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The World Ends With You
for Nintendo DS


SquareEnix didn't really give this game much support, the word of mouth spread quick though. As a result, it can be pretty hard to find. I've actually never seen it in a store despite the fact that I would make a point of looking every time I was at a store for about 6 months after its release. Eventually I got it from Goozex and have been playing obsessively for a couple weeks now.

There are many things to make you groan involved here. Many cliches like the protagonist having lost his memory, it can be extremely emo, the j-pop soundtrack can drive you crazy sometimes, and it includes what is basically a fashion trend simulation. However, you quickly learn to forget all these complaints.

The lost memory is explained in a pretty clever way, the fashion trend thing isn't forced upon you, and the soundtrack has many tracks that are quite good. The core of what makes up the game, more importantly, is all amazing. Granted, I haven't quite made it through the whole story, but what I have has been insanely unique compared to most video games. Plus, I haven't finished the game yet because I've been obsessed with just turning it on to fight battles and level up.

The combat is definitely the most creative thing about The World Ends With You. You have your main character, and one partner, that you control simultaneously. Neku, the main character, fights on the touch screen, and his partner on the top screen. His partner is controlled by either the direction pad or the face buttons, or can be put on automatic if your head is going to explode. Neku fights by using pins that you collect throughout the game. Each pin has a different attack and way to trigger it, be it by slashing across the enemy, tapping the screen, drawing a circle, blowing in the mic, or any number of other ways. You can work your way up to holding 6 pins at a time which means a whole slew of different ways to attack in a battle. It can be super hectic, but is ultimately very rewarding.

As I touched on with the fashion trend stuff, there are other clever systems in this game. For me, it was the combat and story that have pulled me in, but there are many more that others may get equally absorbed in. This game is certainly one of those cult hits, that may have gone under the radar for many people, but has gained a following of fans through great reviews and word of mouth. You owe it to yourself to play this game if you like RPG's at all, or even if you just want a unique experience on DS. It eschews from so many of the RPG genres traditions that it could easily be enjoyed by even those who would never touch an RPG, and if you got it for the list price then you can always sell it on ebay for probably double that.