In 2007, the Kingdom Hearts team (Square Enix) took a break from churning out sequels with weird names, and worked on one of the best games on the Nintendo DS dual-screen handheld system. The World Ends with You — popularly abbreviated to TWEWY — mixed rad visuals, with memorable characters, vivid world-building and a player-worthy battle system that made use of both the DS’ screens.
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Now, with Neo: The World Ends With You, the biggest challenge expected is the task of translating the style, heart and battle system onto the Switch and PlayStation 4 for today’s gamers.
Down with the reapers
The story kicks off on a normal day, following best friends Rindo Kanade and Fret on an outing to Tokyo’s Shibuya district. Things suddenly get very weird and soon, Rindo and Fret happen upon mysterious and rare pins, which transport themselves to an alternate version of Shibuya. They are enrolled in an ominous-sounding game called Reapers’ Game during which they must fight with said pins against enemies called the Noise.
- Developer: h.a.n.d
- Publisher: Square Enix
- Price: ₹4,999 (US$59) on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. Coming soon to Epic Games store on PC.
Taking place in a parallel alternate dimension known as the Underground, Reaper’s Game is a seven-day ‘survival of the fittest’ event, where you have to complete challenges set by the game master and the reapers. After seven days, the winner will get to choose between coming back to life or taking a reward into the afterlife. So it is up to Rindo and Fret along with their skilled team known as Wicked Twisters to stand a chance together against the other teams.
Upgraded experience
The first The World Ends with You was a surprise gem with a story with heart, something that Neo tries hard to recreate but unfortunately trades the depth of the original’s story for something a bit shallower. It is disappointing that, at first, Neo is a retelling of the Reapers’ Game. So, many questions about this game world have been left unanswered.
Given the first game was 14 years ago, with core gameplay components featuring the latest in flip-phones . Neo comes in with today’s smartphone tech and weaves the Social Network-infused narrative into the mix, making it more relevant. This is a node graph-based advancement system where nodes are purchased using friendship points, offering up different abilities or game features. Other familiar game features include scanning (a pre-battle initiation) and imprinting.
Screenshot from video game ‘Neo: The World Ends With You’
Neo is a blast from the past, that retains the core gameplay mechanic around pins which grant you and your team special moves. There are 300 pins to collect and while you can only equip one per character, you can use them all in battle. This gives you incentive to jump into more battles and quests to get the rarer and more powerful pins. Gladly, this is one aspect of the game that is an improvement upon the original.
The action takes place in 3D real-time, melee-based third-person subgame, so you can unleash a barrage of special moves at the well-designed monster enemies. The ultimate goal is to keep a combo chain going while harnessing the pins’ unique attacks and properties. When you are not tracking and fighting Noise enemies, you are free to explore Shibuya, doing side quests and learning more about this alternate world and its strange subculture. While the game technically runs over seven days, you can jump back and forth across the timeline to collect and complete everything, thanks to special time travel powers.
Screenshot from video game ‘Neo: The World Ends With You’ with the Reapers
Just like the gameplay mechanics, the unique style of the game remains true to the original, too. The style is a confluence of street graffiti, pop art and comic style which look catchy in the edgy anime cutscenes and the character art. The music is an amalgam of trendy Japanese rock and punk to keep you grooving as you play.
While the story of Neo does not hold a candle to the original, it is a new game for the nextgeneration of gamers. We are looking forward to more The World Ends With You games in the coming years.
