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[NDS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

Discussion in 'Game Reviews' started by 9NineBreaker9, May 8, 2008.

  1. 9NineBreaker9

    9NineBreaker9 Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]

    Developers: Square Enix, Jupiter
    Publisher: Square Enix
    Genre: Action RPG​

    RPGs be a very peculiar bunch; they either feature extremely effeminate or angst-filled teenagers will ungodly geometrical hair, amnesia and a need to save the world a few times over. Otherwise, they feature a person you make, as RPGs of the Western variety tend to be and go largely unnoticed. Perhaps the exemplar of the spiky haired men is SquareEnix, famous for this little series called “Final Fantasy,” which only has a small collection of a few dozen games. One of their latest departures from the tried and true formula was a joint venture with Disney in Kingdom Hearts, a very interesting game with a large fan following. Now, the design team from the Keyblade adventure tackles on the new project of It’s A Wonderful World, or rather, The World Ends With You.

    Once you plug in the game, the first thing you will notice is the brilliant art direction from the same character designers of Kingdom Hearts fame, Tetsuya Nomura and Gen Kobayashi. Each and every person has a look all of their own, from the simple, yet oddly sophisticated shirt of Joshua to the hip style of Shiki – even the civilians are well done. The locals are rendered faithfully to their settings, the monsters very imaginative, colorful and well animated, and the various items, attacks and pins full of detail as well. Truly, the game is alive when the game breaks for some well done, screen spanning animations.

    Another strong suit is the phenomenal soundtrack. Very rarely does a handheld game feature as much sound content as this one, but some technical wizardry packs something like 35 songs and a wide array of sound bites for you to hear. All of the town and battle themes are almost infectious and range from rock, j-pop, rap, techno and even 16-bit. All of the various character voices are great as well, adding some additional colour to the main players and even to the faithful shopkeeps as well. Is it also okay to say that I purchased the soundtrack? Like, paid for it with money? Yeah, it’s pretty good.

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    Our story begins with our main character, Neku Sakuraba, awaking in a busy crosswalk in the Japanese shopping district of Shibuya with no recollection of the events prior or why he even is in Shibuya to begin with. He stands up to realize that no one can hear or see him, but that Neku can indeed see and hear not only the surrounding people, but their thoughts as well. A text appears on his cell phone: “Reach 104. You have 60 minutes. Fail, and face Erasure – The Reapers.” Suddenly, a timer appears on Neku’s hand, and the warning “You have 7 days” on the big screen. Before he can make sense of it, Neku is attacked by strange creatures with no way of defeating them. His life in peril, Neku meets Shiki, and together, they take out their opposition and start on the crazy journey of the Game as Players.

    One of the most interesting features about WEWY (The World Ends With You) is the realistic setting. So long are the fantastical locations of Ivalice in favor of the present-day location of Shibuya, a real place in Japan. Alongside this and the refreshingly modern cast, everything seems so much more realistic. It is a lot easier to fall in love with characters who text people on their cell phones and eat fast food, and whose problems extend beyond external events with internal feelings and personalities indeed creating a fair share of the Players problems.

    As the story progresses, you are introduced to a number of other Players, searching to complete the missions as well. And, during the story, you may and will likely find yourself getting to know everyone and feeling genuinely touched by some of the moments. I’ll admit that I’ve laughed, gasped, gritted my teeth and had my eyes grow moist – due to some sharp writing and deep characterization, the story seems so much stronger than typical JRPGs, whose events oftentimes just feel scripted. Even with the praise, I have one complaint; events that are oftentimes very critical to the story are sometimes underplayed, particularly on at the end of the second day.

    Gameplay is where, as any other game, WEWY shines. With some very innovate features and an addictive combat system, you’ll find yourself stuck playing this way into the morning hours… which is good, by the way.

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    As you walk around Shibuya, you can touch the Player Pin in the lower left corner to scan your surroundings for people’s thoughts and the Noise, the monsters that you will encounter, created by the Reapers who run the Game and the missions to do in the Players. When you engage one of these creatures, combat is split into two screens – Neku’s battlefield and your current partner’s arena, as are the foes – to do battle in.

    On the bottom screen, you control Neku with the stylus and use various Pins to attack. Each Pin has a different Psych that can be controlled with varying gesticulations, unleashing the attack. While some, like a physical rushing attack, are pulled off by ‘slashing’ enemies with the stylus, others are performed by touching enemies, empty spaces, dragging the stylus, and so on. As the attacks are used, the Pin starts to run out of juice – once fully used, you must wait for a period of time for the attack to become available again. With a maximum deck of six Pins, you can pull off some seriously awesome combos.

    The complaints on this screen are fairly minimal, and most can simply be attributed to the combat system itself and physical limitations. If you have two Pins that are activated by scratching, either empty space or on a target, the lowered number attack must be used entirely before the next can be used. While this can be remedied by setting a Pin on standby so it can only be used whilst pressing ‘L’ or ‘R’, it can sometimes be annoying. Also, some of the actions can be cumbersome to perform, as they do not register immediately. Not game breaking, but still an issue in the heat of battle.

    However, while you are doing all of this down below, you must also control your partner on the top screen with the control pad (or buttons, WEWY is lefty-compatible). You press the control pad in the direction of an enemy to initiate the attack, then can branch the combo up or down to deal different combos, or to the side for some good olde spammin’. Each partner also has a little mini-game to play – correctly playing this will enable the use of powerful tag-team attacks that deal out damage to the entire battlefield.

    Complaints here are effectively non-existent. The only minor one is the difficulty in correctly playing the mini-games, but that can be out-done by simply forgetting about them and just spamming a side attack. And, really, that’s all you have to do. Thank God for that XD

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    As one might expect, fighting on both screens is a tough thing to learn, though a few features are implemented to make the transition into dual-combat easier. As you pull off finishing moves with attacks, a green orb, called the Puck, is created and sent to the opposite partner. As you continue to juggle the puck around, your attacks become stronger and stronger, and this tactic is in fact needed for a few fights. You can also set it up so that an idle partner is taken over by the game should he not attack for a set period of time. The two characters also share a health bar, ensuring that if Neku takes a beating you can still survive thanks to the partner’s reservoir of health.

    Sure, all of this may seem confusing, and it is; when you first start out playing, you’ll find yourself scrambling about, getting used to the controls. However, once you get the hang of passing the puck about and using Neku’s various Psychs, the combat system is a barrel full of fun. So much so that you might just find yourself getting into battles just for the heck of it – the game starts to become addictive as you grow stronger and stronger. It’s for that that I enjoy WEWY so much, because it’s just so damn fun playing the game.

    To converse about the Pins in depth requires talking about the cell phone, or the simple start menu. From here, you can switch out your attacks, manage your collection of items, change up your equipment or eat a foodstuff, check out what Noise you’ve fought, mingle with some other DS players, and save. Thankfully, all of these features are introduced as the game progresses, meaning that you’re never overwhelmed with the menus. And, as they are given to you, you get a handy little guide for them all, a thankful improvement over the horrid design and unfriendliness of some other RPGs.

    As you use Pins, they gain experience and will in turn level up. With each level may come stronger attacks, more uses or a faster recovery from depleting your uses. However, some Pins have the ability to evolve in accordance with the three types of experience you can obtain. Firstly, you can find experience from simple battles. But, as you spend time away from the game, you literally earn experience for the time that you did NOT play the game. You can also earn experience in Mingle mode by discovering other players or simply people in DS Wireless mode.

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    It’s the multitude of experience points that add a great pro and con. In favour of it, you have an array of strengthening your Pins and ensuring that, no matter what you do, you’ll always have an arsenal of great attacks. On the same page, however, Pins that upgrade always require a certain type of experience. So, that means that, if you want that great upgrade, you’re going to have to put the game away and just sit it out. Or, you’re going to have to find people playing wirelessly on the DS. It’s a pain that it has to be like this (DS date settings are your friend, remember that), because that means that you may never see the 300+ Pins because you can’t find anyone with another DS.

    Moving on to the items section, you can find all of the various equipments that you’ve collected over the days in Shibuya. Each character can wear up to four pieces of clothing – Head, Body, Legs, Feet and Accessories are all candidates. Each item may boost your health, or your attack power, but, as you begin to befriend the shopkeepers, you can find that each item has an Ability, such as health regeneration or extended combo timeframes. Once you get some nice threads and abilities, you can really pimp your characters out, should they be brave enough to put on that Bikini…

    Characters can also grab a bite to eat, as well, thanks to a number of foodstuffs available for purchase. Consuming these takes a number of “bytes,” and each character can consume 24 bytes per day. For each battle, you remove one byte from the food’s total, and, when digesting the food, gain a boost, like additional health. If you eat more than 18 bytes, you’ll be limited to 6 byte-food for the rest of the day, as, at midnight, you can consume 24 bytes again. It’s an interesting system for character improvement, plus hearing “It’s a party in my mouth!” never gets old. Ever.

    Many games feature a static difficulty – this is not the case in WEWY. Beyond the typical normal, easy and hard modes, you can also choose to forcefully lower your level. In doing so, you’ll lose HP and some other stats, but, at the same time, you increase your drop rate. For every level you weaken yourself, the drop rates add the base rate onto itself, meaning that, for an item at 10% drop rate, lowering yourself ten levels would make that a comfortable 100%. However, as the game is fairly easy and money is in short supply, you will almost always find yourself fighting at least five, maybe even ten levels below your maximum to keep the money rolling in, possibly even on the harder difficulties.

    Later into the game’s first chapter, you will also unlock a mini-game called “Tin-Pin,” a sort of top battle game wherein you pit your Pins against another player’s, attempting to knock them off the arena. Each pin has varying weights, speeds and strengths, but also an arsenal of weapons, like a hammer or a meteor impact, that can turn the tides quickly. It’s a fairly simple game, but not particularly fun – you’ll play it for a few minutes, then move on. Thankfully, the only time where you MUST play a mini-game, it’s only one match, and it’s stacked heavily in your favor. Still, it’s either this or Blitzball – take your pick.

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    Mentioning chapters, it’s no spoiler to say that, after beating the Game with Shiki as your partner, you’ll find yourself in the shoes of Neku once more, playing with a different partner. It’s great that the story is extended, because the ending with Shiki would be far too an unsatisfactory ending. By continuing the story, you can learn more about Neku’s past, more about the Reapers and their game, as well as more about the supporting cast of characters. Time wise, the story is pretty lengthy – lacking a measure of total time played, I’m placing it at about at least 12 to 15 hours to barrel (roll) straight through the game, many, many more if you’re going to collect the staggering number of Pins, threads and Noise reports…which, more likely than not, you’ll find yourself doing.

    Beyond any problems mentioned above, this game is perfect. An amazing art direction, a fantastic collection of music, sound pieces and sound effects, a very strong and well written story populated with genuine emotions and memorable characters all alongside a very entertaining and addictive battle system make this game a winner. A handful of fairly minor issues keep this from being an absolutely perfect addition to the gaming world, but, as far as DS entries go, this is a prime example of how to properly use the system’s features and make a great game.

    In fact, this could stand to be an example for RPGs in general, an attempt to deviate from the now-sickening and overpopulated cookie-cutter JRPG. Hopefully, SquareEnix will smart up and launch this into a new franchise, because these characters, events, and settings are too good to pass up.

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    Presentation, 9/10: Easy navigation and simple controls blend together perfectly, making everything easy to find and fiddle with. Stylus controls may be a bit flighty every now and again, but that's easily calibrated or corrected.
    Graphics, 9/10: Crisp, clean and excellently designed, the characters, Noise, attacks and locations come to life thanks to the skills of the Kingdom Hearts character designers. There might be a bit of visual clutter in towns or on battle, however; that'll go away when moving/destroying.
    Sound, 10/10: A phenomenal combination of a great, varied soundtracks, numerous voice clips and great sound effects come together for an awesome music experience. One DS game to not only play with the music on, but with headphones, too.
    Gameplay, 10/10: Addictive, really; dual screen combat is refreshing, Pins are varied and a joy to use, and a number of other features, like shopping, trends, food, and changeable difficulties make this simply addictive.
    Lasting Appeal, 10/10: A very long story combined with a number of hidden bosses, items and Pins will ensure that you are playing for a long time to come. Replayability goes up to eleven, thanks to the ability to replay the game while keeping all of your stats and a number of hidden files files that flush out the story, as well as the chance to hear Neku say "Oh, snap!" and "Must keep emo thoughts at bay..."

    EDIT: I apparently forgot a final score and such. Wow... and I also forgot to mention the fashion system, as well. I'm losing ground here!

    ~ Addendum ~ In addition to the number of items available, several brands exist, such as "D+B" or "Hip Snake," that make a vast majority of the usable items. Each of these brands have a theme, but the greater purpose of these brands is how popular they are in the current area. Should a brand of clothing or pins be the current hot trend at the moment, those pins will be twice as strong. However, should your clothing be unpopular, your pins will be at half strength. However, by wearing certain brands and using those in battle, you can change the trends and become more fashionable. All in all, it's an interesting mechanic that you can very well ignore until it becomes a problem, making your attacks too feeble to work or when you are forced to change the trends.

    TOTAL, 47/50: Between the great soundtrack, colorful graphics, addictive gameplay, interesting mechanics, believable characters and a truly amazing story, WEWY is an incredible experience that any DS owner and all RPG fans should experience.

    “Remember kid. The world ends with you.”
     
  2. anandjones

    anandjones Well-Known Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    Another great review, well done!
     
  3. kamage

    kamage Well-Known Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    Yeah, i liked this game too, and it's near perfect

    REPLAYABILITY IS 11/10 :)
     
  4. Loonylion

    Loonylion Administrator Staff Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    OMG IT GOES UP TO 11!!!1one :p
     
  5. kamage

    kamage Well-Known Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    Are you making fun of me?I can't tell..seriously..
     
  6. Loonylion

    Loonylion Administrator Staff Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    yes... its a spinal tap reference.
     
  7. MusicAddict911

    MusicAddict911 Well-Known Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    You really need to submit your resume to some gaming site. Great review. :)
     
  8. 9NineBreaker9

    9NineBreaker9 Well-Known Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    I always submit my reviews to GameFAQs, as they can be found here; http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/61085.html?type=4 . Once, I had found that another site had jacked my review, which actually got me excited in the idea that people would want to steal my junk. Then I got rid of it. INDIGNATION! *nuke*

    Checking my how much my reviews have been hit upon, I see that my almost two year-old Bioshock review has attracted 7635 views, but my very recent TWEWY one has pulled in an astonishing 1822 readers... which is not so very short of my SSBB review, a game that is far more popular. In them, I like to get down all of the little details and hopefully bring people into games that I enjoyed, or inform the reader that the 9.849847 averaging game is not perfect. And I enjoy shoving my opinions upon everyone, because I know that you have no choice but to believe me.

    But, yeah; the replayability definitely turns it up to eleven and possibly even twelve due to an unlockable chapter as well as reports that delve even deeper to the story. And the ending is beyond phenomenal - I just kind of sat there going... "E. P. I. C." And am completely satisfied with my product. And I unfortunately am too young and/or socially/musically retarded to understand a Spinal Tap reference. In Guitar Hero II, I freaked out when my drummer exploded after playing their song >,> Now I just kind of chuckle, now understanding the reference...

    *actually reads the thing I quoted* I would submit my resume to a website from where I'd like a job - did you actually mean that, or did you accidentally say resume instead of review...? I assume that my lack of job experience and my young age would most likely deter me from actually getting employed, but that would actually be pretty awesome if I did... ahem. Er, I mean, please don't give me job, hoity-toity reviewing company peoples, as that would be absolutely horrible! Cough. Er, *cough*

    Okay, Demitri Martin special is over. Back to... um... wait, what was I doing...?
     
  9. Almo

    Almo Well-Known Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    Great review, heard a lot about this game but didnt really know a lot about it, great informing review keep it up :)
     
  10. mick1234

    mick1234 Well-Known Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    god that's a lot of info
     
  11. samuraigrifter

    samuraigrifter New Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    That's a good review. I'm currently in the middle of playing the Joshua chapters of the game and I completely agree that this game is awesome. I really hope there are more games like this coming out for the DS soon.
     
  12. jc_106

    jc_106 Well-Known Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    Great review, 9ninebreaker9. I googled a sentence from your review, because it seemed too good for a 15 year old teen. I went towards gamefaqs, and i just thought ''So they come from here...''. But then i saw your username. :p Not that i dislike you or that i don't trust you, I hope you get me.

    You have a ''talent'' for this, dude. Keep at it. ;)
     
  13. 9NineBreaker9

    9NineBreaker9 Well-Known Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    Hehe, you're not the first person to look at some of the crap I type and stare in awe. My friend has an even greater passion for using the most bizarre and herculean vocabulary and grammar on the face of the planet.

    But, I digress; thanks for everything, ya'll - I've been playing this game, as well as TF2, constantly, and must say that I love it so. Though, the new thing that I now dislike is the PSE'er (or something to that effect >,>) points that increase by 1 (one) for every battle... the ranking, from E to A, plus a star, takes at least 1,000 points... and I only have 1,654...! NOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEESSSSSS.

    Cough. Oh, er, *cough*. Ahem. With so many reviews, it's hard to find a game that hasn't gotten one yet, as I don't want to rain on anyone's parade with another review on the same game. It wouldn't be fair to them, being crushed by the master...

    </egotistical, sarcastic comments and HTML things that include spaces for some ungodly reason... though not having spaces in this would be a riot to read>
     
  14. Born2killx

    Born2killx Well-Known Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    Damn, I can't write in such bizarre and herculean vocabulary, but I sure can nitpick at it. I used to be the Grammar Nazi of RomUlation! ;D It took a while for me to eliminate that name. Well, you've convinced me to check out that game.
     
  15. 9NineBreaker9

    9NineBreaker9 Well-Known Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    Yay~! I officially convinced someone to get a game/have proof that I did~! That made my day =]) *pulls lever, gratuitous amounts of confetti fall from the sky*

    I noticed that the term "Grammar Nazi" and "Born2killx" are oftentimes mentioned in the same breath, but I can't be one, yet. My English teacher marked up my papers something fierce today, although I think that was only because I was going out of my way to use the most stuffy/sophisticated/unnecessary words that I could shove into the three paragraphs that are apparently the extent of the freshman student body's writing abilities. And I tend to be a little comma happy, as well, though I think that, more often than not, I get all correct placements.

    And, should anyone have not noticed, all of my posts are at the same time - when I get home and boredom is written on my face, hands and fourteen other areas that I won't go through the effort to type because I am bored, but will go through the effort of explaining why I won't do so and even adding emphasis to my words, spell checking them, and grammar checking them, all because I feel like it at the time, which is contradictory to what has been stated prior to this explanation, as well as the explanation of the explanation, so I type this because hypocracy is written on my face, hands, and fourteen other areas that I won't go through the effort to type because I am bored, but will go through the effort of explaining why I won't do so and even adding emphasis to my words, spell checking them, and grammar checking them, all because I feel like it at the time, which is contradictory to what has been stated prior to this explanation, as well as the explanation of the explanation, as well as the explanation to my explanation's explanation, and, as I copy/pasted the latter half of this argument so as to not type it again due to my own lackadaisical nature, I am just a cheeky f**ker.

    Ergo, I post because I am a cheeky f**ker. And because I think the above paragraph actually is not a run on sentence, but just a really fricken' long thing I did because I'm not playing TWEWY or TF2... but it probably is XD

    WOZAMAGAWD IT'S ANOTHER PARAGRAPH! Beware the cursed f i f t h paragraph... of DOOOOOOooOOOOOOOM-ah!
     
  16. jc_106

    jc_106 Well-Known Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    I did checked out that game, but, hey, great news, my computer can't do a shit with Square Enix games. All Dragon quests for NDS and now this game. Everyone has it working fine, but my pc just doesn't.

    I quit.
     
  17. 9NineBreaker9

    9NineBreaker9 Well-Known Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    So, wait, you're playing it on the PC...?

    *looks up at topic title*

    Okay then. Should you be playing it like that, I don't think any emulator has it working correctly yet, though I haven't checked for a while. And if you are playing it on a real DS that you entitle PC for some reason, your DS is filled with the soul of some sort of demon and should be cleansed quickly.

    And it's really disorientating to have left a post five minutes ago, and have the system tell me it was left yesterday 0.o Time difference between your place and mine makes all of this really wack - dig, dawg?

    ~Addendum~ Oh, wait, I said this game was NOT replayable? Thank you, edit button. Wait, it doesn't go up to eleven...? Fine, fine, ten'll do...
     
  18. jc_106

    jc_106 Well-Known Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    I use an emulator, no$gba 2.6a. And people who use it to play this same game have it working fine, except me. That's why I quit.
     
  19. gryphoondawn

    gryphoondawn Well-Known Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    TRY THIS:
    Open your DS
    Open the game
    Put unleveled pin to use it then save
    Turn of your DS afterward
    remove card
    Change date (7 days from now)
    save your setting
    Turn on your DS
    Open the game
    The pin leveled up ^^
    do it over and over again to master all the pin
     
  20. Loonylion

    Loonylion Administrator Staff Member

    Re: [DS] The World Ends With You - 9NineBreaker9

    I believe that only works for some pins.