THE WORLD END WITH YOU: FINAL REMIX (OVERVIEW)
The World Ends with You is an action rpg that uses urban fantasy elements to tell an engaging action packed story. As of now, I have over 30 or more hours clocked in for the remix, and almost done 100% completing the game. I use to play the DS version back when I was little but could never beat it. Now I'm an adult whose actually good at video games, and I got to say, this game is just as awesome as I remembered it. This version is definitely the best version, especially with the updated visuals which makes the art look a lot less pixelated. The World Ends with You was praised for it's game play, story, graphics, and music and here to tell you all about it.
Story and Characters
So yeah, the story immediately grabs your attention with it's premise as you explore what the death games are exactly about and why is Neku and in conjecture, you the player- on why you are here as Neku has amnesia and can't remember anything before the games. Neku is unlikable at first as he pushes everyone away and likes to be alone. He wears headphones to drown people around him as he kind of thinks less of them. He likes to be in his own world, but he learns soon enough that you must play the games with a partner. Apparently you can't survive very long without one as you can't activate your powers without a partner, or stay in the game without one as it's part of the rules of the death game. You spend most of the story watching Neku grow as a character as he learns to trust his partner in order to survive the games.
The supporting cast of characters and antagonists are likable enough. They have just enough story for you to be invested, but unfortunately don't expand enough for you to really care. Characters often come and go which is a shame because the stories you do learn about them makes you want more but the game doesn't really focus on it with Neku being the only real exception. This isn't a bad thing however, as the story is pretty simple to follow, and isn't confusing at all (at least in my opinion anyway). Just don't get to invested into the story and think the game will answer all your questions as chances are- It won't.
The game also misses the opportunity to make it fully voice acted. Only using voices for small cut-scenes and small voice lines. They kept the same voice actors that could've returned to their roles, or use new voice actors to help voice the game. Games these days are expected to have more, and it's shame not to hear the game fully voiced for what might be the final version of the game. Just look at the enhanced version Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor one and two for the 3DS that build upon it's predecessors with expanded story elements, game play, and even a fully voice acted game.
With all that being said, The World End with You still has a fantastic story that focuses on the idea that everyone lives in a world of their own, and the world is only as big or small as you let it be. Neku is really self-centered but he learns throughout the story about other people and their stories and has expanded his world past himself. It's a really engaging to see in action, and the story still holds up pretty good after all these years. Just wish they could've expanded upon it in the final remix version.
Sound and Visuals
The game has a wonderful art style that was drawn by Tetsuya Nomura and co-artist, Gen Kobayashi. Gen helped with character designs while Tetsuya was known for his work behind games like Final Fantasy. Even knowing that, the game stands out with it's unique art style with memorable character designs and stunning 2D visuals of Shibuya. It's art was further enhanced with the Switch port as it just looks gorgeous when placed in console mode and viewed upon the big screen which is no doubt the best way to view the game. It evens looks good in handheld mode.
(The World Ends With You OST "Calling". Uploaded by Mythgraven and is owned by Square Enix)
Gameplay and Settings
Check out this 7-minute spoiler-free game footage uploaded by GameXplain. You can check out there review on you tube if your interested.
The games runs smooth both in console and in handheld mode. Unfortunately, the game falls short on it's settings. Really only allowing you to change the pointer speed and soundtrack which is strange to the say the least.
The game has fun and colorful gameplay where you control Neku and his partner all on the same screen. I mention that because in the DS version, you use to control Neku and his partner using two separate screens which use to be a lot to juggle (especially if you were 10 years old when you first played this game). Now...it's still kind of a lot to juggle. The game kind of has a steep learning curve that is easy to get into but really hard to master thanks to it's controls and battle system which I'll get more into later in the review. Remember how I mentioned that Neku and his friends have super powers? Well Neku is a special case who is able to wield a wide variety attacks. There are way to many to list in this review, but it's awesome to have so much to customize Neku with. The easy part is figuring out your load out and what your attacks do. The hard part is actually managing it all. There's just a lot to juggle on screen at once as you have to control Neku and his attacks, his partner and their attacks, and keep track if the enemies attacks too. You later also get the ability to perform powerful team attacks with your partner that can do major damage to everyone on screen and increase item drop rate. These are perhaps the best part in combat as these team attacks put you in a small mini-game where you either quickly match cards, swipe to create matching pairs, or press cards in ascending order from 1-3.(Trust me, it's a lot more fun then I make it sound). The better you are at the mini-game, the stronger your team attack will be.
This game does somewhat have a complicated shopping system. It's a lot to get into, but you can customize Neku and his partner's equipment by shopping for clothes at the various shops in Shibuya. Each shop has a friendship level which gets higher with the more stuff you buy. The higher the level, the more stuff they sell. This level is also important for figuring out your equipment's hidden ability as that can only be learned if you made friends with the right shopping clerk. There's a also a food system where you can get stronger by eating food each day. You can only eat a certain amount of food each day, and have to wait in between hours to eat more (real life hours by the way). These food give permanent stat bonuses. So if given enough time, you can buff your characters to fullest by eating nothing but burgers. A feat that can only be accomplished in video games.
I do have one gripe in this game and it's within its debatable controls. See, you control Neku and his partner using the joy-con controllers with a series of horizontal, vertical, and circular swipes on the screen. In handheld mode, these actions are controlled with your finger using the touchscreen. If you decide to play the game in handheld mode, keep in mind that the entire game is controlled using the touch screen and completely void of button input. The controls aren't bad per say, just takes some time getting use too. Your actions can sometimes be misinterpreted, especially when trying to move Neku out of danger as some attacks require slashing Neku with a vertical or horizontal swipe. Since you need to move Neku using the pointer, and the dodge action is performed with a quick swipe- Its difficult for the game to try to understand what your doing sometimes. Luckily, I think the game developers know that. Which is why enemies in this game have easy telegraphed attacks. It isn't perfect, but you should have enough time to move Neku out of danger if the controls are fighting you. Enemies are also not hard to take out (even at harder difficulties). It's fun and rewarding to beat enemies, but not because it was challenging but because the controls actually worked with you for once or a battle actually goes your way. I recommend playing in console mode as it's easier to control Neku using the joy-con then the touch screen. Either way, the game wasn't meant for long sessions as you can easily burn your finger or tire your arm out from all that moving around.
There is something else to keep in mind when playing. Neku's attacks and load out are customized using items called "Pins". These pins are easy to understand at first, but man it gets freaking complicated to master. See, your pins can actually evolve through game play. Evolved pins can enhance your attacks i.e. your ice pillar can evolve to even bigger ice pillars. Easy right? Well you'll be wrong about that. I can talk hours about this, but this review is getting long as it is. To put it simply, there are three ways to evolve pins. Through battle, mingle, and sleep. Evolving through battling is easy (It's in the name. Just beat up the bad guys). You evolve through mingle by playing this mini-game called "Tin-Pin Slammer" where you use pins to knock off your opponents pins in set arenas. The last one is evolving through sleep. You get this by...not playing the game. You can bank up to seven days of off game playing, and from not playing the game, whatever pins you have equipped at the time get the sleeping points. With me so far? No? Too bad. It get's more confusing. See, if you don't evolve your pins in a certain way. Nothing happens. Your pin just gets stronger, but it won't evolve if let's say it needs to evolve through battle but you decided to mostly give it points by sleeping. This was made worse in the remix version as a lot of pins have changed their requirements for evolution i.e. a pin that use to evolve by sleeping in the DS version now evolves through battle in the remix version. I highly recommend doing research if you decide to delve deeper into this.
The remix offers a fun co-op experience where you hand the second joy-con controller to a friend and they control Neku's partner. This is a pretty fun experience as this relieves the burden of having to control Neku's and his partner at the same time. I recommend finding a friend and giving this a shot if your into co-op.
EVEN WITH ALL THAT, the game luckily doesn't require you to dive deep into these mechanics if you don't want too. You can experience the games story on the easiest difficulty and beat the games enemies with the starting pins if you wanted too. How do I know that? Because when I first played this game when I was 10, I didn't know how to change my load out very well so I used the games default pins and even made it to the final boss using them. So that should tell you something.
DLC, and Additional Content
Thankfully, this game doesn't have any dlc to speak of. You get everything this game has to offer and more as the remix offers a new scenario called "The New Day" which offers two hours of additional content and stars a new character: a bubbly young reaper called "Coco". I won't get into how to unlock The New Day as doing so will spoil the game. but essentially, The New Day is a scenario that helps expand the story and answer questions that left players confused in the original version of the game. For people who haven't played the game before; this is just more stuff to explore. But for people who played the original, this is a nice treat. I will inform you though while The New Day does help explain certain things. It leaves even more unanswered questions. Which is frustrating to know, especially since this might be the final version of this game unless we get a sequel. Seeing that it's been nearly ten years since the original and this is what we got. I wouldn't get any high hopes for that. I also didn't mention that if you want to 100% the game, you do have to beat bosses on hard mode which means probably mastering all the confusing mechanics I mentioned earlier and using the games difficult control scheme.
Conclusion!
The World Ends With You still has something to offer for all kinds of players, even after all these years. I highly recommend this to players looking for a fun, interesting, and challenging game experience and is looking forward to something new and fresh that's different from your typical action rpg. For old timers like me, I highly recommend grabbing a switch if you don't have one and giving this game a shot again. You won't be disappointed. Heck, I came back just to listen to the soundtrack again (It's so good) The New Day was also fun to explore (even if still leaves you hanging in the end for more which I guess can be a good thing. Maybe we'll get a sequel if we support the game enough). Don't miss the chance to add this game to your personal collection.
Expand your world and give this game a try. Only you decide how to broaden your horizon. The World Ends With You after all ;)
Thanks for reading! And tell me how I did in the comment section and what you thought of the game if you played it. I love to hear your thoughts and opinions. (The World Ends With You is owned by Square Enix. All rights goes to them so please support the official release).
