The World Ends With You (DS) Review

Posted by Jacob Lopez on 05.20.2008

The World Ends With You is an ultra-hip ultra-modern RPG experience on the DS developed by Jupiter and the team over at SquareEnix. How well did the guys behind some of the most memorable RPGs of our time manage to do in giving DS owners a brand new IP? Well, check out the review to find out.



The Story in a Nutshell Our Hero, Neku, wakes up in the middle of the Shibuya shopping district of Tokyo. He realizes that he is now holding a strange black pin that allows him to read minds. He is completely invisible to the outside world, none of the passersby can hear him or see him. Then he gets a weird text message and must now play the Reapers’ Game, a week-long challenge in which he must play by the rules or face 'erasure'. Neku must team up with a girl named Shiki in order to fight his way through the swarms of Noise (the game’s monsters) plaguing the area. So our story begins.





Meet our hero Phones, uh, I mean Neku.


Graphics

Occasionally, we see one of those fully 2D games that looks as great or better than some of the 3D titles out there. The World Ends With You is one of those games. This game has a strong focus on fashion, so everything from the backgrounds to the clothing style is colorful and loud.

The World Ends With You does a great job of bringing to life the feel of a crowded shopping district. Every area in the game is based on a real area in the Shibuya district in Tokyo, so a lot of the landmarks and buildings actually exist. Having never been to Japan myself, I have no idea how true to life it is. Either way, it looks pretty awesome, and if it is totally inaccurate, it sure fooled me.



It's like reading comics, really



The cutscenes are hand-drawn and use manga style word and thought bubbles to advance the plot. The comic book-like bubbles are just one of the many ways the game tries to evoke a modern feel.

The clothing and hairstyles are what you would expect from SquareEnix, only with a new millennium twist. Helmets, chain mail and heavy armor have been replaced with beanies, hoodies and skull sweaters. Everything on this game is modern and stylish, except maybe for Shiki’s damn fanny pack, that’s up there with those geek-tastic cell-phone holsters.






Gameplay

The game is your classic RPG as far as playing goes, you explore the overworld map, build experience, buy food and clothes and so on. TWEWY gives you the option of using the stylus or the buttons for moving around the overworld. The interesting thing about the control scheme is that it works for righties and lefties without having to change an option. The X, Y, B, A buttons all double as a D-Pad.

While in the overworld, you can use your player pin to scan the area. Scanning will allow you to read the minds of anyone who is not involved in the ‘Reapers’ Game’ as well as detecting any Noise in the area. When you scan for Noise, you must touch them onscreen to initiate combat.

The fighting in The World Ends With You is pretty damn confusing on the first few go arounds. If you choose to control both teammates, the game kind of forces you to do two things at once, something my one-track gamer mind is not all that good at. On the bottom screen, you must use the stylus to guide Neku in combat against the Noise. While doing all this, you must use the D-Pad or the X, Y, B, A buttons to control your partner on the top screen, and motoring your shared health meter. Don’t worry, it all makes sense after a while, and keeping track of two things at once must be a great brain workout, right?




The fighting is confusing as hell for the first few hours, but you will get the hang of it.


You will also have to collect pins through the course of the game. These pins give Neku special attack and heal abilities among other things. Without pins, you are helpless, so you have to collect, wear and evolve as many as you can. Along with the pins, you can buy clothing that will enhance your abilities and stats, as with most RPGs. TWEWY brings something new to the table though, being that the game is so fashion oriented, players must keep a watch over what brands and styles are trendy and in what areas. If you want to be able to use your abilities to the fullest, you will have to change gear throughout the course of the game. Especially if your stuff is out of style, you will suffer a major downgrade in stats if you aren’t careful.

The great thing about the fighting in this game is, there are no random encounters or those predetermined “fight” areas. To me, there was nothing more annoying in an RPG than when you just wanted to make a quick run somewhere, and were dragged into a random enemy encounter. In The World Ends With You, players scan for enemies and then choose the ones they want to fight. This can be great when you are in a hurry to get somewhere.



Sound

The World Ends With You has one of the coolest soundtracks on the DS. Everything from modern j-pop to techno makes this game easy on the ears. All the songs are full-length and sound great. In other words, the guy doing the soundtrack was probably not the producer’s cousin or brother-in-law. You may often times find yourself singing or humming along to some of the songs. Just how strong is the music in the game? The sound track is being sold on itunes, so obviously someone saw the potential in that alone. It’s worth a listen.

Aside from the catchy music we get some sound effects. Nothing major here, some fight sounds, monster sounds and the occasional 2 or 3 word voice-over. It works well, and made room for the game’s amazing music.





Lasting Appeal

Lasting appeal? This is a SquareEnix RPG; players can get absorbed for hours on just one aspect of a mission. Of course, you will have to build up your team if you want to advance in the game. This can take hours of playtime. Players can also spend time running to different streets and buying clothing to make friends with the store employees. The game does not seem to clock in your time, but this is definitely one of my longer review titles. Without giving away too much plotwise, I can say that for $40 bucks, the game will definitely give you your money’s worth in playtime.






Fun Factor

The World Ends With You is definitely an entertaining game. Fans of RPGs will definitely like the gameplay. Once again, the great thing is, you don’t have to worry about random enemy encounters. Still, you will have to level up if you ever want to finish the game, so fighting is essential. Of course, there are times when I would rather skip the fighting, but that comes with any game that has an interesting story. Luckily, The World Ends With You does not require a whole lot of grinding, so you will probably find yourself moving along at a fairly decent pace.



The 411

Yeah, The World Ends With You is a great little RPG. Sure, the main character comes off as kind of a prick at the beginning of the game, as do most of the main characters in Square’s RPGs, but their games are fun, and very well-made. Not having to deal with random enemy encounters is a nice plus. If you are a fan of Role Playing Games and/or Japanese culture this game is definitely up your alley.

This is a great year to pick up a DS if you haven’t already. It’s still pretty early in 2008 and we already have Professor Layton, Ninja Gaiden, Advance Wars and an upcoming Castlevania, all for the DS; The World Ends With You fits in with that bunch very nicely, and with belongs in any RPG fan's DS library.

Graphics	9.0	Lovely hand-drawn manga style cutscenes. The whole game is in 2D, but it looks more amazing than some 3D games that are out there right now.
Gameplay	8.5	The World Ends With You is a great game and RPG. The combat system can be hard to get used to at first, but will soon have you controlling both characters with relative ease.
Sound	9.5	The awesome and upbeat j-pop soundtrack with no obvious loops will have you singing and humming along to the tune while you play. The songs may stay in your head even hours after shutting down the DS, it's just that freakin' good.
Lasting Appeal	9.0	SquareEnix. RPG. 'Nuff Said. While the game may not last you as long as the next major Final Fantasy, you will definitely get your 40 bucks worth of playtime.
Fun Factor	8.7	I had a blast playing this one, and it has been a while since I've sat down with a good RPG, but this game had me hooked. Still, as with any role playing game, taking on enemies over and over again can get a bit tedious.
Overall	9.0   [  Amazing ]

Screenshots
All 5 The World Ends With You Screenshots