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Review: NEO: The World Ends With You
Sep. 24th, 2021 12:38 pmNEO: The World Ends With You
Rating:
Gameplay: 4.5/5 stars
Audio & Visual: 5/5 stars
Story: 2.5/5 stars
I played the original The World Ends With You (TWEWY) on the Nintendo DS and loved it. So I was of course super excited when the sequel finally came out, after so much time.
Gameplay: Neo TWEWY took the gameplay pretty much wholesale from the first game, from fighting Noise to adjusting your level and difficulty on the fly to eating food and shopping for clothes to increase stats. There isn't too much innovation (aside from the new character-specific psychs that were integrated into the story), but then again one could say, if it ain't broke, why fix it?
And the gameplay still feels as fresh and unique as it did in the first game. I'm especially impressed with how the devs adapted the combat system, since the partner battle system developed for the DS sadly doesn't work on a single screen (I haven't played the TWEWY port for the Nintendo Switch, but I've heard from reviews that the combat controls weren't great). At first, I hated the new combat system, but after about two in-game days, it finally clicked for me and I got it. Plus, it definitely feels better the more party members you get and therefore more pins you have access to—just like with Neku's combat in the first game, the joy is all about finding pins that have synergy with each other.
Just like with the first game, I became more engrossed in the side activities than the main story at times—mastering pins, eating every single food available, filling in the collection. One fun thing Neo TWEWY added that I adored is the graffiti wall—basically, you get graffiti for achievements, and you can arrange them on a wall (and you can find your graffiti wall in Udagawa as well). It's such a fun way to do achievements.
I took off half a star because New TWEWY introduced something called "Scramble Slam" as one of the missions in the Game, which is basically a turf war among the teams of Players where you compete to take over all the available territories. It sounded like a cool idea, but it quickly became extremely tedious and repetitive, especially if you wanted to go for the high score for the top prizes (and you have to play Scramble Slam multiple times!). The game would've been better off without Scramble Slam.
Audio & Visual: Not much to say here. Just like the first game, Neo TWEWY excels when it comes to visual and auditory presentation. The soundtrack is amazing, the voice acting is top notch, and the use of 2D sprites for the dialogue provides the feeling of a comic book in motion.
Story: Here is where I have the most thoughts. Many of them are spoilery, but I'll put the spoilers behind a cut.
TWEWY had a phenomenal story, and perhaps it's unfair to say Neo TWEWY doesn't quite match the level of storytelling in the first game—but, since it's a sequel, comparisons are impossible to avoid. Which is not to say Neo TWEWY had a bad story; it's fine. It's a little bit generic for a JRPG, but it's fine. I think the characters were very well drawn, but they also didn't have much backstory, which made them feel a little like blank slates despite their distinctive personalities.
The thing is, the first TWEWY didn't just have colorful characters; it also had a plot full of shocking twists and turns and a profound message. And Neo TWEWY just isn't on that level. The twists in the story weren't particularly shocking (also, if you go on the internet at all, you'll probably be spoiled regarding the most significant twists very quickly, as I was). There were a few plot holes at the end, and what ended up happening to one of the characters left me annoyed (I'll go into more detail in the spoiler cut).
When thinking about the story, I feel like Neo TWEWY got caught a bit between indecision over whether it should be a sequel or a standalone and ended up falling in between (but leaning more toward being a straight sequel). And yeah, it's fun to see the characters from the first game return, and I can't fault Neo TWEWY for wanting to do that kind of fan service. But it also feels like Neo TWEWY couldn't really have a story that stands alone or does something different from the first game as a result.
Okay, now I'll get into my spoilery thoughts.
( ** SPOILERS BELOW ** )
Rating:
Gameplay: 4.5/5 stars
Audio & Visual: 5/5 stars
Story: 2.5/5 stars
I played the original The World Ends With You (TWEWY) on the Nintendo DS and loved it. So I was of course super excited when the sequel finally came out, after so much time.
Gameplay: Neo TWEWY took the gameplay pretty much wholesale from the first game, from fighting Noise to adjusting your level and difficulty on the fly to eating food and shopping for clothes to increase stats. There isn't too much innovation (aside from the new character-specific psychs that were integrated into the story), but then again one could say, if it ain't broke, why fix it?
And the gameplay still feels as fresh and unique as it did in the first game. I'm especially impressed with how the devs adapted the combat system, since the partner battle system developed for the DS sadly doesn't work on a single screen (I haven't played the TWEWY port for the Nintendo Switch, but I've heard from reviews that the combat controls weren't great). At first, I hated the new combat system, but after about two in-game days, it finally clicked for me and I got it. Plus, it definitely feels better the more party members you get and therefore more pins you have access to—just like with Neku's combat in the first game, the joy is all about finding pins that have synergy with each other.
Just like with the first game, I became more engrossed in the side activities than the main story at times—mastering pins, eating every single food available, filling in the collection. One fun thing Neo TWEWY added that I adored is the graffiti wall—basically, you get graffiti for achievements, and you can arrange them on a wall (and you can find your graffiti wall in Udagawa as well). It's such a fun way to do achievements.
I took off half a star because New TWEWY introduced something called "Scramble Slam" as one of the missions in the Game, which is basically a turf war among the teams of Players where you compete to take over all the available territories. It sounded like a cool idea, but it quickly became extremely tedious and repetitive, especially if you wanted to go for the high score for the top prizes (and you have to play Scramble Slam multiple times!). The game would've been better off without Scramble Slam.
Audio & Visual: Not much to say here. Just like the first game, Neo TWEWY excels when it comes to visual and auditory presentation. The soundtrack is amazing, the voice acting is top notch, and the use of 2D sprites for the dialogue provides the feeling of a comic book in motion.
Story: Here is where I have the most thoughts. Many of them are spoilery, but I'll put the spoilers behind a cut.
TWEWY had a phenomenal story, and perhaps it's unfair to say Neo TWEWY doesn't quite match the level of storytelling in the first game—but, since it's a sequel, comparisons are impossible to avoid. Which is not to say Neo TWEWY had a bad story; it's fine. It's a little bit generic for a JRPG, but it's fine. I think the characters were very well drawn, but they also didn't have much backstory, which made them feel a little like blank slates despite their distinctive personalities.
The thing is, the first TWEWY didn't just have colorful characters; it also had a plot full of shocking twists and turns and a profound message. And Neo TWEWY just isn't on that level. The twists in the story weren't particularly shocking (also, if you go on the internet at all, you'll probably be spoiled regarding the most significant twists very quickly, as I was). There were a few plot holes at the end, and what ended up happening to one of the characters left me annoyed (I'll go into more detail in the spoiler cut).
When thinking about the story, I feel like Neo TWEWY got caught a bit between indecision over whether it should be a sequel or a standalone and ended up falling in between (but leaning more toward being a straight sequel). And yeah, it's fun to see the characters from the first game return, and I can't fault Neo TWEWY for wanting to do that kind of fan service. But it also feels like Neo TWEWY couldn't really have a story that stands alone or does something different from the first game as a result.
Okay, now I'll get into my spoilery thoughts.
( ** SPOILERS BELOW ** )
