The World Ends With You was released on the DS on April 22, 2008 in North America. It’s an action RPG developed by Square Enix and Jupiter for the Nintendo DS. This game features a distinctive art style inspired by the Shibuya youth culture.
The game is set within a modern world of Shibuya, Tokyo. The story starts as the main character Neku Sakuraba wakes up to find himself in an absurd game known as the Reaper’s game. Within a seven day time limit, Neku must complete missions that are assigned to him. If he fails to do so, he and his friends may risk being erased from existence.
At first, you may be a little confused as to what is going on. What exactly is the Reaper’s game? Why is Neku involved in such things? Who is the mastermind behind all of this? All of these questions are fighting for space in your brain, and they are all answered in due time. That is one of the key elements that keeps me playing. An intriguing story line. And I have got to say, this game has a story like none other. It is absolutely amazing. The last DS game that I played for so long, straight, without stopping, was Layton, so this is saying something. I think the game is just that great.
So, back to the story. You are immediately thrown into this game that Neku, has no clue what is about. He doesn’t know why he is there, where he is at, and doesn’t seem to want any help in finding his way around. To put it simple. He’s a jerk. He is confronted by a girl named Shiki Misaki, who asks him if he wants to form a pact. Well, she doesn’t really ask, she more forces him to join a pact with her. They join forces and so the story goes. You are immediately absorbed into this greatly detailed game, with the missions and the seven day time limit, and it all feels so right.
You control Neku through the streets of Shibuya along with his new friend Shiki to complete each day’s mission. Though the characters are required to complete each mission within a certain period of time, the time limit is not correlated to the amount of time you actually have. So there is no rush. You can take as much time as you want to customize your player’s attributes, clothes, pins, and many more while exploring the streets.
Shibuya is divided up into several district, each unique in its own way. While some districts may be blocked on certain days, other may have you complete a certain task to gain passage.
Neku has the ability to scan the area at any given time. It is any ability that allows him to do many things, such as locate nearby Noises, and fight them, when they are floating around, or give him passage into a nearby person’s mind, and find out what they are thinking, that may or may night progress the story. Each district has fashion trends that effect the gameplay. By wearing and buying certain clothing that are popular in that district it gives you some benefits while fighting. If you wear the most popular clothing brand for the district your attack will be doubled, however if you wear the least popular, it will be cut in half. Other effects will very in between the doubled or the half. You can even go to different shops to purchase clothing or food that can be used to increase the characters stats. Food is consumed during battles and increases a characters base statistics.
The World Ends With You’s combat system is sort of hard to describe, but I will do my best. The bottom screen is Neku, and he uses fighting methods of pins. Different pins do different things. Some pins may allow you to create a wave of fire that is used to attack enemies, or others can throw items on the street at your enemies. The use of the pins is widely varied, and there are many different types throughout the game. The most common way of aquiring them is by battling the Noises, or monster like creatures, and the reward for beating them can sometimes be Yen or pins.
So while you are using Neku to fight on the bottom screen, on the top screen you are fighting with Shiki. She requires that face-down cards be correctly identified. To select a card, the player uses the directional pad or face buttons to navigate through a pathway to select the card to be used; if the card is correct, the partner will make an attack. When a series of cards is matched, a special pin appears on the touchscreen side allowing for a combination attack of both Neku and his partner to be unleashed; each series matched can build up this attack further if it is not used. The player can also help the partner character dodge attacks. If this is all sounding a bit too confusing, and difficult, you can always set Shiki to automatically attack by herself, so you are only in control of the bottom screen, Neku. However, I find it more fun to try and master both aspects of the game, because that is what it was intended for. It makes the game seem to move at a faster pace, and gives me more of a thrill while playing.
Neku and Shiki are in sync during battle, so they share the same health during battles. A green circle thing is passed between the two characters. When the character has control of this puck the amount of damge they do on enemies is increased. But basically, overall once you get used to the abstract way of fighting, it gets fairly simple. I was really really lost at first, and had no clue what to do. I was finding myself losing some battles and having to start over, and was getting sort of frustrated with the game’s combat system. After a couple of random Noise battles, I found that the combat was easy to get used to, and started to get B’s and sometimes even A’s on battles, which I was proud of myself for.
Now, onto probably what some of you were waiting for. The characters. Going into this I knew that they were rumored to be bad. Sunflower mentioned in the thread that he absolutely hated the characters, and still to this day doesn’t like them. Others have other feelings toward the characters. When I first started the game, I was with Sunflower. Neku is a complete jerk. There isn’t any other way to put it. He was mean to everyone, annoying, and didn’t like to have anyone around him. Fine by me, I might as well get away from him too. But I think that if you stick with it, you start to sort of grow on him, and he isn’t as bad as when it first starts.
Granted, I’m only on Day 4 so maybe things get better or worse, I don’t know. But as with most Square Enix games, the characters all have their different personalities and styles, that make the game enjoyable. Shiki is a complete nag. She is constantly bothering and ordering everyone around. I can see that she is kind at heart, but man, she is so dependent. I’ll let you guys try out the game for yourself, and give your opinion on the characters, but I think that you will be surprised to find that you may grow to like some of them.
Overall the World Ends With You is an amazing game. You shouldn’t expect anything less then the best from Square Enix. The never before seen combat system introduced in this game, was a risky deal that Square Enix made, but I think it was a success. The story shouldn’t go without mention. There may be times where it is a little too long for the not so patient gamer, but if you are into a fresh new story, that isn’t your traditional, hero saves the world deal, then I think this may be the game for you. From pins, to clothes, everything that is involved with The World Ends With You works. It all flows smoothly into one big, excellent game for the portable DS system. The World Ends With You may not have a big name like Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts, but it definitely deserves the same kind of success. Props to Square Enix for taking a chance on something so original. I definitely give this game a huge, huge, thumbs up, because it is up there with some big name DS games like Professor Layton or The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Now, I know that those may not be the same genre exactly, but they are all worth purchasing. Please encourage Square Enix on their work – buy this game.
