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

Hemidal wrote:

I just finished it up this weekend and I enjoyed it a lot. One thing on the pins... if you find one you like and will evolve, just put the game down for a day. The PP points you get while the DS is turned off is a nice reward for playing this as a true handheld game and not some console port/marathon session game.

I liked that part a lot. Except you had some pins that needed the Battle Points to evolve the right way, which demanded a bit of fiddling before turning the DS off. Well, at least for those who needed to, you know, catch'em all...

Just started playing this. I think the weakest thing is the story and combat. I'm kind of digging it so far so I'll be playing for a little bit at least. I think I got a good handle on battles but I just don't see the point of making it that complicated. Passing the ball, matching symbols, doing combos, and a bunch of different ways to to attack. Call me boring but a simple turn based menu system would have worked for me.

With the bad out of the way I must say I like the style and the music. It is different enough to be refreshing.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

I think I got a good handle on battles but I just don't see the point of making it that complicated. Passing the ball, matching symbols, doing combos, and a bunch of different ways to to attack. Call me boring but a simple turn based menu system would have worked for me.

Well.. you're boring

The combat is the only thing that really makes this game fun. It's good enough to warrant playing despite the awfully written dialogue, the increidbly cliche character designs, and a really weak overall story.

The thing about the combat is that it starts really complicated, but it gives you a lot of time to get a handle on it before it starts dropping more twists on you. You'll find as you play that there are a LOT of pins. A hell of a lot. Collecting them and finding cool ways to combo them with each other in that crazy combat system is what makes this game for me.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Just started playing this. I think the weakest thing is the story and combat. I'm kind of digging it so far so I'll be playing for a little bit at least. I think I got a good handle on battles but I just don't see the point of making it that complicated. Passing the ball, matching symbols, doing combos, and a bunch of different ways to to attack. Call me boring but a simple turn based menu system would have worked for me.

With the bad out of the way I must say I like the style and the music. It is different enough to be refreshing.

I think liking the aesthetic is the biggest initial hurdle. If you do, then I think you'll be happy as your progress and you can customize the way combat works more. I found that I mostly just ignored the top screen (I set it to go to AI immediately instead of waiting three seconds) but enjoyed the depth of organizing pins so that I could keep constant strings of attacks going. I think the story gets way better too, although (like Kingdom Hearts) they came up with a very complicated metaphysics to justify it.

Thin_J wrote:

The combat is the only thing that really makes this game fun. It's good enough to warrant playing despite the awfully written dialogue, the increidbly cliche character designs, and a really weak overall story.

I actually liked the overall plot, dialog, etc. initially, and thought they did a good job of drawing me into the mystery. That interest went away when it turned into the usual JRPG metaphysical nonsense instead of explaining itself. I looked up the full game dialogue later to see if I could make more sense of it, and still failed to fully understand what in the hell they were babbling about.

The combat, on the other hand, stayed fresh throughout. Really inventive and fun, redeeming the rest of the game pretty much entirely.

I hope it sold well enough to generate a sequel. Hard to imagine that they wouldn't, when even the most niche Japanese RPG titles seem to get one.

KillerTomato wrote:
Thin_J wrote:

The combat is the only thing that really makes this game fun. It's good enough to warrant playing despite the awfully written dialogue, the increidbly cliche character designs, and a really weak overall story.

I actually liked the overall plot, dialog, etc. initially, and thought they did a good job of drawing me into the mystery. That interest went away when it turned into the usual JRPG metaphysical nonsense instead of explaining itself. I looked up the full game dialogue later to see if I could make more sense of it, and still failed to fully understand what in the hell they were babbling about.

Once you unlock "Another Day" you can start collecting "Secret Reports" that explain what the hell's going on. It adds some additional content to a replay you might otherwise just spend collecting pins. Or of course you can just go to GameFAQs and read 'em (spoilers ahoy matey)...

Not that I'll defend it; like Kingdom Hearts, the convoluted metaphysics are (to me) the biggest weak point of the game.

This game is $10 on Amazon for the next hour for the lightning deal.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

This game is $10 on Amazon for the next hour for the lightning deal.

Crap, I wish I'd caught that; a couple of people would have been getting it as a gift!

BNice wrote:

This question doesn't really belong in this thread but I figured you guys would know.

I started "The World Ends With You" last night and I don't really understand the combat system. I get the stylus combat on the lower screen and that the green ball allows for the player to have more powerful attacks but I have no idea what is going on in the top screen or what makes the green orb go back and forth. I know you control the character on top with the D-Pad but when I press the D-Pad a bunch of arrows and symbols pop up and have no idea what they want me to do and meanwhile the guy on the lower screen is getting attacked so I'm rushed.

I also read that you can combo stuff, is that not available early or am I just not grasping something else with the combat? Anyway, was hoping one of you could clear this up with me. Also, any random tips you would give to someone playing TWEWY for the first time?

It's been a while so let me see if I remember how this works...

Top screen is your partner. You control them with the D-Pad or face buttons (for lefties). You're using Shuki to start, I'm pretty sure you're just doing DDR with her so hit the buttons that are indicated by the arrows. Doing it right gets you a panel, match panel symbols for bonuses. However, if you're overwhelmed you're better off focusing on Neku (the bottom screen) and letting the AI handle the top screen. It's mostly competent so you'll be fine on the lower difficulty levels (Easy and Normal).

Combo I think is a damage multiplier you get by passing the green puck back and forth. If I remember right you build up the meter by attacking and I think some of the pins will pass the puck when you use them.

Because your HP is shared by you and your partner you ultimately need to learn how to focus on both screens. I think I managed to get into a groove of firing most of my pins and then randomly scooting Neku around while I focused on the top screen. Another good strategy is to focus on which screen has the green puck. This builds up your combo really fast and you learn how to use your partner effectively.

Expanding on what shoptroll said...

Initially, your goal should be to get used to controlling Neku, and figuring out what pin set works for you. Leaving your partner on full CPU control is fine for the first few days, and for normal/easy difficulty with 0 level modifiers. Ideally, your pin set should include:
1. A quick attacking pin
2. A heavier hitting pin that passes the puck
3. Some healing

Once you get a handle on using Neku, you should start to get an idea of how the partner works as well. Each partner's minigame is explained well by the game, but they're all pretty similar. Basically, the branching path leads to some end card. The end step serves two purposes:
1. It works with each partner's minigame for fusion attacks
2. It passes the puck.

It's important to only hit one of the end cards when the partner has the puck. It does not have to be the correct end point to fulfill the partner's fusion minigame requirement(i.e. it doesn't have to be the correct number for Joshua's or the right icon for Shiki's). At later levels, the most important thing is keeping the puck multiplier going. That takes precedence over the fusion abilities, because the multiplier is how you do massive amounts of damage.

So the strategy, once you get pins you like, is to usually start Neku off with the quick attacking pin, then do the heavy attack once it's used up to pass the puck to your partner. While the puck is moving, go through a pattern with the partner. I usually just did straight right, only doing a 1 up or down pattern if I saw it would give me a fusion star because that was quick. Once the puck got passed back to Neku, I'd start attacking once again. This method is a lot less chaotic than it sounds, because you're only really concentrating on one character at a time. It's also important to get gear and food that increase the puck's movement rate with this strategy, because if you get it fast enough, you're basically switching back and forth before the enemies have much of a chance to attack either Neku or the partner.

Final tips that aren't explained well, but make the game easier:
1. Once you find the pins you like, gear up Neku and your partner with gear from the same brands. This will make the pins do a LOT more damage.
2. Every difficulty has it's own loot table. That means that there are pins that will only drop on Easy, that will never drop on any other difficulty. Use an FAQ or wiki to figure that out.
3. Pins that evolve through mingling can be done with a Wii. Use the Nintendo channel to download DS demos, then try to send it to a DS. You'll get experience that way.
4. Pin evolution mechanics are here: http://twewy.wikia.com/wiki/PP The ratios are important.
5. Eat. Constantly. The permanent boosts are small, but add up quite a bit over the long run. Remember that you have effectively 18 bytes to fill per day. The remaining 6 are never permanently filled for the day, so you can always eat a 6 byte or less food.
6. Experiment constantly with new pins. You might need to use them with the "Another Day" challenges, so it's always a good idea to have some experience with them.

Darn you guys are making me want to dig this out again. I think I beat the game, but never did any extra stuff.

My wife and I still laugh when this game comes up. I was looking for this game at Target and the woman employee had to call in the back to see if they had it in stock. She had an unfortunate "accent" and kept pronouncing the title like "The word ends with jew". She was on the freaking walky talky with other customers in line waiting to be helped (as is common in the Target video game section) saying loudly "yeah, dis guy is looking for the world ends with jew... yeah, its called the world ends with JEW"... I was so embarrassed, like I was looking for some Aryan nation paperback or something.

Thanks a lot for the info guys, really appreciate it.

cube wrote:

3. Pins that evolve through mingling can be done with a Wii. Use the Nintendo channel to download DS demos, then try to send it to a DS. You'll get experience that way.

I always found this method to have a lot of overhead because the game won't recognize the Wii more than once per mingle session. It's far easier/lazier to just hook the DS up to a charger and leave it in mingle mode while sleeping, working or playing something else. I can't remember if you can have multiple pin configurations at the start, but I always kept my mingle pins in configuration #4 and would just switch to that before bed.

Also, the game does not penalize you for playing with the system clock for PP. Abuse the hell out of your system settings.

Stele wrote:

Darn you guys are making me want to dig this out again. I think I beat the game, but never did any extra stuff.

I got all the secret packages in Another Day and then started to work on Pork City but was blocked by a floor where I didn't have many pins for that brand. I keep meaning to go back and 100% the game but I keep finding something else to distract myself with.

So instead I just put the soundtrack on this morning

Also bear in mind that one of the strengths of this game are that you can afford to ignore a few things you find tedious. You should be able to get through just fine without worrying about the hard-to-get pins that require mingle/shutdown PP; you can probably get through any combat paying almost no attention to the top screen; etc. You won't be able to 100% it that way, of course, but that's fine.

I think the default setting is for the AI to take over the top partner after 3 seconds of inactivity. You can switch this to "instant." To some extent you can also "button mash" for the AI which sometimes is better than the AI (you make worse choices but you are faster). I 100%'d the game and don't feel like I ever perfectly understood passing the puck or ever got good at the top screen attacks. (I did, however, use pin evolution spreadsheets and did some grinding to digest food and collect Yen to buy stuff.)

Tip: Pins that require shouting can also be activated by blowing on the mic. As long as you don't also have pins equipped that require blowing. I found that useful when playing in public.

New player tip: Do not worry about collecting or 100%'ing until a new game plus. So much stuff is unavailable until a replay anyway; and any rare drops will be overshadowed in another chapter or two..

Finally, have fun. This is my favorite game of all time, without qualifier, for multiple reasons I'll spare you from reading.

beeporama wrote:

Also bear in mind that one of the strengths of this game are that you can afford to ignore a few things you find tedious. You should be able to get through just fine without worrying about the hard-to-get pins that require mingle/shutdown PP; you can probably get through any combat paying almost no attention to the top screen; etc. You won't be able to 100% it that way, of course, but that's fine.

Hitting right on the d-pad over and over again did seem to work really well when I was first learning the game.

garion333 wrote:

Hitting right on the d-pad over and over again did seem to work really well when I was first learning the game.

Yeah, that's what I meant by "button mash"; if you can just pay enough attention to whether to mash left or right, you can average a little better than the AI.

Yeah, and some partners are easier than others. I always found Joshua's minigame (high/low) to be the easiest.

Also, he is the best character.

necroyeti wrote:

Yeah, and some partners are easier than others. I always found Joshua's minigame (high/low) to be the easiest.

Also, he is the best character.

Indeed he is.

I just pay attention to the top screen when they have the puck, as others recommended.

Call me crazy but I think I just figured out an angle on how we can get Elysium to try this out.

"It's like Diablo 3."

No seriously. You have 6 skill slots. You're constantly killing monsters for pins to give you new skills. You level up your shopkeepers. You have an AI controlled companion you can dress up too.

And because it's a Nomura JRPG you can ignore most of the plot.

...

Ok so those are superficial similarities, but I think I just convinced myself that Square needs to add randomized pin/gear and multiplayer for a sequel.

I think that's actually more than superficial. Both games definitely tap into the constant reward from grinding. TWEWY so much that you even get rewarded for not playing.

And now available on Switch. Did anyone get it yet?

SEQUEL ANNOUNCEMENT!

"NEO: The World Ends with You is coming Summer 2021 to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch!"

I am SO EXCITED about this.

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/ejm8tkFonl8o8/giphy.gif)

Stele wrote:

And now available on Switch. Did anyone get it yet?

So... Anybody? Never remember hearing impressions so never bought the updated version.

I need to finish my DS game... i dont know why I stopped playing this one

I've been meaning to replay this for some time. With the anime and now a sequel on the way, that's becoming more urgent.

I love this game.

Stele wrote:
Stele wrote:

And now available on Switch. Did anyone get it yet?

So... Anybody? Never remember hearing impressions so never bought the updated version.

I still haven't been able to get a Switch!

Being pretty obsessive about this game, I hunted down a Switch, largely to replay it (including the exclusive "A New Day" content) before NEO drops. Some quick impressions based on the first hour or two:

It's designed for handheld mode using the touchscreen, where it mostly plays like the original. Partner attacks are super simplified when playing solo. However, you can play co-op with a second person taking control of the partner; I haven't tried this. Playing while docked to a TV requires using the joy-cons to move a cursor around the screen mimicking touch controls; that's going to be tougher and tiring and more awkward. No classic controller support or alternate control scheme. A shame, because I'd rather have a big screen picture and sound.