The World Ends With You
The most amazing thing you'll play on DS this year
By Matt Kelly
I'm sure we've all had this experience. You've finished a mammoth game, it's got you hooked on so many levels, and you finish it. There's that sense of accomplishment while the end credits roll. But the next day you're on the way to work or school, and you're mind starts to wander. 'Hey wouldn't it be cool if they took that game and did this with it!' as ideas move around your head about what a sequel would be like, or how the gameplay would be different, or even how the story might play out. But then the sequel arrives, and it's not that different. And while you enjoy more of the same, you can't help but wonder what the game would be like if they took all those creative thoughts and put them in. The World Ends With You is that game.
We're only going to briefly touch on the story because it's something best experienced when you're naive to the over all plot. It's pretty epic, with a mash up of a larger than life calling against the personal problems we all face at one time or another on some level. Neku, the main character of the game, has become a player in whats called 'The Reapers Game'. Partnered with Shiki, another player, they must survive 7 days of missions in order to win their freedom out of the game. Be ready for more than one twist though, as The World Ends With You features an amazing detailed story that works on both a strong plot and subtle going ons of the world. The story is mature enough that players of any age are gonna get a kick out of it, and the text based dialog manages to convey more emotion than just about any non-speaking game out there.
The basic exploration of the game takes place in the incredibly stylized Shibuya district in Tokyo. Easily one of the most diverse and interesting game environments ever, Shibuya is far from dead environment. You'll have ridiculous numbers of people walking around the city, all wearing different outfits depending on local trends. However you can't communicate with them except under special circumstances because you're invisible. Instead to gain insight into whats going on in their head you'll have whats called a 'player pin' that will allow you to read their minds. There are so many unique thoughts going on in the game about every topic imaginable. One thing that's really great is the city is a very living environment. Certain characters you encounter in the game will have a recurring role, telling their own tale about the culture of the district and all cross paths and some shape or form. You can however directly communicate with the Reapers, other players of the Reapers game, and with anyone inside particular buildings (shop keepers for example). You'll receive missions through out the 7 days in the form of cryptic clues. These all revolve around reaching certain locations, fulfilling certain objectives and taking out Noise (the creatures of the game). During these missions you'll be handed smaller objects by Reapers who are blocking your path with force walls. These typically are item fetching or enemy clear outs. While the game starts off with a design for how it plays, as you progress through the game's story that mold will break. Very few games have changing game play beyond the initial set up, and even fewer have gameplay that changes to support the story. The World Ends With You has both, and is a richer experience for it.
Trends is a very interesting concept introduced in the game, basically revolving around manipulating the culture of the Shibuya. While you are invisible, going into battle with certain brands of pins, or wearing brands of clothing will alter whats hot and whats not in that area. The flip side of that is that brand trends also affect how well your gear and pins perform. Say you're in an area where the brand 'Jupiter of the Monkey' is hot, you're pins are gonna get a stats boost in battle, allowing you to hand out the pain with far more devastating results. If you have those same brands on in an area where 'Dragon Couture' the big thing, you will either not get quite the same advantage, or even have the power of the pin reduced if its a really hated brand. Like any good RPG system though, ignoring this won't totally destroy your ability to play the game, but should you chose to listen you'll go into battle with some serious edge.
Combat is the game is probably one of the funnest experiences we've had on the DS. Normally the dual screen nature of the DS is kinda ignored, the action will happen on one screen and the other will contain stats info or other non-action rubbish. When you enter combat in The World Ends With you however, both screens are consumed. Both screens will have the same monsters but only one of the two characters on each. The concept behind this is that you're both fighting the same monsters, but the battle happens on different levels of reality. Neku, on the bottom screen takes a touch screen gesture approach, activating various powers by tapping, swiping, drawing circles and so on. It's amazing fluid and leads to some really high paced action. Some of the gestures do cross a little bit but all up it's a really solid system.
However that isn't where combat controls end, as you'll also have your partner Shiki on the top screen. It will come up with a display showing you the button paths to various actions, and you have to follow it through in a DDR style motion of D-Pad pressing. There's no turns, and this all happens simultaneously. Thankfully if it does get a little too heated, after a short time Shiki's controls will be taken over by the AI. It doesn't deliver attacks as fast as you can but it is a drop in/drop out system, you can stop controlling and regain control at anytime. Over all combat is a really fluid and original experience, whether you like RPGs or not there's something very original in the way this works.
Time is used in a mix of real time and game time. Some elements of the game will work on plot moments, and others will work on the real time of our world. This is another one of the gameplay elements that really supports whats going on in the games plot. All the plot points of the game happen in game time, so you can play from start to finish and never get barred by some kind of real time constraint (like in Animal Crossing for example). But stuff like consuming food is a different story. You can buy food in the game which will give your stats an increase, the catch is that you can only consume so much in a real time 24 hour period. Once you've hit your limit, you have to wait till the following day. It's a really cool way of placing limits of stats growth without really destroying the process in how it happens. The game also rewards you for when you're not playing. All your pins can level up in the game, becoming more and more powerful, but if you put the game down for a day, your pins will continue to level for a max of seven days. It's slower than scoring XP in game, and all pins have their limits in leveling, but again it brings a really new and exciting side to how to play the game.
Another quasi real life element to the game is Mingle Mode. At a certain point in the game you'll get the ability to put your DS into mingle mode which will put it to sleep. Put it in your back pack and wander around your local uni campus cafe and lunch time and you'll get points towards leveling your Pins for every DS on wireless that you encounter. It's broken into three classes, ESP'ers are other World Ends With You game players, Civvies are any DS game talking wirelessly, and then their aliens, which are only described as a 'rare encounter of the weird kind.' When done you'll have the encounters points sent straight to your pins, and the names of your encounters will be listed on a friends list along with what items and stats they had when you ran into them. You'll also have the option to shop at their custom store, based on one of the ones in the game. You can buy goods from their store after mingling at a small discount, and if you mingle again, they'll get a little bit of money from your business. It's really cool!
Finally on gameplay there is a small WIFI battle mode called Tin Pin Slammer, which is a bizarre cross between marbles, Pokemon and a few other things. Basically you'll be able to fight with your pins against another local player slamming them into each other. All pins have stats which will effect their performance and special ability. It comes into the plot briefly but just as something to do with a friend while you wait for the bus, it's pretty fun.
As with any free roaming game, it helps to have a stimulating environment and The World Ends With You well and truly delivers. The whole of Shibuya is immensely stylized and great to look at. Between it's design, use of quaisi 3D locations, and mass population, the game is one of the best looking on Nintendo DS. The whole game works on a fixed angled perspective rather than a top down view as is pretty traditional in RPGs, you'll be looking at Shibuya from all sorts of different angles. This leads to a lot of creativity on how the locations are presented. Along with that the use of sliding 2D panels to give a 3D look gives a really fluid sense of movement and volume of space. There's lots of other little elements to these scenes as well, be it trains going by above shops or giant TV displays. Finally the game makes great use of color, but not in the hyperactive way that some games do. Shibuya has a real feeling to it because it uses real colors, not washed out, but not eye burning bright either. Instead using these midtones in the color range gives the city a very natural look to it despite it's immense stylization.
But of course you've got to have characters to give the city life. The population found throughout the city is ever changing based on the trends, and the density of the population varies depending on the area your in. The central part of town is of course, full of people, where as the outer areas are quiet and more suburban. Characters who do actually have a speaking role in the game are portrayed as static, but changing images. As the conversations progress they'll switched between various poses. We normally hate this kind of stuff to death but The World Ends With You not only pulls it off, it does a fantastic job of it. Rather than just striking the key pose required to convey a characters emotion, they'll go through a whole series of frames that bring real life to what could have otherwise been very boring and static. You'll see everything from happy to angry, cute to ugly, and sadness and disappointment, just as few examples. It's not often you really get attached to those kind of static characters but The World Ends With You takes the little power of the DS and does more with it than any other game.
Audio is just the icing on the cake and the first thing you'll notice when you turn the game is that there is not one piece of internal DS synthesizer music in the whole adventure. Everything you hear is studio recorded original music which varies from electronica, to rock, rap, and even a bit of synth orchestral. There are so many styles of music in the game and all the tracks are great. You will go hunting for the soundtrack at some point, guaranteed. Even on a lyrical level the songs aid whats going on, as certain songs only start appearing at certain points of the game, so the lyrics tie into events on a basic level.
Everything else in the sound department just adds, sound effects are high quality, original and high in number. The little amounts of voice acting are done quite well, and overall you'll find yourself buying a set of good headphones just to take it all in.
Summary:
The World Ends With You is one of the most amazing games we've played on the DS. So many RPGs have come and gone, and ultimately they just blur together. The World Ends With You however cuts through it all with its unique style and gameplay. The combat system is one of the few gameplay elements ever to really use both screens in an interactive way, and is high paced with lots of action. The game is still built on a strong RPG core, so you'll be able to really work your characters to their full potential. Combine that with a larger than life story meets every day problems and you've got a real hit on your hands. Graphically The World Ends With You is really high quality, giving you great locations that have a real populated feel to them. And sound, it doesn't get any better.
Gameplay - 9.5
There are a few flaws but ultimately is a well thought out original experience right across the board. Be it the plot, gameplay, or the world of Shibuya, this is one game you're going to remember.
Graphics - 9.6
The massive crowds and Shibuya do get a tad pixelated but chances are you won't even notice given how much style the game has. All the combat action is really fluid, and The World Ends With You actually manages to make static images of characters pretty damn enjoyable to watch.
Sound - 10
An absolutely kick ass original soundtrack awaits you in this game, along side huge amounts of ambient effects, original use of SFX, and some well performed character dialogue.
Replay - 9.0
If you're a collector you'll come back to obtain the 300+ pysch pins available in the game. Plus that onto shop side quests, and the fact that the whole game is probably gonna get played again, The World Ends With You isn't a quick fling. There's also the Tin Pin Slammer Wireless Mini Game and Mingle Mode to enjoy.
Overall 9.5
One of the most original, well designed and well executed games on the Nintendo DS, if not all platforms.
Submitted by Robtot
01/05/2008
31
Views
Join MyDS to vote for your favourite story!
More Info:
The World Ends With You
Other Reviews:
Related News:
Related Videos: