Publisher: Square Enix

Developer: Jupiter Corp

Release Date: 4/21/2008

Available Exclusively On

I first have to mention that this game was made by the extremely talented Square Enix, and Tetsuya Nomura was behind it (Final Fantasy VII, Kingdom Hearts). The World Ends With You is an RPG like no other. They took the cliche elements of RPGs and twisted them around so much that it’s an enjoyable new welcome. First off, the story is the strong point here. You wake up in Shibuya without your memory, and all you have is a player pin. You have to stop the noise and find your way back to the real world. The combat here is great, but it is the most flawed part of the game. You use the stylus to fight with Neku by using player pins. Think of these pins as weapons with different attributes. You can tap empty space to send sparks flying, shout in the mic to create a shockwave, slack up on Neku to hit enemies, use healing pins, draw circles to send meteors crashing, and use telekinesis to send signs, cones, and even cars flying into your enemies. On the top screen, you control your partner (there are three throughout the game) by using the D-pad or the face buttons.

This is where it’s flawed; controlling two screens at a time does not work. You either have to focus on one or the other, but what makes it harder is that you have a combo tree when you hit the button and you have too many up certain cards to make a fusion pin appear for a super-powerful attack. This is really difficult and annoying because some fights make you control both. You can, however, have the game do it on its own, but the AI seems to be flawed since if you don’t, you’ll lose health really fast.

With that aside, everything else is great. While you run around Shibuya, you can visit stores and buy clothes (think armor) to increase attack and defense, etc. What’s neat about this is that each section of Shibuya has a “brand chart,” and if you wear those clothes or pins, you get an attack or stat bonus. This is also the other flaw in the game; each section is a tiny little area, so you’re not going to stop through every section and change your layout, so you just have to use what you like and try to make it popular by fighting the noise. While we’re on that, noise is the enemy in the game. You can scan the area with your player pin, and they all show up as red symbols. Tap these (or more than one for a chain battle) to level up and fight them. When each day of the game starts, you have missions you have to complete via your phone, and you have to get past walls that the Reapers put up. To get past these, you have to meet objectives such as defeating this many noises, buying me this or that, taking this quiz, etc. This tosses things around and makes you want to keep playing. You can add to your attributes without leveling up by eating food. This food has to be digested through battles, and after so many bites, you’ll get the start. You can also change your level to drop more pins if you need some good ones.

Of course, this is a Square Enix game, so it is dialog-heavy, and there are text-based cut scenes every five minutes. This adds to the incredible story, though, so it’s all okay. The graphics are all 2D, but they have the same art style as Kingdom Hearts, it looks like, thanks to Tetsuya Nomura. The sound is a bunch of swishing and bleeping, but the music is pretty nice. There are dozens of tracks you can buy in stores. Overall, if you can stomach odd combat design and you want a great story-driven game, then go for this. This is too complicated for a portable game, but for some odd reason, it still works. I think Square tried to take advantage of the hardware a little too much, but this game will sit in our hearts along with Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts because I know it has for me.