written by dawnclover

So, here’s the reason why I haven’t finished darkSector (PS3) yet: The World Ends With You for the Nintendo DS. Originaly named Subarashiki Kono Sekai – It’s a Wonderful World (in japan), The World Ends With You is not your normal RPG (Role-Playing Game). Released by Square-Enix (for me, the Kings of RPG) last year in Japan and this year on the rest of the world, TWEWY is already spreading huge. Well I never thought I’d like it THIS much at least. It takes place in a world where being up-to-date in clothes and using the popular trends is the highest priority. Don’t worry, I hate trends too. I just wear whatever I feel like. And I love this game. There’s little you need to know about fashion to play it, and it doesn’t really revolve around it that much (only minor stuff in the gameplay), so don’t worry about it. Music-wise it’s nothing like any other RPGs. In the first part of the game you’re drowned in pop, j-pop, rap, hip-hop and techno. Later in the game some rock songs pop in (thank God). There’s actually some j-pop you will start to like because it makes you remember the game, or some part of the story, but at first this was really frustrating, specially because the characters speak from time to time and I didn’t want to low down the volume.

Story-wise it’s getting me too much into it. So much that I don’t even know what it’s like having a life anymore (ok, I’m just exaggerating). All I’m going to say for now is that it stars Neku, a lone-kid who hates everything else in the world (not in the emo type of thing, you’ll know what I mean when you play the game) that is sent to play the Reaper’s Game, a game where you must survive for 7 days, if you don’t complete each day’s mission, you are erased from the world, cease existing, caput! sayonara! etc. This is all I’m telling I don’t want to ruin the surprises. You control Neku in the world with the stylus in the bottom screen clicking anywhere where you want him to go (yes, like in The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the DS), and you can check stuff and talk to people by clicking on it/them. You can also click the black pin (you’ll learn more about this in the full review) and read people’s minds (this gets boring fast though, because there are almost always the same thoughts).

The battle system is in fact original, but at first it got me frustrated and made me want to stop playing, until I found out that I can put one of the characters in auto-fight mode. Yes, you control 2 characters at the same time, Neku in the bottom screen with the stylus and his partner on the top screen using the buttons (directions and Y, X, B, A). For Neku you can do a variety of movements with the stylus, depending on the pin wich you are using, and for his partner you press the keys to make him/her do different combos and eventually trigger the fusion/sync attack, where Neku and his partner go nuts on their enemies. Controling both characters can be quite difficult and frustrating, but there’s always auto-mode (wich I always use) so, whatever. Nothing special at all. The battles are frantic and filled with action, so get your hand ready to do some stylus-mashing (stylus version of button mashing). Well, and button mashing if you decide to try out and master the battle system by using the two characters at the same time (I warn you it’s kind of hard, how can I keep an eye at the two screens at the same time? It’s nuts!).

This is all for now, wait for the final review of this and darkSector for the PS3 as soon as I finish it (I swear I’m going to play darkSector a lot tomorrow before going hypnotized by The World Ends With You! At least, I’ll try.)