NEO: The World Ends with You review

Reviewed on: PS4

Back in the distant year of 2007, The World Ends With You was released. The game was directed by the celebrated Tetsuya Nomura, famous for taking part in several big Square-Enix games such as Kingdom Hearts (series) and Final Fantasy. The designer/director’s signature appeared in every corner of the game, which was very well received by critics and players. As usual, calls for a sequel soon came, which never arrived… not until recently, when Square-Enix announced Neo The Worlds Ends With You, lighting the hype flame in all fans of the previous game, even though this new game isn’t exactly a sequel! Want to know what the game is like? Follow me in this review!

Story

For those who aren’t familiar, know this: Neo The Worlds End With You is set in Japan, more precisely in the Shibuya district, in a parallel version of that city in which a supernatural game is taking place. In this game, people who have already died upon offering their most valuable possession are chosen to compete in the “Reapers’ Game”, a game that grants the winner the chance to return to life or the chance to become an elevated spiritual existence, that is, a Reaper. To take part in this game the chosen must fight and fulfill various objectives. The game’s missions are handed out by the Reapers and our character can only obey or be erased from existence… The game’s characters this time are Rindo Kanade (a high school student and the game’s protagonist), Tosai Furesawa (Rindo’s classmate), Nagi Usui (a university otaku) and Sho Minamimoto (antagonist of the first game and former reaper. The full team calls itself The Wicked Twisters and competes with 4 other teams called Ruinbrigers (the favorite team to win the Reapers’ Game, The Deep Rivers Society, Variabeauties and the Purehearts.

Graphics

The game’s graphics are simple, but quite competent. The visuals are all stylized with a beautiful and very unique art style. The game uses the Cel Shading style and makes up very well for the technical deficiency, and thanks to that the look of the game’s city is quite unique.

GamePlay

The gameplay of Neo The World Ends With You is basically split into exploration and combat. The game’s exploration is based on the principle of “zones”, that is, you are not free to go wherever you please, the game limits your exploration and as new zones are unlocked you can move between them, the areas are small and without much to do, there are basically equipment shops and snack bars… otherwise we spend most of our time either looking for the Reapers’ game objectives or battling. This contained map could very well be a relief amid this market increasingly crowded with open world games where “open world” is there just for marketing, but in this case I think they missed the mark… I found the maps too contained, it even feels like a game made with the limitations of a handheld like the Nintendo DS of the time.

As for interaction, by pressing R1, the protagonist is able to hear some people’s thoughts and even influence them (if we manage to meet certain requirements); these thoughts can give clues to the plot, help a character overcome negative emotions or help solve some puzzle imposed by the Reapers. There are also dialogue options where the character needs to organize other people’s thoughts, this part is a mini-puzzle where we put the pieces together using the analog sticks. After that we manage to enter that person’s mind (Dive) and free them from what afflicts them (in this case the very Noise that are the game’s enemies and basically the personification of negative emotions).

The combat of the game at first looks quite messy, you have up to 4 characters on screen and each one is triggered by a specific button, which when pressed gives you control of the corresponding character, that is, during battle you have to constantly press 4 buttons that take care of everything.

Each character performs only the attack/action corresponding to the pin they have equipped, for example, a fire pin will let you set enemies on fire and after a few hits a more powerful final attack, which in the case of the fire pin is an explosion. While equipped with the pin, the character only performs that type of attack, unlike most JRPGs where gaining control of the character means being able to use common attacks, magic, use items and so on; here in Neo The World With You the dynamic is different, the character will only use the attack corresponding to the specific pin and will not be able to use other actions characteristic of RPG games (unless equipped with a specific pin for it, as is the case with the pin that lets you heal).

Another very different thing is that your party’s characters don’t have individual HP, there is one big HP bar that represents the entire party, and if it hits 0 your whole team dies. The pins have levels and evolve as you gain experience. There is a very wide variety of pins with diverse characteristics that you can use. In the end the big “trick” is to use the combination of abilities on the battlefield, memorizing the strengths and weaknesses of each… basically the player keeps creating different combinations for each situation and that’s fun, especially when enemies with “different” abilities show up and make you think outside the box.

Soundtrack

This was a much-praised trait of the original game, the soundtrack alone helped you get into the game’s mood, managing to give the player such an absurd sense of immersion that the soundtrack was by itself “a character in the game”. I was very happy to find that Neo The World End With You is almost as good in this respect as the original game. I still prefer the first game’s soundtrack, but this one also pleased me a lot. Let’s say that if the first game’s soundtrack is 10/10, this one is 8/10.

In summary

Neo The World Ends With You is a JRPG with a very attractive identity of its own, with beautiful art and soundtrack, it falls short in some aspects and hits in others. In my view the game’s biggest flaw is being too “contained” in exploration: there are no dungeons or anything analogous to them and everything stays in the same setting (which is quite small and contained), and besides that, although fun, the combat system could offer greater control over the party’s actions, with the pins serving only as “Jobs” or playing a role similar to the materia system of Final Fantasy VII. I recommend waiting for the price to drop a bit, since R$299,00 is still a steep price for the game.