Well my world did at least. My copy of The World Ends With You arrived a couple hours ago, and I have to say after becoming somewhat bored with the slew of generic games lately (having not yet gotten around to trying Suda 51’s quirky masterpiece No More Heroes) I was very interested in a break from all that.
I think it’s safe to say that The World Ends With You is that break. It’s a very quirky and so far unique JRPG, about a somewhat arrogant and selfish jerk of a kid who wakes up, confused in the middle of Tokyo’s Shibuya district with a pin badge, and a countdown timer burned onto his palm. As you team up and form a ‘pact’ with another ‘player’ in what appears to be some demented game, almost like some sort of cross between Gantz and Battle Royale, you begin to uncover mysteries.
The combat in the game is definatelyh very unique, and it might take a while to wrapt your head around but it certainly works very well. You control Neku, your character on the bottom screen, moving around and using special pin badge powers with the stylus, while your partner occupies the top screen, and can either be controlled by the computer, or by using the d-pad (buttons if your a lefty) to execute combo moves. While the enemies appear simultaneously on both screens, meaning if you defeat an enemy, it is removed from both screens at once. An interesting take on stale “stylus slashing” or turn based RPG gameplay, one I certainly did not expect from Square Enix, and i’m certainly more than pleasently surprised.
This game looks set to become a quirky favorite, and has already received very high reviews from a number of sources. And what’s even better than that? That’s right, you digest food to give yourself stat boosts. In addition to partaking in an exercise in being ‘cool’, certain brand names of clothes/items your characters can use give you bonuses, but must be combined in a certain manner. Some brands of equipment cannot be used in conjunction with others, and so you can’t just throw on the best shirt, etc at the same time. You are forced to make sure your equipment has some sort of overall strategy.
I’m very excited about this game, especially given how it has changed my opinion on Square Enix’s ability to create new franchises these days. Anybody who hasn’t checked it out.
Top 10 Games I Never Played – Part 2 coming soon.
Filed under: 1, Gaming, Personal | Tagged: DS, Enix, JRPG, Nintendo, RPG, Square, Squenix, The World Ends With You
