The World Ends with WEWY
Yep, it’s that time! I have found a new video game and it must be reviewed! The victim this time? Squenix/Jupiter’s (The makers of of the Kingdom Hearts series) newest game, The World Ends with You.
Oh. My. Gosh.
I don’t know what was going through the makers’ heads when they made this game, but I really want to meet all of them. And give them a hug. They are geniuses! This game was pulled off fantastically. Normally, that’s an easy thing to do, to make a game I find fantastic, but this does absolutely everything wrong and does it well. There was so much that could have flopped in this game–the characters (Welll…I can’t say I like all of them, but they are good…Beat dropped my IQ by at least thirty points), the background, the story, especially the battle system–but all those little quirks that would break a normal game meshed together in some miraculous way to form what is now one of my all-time favorite games.
The battle system is really something that you can either love or hate. I liked it, although admittedly I didn’t play it the way it’s meant to be played, but then I’m a noobcake at action battle systems. The system itself is called the Stride Cross Battle System. It implements the DS’s dual-screen and touch-screen features. On the bottom screen is Neku, the main character. You control him by dragging, touching, tapping, slashing, etc. the stylus to either move or use pins and the ‘psychs’ (short for psychic attacks, I presume) they contain. On the time screen is your partner, who is controlled with the D-pad to both attack and rack up points for a fusion attack. It sounds tough, but it becomes second nature after so many battles. Or you can be a loser like me and totally ignore the top screen. Whatever works. It does have a steep, steep learning curve, so get ready for that.
Battle System: 8/10 - I was iffy about it, but y’know…
What I really liked was the story, the characters, and the dialogue in between. The main character is a emo, anti-social, teenage boy named Neku Sakuraba. There have been a lot of complaints, mainly from people playing in the first couple of ‘days’, that Neku is annoying as all heck. Why yes, he is. However, I didn’t think of him as being quite as annoying as most people thought. I actually really liked him! He’s got some really good dialogue and I loved all his sarcastic quips. The thing is that he’s annoying on purpose, which leaves room for…dun dun duuuuun…
Character development!
Character development is what this game is about. Take a fifteen-year-old punk, toss him into a life-or-erasure struggle for a few days (or a few weeks) and see what happens. Watching Neku grow is one of the best things about this game and one scene at the end of the credits makes it all extremely worthwhile.
The story is…seriously, what’s a word for it….*proceeds to thesaurus.com* unearthly. Heh, pun. It revolves around something called the Reaper’s Game, a seven-day race in the Shibuya district of Japan to accomplish missions handed out at the beginning of each day. Sounds mundane, but that’s only because I don’t want to totally spoil things. Everything about WEWY is so twisted and weird and fanatical that it’s nigh indescribable. It’s like a black hole–once you go in, you’re not coming out. Or an onion. Every layer of depth you peel off just reveals another layer better than the last. You’ll find yourself well into Neku’s shoes just trying to figure out what the heck is going on. Every answer you find just leads to more questions. A lot more.
Story/Characters/Writing: 10/10 - I want to work for these guys. Seriously, can I get an application paper? <3
Most importantly was…It’s kinda hard to explain…This is one of those rare games that nearly reversed my outlook on life. It’s all about stretching horizons. You’ll see once you play it.
And I mean it. Seriously, go play it right now. Shoo shoo.
Tags: game, review, the world ends with you, video game