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The World Ends With You (TWEWY) was released in Japan on the Nintendo DS in July of 2007 under the name of It's A Wonderful World. The game quickly became a huge sensation due to it's unique gameplay which utilized all of the DS' features as well as being an RPG which takes place in modern day Shibuya, Japan. After roughly a year of waiting the game finally made it's way across seas.
For those who don't know, TWEWY is an RPG released by Square-Enix for the Nintendo DS. It diverges from the traditional RPG formula due to it's present day setting in a familar location, it's hugely unique battle system which takes place simultaneously on two screens with drastically different gameplay on each screen, it's unique use of trends to alter the gameplay, and it's pin system. Furthermore, the gameplay diverges drastically from the typical RPG formula in the sense that the game takes place in a series of days in which players must complete a task to move on to the next day.
Upon booting up the game players are thrust into the shoes of Neku Sakuraba, a 15 year old who despises other people and only cares for himself. Neku finds himself in the center of Shibuya with no clue as to how he got there. Shortly thereafter he finds out that he is in a Reaper's game where he must survive for 7 days or face erasure. Along his quest for survival he is forced to team up with individuals to survive which leads to some awesomely hilarious dialouge and fantastic character development.
The story may seem cliche, and there's no doubt that amnesia is a silly old idea which has been used more than once, but the way in which the story progresses fully realizes the potential of such an uninteresting paradigm. Neku isn't the only one who is clueless as to the circumstances of the Reapers game and what exactly it is. The other characters in the game are left in the dark as well. Essentially, no one fully understands what is occurring. Keeping players in the dark enables the story to unfold in such a fashion that around every corner is a new and exciting piece of information or twist. The reapers' game is cryptic, and the way in which the story unfolds capitalizes on the chaos and disorder which Neku and the others find themselves facing.
Players have 7 days to survive the reapers' game or else they face erasure. Each day requires the player to perform a specific task in order to make it to the next day. Essentially, Neku and his partner wake up somewhere, receive a message containing the day's mission, are given a time limit, and must then carry out the mission. Luckily, the time limit which Neku and his partner face does not actually occur during real time- i.e. videogame players such as yourself will not have to complie with the time limit (essentially you can take your time and the time limit only exists in the story sense).
Each mission is unique. One may require you to reach a certain destination and another may be a cryptic riddle. While completing the missions players are given the oppurtunity to 'scan' the environment. Scanning the environment will enable Neku to read the thoughts of the Shibuya residents and partake in battles. Players are also able to run around Shibuya and go shopping, run errands, whatever; however, depending on the day's mission certain areas are blocked off by reapers. Reapers will issue objectives for players to complete in order to proceed to a specific area of Shibuya. These objectives range from defeating a certain number of enemies (known in the game as Noise) to making a certain brand popular (more on brands and trends later). More often than not the reapers block the paths which Neku must take in order to complete the day's mission.
The battle system in TWEWY is known as the Stide Cross Battle System and is more likely than not the most unique battle system in any RPG to date. The battles take place in real time on two different screens-- the top screen and the bottom screen. Players control two characters, one for both screens. On the bottom screen Neku is controlled via the stylus and on the top screen his partner is controlled by means of the D-pad. Needless to say, the actually combat mechanics on the top screen and the bottom screen are drastically different.
On the bottom screen Neku is controlled using the stylus. Dragging across Neku then across Neku enables him to run. From there, the other actions depend on the pins you have equipped. Pins are the games version of weapons and items which can be used in combat. Some pins may enable Neku to slash his opponents, others may enable him to fire bullets at enemies, and some may even replenish his health. The pins require specific stylus maneuvers such as touching an obstacle then tapping an enemy to throw the obstacle, slashing an enemy to have Neku run in and melee combat, drawing a line of fire, etc. There are a plethora of unique ways in which to activate a pin, and each one of these activations represents a specific action which correlates to how the stylus (or mic) was used. With over 250 pins it's needless to say that action on the bottom screen can be play out however you want it to.
The top screen is fought utilizing the d-pad (or if you are left handed the a, b, x, y buttons). Essentially players will tap left or right in the direction of an enemy. This will bring up a grid of arrows and three finishing points. Following the arrows with the d-pad enables the top user to attack-- one attack for each movement of the arrows. The ending sequence of the arrows contains a card so to speak. The cards are utilized to create a fusion attack between Neku and his partner. For example, Shiki has three different cards she can choose from as finishers. Choosing the cards in the correct order gives her stars. When the amount of stars reaches 4 a fusion attack is enabled which deals massive damage to all enemies. The card system is different for each partner Neku has and varies up the gameplay on the top screen considerably. Furthermore, partners on the top screen can jump with the up button, guard by pressing down, dodge, etc. Also, it should be noted that each partner on the top screen can perform certain actions better than others. For example, jumping and setting off a combo attack with Shiki deals more damage than Shiki standing still will attacking.
With two screens of different combat mechanics the game can seem overwhelming. Luckily, TWEWY does a fantastic job of slowly weening you into the battle system. For example, on the top screen players are slowly given more and more advanced maneuvers until finally all the features of the top screen are able to be utilized. By that point players will more than likely have gotten the hang of which screen to focus on during certain parts of battle or how to quickly scan both screens at once. A great thing to note is that by deleveling you obtain more pins and items from battles. Also, changing the difficulty changes the items the enemies drops. So... if you are going for 100% you will end up playing on every difficulty-- and luckily you can change the difficulty on the fly.
Utilizing both screens at once provides many benefits in battle. The enemies on the top screen are the same as the enemies on the bottom screen; in other words they share HP. So dealing massive amounts of damage on both screens needless to say makes battles much easier. Also, Neku and his partner share the same HP bar. Furthermore there is what the game calls a light puck which will float back and forth between Neku and his partner. Once Neku or his partner receives the light puck they want to pass it off as quickly as possible to their partner. This requires the character who has the light puck to quickly perform a combo attack to pass it. Passing the light puck back and forth creates a damage multiplier which increases with each successive passing. Coorporation between the two screens will greatly enhance Neku's chance of survival.
A great feature of TWEWY is the inclusion of various options which can make combat significantly easiers or significantly more difficult. For example, players can have the top screen controlled automatically by a computer if they feel overburdened by attempting to control two screens at once. Likewise, there are multiple difficulty options you can change at any time. Furthermore, for those who want to make the game harder they have the option to delevel, or decrease the level of their characters. Players can customize how they want the game to play out-- essentially anyone should be able to find what works for them.
A unique feature found in TWEWY is it's trend system. Shibuya is divided into multiple districts, and each district has certain trends. The trends refer to the brand names which are popular in the area. The clothes which the characters wear and the pins which Neku equips are branded. So if the brands Neku is wearing are the number one trend in the area Neku receives a bonus in battle (such as 2x more damage dealt). If the brand Neku is wearing sucks, Neku is is penalized in battle (such as 2x less damage). Also, whatever brand Neku is winning will become popular as Neku wins battles. So... it is possible to turn the worst brand in the area into the best brand in the area.
Another unique feature found in the world ends with you is the Pin system. As stated earlier pins are used in battle and they are branded. Furthering on those ideas pins are also able to be evolved into stronger pins (think Pokemon). Pins gain pin points which are essentially experience points that contribute to the evolution of a pin. Pin points can be obtained in three ways-- battle PP, shut down PP, and mingle PP. Battle PP are obtained by winning battles. Shut down PP are obtained by turning off the game; the longer the game is turned off the more PP you get. Mingle PP are obtained by interacting with other people who have TWEWY, or for those who can't do that interacting with AI in the mingle option. The type of PP which are obtained reflect what the pin may evolve into. Sometimes battle PP being dominant may be required to evolve a pin or other times shut down PP may be required. This is somewhat of a hassel but it creates variety in a standard formula.
Yet another cool feature found in TWEWY is the ability to eat foods, take vitamins, etc. Doing so will raise your characters' stats or increase their sync rate (how much they like one another). Each food has an allotted byte point value which indicates how many battles must be won before the food is digested and the stats are given to your character. Furthermore, characters can only eat 24 bytes a day. Foods such as attack plus pills which increase your attack by a lot will be much more bytes than say a soda which increases your sync rate. Choosing which foods you wish to consume each day adds much needed strategy as to how you want to build up your characters.
TWEWY contains a fairly complex game which the residents of Shibuya play known as Tin Pin. Tin Pin is a lot like battle tops-- you use the stylus to ram your pin into your opponents' pins and try to knock them off the map. There are also four different specials which stun other pins or save your pin from falling off the map. The pins which are used are the pins Neku currently has equipped. In other words, Neku can use any of the 250+ pins in the game. Also... each pin has it's own unique Tin Pin stats such as speed, weight, number of specials, and so on. For a minigame within a game Tin Pin is well fleshed out and extremely fun. It's surprising that something like Tin Pin hasn't already been released on the DS as a stand alone shovelware piece of crap game.
The game's length really depends on how much the player wants to put into the game. It took me 28 hours to beat the main quest. For those who want to do the minimal amount of battles for whatever reason they can expect the game to last about 20 hours. So... a good average is somewhere around 25 hours to complete the game. Upon completing the game a plethora of new options and events are unlocked which greatly extend the length of the game considerably (not including obtaining all the pins and leveling up your characters, pins, collecting items etc).
TWEWY is an extremely fun game with one of the best stories around. It may seem overwhelming at first but if you are willing to tough it out for a bit you will find one of the most enjoyable and unique gaming experiences around. It has so much to do that anyone should be able to find something they like; but be warned if you don't enjoy the battle system chances are you will not enjoy the game nearly as much as those who do considering you obtain money and whatnot from battles. I for one fell in love with the game and am surprised/happy to say that after 10 or so years Super Metroid is no longer my favorite game.
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