Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Reviews: The World Ends with You - 9.2

From Square Enix, the company behind Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, comes something new and different that will end up leaving you with a smile and satisfaction each time you close the DS's lid. The World Ends with You (TWEWY) is an adventure/RPG game that tries new things and recycles some of the old. It has the classic teen characters with crazy hair trying to save the day or just survive.

The spiky haired protagonist this round is one Neku. A boy finding himself in a parallel Shibuyo, the community within Tokyo, Japan. The game starts out with some great anime slideshow fluid cutscenes that reveals this game is gonna be big and strong. The art style is crisp and solid throughout the game which is just lovely for the entire thing. You can really feel the Japanese element of this game is quite strong.

The difference of TWEWY apart from the normal RPG you've come to expect from SE is this one involves fighting on both screens at the same time! Check off mind blown. At first this is incredibly hard and somewhat daunting to have to do right when you get in there. For you who don't like this element, sorry but your stuck with it throughout the entire game, though it does get easier. So the learning curve on this game is quite long. The game requires you to input button comands using the D-pad for the top screen while making specific movements with the stylus for the second half of the action. Fortunately they have ways of making this easier and you can focus on just one screen for the just.

Like the classic RPG, there is leveling up and like the various games, you can level up the weapons you use. Instead of swords or wands in this game, you fight with Pins, which are pins that have magical powers that perform different tasks depending on which stylus movement you use during battles. Some require tapping, slashing, drawing circles, making big lines, etc. and some even require the use of the built in mic. You do gain the classic experienced points or EXP so your characters can gain levels and get stronger, and you can also gain Pin Points or PP which is like experience points for your pins. Other than the obvious winning fights to get PP, there are several other ways of getting PP and even new Pins in TWEWY. When you save and shut off your game, for every 10 minutes that the DS is off, you gain one PP, so you can imagine how nice this is for when you wake up and see you have a bunch of PP from doing nothing. Also you can set your DS in Mingle mode which sets it into a wireless mode and if your DS gets near either another TWEWY player in mingle mode and another DS with anything doing something wirelessly you will gain PP. Even if your a person who wont ever be near someone else with a DS they added in an Aliens thing for mingle mode that are like the other two options, but just appear randomly every now and then - no second DS required.

Also added is the usual clothing system in which you can put on different clothing for stat boosts or special abilities. Though it would have been nice to see the new clothing on your character outside in the game or in a battle and such. So the clothes end up just being a short quick thing to do. Though the stores you buy clothes, food or sometimes pins have different shop owners everytime and you can grow your level of friendship with them to unlock new things. Becoming closer to a shop keeper will get you the abilities described on the clothes/food/pins they have and it can unlock new things to buy as well.

Overall TWEWY is an incredible game and Square Enix hit it off great. This was the perfect way to introduce a new game into the world. Having it on any other system would get rid of some of the key elements that you will grow to love and not want to leave. It has great visuals and audio throughout it all and to add on with a great story line that will make you want to find out what happens next. An amazing game for the DS and defiantly worth picking up.

Positives:
- Great music
- Great art style and graphics
- Addictive gameplay
- Earning PP in different ways if a very cool and well thought out idea
- Interesting multiplayer mini game
- Great story line
- Fun battle system
- Unlock new things throughout the entire game

Negitaves:
- Long learning curve
- Battling can stay difficult for a while
- Very easy for the first 8 hours or so

Overall: 9.2/10

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