The World Ends with You

Back in 2008, Square Enix released a game for the Nintendo DS that really made an impact on the world of handheld gaming. With help from Jupiter, Square created a masterpiece of video gaming history, and set a high bar for any other game that would appear on the DS. With third party titles ranging from My Little Pony, to Art Academy, 'The World Ends With You' gave players a taste of real, innovative gaming, on such a large scale that it has been hard for any game to match up to its innovation and fun for the last three years.

The game takes place in a fictional version of the Shibuya shopping district in Tokyo, Japan. While everyday life goes on in the Realground (RG), the dead are brought to an alternate plane of existence called the Underground (UG). The UG is also the venue for the Reapers' Game, Reapers being the main villains of the game. By offering their most treasured possession to enter the Game, the dead players gain the chance to contest for the prize: to be brought back to life or to transcend to a higher form of existence. Lasting a week, each Game is a contest to judge the worth of humanity. Players set out to accomplish objectives under the rules created by the Composer, who is a god-like entity who maintains Shibuya. Another Reaper, the Conductor, tasks other Reapers to obstruct the players' efforts. Failure to complete a mission will disperse the mind and spirit of the player or Reaper, erasing the player from existence, and this time around, there are only seven days. The city itself is vibrant and full of life, with many different characters wandering around it. Shops consist of music stores, clothing and accessory shops, and restaurants, which are all accessible to the player. This makes the city feel more alive, and is a real feat for a handheld game. The graphics are very good for an ’08 DS game, with some nice, flash-style orientated cut-scenes, that work extremely well with the game’s style. The game itself is fast and fluid.

A player in the UG is invisible to the living in the RG. The UG is inhabited by creatures called "Noise", which are attracted by the negative feelings of the living. To progress in the Reapers' Game, players are often required to defeat Noise by ‘erasing’ them. However, each Noise exists in two ‘zones’ simultaneously, and can only be defeated by two players fighting the Noise from separate zones; Players are required to form a pact with another player to defeat the Noise. Players receive assignments via text messages sent to their cell phones, and their right hands are imprinted with a countdown indicating the time left in the mission. This system really involves the player in the story of the game, and adds to the tension the player feels when trying to complete an objective. It also draws the player into the story, which is something not many games can do.

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The gameplay consists of many different elements, such as reading and sometimes influencing the minds of people in the RG. This is a fun mechanic, and something helpful to the player, helping them find information that can provide destinations for new clothing or Pins. The Pins that a player will find throughout the game, called ‘Psych Pins’ have different abilities that can be used in combat, while some can be sold to make extra cash used to buy clothing, accessories and Stickers: helping you upgrade stats and increasing the level of your Fusion attacks (that’ll come a little later), and food, which can temporarily increase certain stats, or permanently increase others. The Pins are used in combat by Neku, in order to defeat Noise. The player will run around the city, seeking out different types of clothing and pins, which are affected by the trends of certain sections of the city. The more popular a trend is in an area, the stronger pins will become. The player can increase the popularity of brands in a certain district by erasing Noise with the brand of their choice. The pins also have an upgrade system, ‘Pin Points’, gained from victory in combat, where they ‘evolve’ as you gain more PP after erasing Noise. They increase in damage and effects, and will grow more and more powerful if they have many evolved forms. Some only have the one form, but they are some of the most powerful in the game at a given time. It also has one minigame called ‘ Tin Pin Slammer’ that can be played against computer opponents or with up to 3 others via a wireless connection. Tin Pin Slammer is similar to the marble game ringer in that each player attempts to use their pins one at a time to knock the other players' pins off the gameboard. These ideas are amazing, and really give the player total control over their experience. It’s a fun little system, and one that is well thought out.

The characters are some of the most interesting in JRPG history. Neku, the player controlled characters, is an anti-social teenager who does not ‘get’ people. He wears a large pair of headphones to block out the noise around him, and only really finds pleasure in seeing the graffiti around the city. His partners range from Shiki; the mysterious girl who has a dark secret she harbours, but remains upbeat and is the polar opposite to Neku in every way. Joshua; a smug and sometimes arrogant teenage boy who is just as aloof and anti-social as Neku, but dresses in a less flashy manner, and Beat; a skateboarding, slang-using, not-so-intelligent lump of brawn that cares deeply for his sister, Rhyme; a little girl who is more intelligent and friendly to other than Beat is, often times defusing Beat’s hot-headed personality, especially when dealing with Neku. These characters interact in a manner that almost makes them seem like real people, as their conflicting personality traits make for entertaining viewing.

The combat involves the Stride Cross Battle System; which isn’t as complicated as it sounds. The screen is split into two ‘zones’ where both Neku and the partner must fight. They share a health bar, and while Neku is controlled via the stylus, the partner is controlled with the D-pad. The stylus can be used to activate the Pin abilities, such as dragging, stabbing or tapping, but some pins are also activated via the Mic on the DS. This shows how much Square wanted to use all of the features on the DS, and impresses me, as a player, because this idea has only been used in a handful of games, and not to a great extent. The partner uses the d-pad system to control their attacks, matching up cards to make more powerful combo attacks, and even to fuel the ‘Harmonizer Pin’, a pin which appears and allows the player to activate the ‘Fusion’ attack; a combination attack by both on screen characters which deals out damage to everything on-screen. The more stickers you collect, the more powerful this Fusion attack becomes, as they gain greater levels of power. The game also utilizes the ‘Light Puck’, an orb that is activated after a combination attack, which floats to the next character, increasing their attack strength and vice-versa. It is affected by the ‘Sync Ratio’ of the characters, which can be upgraded by clothing and temporarily by food. This makes timing crucial if you wish to deal out massive damage, defeat Noise quickly, and gain the rank that will get you the maximum number of PP and extra Pins by the end of the fight. This system is highly involving, and requires constant maintenance. It never leaves the player to just sit down and let the situation play out; it demands total attention and understanding of the battle system in order to achieve the maximum potential of system. Unfortuantly, there are times when the DS design itself hurts this game, as it cannot understand some of the movements the player is inputting. A downside more to do with the touch screen than with the game.

The music in this game is impressive. While some of the songs are hit and miss, many of them suit the situations you find yourself in. Combat music is fun and fast, it adds to the situation, instead of just being a series of musical chimes like most DS game. The game's music encompasses many genres, combining rock, hip hop, and electronica, designed to fit the various moods of Shibuya. Several real-name Japanese artists were involved in making the songs for the game. This really shows how much time and effort was put into making this game, and shows how much love the developers had for the idea they were working on.

Overall, The World Ends with You is one of the most amazing games ever to be created in the Nintendo DS. It has a solid concept and some excellent execution, with ideas that draw the player into the world of Shibuya. It gives the player plenty to get involved in, with shops and combat, along with the brand popularity system, which really makes for some fun and interesting playthroughs. The game itself is long enough, perhaps ranging on the thirty hour mark for story related gameplay, but there is well over one hundred hours of  content in this game, which makes it a must buy for any fan of a good, innovative and fun JRPG, which is somehow underrated. This is a masterpiece, end of story.

Pros:

·         Involving and epic story

·         Interesting and realistic characters

·         Innovating and fun combat system

·         Excellent use of musical scores

·         Graphics are colourful and enjoyable

·         Overall excellent, outside-the-box thinking for a JRPG

·         Tin Pin Slammer is a fun minigame

·         Gameplay is original

·         Extremely large pool of content beyond the main game

Cons:

·         Issues with touch screen recognition (DS fault)

·         Combat system, while not complicated, can take a while to get used to

Verdict:

5/5

This game is simply amazing, and is so underrated it’s a crime, the setting, characters and mechanics surrounding the title are some of the deepest and most interesting ever seen in handheld gaming, leaving no system on the DS unused. An epic game on a tiny console, this shows the world how DS games should be made, use everything, leave nothing, make a game that will last the player a lifetime.

WTF? Moment: Every character having the dress sense of a confused teenager, unable to decide which social group they come from. Neku's large and stupid looking headphones.