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Just finished The World Ends With You



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OneDandelion

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I'd heard really good things about this game for a long time and finally decided to get it because it looks like we might see it involved in the next Kingdom Hearts game and it blew me away. How this game has not been more involved in the Kingdom Hearts universe is beyond me because everything about it would fit in so well.

Seriously, anyone who hasn't played it yet I'd recommend getting the DS version for $10-$15 on Ebay. It was such a great story - unique setting and concept design, great characters, I really couldn't recommend the game enough. In fact I think the story, setting, and characters were so good that it makes up for all of my critiques for the critiques I have below. It does start off a little slow, but I think once anyone gets about 4 or 5 hours into it they'll be hooked.

Critiques: They were really ambitious on the sound direction and I'm not really sure how I feel about it. Generally speaking the music lent itself to the atmosphere of the game but some of the lyrics were pretty cheesy or annoying to repeatedly listen to; maybe that's what they were going for though. I never really got the double combat system they had going on so I'm not sure if it was just me or if thats a general complaint about the game either, but I found effectively using both screens to be quite tedious. And lastly, easy mode is so incredibly easy that it felt like I was cheating while using it and some bosses would be so annoying to fight on normal that I'd switch to easy just so I didn't have to deal with it - some people might like that sort of thing but I would prefer a single well balanced difficulty to several unbalanced ones.

The combat simply doesn't feel satisfying - the stylus can be unresponsive, the ability of pins occasionally overlap each other which means you don't have perfect control over your character, the screens often feel cluttered and because of all of this it can be very difficult executing the moves you want and I think it definitely holds the game back. The concept behind the combat is very fun - collecting and upgrading your pins is interesting and its fun to test them out to see what they can do, but when the game gets challenging it doesn't feel like I'm being challenged because I haven't optimized my pins, it feels like I'm being overwhelmed by clutter.

I think a lot of people would like a sequel to this game but in my opinion it works better as a one off, if anything I'm disappointed that it was ported to the switch when it should have been a complete remake with extra content, refined combat system, expanded world, etc. Right, the switch version is currently $40, a new copy on the DS is $30. I was pretty lucky to get it for $10 used on ebay and it was 100% worth it.

Overall I'd give the game a 9/10 despite how critical I was of the combat, and I am typically a pretty harsh critic. I know the game is pretty old but anyone on the fence about playing it should make the leap, the game probably never got as much praise as it deserved.
 

Veevee

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I'm not completely done with the game yet (I'm in the third week, so please refrain from spoilers), but I agree with a lot of points. I tried it on the DS years ago and dropped it, despite liking the concept because I found it incredibly annoying to battle. Not because I dislike the combat system, but because I couldn't keep both screens in check at the same time and it gave me more headaches than everything to constantly shift my gaze between both screens, still utterly failing.
I picked it up again on Switch and despite your accuracy on the point of lacking accuracy (I basically just mash the touchscreen hoping that whatever pin activates staggers the enemy somehow, since many of them don't work THAT precise), I liked the combat better because I could focus on Neku alone and whoever the current partner was, could just occasionally hop in.

I like the wonky music, I actually have yet to find a piece I don't like and I even like how displaced some seem - "Give me all your love" is so weird, out of place and oddly sexualised but still really fancy, so I take that as a part of the point.
The art is very beautiful and unique and I just love the overall Shibuya feel.

What actually annoys me are the pin evolution conditions - the game gives a really shitty non-explanation about "think about where you got the pin so you know how to evolve it" - welp, first of all I don't remember every stupid pin drop / buy, second there are a lot of pins I could buy OR get dropped and third, that only vaguely tells me how to evolve them. I resignated to just looking up evolution charts everytime which gets annoying fast. Also, while I like the idea that pins gain EXP while the console is shut down, it annoyed me to no end that some pins could ONLY be evolved that way - basically forcing me to stop playing, wait, turning it on after a day to gain the most EXP, shutting it down again, repeating process until your damn pin evolved. I want to try a lot of different pins, but forcing me to take artifical breaks to be able to do that was dumb. I heard there was even a third kind of evolution EXP in the DS version, why?

Also, I love Beat. I kinda hated him in DDD and love him in TWEWY which leads me again to the question - why? He's such a lovable head-through-the-wall dork in DDD and such an annoying "yo!" wannabe gangsta kid in DDD that I wonder how Nomura could even mess up his own character creations again.
 

OneDandelion

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What actually annoys me are the pin evolution conditions - the game gives a really shitty non-explanation about "think about where you got the pin so you know how to evolve it" - welp, first of all I don't remember every stupid pin drop / buy, second there are a lot of pins I could buy OR get dropped and third, that only vaguely tells me how to evolve them. I resignated to just looking up evolution charts everytime which gets annoying fast.
I didn't want to mention this because I do think the idea of pins and pin evolution is cool, but you're right that the evolution system is done terribly. Toward the end of the game I ended up looking up how pin evolution worked because only a couple of my pins evolved and then I turned the game off and fast forwarded time on my ds to get the pins that evolved through shut down evolve quickly. Turns out though that those pins can be really OP so I basically ended up breaking the game more.

The third kind of evolution dealt with a streetpass thing I think so its not even really an option anymore.

The combat and scaling difficulties definitely doesn't work well either. What probably annoyed me the most is I set the difficulty level to normal and roughly 7-12 throughout the game because I didn't think it was challenging enough when it came to fighting noise and I wanted more yen to drop, but then bosses or tabboo noise will come out of nowhere and kill me so easily I have no choice but to revert to easy mode to pass them. There just is no consistency with the difficulty or combat.

I'm glad you are replaying it though, the story really is fantastic.
 

Veevee

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Yesterday I finally finished TWEWY. What a ride. Hated the later boss enemies though - especially the really last one had a shit design imo, I died three times with no idea what to do until I looked it up (and it was still shitty, so I changed the difficulty to easy). I probably suck.
I liked the ending and was looking forward to play another day, but nothing can bring me to play tin pin slammer, so I will probably watch a walkthrough for that. Didn't bother looking into the secret episode; I just enjoyed the wholesome, closed feel of the game too much to dive into something that (as I've read) is a huge teaser with a giant cliffhanger for a game that may never come. If we really get TWEWY 2, I will gladly play it, already unlocked it, but until then, TWEWY is a closed chapter for me.

I still have one question - why was Joshua looking for the composer when he himself was that person? I get that he was basically playing with Neku and it was all a trick that made for a good twist, but is there any character motivation that made Joshua declare that his goal? I mean he could've told Neku anything but he chose that. Is there a specific reason?
 

OneDandelion

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Yesterday I finally finished TWEWY. What a ride. Hated the later boss enemies though - especially the really last one had a shit design imo, I died three times with no idea what to do until I looked it up (and it was still shitty, so I changed the difficulty to easy). I probably suck.
I liked the ending and was looking forward to play another day, but nothing can bring me to play tin pin slammer, so I will probably watch a walkthrough for that. Didn't bother looking into the secret episode; I just enjoyed the wholesome, closed feel of the game too much to dive into something that (as I've read) is a huge teaser with a giant cliffhanger for a game that may never come. If we really get TWEWY 2, I will gladly play it, already unlocked it, but until then, TWEWY is a closed chapter for me.

I still have one question - why was Joshua looking for the composer when he himself was that person? I get that he was basically playing with Neku and it was all a trick that made for a good twist, but is there any character motivation that made Joshua declare that his goal? I mean he could've told Neku anything but he chose that. Is there a specific reason?
Agreed, the last few bosses were all pure spam for me I really didn't like the combat end game.

It's been a little while so I've forgotten what scene Joshua says his goal was to find the composer. Of course it might just have been a lie but there is a theory that Joshua was considering having Neku kill and replace him towards the end of the game, so perhaps "looking for the composer" was a way of saying he was seeking a replacement.

If you haven't read the secret reports I'd suggest looking them up; they elaborate on hanekoma. I couldn't bring myself to play another day either lmao.
 

SweetYetSalty

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A part of me would really like to play this game. Mainly because of DDD and I find Rhyme adorable as anything, I want more of her. TWEWY is a Nintendo DS game right? If so I might want to try and get it to play!
 

Rydgea

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A part of me would really like to play this game. Mainly because of DDD and I find Rhyme adorable as anything, I want more of her. TWEWY is a Nintendo DS game right? If so I might want to try and get it to play!

Do it. I played this before the initial 3DS DDD release, so, naturally, my experience was based on the DS version. However, I really, really enjoyed it, and if you get the chance to, play it on the original platform, because you can see how fully and intuitively they utilized the hardware. It's fun. It's got good music. And the nuanced (and not so nuanced) easter eggs in DDD are all the more rewarding.
 

SweetYetSalty

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Do it. I played this before the initial 3DS DDD release, so, naturally, my experience was based on the DS version. However, I really, really enjoyed it, and if you get the chance to, play it on the original platform, because you can see how fully and intuitively they utilized the hardware. It's fun. It's got good music. And the nuanced (and not so nuanced) easter eggs in DDD are all the more rewarding.
Thanks for the info. I'll certainly put this on the top of my 'Nintendo DS games to play in the future' list.
 

Veevee

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Thanks for the info. I'll certainly put this on the top of my 'Nintendo DS games to play in the future' list.

Don't be discouraged if the DS version is not for you, though. I started with the DS version back then and hated how I had to constantly switch my attention between both screens because it kept giving me headaches. The majority of the people hate the Switch version due to the controls (and because the gameplay in the ds version gets the message across in the best way), but I found them okay for the docked mode and fine in handheld mode.
Rhyme is super adorable, you won't be disappointed. Personally, I grew to love Beat the most (and really, really hope he gets a Bring Arts) who I hated in DDD. Strange enough.
 

SweetYetSalty

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Don't be discouraged if the DS version is not for you, though. I started with the DS version back then and hated how I had to constantly switch my attention between both screens because it kept giving me headaches. The majority of the people hate the Switch version due to the controls (and because the gameplay in the ds version gets the message across in the best way), but I found them okay for the docked mode and fine in handheld mode.
Rhyme is super adorable, you won't be disappointed. Personally, I grew to love Beat the most (and really, really hope he gets a Bring Arts) who I hated in DDD. Strange enough.
Lol, I did enjoy Beat getting roasted by Rhyme in DDD. Now I really want to play this game. I'll probably use my 2DS for it as I prefer the joystick to the panels.
 

Ballad of Caius

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If you have two Pins that activate with the same mechanic, try putting one under a Sub Slot. Other than that, the Switch version can be veeeeeeeeery satisfying when it comes to double combat. You just have to get over the learning curve of trying to use both Joycon at the same time. Each Partner has his own learning curve, but to me, the best is Shiki.
 

Veevee

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If you have two Pins that activate with the same mechanic, try putting one under a Sub Slot. Other than that, the Switch version can be veeeeeeeeery satisfying when it comes to double combat. You just have to get over the learning curve of trying to use both Joycon at the same time. Each Partner has his own learning curve, but to me, the best is Shiki.

Playing in handheld mode, Shiki was fine to me, Joshua was awful (because you basically had to stop your attack to activate him and then super quickly try to attack again) and Beat was the best because most of my pins activated by frantically swiping over the screen anyway.

I kind of hope we don't get a sequel, by the way. TWEWY felt great because the story feels closed, it was really understandable (and still had twists), had good dialogue, cool characters and felt like a complete experience. I'm not sure about Nomura's role in the story, but I don't really believe he could write a story like that again, simple and clean and without unnecessary convolutedness or random twists.
 

Ballad of Caius

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TWEWY felt great because the story feels closed,
Every release has featured a teaser for a sequel:
* Original NDS release: when you defeat Panthera Cantus, you get Mr. H saying there's a huge Noise above the city.
* iOS remake: the girl that looks like Shiki/Neku/Joshua
* Switch port: A New Day scenario added a looooooooot of grounds for a sequel

Problem is, this game didn't sell well in Japan. Dunno about the West.
 

SoulXaldin

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I’m pretty apprehensive about the Switch version because I hear that it doesn’t really utilize the touch controls in the previous ports, so that sounds a little awkward considering that the game’s mechanics kinda worked around. But if they did manage to find a way to rework the controls, then I’ll probably consider buying it for a 3RD TIME.

I played TWEWY when I was a wee lad, so I can’t recall much of the story, but the gameplay got me pretty hooked. It makes me want to play they iOS version that I bought on an older, bricked Apple ID, but alas😭.
 
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