REVIEW: NEO The World Ends With You stays in style with the original
- Details
- Published on July 27, 2021 @ 06:10 am
- Written by Arielle
When Subarashiki Kono Sekai - It’s A Wonderful World was first revealed in 2006 for the Nintendo DS, there wasn’t a single moment where I wasn’t enamored with the concept of the game. I hung blurry magazine scans up in my locker at school, devoured all of the information about the game that I could from the rare translations available online, and even borrowed my mother’s credit card to buy an expensive import copy of the game when it released in 2007 as a birthday gift to myself.
I didn’t speak a lick of Japanese back then, but I slowly made my way through the the game with a little help from online forums and my own intuition. Even though I had difficulties understanding the more intricate details of the plot, I remember gasping at every twist and turn of Neku’s journey through the Reaper’s Game. My excitement was palpable as I finished the final day of the game, and all I remember is curling up on my couch in tears as “Lullaby For You” by Jyongri played from the tinny speakers of my DS, a bevy of complicated emotions cycling within me as I tried to make sense of what I had just experienced.
Thankfully, The World Ends With You released in English in 2008, and I was able to replay the game over with a lot more clarity, and came out on the other side with a deeper love of the game than I thought I could ever have. For me, no game or franchise could ever top how much of a masterpiece The World Ends With You was in my eyes. The gameplay was unique and fun to experiment with, the art direction stood out on its own as something bold and expressive, and the story touched me as a teenager who had also felt alone in the world until I was able to learn how to reach out to others.
Even as I replayed the game as an adult when The World Ends With You: Final Remix released on the Nintendo Switch, I still found the story compelling and masterfully put together even if the gameplay was worse off due to the lack of certain features present on the DS.
With all of these things in mind, I believed that there was no possible way that a sequel could manage to ever compete with the original game on the DS. The World Ends With You was like catching lightning in a bottle; a rare and ephemeral chance that few developers ever manage to accomplish, especially so long after the original game’s release.
Fourteen years later, I am shocked to find that NEO: The World Ends With You has managed to create an experience just as immersive and affecting as the original game, although it is not one without its own flaws.
(This review is based on the Nintendo Switch version of the game.)
NEO: The World Ends With You, directed by Hiroyuki Ito and Tatsuya Kando, introduces fans and newcomers alike to the vibrant city of Shibuya—the urban ward within Tokyo bed known for its eclectic fashion, street art, and music scenes—as it is experienced through the eyes of Rindo and his friends as they are forced into a game of life-and-death.
Rindo Kanade, the main protagonist of the game, is an indecisive and reserved person, finding more comfort through his online friendship with the mysterious Swallow than his friendships in real life. He is slow to trust others and keeps people at bay, rarely even opening up to his closest real life friend, Fret. Tosai “Fret” Furesawa is a jovial, outgoing teen with a love of fashion and conversation. Despite his ease of communicating with others, he is often seen by his peers as too easy-going, unable to take anything seriously or express genuine emotions when things get tough. Nagi Usui is a reclusive fangirl of a popular in-universe phone game called Elegant Strategy. She’s highly observant and sensitive to other people’s emotions, and obsesses over her favorite EleStra character “Lord Tomonari” who happens to look similar to resident math nerd Sho Minamimoto. Dubbed the “Wicked Twisted”, these characters become an unlikely team of heroes and friends that fight their way through the Reaper’s Game in the ultimate fight for their lives and the fate of Shibuya.
The game begins three years after the events of The World Ends With You: Final Remix, and players will discover the mysteries surrounding the new version of the Reaper’s Game that Rindo, Fret, and Nagi have been thrusted into. Instead of the Shibuya Reapers who ran the Game in the past, it is now run by the Shinjuku Reapers whose original city was destroyed in a mysterious event called the Inversion. In this new version of the Game, players form teams that compete against each other in a series of events throughout the week in order to collect points, and the team with the most points will be granted a wish of their choosing. As the story advances, it becomes apparent early on that the game is rigged against the Wicked Twisters and the other Players, so the Wicked Twisters decide to find a way to win and defeat the Game Master, Shiba Miyakaze.
There are moments in the story where Rindo and his friends find themselves on the verge of being Erased, and it is in these moments that Rindo is capable of reversing time using his special ability called “Rewind”. By rewinding back time, Rindo can go back and alter the events of the past to change the outcome of the future. As Rindo uses his powers, he comes to learn more about the inhabitants of Shibuya as well as gain a better understanding of the Players, Reapers, and his friends in the process of changing their fates.
NEO: The World Ends With You’s story manages to keep players on their toes with each reveal made, and just as players begin to feel like they’ve got an idea of what direction the game might be going, it manages to turn things right on its head and deliver something fresh and impactful that will resonate with players.
While I won’t spoil any details about later events in the game, I found that having knowledge about the original game goes a long way in appreciating certain events that happen, and at times it is critical to know about these past events, especially things that happened in The World Ends With You: Final Remix’s “A New Day” which is only available in the Nintendo Switch port of the original game.
Some players may feel a bit adrift if they have not played the previous game in the series, and even long-time fans will be left with certain questions after finishing the game, though some of these mysteries are clearly meant to be left open ended for the potential of more to come in the future rather than there being a lack of answers being provided. There is plenty for fans to discover after finishing the game, though.
The story is where NEO: The World Ends With You shines, but the gameplay is also fun and engaging. As players progress through the game, they have to fight against the Noise, animal-like creatures that serve as this game’s enemies. Rindo and his friends fight against the Noise using Pins with special psychic abilities. Players can have up to six Pins equipped as they expand their party, and each one is mapped to one of the buttons on the controller. Normally only one type of a certain button input can be equipped to a party member, but later on players can unlock an ability that allows you to have multiple pins that use the same input. This helps reduce the strain some people might get while playing this game as it is difficult to press multiple buttons at the same time.
As players battle the Noise, they will trigger Beatdrops as you chain combos, and these Beatdrops eventually build up to special attacks that can be triggered in combat. These special attacks become critical later on in the game in order to quickly defeat enemies in order to collect more points in order to level and evolve pins.
Outside of combat, players can spend their time visiting restaurants in order to eat permanent stat-boosting food that can increase the HP, Attack, Defense, and Style points for each character, or purchase clothing items from stores that will augment each character’s stats and give them a special ability that can aid players in combat. Each clothing item requires a certain level of Style in order for these abilities to be unlocked, so fans will need to consume a lot of Style-boosting foods in order to gain access to some of the best abilities in the game.
Players can press the R button to scan for Noise and also read the thoughts of the wandering citizens of Shibuya, although I’ve found the thoughts to be less varied than the original game’s variety. Rarely would I ever spend time scanning an area for new thought bubbles unless the game prompted me to for story reasons, though the ones that are present are humorous and help make Shibuya feel more alive. Sometimes I would experience issues where the whole screen would turn gray when I would attempt to read a person’s mind, although it would only happen after playing the game for long stretches of time.
Scanning is also required to make use of Fret’s Remind and Nagi’s Dive abilities. Fret is capable of reminding people about certain things they have forgotten by putting together a scrambled picture that is made clear by rotating the left and right joysticks. The puzzles are simple enough to solve, but they can be a bit tricky to since they require players to land on a specific sweet-spot with the joysticks.
Nagi can dive into the minds and hearts of others in order to fight Noise and clear out negative thoughts that are clouding their minds. Each round of these battles feature Noise with special effects that affect the player’s HP like HP Drain and HP Recovery, or they augment the Noise in order to make them more difficult to defeat like the Big Noise status. These battles range from being very simple to being extremely difficult, especially later in the game when enemies get harder to defeat. Many of these battles give players Friendship Points that are used to unlock abilities in the game.
Missions that require the player to make use of Fret and Nagi’s abilities can be a bit repetitive and formulaic, but overall the addition of these features has given new depth to the new main characters and these unique talents end up being great reflections of their personalities that are paid-off wonderfully in the climax of the game.
Takeharu Ishimoto once again impresses as the composer of NEO: The World Ends With You, giving the game its vivacious and spirited sound through beautifully produced rock, hip-hop, and pop songs. Songs like “bird in the hand” and “Storm” are catchy and will have fans singing along the longer they hear them. Even lyric-less songs like “Beyond Oblivion” and “a tranquil mind” perfectly set the stage for events in the game. New versions of old classics return like “Twister” and “Three Minutes Clapping”, and veteran fans of The World Ends With You will be happy to hear a new version of Death March’s “March On”. Even with so many standout songs in the game, I couldn’t help but feel like the game needed more music, but this is mainly a complaint born from being spoiled by Ishimoto’s frequent music experiments and remixes over the last 14 years.
The stylish art direction of the original game returns in NEO: The World Ends With You with Tetsuya Nomura and Gen Kobayashi serving as the character designers alongside franchise newcomer Miki Yamashita (Kingdom Hearts χ Union Cross). Every 2D scene is dynamic and exciting to watch thanks to the bold art style of the main characters, and many key NPCs and supporting characters are given beautifully detailed designs full of lively expressions and poses.
Static 3D character models for key characters are also full of detail, and it is a shame many of them are barely visible due to the game’s locked camera angles and are obscured by the game’s 2D cutscenes. While in combat, the models for the playable cast and enemies alike look good, although it becomes clear they are not as polished as they could be due to the fact that they are often in motion with tons of special effects from combat obscuring them. The animations themselves are impressive, though, and the developers even went as far as giving each playable character their own unique dodge and idle animation. There are certain parts of the game where you can tell more of the budget was focused on making sure certain models were high quality while others were definitely lower priority.
Major bosses throughout the game are given extra detail and are phenomenally designed, especially the big bosses in the latter half of the game, but there are way fewer bosses in NEO: The World Ends With You than in the first game. 3D models for the city’s denizens are not as appealing to look at, sadly. Their rough, almost blocky designs were clearly done to save on resources as the game seems to procedurally generate them and direct them through the streets of Shibuya with a crude AI. Overall, you can tell that there was a clear compromise that had to be made because of the transition to 3D models, although it is clearly not one that has compromised the vision and scope of the game.
The world map sometimes takes on an almost pop-up book-esque style where backgrounds and buildings seem to fold, distort, and loom over Rindo as the player navigates Shibuya. Other times, the map is stationary as the camera fixes on one specific area of the map before switching to the next as Rindo runs through the streets of Shibuya, and this unique design clearly gave developers the ability to focus on only what they wanted players to look at while exploring the city, which means iconic landmarks in the real-life Shibuya are highlighted and displayed proudly within the fictional world of NEO: The World Ends With You.
In the end, NEO: The World Ends With You stands up well alongside The World Ends With You, and I find myself wishing there was even more for me to enjoy after spending over 50 hours playing the game. The new cast of characters are memorable in their own right, and the unique story crafted by Ito, Kando, Nomura, and all of the staff involved with NEO: The World Ends With You has come together to make something just as memorable as the original.
COMMENTS
Mine's coming tomorrow! Can't wait. :)
So far it looks like its doing well so i may purchase a copy eventually.
I just beat it and it was fantastic, everything I'd want in a sequel to TWEWY. Was not let down at all :3
Currently on week 2 day 3. So far it's incredible and everything i didn't know I needed. Hope it sells.
I actually stopped reading right after your recap of the original, which was very sweet (and close to my experience with KH1), but I didn't want any little detail spoiled, so I jumped over the rest!
I did want to ask if anyone who has perhaps been able to play both Switch and PS4 demos if it's advantageous to play one platform over the other. I don't own a Switch, so I'm not fully aware of it's technical capabilities. I ask, because I did enjoy the original on the DS, and despite the ports it seemed tailor-made for that hardware.
Also, grrr, I haven't been home in a month and have yet to even play the demo, but I am still very excited to see a sequel out after all these years! (And that people are loving it so far.)
I actually stopped reading right after your recap of the original, which was very sweet (and close to my experience with KH1), but I didn't want any little detail spoiled, so I jumped over the rest!
I did want to ask if anyone who has perhaps been able to play both Switch and PS4 demos if it's advantageous to play one platform over the other. I don't own a Switch, so I'm not fully aware of it's technical capabilities. I ask, because I did enjoy the original on the DS, and despite the ports it seemed tailor-made for that hardware.
Also, grrr, I haven't been home in a month and have yet to even play the demo, but I am still very excited to see a sequel out after all these years! (And that people are loving it so far.)
Having played on both consoles at this point, if you want a consistent 60fps experience with fast loading times, the PS4 version is superior to the Switch version.
The Switch version has a lot of stuttering in more demanding battles, but nothing that was truly bad or too distracting.
The game wasn’t made with either PS4 or Switch in mind. Just a general console that uses a controller. The PS4 only outshines the Switch version because of the FPS and loading, but you can also tell that the assets were made with the Switch in mind because the Switch in handheld mode is 720p and upscales to 1080p when docked, so devs often scale down assets for the Switch version.
Essentially there is no single version that is better than the other, and the game wasn’t made with any single console in mind as it plays the same on both. It just depends on what you want out of it.
Thank you [USER=63641]@Oracle Spockanort[/USER]! I don't own a Switch, so I have been considering (though not overly tempted to get) an OLED model but remaining with my PS4 seems pragmatic in this case.
I already beat the game, and I have to say it's dang near perfect. Everything we could have asked for a TWEWY sequel and more, and I'm so happy.
You can tell the devs really put their all into it for us, and I love them so much for that.
I hope the game sells well, so we might get a third game. But if not, I'm content to leave things here. It actually sort of works perfectly that way/
Wonderful (heheh) review of the game my friend. I am currently playing through Neo TWEWY and I gotta say I'm honestly surprised. I'm not a hater of current Square Enix games by any sort but I just figured they'd be unable to capture the magic. I never did finish the original game or the Final Remix version but I intended to play this just because we were finally getting a sequel.
I am having an absolute blast with this game and this is the first game in a loooooong while that I've been playing for more than 2 hours at a time. The soundtrack is so so good and I am constantly humming the songs that stick out to me. Very glad/relieved it turned out this well.
EDIT: Just want to say it was incredible visiting Tokyo in 2013 and seeing places like Tower Records from the game and now seeing them again in this series' particular style in 3D is making me remember that trip all over again.
Do we know how well the game is selling?
Do we know how well the game is selling?
Still a bit early, but it was #10 in UK physical sales last week, with a 63% majority on Switch.
[USER=89972]@Sign[/USER] Hopefully that's pretty good, right? If they continue to sell more copies? And since they didn't break the bank making Neo TWEWY, like they do with like, say, FFVII Remake installments?
[USER=89972]@Sign[/USER] Hopefully that's pretty good, right? If they continue to sell more copies? And since they didn't break the bank making Neo TWEWY, like they do with like, say, FFVII Remake installments?
Yeah, I have to assume they had fair expectations on how the game would perform, given the circumstances. Word of mouth has been overwhelmingly positive too. Gonna stay cautiously optimistic since they're surely looking at sales to gauge what direction the franchise should go in, if it goes anywhere at all.
I just don't see a reason for bothering to appoint a Series Director if NEO was a "one-and-done, take what you can get" kind of situation, y'know? The team clearly feel very strongly about this series and want to expand on it.
"I just don't see a reason for bothering to appoint a Series Director if NEO was a "one-and-done, take what you can get" kind of situation, y'know? The team clearly feel very strongly about this series and want to expand on it."
Yay! Those two things make me very happy to hear! -fingers crossed-
I envy you guys who have it already. :/
I envy you guys who have it already. :/
You haven’t been able to get a copy?
Finished it! What an incredible game!
Honestly I didn't think they would succeed but they did. It's not perfect but close to it.
They nailed the atmosphere. The game is stylish from the start to finish, credits included.
The gameplay is still unique, while being better and more accessible than the original. This was one of the things I was worried the most before playing the demo and turned out to be one of its strongest points.
The manga-like interactions are present and more beautiful than ever. I'm glad despite the advancement of technology Square is aware its part of TWEWY ADN and instead of give us only 3D cutscenes, they improved them by adding voice acting and such.
New stuff like the graffiti wall, social network, soundsurfing, a preview window that shows what each pin does, chat log, etc... are welcomed additions.
The pacing could be better, but the story is good and so is the dialogue. The localization team did a great job once again with the latter. The character interactions are a joy to watch. Absolutely love how the returning characters were written. All of them.
The voice acting is really good (I played it in english).
About the music, I'm not fan of the heavier stuff like We're Losing You, but fortunately there aren't much tracks like that and overall I still think the OST is fantastic. However, despite the quality the music placement could've been better. There were times, mainly when I was grinding, that I got tired of having the same songs playing. For example on week 1 the two musics that play mostly during the normal battles are Your Ocean or English Someday (Neo Mix), over and over.
As much as I may like a song, that doesn't mean I want to hear it in almost all battles. It gets worse during chain battles. Doing long chain battles with always the same 2/3 songs playing sooner of later affects my enjoyment. Unfortunately it's not much better outside of battles with the exception of Another Day chapter
To solve this issue the better options would be either compose more songs or bring more from the original game. Some suggestions: Emptiness and, Long Dream and Deja Vu.
If none of those were possible, then they should have balanced things better. English Someday (Neo Mix) and Your Ocean play a lot during the first week but then don't play at all during the rest of the main story. Another songs take over and the problem persists.
Favourite new characters: Shoka and Fret
Most surprising characters: Kanon and Nagi. Both are more than meets the eye.
Favourite week: Week 3
Favourite voice actor: Griffin Burns (Fret). Dude totally knock it out of the park!
Favourite new track: Your Ocean. Some other ones I liked a lot are Unpainted, Breaking Free, Rockin' Rockin' and a tranquil mind (my menu theme).
Other things I wish they were better:
- Being a PS4/Switch game I think the graphics should be more polished
- Faster loading times between area transitions and chain battles rounds (I play it on PS4 normal. PS5 SSD could improve this one?!)
Other things but these are spoilers:
[spoiler]
- Shiba should have a noise form
- Rindo's and Fret's bond should have been handled better. We know they are friends before the reaper game starts and that's it. We end up knowing more about the relationship Shoka had with Ayano than those two.
- Rindo's mask. Nomura already explained the symbolism behind it in interviews, but not everyone reads them so someone should have brought up that in the game. Characters point out his growth throughout the game, but the mask detail is always ignored. They talk more about and Shoka's Gatto Nero hoodie than his mask. In the first game, Joshua/Hanekoma point out Neku's headphones and he takes them off in the end for the first time. Rindo also only has the mask up in the beginning for whatever reason.
- In Another Day chapter by talking to Hishima we start to be able to add Minamimoto back to the party and choose which 6 characters we want to use. However every time we want to switch we have to go to that chapter to do it. There should be an option in the menu that let us switch anytime, regardless which chapter we're on.
[/spoiler]
Some spoiler thoughts about the story:
[spoiler]
- I was impressed with the direction they went with Rhyme's character. If we ever have another game, it's time for her to be playable.
- Shoka have a telewarp mechanic was a good surprise.
- Haz asking those question to Rindo when they were wandering around Shibuya reminded me those questions we get in KH1 and KH3D on Destiny Islands.
- The time travel in the final battle has handled better here than in KH3.
- I'm surprised the characters that got erased didn't come back to life again in the end.
[/spoiler]
I want more! Word of mouth has been postive and seems like the animewas well received at least in Japan, so hopefully TWEWY revival doesn't end here. The first game had new versions with more content. Hopefully this one has something too.
Unlike Square, I dont thinks its ok to play this game without playing the first one of at least watch the anime, in order to get the best of it. It's still a sequel, after all. I devoured all TWEWY content released before this and I still think we're missing a game that had focused on what happened in Shinjuku. Sometimes it felt more like TWEWY 3 than TWEWY 2.
Spoiler:
[spoiler]
This is a long post.
[/spoiler]
Currently on Day 6 of Week 3 and I’m not ready for it to end. Will probably finish tomorrow and will share my in depth thoughts sometime after. But as someone who hasn’t played the original yet, I’ve still really been enjoying this game. I did read a story synopsis of the first game and was familiar with the characters that were in DDD, so didn’t go in completely blind.
The boom or bust of weeks 1 and 2, then we got a whole family reunion type of energy going on all week-3 long. My boys this has been a great journey playing the game. I even went back and read the secret reports again from the OG title and the things that were being explained in NEO by Kubo started to make a lot more sense.
Loved the game, personally it gets an Eji Oji "Prince" F to the heavens.
I finished the game today! That finale is definitely where the knowledge of the first game and its re-releases becomes much more necessary. I still got through it just fine having read up on the story and characters beforehand, but totally recommend doing your research first if you're a newcomer.
[spoiler]The game made great use of the time travel mechanic. I was worried it would get dull by the end, but they managed to find ways to keep it interesting like the day when Rindo loses his memory and has to work his way backwards to regain it. And I loved how the Final Boss Noise was an amalgamation of the thoughts of those from the erased timelines. It was cool to see a significant consequence of his time travel. This won't be the first or last time the comparison is made, but it was like a better executed version of KH3 Re:Mind.
The character relationships were fleshed out well. It felt like everyone had a unique dynamic with each other. By the end, this group was one of my favorite JRPG parties, arguably even on the same level of FFVII Remake.
If the franchise continues, I'd love to see a midquel exploring what happened in Shinjuku and then have a sequel about it being rebuilt. I think the series will need a fresh setting to explore if it continues.
Random, but I thought it would be revealed that Joshua was Swallow due to seeing him briefly in the beginning. So the Shoka reveal was actually a surprise!
[/spoiler]
Overall, this game was a wonderful experience. I was daunted to jump into it, but so glad I did. I hope the game does well and the franchise continues from here in some form. Now I just need to convince some irl friends to play it so I have someone to discuss it with!
So it's been a bit since I beat the game, though I have yet to go back through all days to get all the AP I need to unlock all the skills nor have I gathered all reports yet. I have to say I really enjoyed this game. It grabbed me quite a bit so much that it upset my whole routine and I'm still trying to get back on top of that.
I think this game is a nice example of what you can get out of a lower production value AA game and it's a lot. The visual flare of the game was really impressive and it conveyed a lot with limited animation. There also was a nice balance of voiced and non-voiced scenes and I like that we could check the chat log in case we accidentally missed something.
The game play really works well, though I do have to admit that my oddly wired brain did occasionally crisscross which button was which. There were also some Pins I found rather unwieldy with my more button smash-y style of playing. I still don't quite have a feeling for how to best trigger beatdrops, but the Pins cover such a wide ground that eventually I found a combo that worked for me.
The story was pretty good, though like with the original one I'm not entirely sure I completely understand everything that went on. The main story is straightforward, but there's hints and teases of more going on in the background. There's also subtle things happening that I wasn't sure I really properly picked up on. I think the characters arcs were done well, but the changes weren't as drastic or noticeable as they were with Neku.
[ispoiler]
At first I was rather surprised that the game itself had changed so much, but I guess the lesson the game was trying to teach was no longer quite the same, though I didn't expect the timer to disappear as well, though the character did imply there was a time limit so perhaps it was now just off screen on their phones. The new game however does open up the entry to explore more characters and different dynamics, which was a great benefit.
Nagi was a lovely surprise. At first I thought she'd just be a stereotypical Otaku Girl, a thirsty one at that. But she seemed way more introspective and multifaceted. Part of me read her as an Aspi-girl, having difficulties socializing, but being very observant.
Similarly Kanon was a character I initially misinterpreted, assuming she was one trope when really she was quite a honest and different character.
Rindo and Fret make for a good duo. Their Friendship seems very natural, but it's kind of clear that while they like each other and enjoy being around each other, they didn't really know each other. Their arcs were well done and I think they were the perfect pair to start the story with.
Minamoto was a fun character like always, seems less malicious for the most part then before and I don't quite know what he's aiming for other than the composer role.
Beat was a nice surprise, I should have known it was him, but still it was great seeing him again and having him be part of the team for as long as he was. He seemed to have matured, but in a way that's still decisively Beat, which I appreciate.
Neku was similarly a great addition to the team. I like how he matured in a way that shows how he's grown, but also feel a lot like the Neku we knew from the end of the game. He was good supportive character for the new leads and is how I'd imagine a character should be that has passed on the main character role.
Shoka was a great character as well. She was just the right kind of snarky to be entertaining and endearing. She also had to give up the most. I really liked how she stood up for what she cared about and wanted. Also I had a suspicion she would turn out to be Swallow pretty early on. My guess was it'd be her or Rhyme. I choose to read her and Rindo's relationship as platonic no matter how much the game hints they want it to be another romantic pairing.
On a somewhat funny side note after Sporkanort used Shoka as an Profile Pic for awhile I seem to have build up an association between the two. So anytime I saw Shoka I was thinking of Sporkanort.
The special skills the cast have was really fun and really complimented their personalities. I'm especially impressed with how they handled Rindo's time traveling, like others said this is how it should have been handled in KH3.
As for what didn't quite sit right with me and these are pretty minor complaints. I was a bit irked by the fact that all Players that weren't on our Team or Kanon, where guys. Like I get that was probably a choice made for convenience, but it just seems illogical there that only guys and a few girls would be part of this game. Especially because within the story of this game and the last there was a bit of a better ratio.
I'm also a bit disappointed that Shiki and Rhyme were a bit sidelined. Especially Rhyme, seeing we didn't get to spend much time with her in TWEWY and I was hoping she being the youngest would be the one to interact with the new group the most. Still beat was fun and having her show up as a mysterious hacker between days was a nice way to keep her present in the story if not actively.
[/ispoiler]
Finished the game last night, and I gotta say, I am wholeheartedly impressed! I don't think we could have asked for a better sequel. If i'm honest, I think I may actually like this better than the original. I loved the team dynamic in the game, and the gameplay was really fun. I also really loved the characters. They were all fleshed out in a really believable way, to the point where I feel like you can relate to at least some of their problems at least once.
[SPOILER] I also really liked how they put emphasis on the team vs. team aspect as well. Although the Noise were still an active threat, having the main characters go against other teams really made the Reaper's Game feel much more desperate. To the point where you can sympathize with the team leaders like Fuya or Motoi. Even though they are treated somewhat as villains in the game, you almost can't blame them for their actions at points, because they simply want to live. Definitely made for a more emotional dynamic. [/SPOILER]
Another thing outside of this game I have to say is that, after playing VII Remake and this, it does seem like SE is really starting to regain themselves. Not that they ever made anything "bad" in the last several years, but after that long period of what seemed like endless experimentation with consoles with KH, and the disaster surrounding the Versus XIII/XV situation that plagued the company for so long, it seems like they are finally going back to their roots. Of course, I may be speaking too soon, but this seems like a good start for them anyway.
Hey, this is unrelated to the review, but I didn't want to make a thread for this question:
Switch version, the Joycon control option, does it have the "Co-Op Mode" Final Remix had? Where each player could use a Joycon and play as Neku and Partner?
Hey, this is unrelated to the review, but I didn't want to make a thread for this question:
Switch version, the Joycon control option, does it have the "Co-Op Mode" Final Remix had? Where each player could use a Joycon and play as Neku and Partner?
No, NEO is single player.
No, NEO is single player.
Gotcha, thanks for the answer! I really loved using my two Joycons to try and reenact the DS' versions gameplay xD
Sakuraba Neku
July 27, 2021 @ 11:39 amOffline