speaking of zipping through areas, you later unlock an ability that allows you to dash across the map in the overworld and it is AWESOME. While using this dash it adds another layer onto the music for a sort of a remix-like feel.

I'll also briefly mention the shops you are able to interact with. Each shop has a named shopkeeper that you develop a standing with and add to your "social network" of characters. These restaurants and clothing stores do an excellent job of representing Shibuya's food and fashion culture and it's incredibly rewarding to improve your standing at each store and see the shopkeepers get excited about you being there.

Artistic Elements
-Art and Design 96/100 Weight 1
Incredible character, enemy, and set designs. I have always been a huge fan of Tetsuya Nomura's art style and it's a lot more tastefully subdued in this semi-realistic setting. He wasn't the only character designer but worked closely with the other designers and they all did great. My one grip with the art is the non-leader characters in other teams you compete with. They're all basically the same model with palette swapped, super uninspired faces and hair. They have so little personality and are grating to encounter and fight.

-Music 98/100 Weight 1
Absolute masterpiece soundtrack. I remember liking the soundtrack of the original, but listening to it again it is missing a lot of life and some of the singers can be hit or miss. NEO's soundtrack has a lot of new songs that knock it out of the park, but the remakes of the original songs hit so much harder than their originals. The battle themes are all great adrenaline-pumping beats and a lot of the set piece or overworld songs are fantastic as well. If I had to pick one favorite I'd say it's probably "Breaking Free" but I find myself constantly singing "Bird in the Hand" as well.

The only reason I don't give it a perfect score is because I wish the music didn't get interrupted each time you went into a store or opened a menu. An adaptive soundtrack would've also been great and fit well but at least the dash mechanic adds something kind of similar.

-Story 100/100 Weight 2
The story was phenomenal. As someone who played the original it was interesting to see all of the ways that they changed the rules to accommodate the new characters and ideas. I would say the main themes of the story are coming to terms with and overcoming your weaknesses, second chances, and seeing the bigger picture in life. Definitely play this game and experience how the characters grow throughout.

I felt a strong bond to almost every single main character and even to a lot of the side characters. Characters have clear and interesting growth and none of them feel shallow or inauthentic. The ways that the characters grow and interact are so fun, fresh, and realistic. They really make you despise the villains but they can also be relatable and have growth arcs as well.

It's hard for me to pick a favorite character since I love them all, but a few characters that I don't hear mentioned a lot that I was particularly impressed by are Nagi and Susukichi.

FINAL RATING:
95.7/100