After getting some screen protectors for my DSi and preparing myself mentally, I fished out my copy of The World Ends With You and set myself loose in the fictional take on Shibuya. In my previous playthrough, I got as far as the second week with Joshua and quickly disliked how his combat handled. I don't know if it was just me, but I felt like the difficulty became an insurmountable wall. I'm thinking it's just me, since my little sister was able to beat the game (and it's the only game I know of that she beat before me). Not that she's a bad player or anything like that, she just doesn't play games as often as me; still, I was of her in that gamer sort of way.

Anyway, I got acclimated to the world once again, and almost everything came back to me. I say almost because it took me a long time to cast a simple fire spell; and when the game threw Shiki into the mix, I quickly became a dilapidated fool scrambling for some semblance of coordination. Most of my previous playthrough was spent mashing buttons and scribbling, but I think I'm getting the hang of that whole green puck passing thing.

I should note once more that I'm playing on the DSi. There aren't any hardware changes that affect the gameplay, but the larger screens definitely help the text become more visible. There were some letters that crunched together, and that always bothered me (I hate it when font looks disjointed or weird). The graphics seem a bit sharper, although the world map character sprites seem somewhat jaggy. Hopefully I'll have time to compare how looks between my DSi and my little sister's DS Lite. Also, I think the whole experience feels smoother than I remember; it's either a placebo effect or me trying to justify my DSi purchase (which I'm still regretting).

Right now, I'm at the beginning of the third day. The first two days were fairly easy and I'm surprised how much of the plot I remembered even one year later. Knowing what will happen at the end of the week definitely buffers the plot's impact (especially what happens at the end of the second day) but the motion comic cutscenes are still nice to look at. Plus, I really like how the dynamic between Neku and Shiki works out; it's a stereotypical odd couple yet it feels right.

I didn't realize that the PP bonus sticker wasn't available from the get-go, so the two days I didn't play between sessions resulted in absolutely nothing; and I consciously avoided playing for that sole reason. I'm also miss how I could chain battles with one another. Having to scan and tap noise clusters one by one is starting to get on my nerves. I spent most of last night grinding before I decided it'd just be best to move on until I got the ability to fight more than one cluster of noise.

So far, I'm liking it as much as when I first popped it in a year ago. The first week will be a slow burn for me, since I think Shiki is a better partner than Joshua; I'll be relishing in Shiki's simplicity for as long as I can. That, and the fact that I'm still trying to find the perfect combo of pins to use with specific groupings of enemies. If you're actively following my blog, please stay tuned for more impressions as I try to beat this game to the end!