The World Ends With You: An Innovation?…Hell Yes!
Shibuya Shopping Center, Tokyo, JapanBig things definitely come in small packages. I’ve never had so much to say about a little DS cartridge.
When Nintendo first announced the DS, their intentions were to give developers the tools to go beyond current video game ideas. Although many gamers like myself love the idea of porting over, real-time strategy (RTS) games, puzzle games, and other traditional uses of a stylus-based interface, Nintendo was more interested in ideas that had nothing to do with any game currently in the market. In my opinion, The World Ends With You (WEWY) is exactly one of those games. Calling this it a role playing game (RPG) is quite misleading. When I first began to play it I almost hated it cause I was so confused on what’s going on. The truth is, it’s it’s own genre.
The Story
I’m not even hint at all. I don’t want to spoil any part of the story. All I will say, is you wake up in the middle of Shibuya Shopping Center and have no idea how you got there. Also, The story has a pretty mature theme which I found surprising. Although it’s appropriately rated T for teens, this game is not your little brother’s RPG, simply because of the depth of the story.
Gameplay
During fights, you control two different characters at the same time. One on the top screen and one on the bottom. The character on the top screen is controlled using either the D-pad or the Buttons. For the character on top, you must enter combo attacks DDR style by entering the sequence in the order it’s displayed. For the main character, Neku, who is on the bottom, you must use the stylus to slash, swipe, point-and-click or tap your attacks. All this done simultaneously. Sounds really confusing right?
The truth is, it’s really not. The concept of this game sounds a lot harder than it actually is. If you wanted to focus on the main character and ignore the character on top you can do that. If you leave the character idle, he/she will start attacking on their own. You can set how soon they begin auto-playing. But naturally, ignoring the top player wont get you the more powerful attacks. As you play a green lights will circle around your character. This is called the ‘puck’. Whichever the character it surrounds is the one you should be focusing on at the time. After you perform a number of hits (or a strong hit) it will send the puck to the other player. At that point start plying with the other character. As with the name, it’s like sending the puck from the top screen to the bottom and back. Keep this volley going and your attacks increase in power each time allowing you to win the fight very quickly.
New ways to level up
The game has some very neat features. The main character’s attacks are all based on what pins (think of them like cards) you have in your pin deck. For traditional RPG players this idea is similar to placing materia on your sword in Final Fantasy 7. As you fight, the pins gain what’s called PP points that help them level and eventually evolve into a new, more powerful, pin. I spent literally hundreds of hours playing other RPG games leveling items. However, in WEWY, you level these pins even when you are not playing!!! The longer you don’t play the game the more pp points accumulate. Sounds crazy but true and working out very well for me. I’m not talking waiting for days to gain a few pp, in as little as an hour and a half, you can gain roughly 9 points.
Additionally, you can gain pp points by initializing Mingle mode. In Mingle mode, the DS activates the wireless card. When you pass any other DS game utilizing the wifi, you’ll gain pp points. when I discovered this, I new turn on the game in Mingle mode, before I get on the bus to go to work everyday. Just for the chance of passing anyone else in wifi mode. This may sound crazy to some, but if your anywhere near a place people normally have DS get-togethers you’ll be greatly rewarded. This will undoubtedly make the 2008 Penny-Arcade Expo (PAX) the perfect pp harvesting ground. Might also be a good idea to walk into a Gamestop with Mingle mode on. And if your wondering about the Wii, Yes this works with the Wii too. I believe it has to be a Wii game that will send a transmission to the DS such as with Pokemon Battle Revolution (if you don’t have that, just use the Nintendo Channel’s DS Download Station). My Wii gave me 20 pp points. Your probably thinking, what if you live in a rural area where no one has a DS but you? Well you can still gain Mingle pp. There are random alien encounters. What this means is you’ll randomly get a message saying you encountered an alien and gain about 100 pp. But there’s more, If you have mingled with people who actually have the WEWY in mingle mode, you can exchange friend cards and purchase any pins or items they are wearing.
Sights and Sounds
The graphics, oops sorry that’s a dirty word in my book. I don’t like to do what every game reviewer is doing and critique a game based on the graphic power. Ok let me start over. The look of the game is quite artistic (much better). The art style resembles a comic book or better yet highly quality Manga. The only thing that could make it more Manga is if it read from right to left. The music is digital audio samples fully with a vocal track. To our western ears, the songs sound like Japanese Pop/Electronica that you’d normally hear in an Anime cartoon. However, the lyrics are in English in the US version. This is the first game I’ve played with a full vocal track as the background music. This Vocal music adds such a new and hip feel to the game, which I’m certain is exactly what the developers wanted. The official soundtrack is also available on iTunes and the Square-Enix store.
Everything down to the inventory menu is conceptualized to match in the games story. For instance, the inventory menu is actually your cell phone in the game, you use this to access ‘text messages’ sent to you that give you help or instructions on how to use certain items. The game takes place in the Shibuya Shopping Center of downtown Tokyo, Japan. It looks a lot like it, from the statue of Hachiko, the famous cylindrical 109 building, to the hundreds of people moving about. This game really pulls you into the modern hip side of Tokyo culture. It makes me wish flights there weren’t roughly $2k.
Clothing Trends better known as Armor
What good would it do to place a game based in the Shibuya Shopping Center without any shopping going on? Unlike traditional RPG games, simply looking at the stats on your gear just will not do. In WEWY, you need to keep up the the trends and fads that are popular. As you move from area to area, certain clothing lines are ‘In’ or ‘Out’. Your in game phone shows you the top five designer lines for the local area. Wearing or using pins designed by them will gain you stats or ability boosts. However, if you wear clothing that’s out of style you can get penalties that lower your stats. If you think this sounds like a pain, it’s not. If you win a many battles wearing out of style clothes, you’ll make that clothing line popular!
Final thoughts
I love this game…alot. There is a lot more I can say but this posting is already way to long. The rap filled official website doesn’t even come close to doing this game justice. Even if this game were a demo, it wouldn’t give you an idea how good it is. Remember, I initially thought I hated the game simply cause I didnt know what was going on. I highly recommend this game for those who love RPG games but don’t really want to spend a hundred plus hours grinding levels. This game brings many new ideas to the RPG genre if it’s even part of that.
Tags: 2-Bit Blogger Picks, J-Pop, Review, RPG, Square-Enix