The World Ends With You - DS

[Absinthe]

The World Ends With You
5 out of 5 Stylus

System: Nintendo DS
Developers: Square Enix

The World Ends With You is an action RPG that places players in the Reaper's Game set in the Shibuya District in Japan. You have 7 Days to complete 7 missions in order to avoid Erasure (which is synonomous with Death). You play as Neku, a self-centered teenager who must learn that to survive the Reaper's Game, he will need to depend on his partner Shiki as well as others along the way. As you go through missions, eliminating the Noise and even encountering a few Reapers themselves, you get closer and closer to death or success.

I just got this game on Monday and though I've only played into Day 3 (approximately 3-5 hours of gameplay), I am completely enamoured with it. I had high hopes for TWEWY, as it was created by the same people behind Kingdom Hearts I & II, as well as much of the same crew from the Final Fantasy series. Gotta say, Square Enix has another hit on their hands. The dual screen battle style takes a little getting used to, but once mastered is such an interesting and intriguing way to incorporate the DS touch screen with the manual GBA-style controls that it is SO worth the fumbling first few attempts at fighting.

Once I've played into the game more and unlcoked things such as mingling, shopping, as well as new Pins and Stickers, I will report back. So far though, in my limited playtime, this game was so worth the $39.99 ticket price (even though I only paid $34.99 due to an employee discount and then I didn't pay out of pocket at all because I had trade in credit stored from old games. It was so worth the 4 games traded in to buy it).

I gladly give The World Ends With You 4.5 out of 5 Stylus. I may have to bump that up to a 5 out of 5 is the WiFi capabilities are as sweet as they seem they will be (once I've unlocked them of course).



***EDIT***

So, I have now played, well, let's just say a lot of hours of The World Ends With you. I have to adjust my rating to a 5 out of 5 Stylus. I haven't been this into a game in a really long time. I can't seem to put it down. The original premise - 7 Days, 7 Missions to escape erasure - seems so simple at first. But you find fairly quickly that the story is layered in such an intriguing way that it just sucks you right in. The dual screen fighting style, while difficult to adapt to, is such an innovative and genious way to put both of the DS screens to good use, it makes me wonder why no one had thought of it before.

I'll put it this way - The World Ends With You is on my list of Best Games I Have Ever Played (and I've played a lot of games)

[Chrono]

I was thinking about getting that, but got the new Advanced Wars instead. I don't really regret it, the new Advanced Wars is great game, but I will have to be sure to pick up The World Ends With You. It looks really fun.

[Chrono]

Alright, I just picked this game up today, and I have to agree, it is quite good. Right from the get-go I liked the style of the game, the story, the character designs, and after I got used to the battling, I have come to really like that as well. I'll second your rating, this game is definitely worth picking up.

The next game I'll be looking at is Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced 2. I'll try to remember to post a review or something about it if I enjoy it a lot.

[Absinthe]

I've gotten much further into the game since posting this review and I have to say, it gets sooo much better. The mingle feature is pretty cool and there are some twists in the storyline that are just fantastic. I don't think I've ever played a game where I actually gasped at one of the cut scenes. Trust me, once you play a bit further on, you will be shocked by some of the things the story throws at you and you will be sucked in the game more and more.

I'm revising my rating and bumping it up to 5 out of 5 Stylus.