At first glance, you may think Square Enix’s new Nintendo DS role-playing game (RPG), The World Ends With You, may look like a remake of all the other RPGs to come out of Japan in the past 5 years. There’s the lone wolf hero, the spiky haired, manga inspired character designs and the amnesia-based storyline. Throw in a fairly complex battle system, and this game could be called Generic Role-Playing Game # 56. But that’s only at a first glance.

After spending a few hours with this game, you’ll realize that you are holding something special in your hands. It’s not like any other game that I’ve ever played. I’ll go so far as to say that The World Ends With You is one of the best RPGs ever made and its definitely the best RPG ever made for a mobile gaming platform.

For starters, it’s an original game from the company infamous for churning out sequels and spin-offs of the popular yet overused Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts games. The story of The World Ends With You is, surprisingly, set within the "modern world" of Shibuya, Tokyo. You’ll play as 15-year-old Neku Sakuraba, who awakes to find himself on the street in a struggle for his existence within a mysterious game constructed by a group known as the Reapers. Within a seven day time limit, Neku must complete missions assigned to him or face “erasure”. Throughout the course of the game, relationships are built and broken, secrets are revealed and ypu’ll stumble on many plot twists. There are some really touching moments in this well-plotted game; not something that I’d expect from a handheld game.


I'm Gonna Get You Sucka!
Most of the RPG’s that I’ve played with a great story are usually handicapped by a crappy battle system and vice versa. The exception has finally been found in The World Ends With You. Neku fights using pins that give him various powers. For example, a black pin, the first you get in the game, gives you the power to read minds. Others give you the power to shoot fireballs or create black holes. All of these attacks and the movement of Neku are controlled with the stylus on the bottom screen of the DS. The top screen is occupied by another character, usually a girl named Shiki, that you can control using either the directional pad or the face buttons (a, b, x, y). If you find it too confusing to control two combatants at once you can ignore Shiki and she will manage surprisingly well on her own, allowing you to focus on making Neku produce some amazing and visually stylized attacks.

The World Ends With You is one of the most distinctive RPG’s on any platform. It is up there with Final Fantasy VII and Skies of Arcadia.


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