DS: The World Ends With You... the Best RPG You've Never Heard Of?

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Haven't seen any buzz here for this new game from Square Enix, although it seems to be getting rave reviews across the board (87% at Metacritic).

Anyone playing this bad-boy?

It seems pretty different all told, and lots of the game mechanics seem "odd" and "scary" to me... plus, it's about some hip-hop kids fighting monsters in Tokyo. Not your father's RPG.

I want to very much, but I can't afford it right now.

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/1...

Looks complicated to me, but I'm interested in checking it out.

I want it in my mouth! Delicious RPG!

Really hoping it appears in the store today.

The style reminds me a lot of Jet Set/Grind Radio but it's not really on my radar, no.

I'm really curious about this one too, I might try to pick it up today (trade-in time!), I haven't used my DS in a while. Has anyone played Professor Layton? Is it worth picking up too?

I want to play it, but the full-strength Squaresoft emo vibe I get from it does worry me.

It looks pretty good. Can anyone who has it comment on the difficulty? Some of the reviews refer to it as "hard" or "for the hardcore". At my advanced age (32) those types of statements tend to steer me away from games.

I'm a bit frightened of the "all new" and "very deep" kinds of comments as well. I am in the mood for a good RPG, but (sad to say) I am probably happier with a more traditional style of game... I dunno.

The art design is done by the same people (person?) responsible for the KINGDOM HEARTS series, or so I've read.

Note: for lefties out there the game apparently includes a lefty switch to make the ABXY pad work instead of the directional pad. This would have been a game killer for me, had it not existed.

General_J wrote:

Note: for lefties out there the game apparently includes a lefty switch to make the ABXY pad work instead of the directional pad. This would have been a game killer for me, had it not existed.

from what I've seen and read, most of the navigation is done with the stylus.

SommerMatt wrote:
General_J wrote:

Note: for lefties out there the game apparently includes a lefty switch to make the ABXY pad work instead of the directional pad. This would have been a game killer for me, had it not existed.

from what I've seen and read, most of the navigation is done with the stylus.

The bottom screen character is controlled via the stylus. The top screen character is controlled essentially by a DDR or patapon like control scheme on the top screen.

So far, I like what I've heard about this one so I can't wait to try it. Looks like I'll be waiting for a few more days no thanks to Amazon. I'll get it in May at this rate. :/

I just picked it up. Be warned, this looks like a very limited release. My Gamestop had 1 copy and I got it. They weren't scheduled to get any more. Impressions tomorrow.

I got it today and played through the tutorial before I had to attend to some things and stuff. So far, I really like it. The story seems interesting. The main character is a total douche. Music is definitely not the kind of music I'm into, but it totally works in the game and I wouldn't want it any other way.

When walking around, you can use the stylus, D-pad or ABXY buttons without the need to go into any kind of menu to change it.

So far, the combat is weird and definitely not easy, but even after a few quick fights I was starting to sort of come to grips with it. I can see it becoming second-nature in not too long. I developed a sort of rhythm where I would focus on one character at a time while readying the other character at the same time for the next wave of attacks. The rhythm was largely dictated by the big green glowing puck that they would pass back and forth.

Can't really comment on the difficulty, as it was only a tutorial so I was mostly fighting slow and stupid frogs that barely moved or attacked.

Given my very limited experience with it of about 20 minutes or so, I'm really liking everything so far. And now I'm off to go play it some more.

Played for a few hours, to about day 3 -

Setting: The setting is a mix of superb and super emo. Now, I *hate* the whole emo culture thing, but in this game it works with the whole theme. Plus, I get the feeling that the main character is going to basically become un-emo by the end of the game, so that helps a lot.

Style: It's Jet Grind Radio! I love Jet Grind Radio!

Music: See, I lived in Japan for a year. I can assure you this is not normal Japanese stuff. But again, this falls right into the Jet Grind Radio classification of awesome, and I have no idea how it did that. Edit: I take that back, it's actually a mix between Jet Grind Radio, FLCL and 80's dance beats.

Combat: Holy sheeeeiiiiitttt. I gotta tell you, I went into this thinking, "Man, a bunch of pansy reviewers can't handle doing both the stylus and the button presses? Lame asses." Then, after about... oh... 4 seconds I was going, "AHHHHHHHH TURN ON ALLY FULL AUTO!!!!" Seriously, apparantly I'm getting old already, I simply cannot seem to handle both things at once. What's funny about this is that even without the second character control combat is completely, 100% awesome. Seriously, just by itself the stylus combat is probably one of the top 3 RPG combat systems I've ever played.

Other notes: One of the things I am quickly discovering is that the game is very, very customizable. In fact, I'm getting the feeling that this is the game that developers will hold up when they want to explain how to make a game accessible to a wide variety of skill levels. This customizability is basically all implimented with a very easy to understand risk/reward system. If you play the game with all of the easiest settings, you simply won't have cool attacks, but you'll still be just fine on power. If you play while intentionally handicapping yourself via the settings, it will reward you with cool attack spells and whatnot. Let me give an example, as this is seriously something that I haven't seen in games before.

So I'm running around town, and I have this whole bunch of spells in the form of badges (read: Materia). I want to level up my badges so they're more powerful. Now, I start a battle with a random enemy and defeat him. The game gives me 2 points for each of the badges I used. But I want to level up faster, so I go into the menu and turn on a handicap, say, gimping my own HP a lot. Then I do another battle, and this time the game gives me 6 points for all my badges. Or if I was having trouble I could go in the opposite direction and turn the difficulty to a lower level, and now I'm only earning 1 point. This is a brilliant move, allowing pretty much any level of gamer to be having fun on battles within an hour of starting. You'll never feel like things are too easy or too hard, as you are always making the challenges to your own level.

General_J wrote:

Stuff

Now I really want it. Damn my joblessness. Still better than working at *shudder* Walmart, though.

The story begins as our hero, Neku, wakes up amidst the hustle and bustle of Shibuya, Tokyo. Confused and disoriented, he receives a message on his phone warning him that he will cease to exist unless he completes a certain mission

Wow, what an original opening to a JRPG! This still looks interesting though.

PoderOmega wrote:
The story begins as our hero, Neku, wakes up amidst the hustle and bustle of Shibuya, Tokyo. Confused and disoriented, he receives a message on his phone warning him that he will cease to exist unless he completes a certain mission

Wow, what an original opening to a JRPG! This still looks interesting though.

The story itself isn't interesting, to be honest. Nor is the way in which it is told. What *is* interesting is the flow of the world that they've created. Honestly, so far it feels like an RPG sequel to Jet Grind Radio to me. And as noted above, I love Jet Grind Radio.

JimmDogg wrote:

It looks pretty good. Can anyone who has it comment on the difficulty? Some of the reviews refer to it as "hard" or "for the hardcore". At my advanced age (32) those types of statements tend to steer me away from games.

It's a bit overwhelming at first, but there's a couple things you can do to tune the difficulty. You can set the AI to give commands to the top screen character after 6 seconds of no input, 3 seconds, or instantly. A short ways into the game you unlock the easy difficulty, and even if you play on normal I'm pretty sure I saw a "retry on easy" option on the end game screen. Also, your pins (special move giving items) will gain experience and level up when your DS is powered down, for up to 7 days of bonus experience.

Extended impressions!

The emo is almost entirely gone about the time you hit the 3-4 hour mark. Also, the combo system continues to impress. You can make your character a superb long-range gunner, or a telekinetic attacker or, my favorite, upper-cut extraordinaire. At this point I can gimp my HP down to near minimum on normal difficulty and still win, and that is giving me a ton of points.

I still can't control the upper screen whatsoever, but honestly just leaving it up to the AI seems to work just fine. I'm so busy just dealing with the touchscreen I can't imagine trying to ever get used to the double system.

Furthermore, here's an amazing one. As you get further into the game, it keeps removing all the annoying parts. I don't want to spoil much, but I will say that the Game Over screen starts out being one of those, "lol I hope u saved" moments, but after a while they kick that to the curb.

Honestly, at this point in time I'm having trouble coming up with any serious complaints about the game. It's clear that the developers actually studied gaming and went through and made sure that their game did not have any of those common annoyances that so many other games have.

Right now, here's a list of my complaints I can think of:
- Menu music gets stale after a while.
- Flying enemies are hard to hit.
- Game saving takes a few seconds longer than it ought to.
- Characters spend a bit too much time stating the obvious.
- Game actually places *real life* limitations on your gaming. Wait, actually, reverse that. Game rewards you for taking a break from it in two ways. First, free experience for all your badges, second, by allowing you to eat more food the next day, further powering up your character (You are only allowed to eat a set amount of food per *real world* day).

Oh, and here's a fun last thing. You can set the game to a roaming mode. If you wonder past anybody else playing the game, it will give you 100 points for all equipped badges for free per person you wandered past. I tried it out and I guess somebody on my way to college had the game on in their car or something, thus giving me 100 points.

I think roaming mode works with ANY wifi signal the DS picks up... not just people with TWEWY.

I've also heard that the music was changed from the japanese original.

SommerMatt wrote:

I think roaming mode works with ANY wifi signal the DS picks up... not just people with TWEWY.

According to the Gamespot review:

Turning on the game's Mingle mode will use the DS's built-in wireless to search for other DSs, with each device found resulting in different bonuses. For example, finding another DS with wireless enabled and with a copy of The World Ends With You will let you trade cards and other items. Likewise, finding a DS with wireless enabled with any other game will net experience points for your psych pins.

I think my favorite pin so far is the one that let's you hurl cars at the enemies! The best part is that it's in the group of pins you get right at the beginning of the game! I love games that let you hurl 2-ton vehicles right away.

Alright, you guys win! I'm putting it at the top of my Gamefly queue.

A revelation has just occured.

I was sitting around, grinding battles to level up my pins.

Then I realized that simply by shutting off the system for the night, it would actually accomplish that very task for me.

My god, imagine if WoW actually gave you free levels for *not playing*. f*ck rested experience, this is the greatest thing I've ever experienced!

Then I realized that simply by shutting off the system for the night, it would actually accomplish that very task for me.

You can also game the system by messing with the DS calendar.

JimmDogg wrote:
Then I realized that simply by shutting off the system for the night, it would actually accomplish that very task for me.

You can also game the system by messing with the DS calendar.

Yeah, but I'm one of those weirdos who doesn't like "gaming" the game. I think about the only time I ever did such a thing was just when I replayed Metal Gear Solid 3, I turned the game a year ahead during the fight with The End just to see for myself if he really died of old age.

Just ordered this one and looking forward to it. Nice to see that Square is trying new things.

MechaSlinky wrote:

I think my favorite pin so far is the one that let's you hurl cars at the enemies! The best part is that it's in the group of pins you get right at the beginning of the game! I love games that let you hurl 2-ton vehicles right away.

Have you played Freedom Force? I never got tired of throwing cars around and hitting people with lampposts.

I have not played it, but I love freedom and I love forces!

wanderingtaoist wrote:

Just ordered this one and looking forward to it. Nice to see that Square is trying new things.

I'm also looking forward to this one Square-Enix is coming out with. I think it's as close to a sequel to Eternal Darkness we're going to get.

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