Review: The World Ends With You

While good games can get away with doing gameplay right and having passable storylines, great games are expected to do everything - sound, visuals, gameplay, and story - with a certain level of competence.

But great games also have to do something else - they need to progress gaming in some way or another.   They need to present elements so fresh they'll change  the way other developers approach their products. In this sense, there seems to exist an unwritten statute for, one prerequisite for the "important" video games - they need to be revolutionary.

The World Ends With You is characterized by its refusal to play by this rule. While it’s definitely a revolutionary RPG, it seems destined to cult status for its quirky storyline and strange, frenetic combat mechanics. Without big sales, it won’t see many imitators. Without imitators, it will always be the first and last of its kind - a game that didn’t quite please mainstream audiences, but which  managed to feel simultaneously  fresh and familiar.

TWEWY gets off to an awkward start, opening with a cutscene that evokes the feel of an anime Dashboard Confessional video. Neku, the game's main character, is introduced as an anti-social jerk who, strangely enough, has recently been murdered. He regains consciousness as a ghost in an abandoned version of Tokyo known only as “the Underground,” and is given the chance to win his life back. It’s all very convoluted, and only gets more complex from there. But the overload, while initially overwhelming, intertwines itself with the game’s overarching themes of death,  friendship, and the prevalence of technology in society. While the storyline of TWEWY might be a mental overload for lots of players, there are other instances in the game where such extravagances feel familiar, and sometimes even comforting.

There are some people who have grown tired of that classic "Square Enix look." You know what I'm talking about - lead characters in extravagant, gender-ambiguous clothing. Hairstyles only achievable through the liberal use of gallons of gel and hairspray cans. Buckles everywhere. Shoes that would make even a clown do a double-take. They're all present in TWEWY, but for the first time that I can remember, they actually work. This is mostly due to the fact that the game revolves around a more flamboyant, alternate Japanese style. It doesn't have to replicate the idea of a stylized spirit-Tokyo; it is the idea of a stylized spirit-Tokyo. If the Final Fantasy series bent Japanese stylistic standards to create their world cultures, the entire universe of The World Ends With You is built on that style.

Moving forward with the theme of maximalism, we now reach TWEWY’s gameplay.  Many have criticized the combat's steep learning curve, and while this is definitely not a pick-up-and-play affair, there's enough flexibility within the system to allow for even newcomers to learn the ropes of dual-screen combat. I remember playing through the my first battle and thinking, "No way I can control two characters at a time. I can barely control one!" Eventually, I learned that the top screen is less of a priority, and more of something you have to just keep an eye out for and use strategically to set up fusion combos. There's no doubt that fighting in this game is complicated, but it's actually fun, and once you get the hang of it, you feel that there's an amount of real skill and finesse that goes into the gameplay. Being able to keep track of two things at a time becomes a second nature, and there's a sense of pride that comes with the ending of every battle.  You feel cool.

With its maze-like story, thumping soundtrack, dizzying combat, and neon-bright art direction, The World Ends With You always has something to tell you. Look here, press this, swipe that, equip this, listen to her. But unlike Final Fantasy and other franchises that might seem similar, The World Ends With You doesn’t act as a transport to another universe. Instead, it’s an amplified signal of our own reality, a near-perfect conjuration of the chaos of teenage life in a dense urban environment.

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