Outpatient Article – Under The Knife – The World Ends with You (DS)

by MrAllex

(Don’t ask me why “with” isn’t capitalized. I don’t get it either.
P.S. Graphics by Link)

Originally released in Japan as Subarashiki Kono Sekai, more commonly known by the (incorrect, yet official) name of It’s a Wonderful World (it should be This Wonderful World when literally translated, but I guess the Japanese just don’t care ’bout English), The World Ends with You is a DS game developed by the Square Enix team responsible for the (highly overrated, yet admittedly fun) game Kingdom Hearts and a lesser-known developer called Jupiter. (FUN FACT: Jupiter was also involved in development of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.) Now that I’m not channeling Cockboat (that’s Wikipedia for all you yoctograms), let’s talk some bidness.

The World Ends with You, hereafter referred to simply as TWEWY, is an Action-RPG with a borderline disturbing focus on fashion. The game takes place in Shibuya, a municipality of Tokyo that is well known for its fashion trends (one of which you may be familiar with is ganguro, blonde hair & brown skin, like Mihoshi from Tenchi Muyo.) Okay, well, I guess I wasn’t quite done with the wiki-ness.

TWEWY begins on a rather unappealing note, with our hero Neku Sakuraba being his usual antisocial self, claiming that “all the world needs is [him]” and that everyone should “just go the hell away”. Many people have been known to shut off the game, never to return to it, based solely on this spectacularly awful intro. While I can’t say I blame them, I can say that the game picks up fairly soon after the opening cutscene. The story is very much a mish-mash of ideas, presented in an interesting way. It’s almost Killer7-esque in that you’re never quite sure what the hell is actually going on, and if you think you do know, you are probably wrong. As Neku, you learn from Shiki that you are part of something called the Reapers’ Game. Apparently, everyone involved had to pay some sort of a price to get in, the price being what they value most. (It does get less generic later on, but it gets no less pretentious.) Neku (stereotypically) cannot remember anything before waking up in the Scramble Crossing.

Obviously, his price was his memory. This is probably the only aspect of the story you will ever see coming a good deal of time before the game explains it to you. (Obviously, if you’re at all perceptive you’ll figure things out a bit before they’re blatantly spelled out.) You also learn that should you do the Reapers’ missions, delivered via text message, you will not be “erased” (unless of course the Noise kill you). You get 1 mission per day for 7 days, and should you remain alive at the end of the 7 days, you get to return to the regular world. Neku soon realizes he’s dead and that “returning” means “being resurrected”. Of course, he doesn’t remember how or why he’s dead, seeing as how he’s got amnesia and all. You also learn from one strangely helpful Mr. Hanekoma that this “Reaper world” is called the Underground, or UG, and that the real world is the Real Ground, or RG. You also meet another pact-ed pair named Beat and Rhyme. Beat is a stereotypical skateboarder/wigger, while Rhyme is a helpful little girl who looks a bit too much like a boy to be healthy. In case you couldn’t tell from their matching ridiculous names (they’re actually nicknames, thank God), they are siblings. Well, okay, you’ll probably see that part coming too just because of the names.

But then after a few more eventful days the week ends after you fight the Game Master (a super-buff guy with biceps twice the size of my damn head) and I guess you’re expecting something to happen since that only took around 5 hours to play, and something does happen. But that’d be spoilerific, so fuck that noise, dawg. Anyways, I really like the way every day feels like there’s always something really big going on and these nice plot twists and whatnot. It certainly makes the game feel longer than it is (in a good way).

You’re then introduced to the basic game mechanics, and seeing as how I feel obligated to elaborate on the gameplay, I’ll use this as an opportunity to do so. The first thing you’ll notice once you take control of the game is that it can be played entirely with the stylus if you so choose. Your objective at the game’s beginning is primarily to avoid the Noise (monsters that look like stylishly-mutated animals and your main foes throughout the game) by dragging Neku around to get him to move. Luckily, this is one of the few times moving in battle will be necessary. I say luckily because Neku is a (freakishly) skinny kid, and as such it is hard to get the fat tip of the stylus to actually detect that you’re trying to move him and not just scratch up your screen for no reason (and believe me, your screen will get scratched up as a result of playing this game). Soon after this encounter, you meet Shiki, a freakishly skinny girl obsessed with fashion. I think I’m beginning to notice a trend (pun very intended).

As you level up, you’ll gain more HP but not much else. Attack and Defense are affected primarily by threads (that’s hip-talk for clothes) and the digestion of food (feed a character something and have them fight some battles and they’ll get a stat boost once it’s digested), and Bravery (every thread has a certain Bravery requirement, because fashion is serious business) seems to be mainly affected by storyline progression and, again, food.

So let’s say you’re looking for some rare bling (hip-talk for enemy drops) and want a higher drop rate. Well, you can temporarily drop your level and add a multiplier to your drop rate for every level you remove. This way, you can farm for bling with a quadrupled drop rate, then kick your level right back up to where it was previously to take down a boss. Past a certain point in the game, you can also chain battles together (similar to Blue Dragon, if you’ve played that), and each battle adds on to your drop rate by the same amount it was originally (i.e. if your drop rate is x4 and you chain 3 battles, your drop rate throughout these battles will be x12). Of course, your HP is not restored between these battles, so be careful when chaining. When you first get the ability to chain battles, you can only do up to 4, but after beating the game and entering the optional chapter you can purchase an item allowing you to chain up to 16(!).

There’s also a minigame called Tin Pin Slammer, but to be honest I don’t care for it much and only played it when required, so you won’t hear much out of me about that.

After you meet Shiki and make that pact, you’re given some Pins. Pins, believe it or not, function as Neku’s sole method of attack. You see, Pins contain latent powers called “psychs”, which is basically a hip, urban way of saying “magic”. Despite the logic falling apart rather quickly (even though most people would not be able to use said psychs, the pins are labeled as though they were intended to cause spontaneous combustion or shoot mind bullets), you’ll find yourself having a lot of fun with Pins. See, psychs don’t just activate themselves; you have to draw on the screen in certain ways (or in some cases, blow into the microphone) to use them.

For example, let’s say you want to use the Masamune Pin. Well, Masamune’s psych is Shockwave (think sword slashes), so simply slash an enemy with your stylus and Neku will fly over and attack with mindblades (think ESP-powered karate chops). But if you wanted to activate a Pin with a Pyrokinesis psych, you’d drag along empty space and fire would begin to erupt from the ground, following the stylus’ trail. Of course, any Pin you want to use has to be being worn by Neku. You start with 3 slots to equip Pins to, but can eventually gain up to as many as 6. Additionally, if two Pins have psychs that are activated the same way, the Pins are used in the order they’re equipped. Which reminds me, Pins can’t just be used forever. After using a Pin a certain number of times/for a certain length of time, it will have to recharge. There’s no MP or anything of the sort, just Pin reboots.

Of course, this is just scratching the surface. Almost every Pin has a brand, and every district of Shibuya has different trends. Let’s just use Masamune as our example again. Masamune is a Jupiter of the Monkey Pin. Let’s assume you’re in, oh, the 104 Building district and that the most popular brand there is J of the M. Masamune’s attack power would now be doubled in that district, so long as the charts do not change. Of course, Pins can also have their attack power reduced if unpopular enough. But simply using Pins makes them more popular, so it usually isn’t an issue for long. There are plenty more little Pin intricacies, but those are best realized through playing the game for yourself. Overall, though, the Pins work quite well and are just sort of fun to use. Some are a bit frustrating (why does it take so long for my dragging to make Pyrokinesis happen?) but you’re never really forced to use them, so it evens out.

One final thing to add before moving on: for the Pokémon lover in you, there are some Pins that can evolve if they gain PP (Pin EXP, basically) from the right source. You see, Pins not only accrue PP through combat, but also through “mingling” with other DSes communicating wirelessly and through, well, not playing the game for a while (called Shutdown PP). Pins only evolve if the majority of their PP comes from the right source, though. The Murasame Pin, for example, only evolves if it was leveled mostly through Mingle PP. Unfortunately, the game gives no indication as to which sort of PP will evolve a pin, so you’re left either hoping to get lucky or looking it up online. Considering the evolution of pins is almost necessary (especially if you want to take on Ultimate difficulty), this can make things a little bit rough.

So, what about Shiki and that pact you made? Well, Shiki now fights the same Noise as Neku, only in a sort of alternate dimension on the top screen. If a Noise is defeated on either screen, it disappears from the other screen as well. Similarly, Neku and Shiki share the same HP, so if one dies, both die. So, if Shiki is on the top screen, obviously she won’t be using Pins. No, Shiki fights with her little stuffed cat (affectionately named Mr. Mew) using the d-pad. If this sounds overwhelming, don’t worry- if you don’t control Shiki she’ll begin to act on her own. This generally results in a less efficient form of battle, and it’s worth learning how to balance control of Neku and his partner, but it’s still a perfectly viable way to fight. If you happen to fulfill certain conditions in Shiki’s combo branch, she will earn a fusion star. Get enough of these and Neku can team up with Shiki to unleash an attack that not only deals damage to all Noise on-screen, but also replenishes some of the duo’s HP.

Another thing that comes with Shiki’s pact is the light puck. This little green circle will become your best friend in due time. You see, any time Shiki or Neku lands a combo finisher with the light puck on them, they get a large damage boost for that attack and send the light puck to the other person. In other words, if you get really good at the simultaneous control, you can deal some crazy damage. While I do think the dual-screen combat is an interesting aspect, it’s (as said earlier) very overwhelming and the AI for your partner could be a lot better (not that it’s too terribly stupid).

I’ll just go ahead and mash music and graphics together in one section. Both are a very love-it-or-hate-it affair. The music consists mostly of J-pop and J-rap, which is fitting seeing as how the game takes place in modern day Japan, but I’m sure some will still find it annoying (grr Japan). The easiest game soundtrack to compare it to is Persona 3. Personally, I don’t mind the game’s music, and in fact even find some tracks enjoyable. At the very least, the randomly-alternating soundtrack helps both battles and exploration feel a lot less repetitive. You can even set your own menu music, provided you’ve bought the corresponding in-game CD for that song (each CD is only about 1600 Yen, i.e. really cheap, so the only real problem here is finding the right store to buy from). Still, many people will hate the soundtrack simply for being Japanese. You could certainly do a lot worse as far as J-pop goes, though. But, uh, I think some of these tracks would be infinitely better if they just cut out the rappin’ Japanese entirely. I dunno, maybe if I liked “regular”, non-Oriental hip-hop.

As for the graphics, I think they have an appealing style, but I’ve heard them be described as “looking like it’s drawn in Flash”, which I really can’t argue with because, well, it’s true. But hey, as Japanese-y as it is, at least it’s not just generic anime art. Though as I mentioned earlier, most of the characters look borderline anorexic and the ones that aren’t are fucking enormous behemoths. Remember that Game Master I mentioned earlier? Yeah. Talk about contrast. Otherwise, I actually kind of like the character designs.

While I am not able to actually prove this, I’m pretty sure the character designs and even the entire idea of such a fashion-centric game is a self-parody by Square Enix. For example, everyone in the RG is dressed (fairly) normal, while everyone in the UG is dressed bizarrely and has crazy hair. Because everyone knows NPCs aren’t allowed to follow the same twisted fashions as the main characters, right? Additionally, Square Enix is known for their designs that include copious amounts of belts and zippers, which are both things the game likes to reference. There was one line that went a little something like “maybe I should get something with more zippers”. Subtlety has never been Square Enix’s forte, and the majority of the lines in this game just solidify that, but it’s just so nice to hear them acknowledge what ridiculous people they are.

Okay, so now I’m going to give everything arbitrary number scores.

Gameplay: 9/10 – Really fun, but it can get tiring after a while. Also, getting Neku to move his ass is not fun when fighting bosses who do bullshit damage.

Music: 7/10 – Nothing amazing, but it’s got some catchy tunes. Again, you could very easily hate the J-pop-ness of it. But (most of) it is better J-pop than you’d hear on whatever the Japanese equivelant of VH1 is, so…

Graphics: 8/10 - I hate giving something as dumb as GRAPHICS a score but they are appealing because they aren’t really generic anime so it’s refreshing at least. Also character designs that poke fun at Square Enix.

Story: 8/10 – Despite the mostly unlikable characters (the ones that are likable are totally rad) and the laughably generic character development (Neku is basically Squall times one hundred), the game’s got some great lines and an interesting story that’s presented well. As I eluded to earlier, Square Enix really went all out with making some crazy and fun lines that really just enhance the overall experience.

Replayability: 8.5/10 – For beating the game you get access to a shitload of new stuff in the form of the “Another Day” chapter, plus there’s all those Pins to evolve. As an additional bonus you can even go back to a specific day with all your Pins and threads and stuff. This also means that you can relive your times with the greatness that is Sho Minamimoto as much as you want.

Overall (P.S. not an average): 8.5/10 – Honestly, it’s easily one of the best DS games currently available and quite possibly the DS’s best RPG at this point. So, Square Enix, I commend you for making a game that isn’t Final Fantasy and also doesn’t totally suck, and even has a decent story to boot. And also for learning all that hip lingo, since you guys have all gotta be like 60-something by now.

3 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI