Score
Gameplay:	10
Graphics:	9
Sound:	8
FunFactor:	9
PlasmaFactor:	9
Overall:	9

The World Ends with You Review
June 20, 2008 by Dallas Pursley

Sometimes, maybe only a few times in a console's lifetime if it's lucky, there comes a title that sparks a special feeling in the one playing it. You can identify these titles right from their beginning moments: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy III & VII, Chrono Trigger. These are just a few examples of games that sparked the feeling that makes a title more memorable than your average release. The World Ends with You is every bit one of these titles and is quite easily one of the best titles to ever appear on the Nintendo DS to date.

Gameplay

You awake as Neku in the center of Scramble Crossing, a busy intersection of Shibuya, surrounded by people. You have no memory of how you got there or why. Your phone rings, and a cryptic message tells you to do a task in a set time limit or face erasure. Soon, you meet with Shiki who basically forces you to form a pact with her so that you both can survive against the Noise. It's about this time that you realize what you're looking at, and the game has you locked in its well written and produced grip.

Fighting against the Noise is a complicated task. Scanning the area by touching the Player Pin at the bottom right hand corner of your screen lets Neku scan the area which allows him to read people's minds and see the Noise around the area. To fight, Neku uses pins, each with their own different effects to attack with on the touch screen while his partner has their own method of attack that you have to control at the same time on the top screen. This alone is nearly impossible, as it's hard enough just keeping Neku in the action. Luckily Square Enix & Jupiter took this into account by enabling you to put your partner on auto, giving you time to focus on Neku and letting the DS to do the dirty work for your partner. The pins that Neku uses all have various effects. Every time you take an equipped pin into battle it gains PP, once it has enough it gains a level becoming stronger. What's more, when you save the game and turn it off, whatever pins you were wearing gain points while you're not playing!

Buying trendy clothing at shops takes the place of traditional armor found in other RPG titles. What's more, you must constantly be aware of what brand of clothing you are wearing compared to the brands that tops the charts inside the area you're in. What you're wearing is important because wearing a brand that's at the bottom of the popularity chart gives you negative status effects while wearing one of the top brands gives bonuses to your attack. But, you can sway the charts by wearing non-popular threads and pins into battle. Doing so enough times will make what brands you have on more popular in that area. Shopping has other benefits as well. Whenever you make a purchase the shop owner becomes friendlier toward you, giving you access to additional effects on their merchandise. As well as clothing you can also purchase music tracks to grove to while exploring Shibuya and food that will supply you with different lasting effects once it's been digested.

On the whole, TWEWY is a deep title. Tapping your cell phone, located in the upper right hand corner, gives you access to all of your important menus. From there you can do simple things like managing your pins and checking your items to more complicated tasks like adjusting the slider that determines your level compared to the level of Noise in the area. On a side note, turning that slider all the way to the left and changing the difficulty to hard will earn you some great pins. It's also a good way to die in two hits. There is even some limited multiplayer to be found here in the form of Mingle Mode. By entering Mingle Mode, you can power up your pins and even add shops from your friends to buy things from later. The person you're trying to mingle with doesn't even have to be playing TWEWY for you to mingle with them. They just have to have their DS set to communicate wirelessly.

Graphics

Very few titles come close to the visual style presented in TWEWY. Inspired directly from the real Shibuya's urban culture, the title is full of funky settings. Characters stand out in the well drawn areas you explore. Neku and company are detailed to match the urban surroundings and animated perfectly. Noise have their own unique look about them as well, with tribal tattoo looking body parts in place of what would be there naturally. Cut scenes play out in comic book box outs, with limited animations but full on artistic flare. The game is a joy to look at in every aspect. Even the pins have their own artwork to them.

Sound

The urban inspiration doesn't stop with the setting or visuals either. Music in TWEWY is largely hip hop and electronica inspired. With tracks that embed themselves in your head and make you bob along to the beat. Effects are fitting and never get on your nerves or distract. There is even some limited voice acting to be found. There's a very good chance that you'll not want to turn down the volume while playing as the title tries to stay as far left of traditional RPG music as possible. You can even purchase the official soundtrack for the game on iTunes.

PlasmaFactor

The World Ends with You is all about style. That's your PlasmaFactor here. There is a certain style to every detail of the game. The popularity of what you're wearing effecting how well you perform in battles, the urban inspired visuals and soundtrack, and even the story are all something you're only going to find here. The whole title just oozes style from the moment you begin playing until the end. As I said before, TWEWY tries to stay as far away as it can from anything that's traditional in a RPG-- a task it does a great job doing.

Conclusion

There are very few problems with TWEWY. If anything, some of the dialog is a bit annoying at times. Baring the same tracks a lot. And if it wasn't for the auto partner control the game would probably be a flop because the battle system would be near impossible for the average person to handle. Outside of these things, there isn't much else to complain about. The World Ends with You is a must eat got on my nerves the minute he started talking. The music is catchy but limited, so you'll be heplay for any DS owner even if they don't like RPG titles to start with. A game like this doesn't come around often but when it does it's truly something special. Thank you very much Square Enix & Jupiter, may we have another?