The World Ends With You Review

This is one of those games that when you first here about it you don't pay much attention to. My first exposure to it was a Square Enix press conference and it was unimportant in the way it was thrown on the list of games to be released. The only thing that caught my initial attention was the art style and it reminded me of Kingdom Hearts' aesthetic only more exaggerated in some respects and using sprites. After getting it for a Square Enix-loving friend's birthday and hearing her rave about it I was swayed and decided to get it, my first hand-held game purchase in over a year. It wasn't an easy find due to limited production but I found it (at an anime convention) and dusted off my DS.
The main character Neku, a hate-filled, self-centered teen boy, wakes up on the streets of Shibuya being attacked by mysterious creatures called "noise." He is then given a task to complete or face death and he must team up with a partner to do so. Being a mostly typical RPG he then finds more team members and learns a life lesson that is meant to evoke tears by the end. The story does have an unforeseen twist or two and if you're willing enough you can get hooked. However the story is given through text weighted cut scenes that resemble a comic book in some ways and they drag on forever and can't be skipped if one so desires. Also some scenes are completely needless because they give answers to riddles and clues gathered that could be solved by a chimp with half its brain removed. Now to critique the actual game-play.
Most of your time is spent running from area to area helping the characters get from one cut scene to another while unlocking gates and battling more "noise". Combat is the most unique thing about the game due to two facts. One is the fact that YOU almost always choose when to fight and the other is the way the combat is executed. It is split between the two screens with a character on each and each has its own control scheme. The bottom screen is controlled by selecting pins that represent attacks and then drawing on the touch screen in a designated fashion. The upper screen is controlled by bottom mashing but there is the option to let the computer take over which leads to similar results which in retrospect is sort of a needless feature. At the start switching between both screens and controls is difficult and by the end I still barely had the hang of it. Also the drawings for attacks are constantly mixed up with one another. Now there are singular points that are worth pointing out.
As an RPG you do repeat the same quests over and over and there are points where leveling up is almost mandatory. Also there are pieces of equipment and clothing that supposedly make a difference to combat depending on the area of Shibuya but to me it made no difference. At the end of the game you can replay any part of the story and try to get EVERYTHING in the game, a feature I found pointless. A feature I appreciated is that pins can level up while you leave the DS turned off. To wind things up if you like or don't like RPGs this game won't change your opinion.

Fun, innovative game

TWEWY is a exciting new type of RPG. It has many new features never before seen in an RPG, and a must own. A few of the features are as follows.

Pin System - Your main character, Neku, battles with "Pins". They range from being able to fire beams of energy, to being able to pick up and throw objects, to "Street Fighter" type close combat moves.

Duel Screen Battles - You partner up with different characters throughout the game. You fight on the bottom screen, they fight on the top screen. You fight agains the same enemies, but you control both of your characters at once. Neku, your main character is controled by the stylus, and your ally is controled by the D-pad, (Or the XYBA for lefties)

Food System - You consume food and raise your stats. It takes a certain number of battles to digest food, but when you do, you get a stat bonus for the rest of the game. You can consume up to 24 bites of food at the start of each day, the first 18 of which replenish each day, but you can always eat food with 6 bites or less.

Clothing System - You wear clothing as equipment, and it gives you stat bonuses, but it also affects your pins based on the trends. Each area has different trends. Wearing the trend increases the power of your Pins in battle. You can also start your own trends by battling with clothing or pins that may not be trendy.

Choose your level/Battle Chains - You gain XP and increase your "max level" throughout the game. Any time out of combat, you have a slider bar where you can choose any level below your max you want to fight at. In doing so, you increase the challange of battles, but increase the reward. You can also chain combats together to Multiply your reward. For example, your Max level is 10, you choose to fight at lv 8. That rewards you x3 the chance of loot (10=x1, 9=x2, 8=x3). Choosing then to chain 3 battles together (no break in between, and difficulty increases in each battle) would result in x9 chance of reward on every battle (3x3). Also, outside of battle, you can choose the difficulty of the battles, from "Easy, Normal, Hard, and Ultimate"


That being said, TWEWY is a definate must own for any RPG fans. It is the most refreshing RPG I have played in years. It has a great story that unfolds as you progress through the game, so many inovative features, and has many options so you can set it to your own difficulty. There should never be a time when you get bored with the game being to easy, or frustrated with the game being to hard.

All in all it's an amazing game, seriously underrated title for the DS.

I don't recall how I learned about this game. I had never heard of it, I never read or saw it. It was on my ROM list and decided to give it a go. Interesting art style and I was expecting something kingdom Hearts-ish.


Within 2 days I was playing nonstop, I was hooked in less than a week. I never finished the game, didn't want to spoil it. The game is also pretty long, though its a JRPG so yeah...


The gameplay is awesome! You're Neku, this kid from Shibuya, you have some special abilities and each ally you have also gains their own special abilities.


COMBAT: You challenge enemies, you have to circle around the ones you want to fight. The more you battle, the more EXP/higher level you get.
There's built in co op[AI], you share HP with your ally and both you and your teammate protect each other to take out the enemy and heal each other.


STORY: There's a LOT of dialogue, not all of it is skippable. There's a lot of plot twists as it's a LONG game. You go around and battle things to level up, you're trying to escape this death zone that you're trapped in. There's reapers which try to take you down and harvest you, as little cliques of people walking around.


MUSIC: Original, its a mix of different genres but they're pretty catchy. Kind of reminds me of Jet Grind Set radio.<3

GAMEPLAY: In Shibuya, every character is a ghost. You can read everyones thoughts, hear what everyone is saying but you can't interact with them unless you use your powers to get their attention. You can shop, grind, help people (sidequests), eat food, play in tournaments. I always grind but you really don't need it too much, keep strong pins! The map is filled with malls and shops, clothing and accessories gets you different bonuses/skills.


PINS: Pins are essentially how you survive and how you attack. Within the games plot theres tournaments to win pins; You can have up to... 6 equipped I think? Each one is a spell or skill that can level up, which can be projectiles, telekinesis, healing, etc. There is 1 black one you will want to avoid.

OFFLINE: You don't even have to play to level up, which was new feature... While the game is off, the game detects how long you haven't been playing and converts that to EXP towards your pins. Pretty nifty.

MULTIPLAYER: Another is local mode, though my memory on this is a bit fuzzy. If you have your game on local mode, the game will detect all local DS' and gain EXP off of them no matter what game they're playing. You can battle local players as well, if you find someone else that owns it. Yeah, I grew to be that person with the blinking DS in their pocket that never actually played it around people.



I plan to get this game and finish it on a cartridge someday♥

Great gameplay, one of the best original RPG. Looking forward for a sequel!

I bought this NDS game because of all reviews and comments I heard about it. Most of the comments are positive and I wanted to try it.

After playing the game, I confirmed that all those positive comments are true. The game is an original RPG that maintains players involved with the interesting story and great gameplay.

At the time I'm writing this review, there is nothing I dislike of the game.

Comparing this RPG with others from Square or other companies, I can find that the gameplay is better than any new Final Fantasy o newest RPG, the characters are unique and the stroy involves you. Playing this RPG is not tedious as others where you need to play and play the same scenario and fight the same monsters in order to leveling your character.
Finally, I strongly recommend this great game.

Also I decided to buy it because I want to have it in my games collection because this is a title hard to find, IMPORTANT: Because the title is hard to find, there are sellers that offer low quality copies of this game. So don't get fooled with these copies, they look similar but if you look closer to them you will notice it, I didn't know about these copies and I buy one and a defect I found is that the START button doesn't work. Be careful and ask for a genuine US game.

The best RPG on Nintendo DS!

This game impressed me insanely! Long story short, you play as Neku Sakuraba, a young punk living in the fashionable Japanese district of Shibuya, who wakes up one day to find out that he's been swept up and involved in what's called The Reaper's Game. If he doesn't accomplish the mission that appears on his cell phone each day for seven days, he's "erased." Clearly, this causes quite a strain for Neku, which is further exacerbated by his loner attitude being punched in the gut by his need for a partner, his first of which is an overly spunky type, to counteract the wildly deisigned "Noise" monsters. While this seems like a typical rpg, the modern style, clever quick wit of the dialogue, and expansive level of items, psych pins, food, and clothing to buy, along with the terrific music, beautifully colorful art design and full-of-life characters make this game one not to miss.

Square Enix is famous for role-playing franchises such as Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Dragon Quest...but The World Ends with You is a great new property by the company, one that will likely stick with players for a long time!