A breath of fresh air in every sense.
The World Ends With You is an incredible game. It is in fact the best JRPG in a long, long, long time. The World Ends With You is a fantastic RPG because it manages to deliver a catchy soundtrack, beautiful visuals, masterfully stylish presentation, fresh combat and an incredible story.
The World Ends With You puts you in control of Neku, an emo kid that follows many emo philosophies. He is suddenly cast into a game where he must complete a challenge given to him. The story follows along giving you more information about the game and why you're playing and more likable characters each with their own backstory. What could be a bland journey of an emo kid simply becoming more annoying really turns into a tale that could make a fantastic anime. The story, despite having a confusing ending, is a stand-out of the genre and is a breath of fresh air.
The combat in TWEWY marks the first DS game that I've seen that uses it to it's full capabilities. TWEWY manages to integrate the dual screens flawlessly and makes a unique experience that you couldn't find anywhere else. On the touch screen you control Neku where you can use various pins to activate abilities such as simple slashing moves to ones that require you to blow into the microphone. While this is happening, on the top screen you control your partner which you issue combos with the D-pad. Combat isn't random either, you actually get to pick and choose your battles by scanning for Noise (the enemies in the game) and picking which ones you fight. It starts out as confusing but a Combo puck which passes between screens definitely eases the experience and makes for a unique, fun and innovative time. If you're also having difficulty coordinating in a battle, you can just stop using the top screen and the AI will control your partner in a few seconds.
Graphically The World Ends With You is stunning. The art style is candy for the eyes and the detailed sprites are just the icing on the cake of this graphical masterpiece. Whoever said that 2d is dead has been proven wrong.
The presentation of the World Ends With You is very stylish. The art in this game is integrated into the presentation and the game boasts the best translation in a game ever. The witty dialogue and a total count of 0 errors mark another standard set by this game.
The soundtrack in this game also merges with the presentation. The game is set in Shibuya....which is in Japan for the geographically declined. TWEWY delivers a great and original J-Pop soundtrack. You'll definitely be able to pick out a few favorites from the list and thankfully, the soundtrack is downloadable from Itunes for only $10 which is a steal.
The main story mode of the World Ends With You should take you about 15-20 hours to complete depending on your skill level. The game also has an extra day (which is practically a spin-off in a completely alternate dimension) and a multiplayer mini-game called Tin-Pin Slammer which is fairly addictive. There's also a bonus ending to unlock which gives you some more detail on what happened in the end and a bunch of replay value if you want to tinker with the difficulty. Also, if you don't feel like playing the game, come back in a week to find you got a bunch of more experience for your pins, so you might not suck against that boss you got stuck on as much.
The World Ends With you is a deep and innovative JRPG which any and all DS owners should take note of and is arguably the best DS release to date.
