The World End with You is a brand new action RPG offering from long running RPG developers Square-Enix, with its Kingdom Hearts team at the helm of the project it promises an all new experience and a unique take on the genre. But does it deliver?

The entirety of the game takes place in Shibuya, one of Tokyo’s busiest districts. As you might have guessed, this means the game has a modern edge to it compared to your typical sci-fi or medieval settings of most RPG settings.
The concept of the game is deceptively simple – as Neku Sakuraba you’re thrust into an intersection of Shibuya and you receive a message on your phone: clear this mission, survive seven days or face erasure. This sets the structure of the game. You have mission to complete every day and certain parts of Shibuya will be accessible depending on the nature of the mission. Along with Neku, he’ll have a partner for the mission who will accompany him both story wise and battle wise.

Shibuya itself is stylishly represented on the DS screens with many on screen sprite characters at once and tall, but gorgeous backdrops for buildings of famous Shibuya spots. The visuals jump at you with its edgy style and vibrant backdrops but the game doesn’t stop there.

The meat of the game itself is its unique battle system and it’s a text book example of how to create a battle system that accommodates every single feature the DS boasts. Using both screens, the game puts two of the playable characters in this ‘side cross battle system’. On each screen you have one character and you’re required to control both of them. On the bottom screen will be Neku controlled through a vast array of touch and mic functions and on the top screen will be his partner for the mission - controlled with a D-pad.

Sounds daunting? Well it actually is. Thankfully the game understands this; it allows for the option to have the top screen character on auto play as long as you you’re having trouble with it, and you can seize control of that character at any given time. It takes a while to ease into the system but eventually you’ll get the hang of it.

Pins are items that come in handy throughout your adventure and they’ll be essential for battles. Battle pins will be levelled up when used in battle and some have the ability to evolve into more powerful version of the last. Neku must be equipped with pins to battle and there are a vast array of different pins requiring different touch functions - all having unique stats that the game makes sure to let you know the details of. Some pins require you to scratch or touch empty space or the enemy, some require you to use quick slashes, and some require you to drag around the enemy – some simply inflict status ailments on enemies and some boost status ailments or heal. Up to 6 can be equipped and used at once (but have a reboot period after they’re powers been exhausted), and there are four pin decks for storage of other useful pins.

For your partner, the D-pad (or for the left handed the diamond shaped configuration buttons) is used solely; all you need to do is follow the D-pad direction on screen after starting a combo string with any D-Pad input – at the end of each combo path is a card symbol that needs to be matched logically with cards at the top of the upper screen. There are certain patterns required of the player to follow and match. Going through this process is more rewarding than simply mashing the D-pad. Each of Neku’s partners uses cards of a different nature to earn stars toward a fusion and when enough stars are collected, it’s possible to unleash a devastating attack of varying levels.

The flow of battle is such where there’s a light puck that serves as a general guide to which screen you should be focusing on. Performing a combo finisher on either screen sends the light puck (a green orb of light) to the character on the opposite screen - Performing a combo finisher with the other character sends the puck back. Proper timing of your attacks keeps the rally going and your pins steadily increase in power, the amount dependent on how fast you manage to pass the puck.

Battles themselves are engaging, requiring strategy, touch inputs, pattern recognition and great hand eye coordination. They’re initiated through using psych pins that can locate enemy ‘noise’ as well as allow Neku to read the thoughts of Shibuya residents. The circumstances of the battles are customisable as TWEWY introduces a system that allows you to change difficulties as long as they’re available at will as well as the ability to slide down levels from your current highest to the lowest (level 1): these have consequences – lowering you level decreases your overall HP but increases enemy drop rate. At the end of each battle is a result screen that grades how well you’ve performed in battle. It’s an extremely flexible feature, and allows complete control over the difficulty of the game.

Outside of battle there’s plenty to do. There are shops to visit, certain puzzles and mini-mission to complete requiring different tasks and keeping track of the latest trend in Shibuya. There's a cool 'brand chart' feature where you can check which brands of fashion are the 'in' thing, and if you do, it boosts your battle performance. If what pin you're wearing is out of fashion though, well, then it negatively affects your performance too. It’s not too much of a hassle because it work the other way around as well. You can influence what becomes the ‘in’ thing by using certain brands of pins too, so you it’s an optional, but yet another refreshing idea TWEWY breathes into the genre. Character customisation doesn’t stop there: there’s plenty of food to buy, and each of them boost different aspects of your character stats. There’s also a Shop feature where you can improve your friendship with shop attendants enough for them to unlock abilities for the clothes you buy for your character. It’s all rewarding and keeps the player busy. In short, character customisation on the whole is deep and rewarding, just like the battle system – you’ll never feel like you’ve done enough to your characters and you’ll want the latest new clothes or food to further grow their stats, and you’ll constantly be looking for what next loot to hunt for because there are shop items that require certain items that you can only get from defeating enemies. It’s all absorbing and it’s a game you’ll have to sink your teeth in to get the rewards. There is plenty to see and do.

The game world is lifted with a stylish J-Pop/Rock soundtrack. The selection is diverse and the tunes all fit the atmosphere of the game quite well. The quality and quantity is impressive on the whole and there are plenty of catchy tunes. It boasts one of the most standout videogame soundtracks on the DS yet.

TWEWY is story heavy so be prepared to read plenty of text bubbles and meet plenty of unique characters along the way. There are plenty of twists and turns and on the whole and the story takes a very unique route compared to your average. Character development isn’t lacking either as there are several prominent characters. But on the whole, the story remains a core aspect of the game throughout and it’s likely to be weird to you, but also interesting at the same time.

On the whole TWEWY is not a traditional RPG experience. There's just one big town that only opens up in its own deliberate pace, there are no dungeons, the concept is odd, the characters perhaps seem to belong more in a Jet Set Radio game than your average RPG, and the battle system almost feels like it won't look out of place in a rhythm game. Yet, it's probably because it's so odd, and so refreshing that it works, partly because it’s part of a genre that hasn’t made key advancement over years. The game does throw a lot at you in the beginning, it initially feels overwhelming with the multitude of systems it demands you get used to and there's also a lot of dialogue in this game. It takes a while for everything to digest but there are just tons of systems to exploit and it's the very definition of a deep and rewarding RPG experience.

This is a brand new IP from Square-Enix and they totally delivered, with aplomb in presenting something quite unlike anything they've done before. TWEWY is fresh, innovative and most definitely fun; highly recommended.

 

Written by: steven_mj