TimAlien
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
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