The World Ends With You

This game made up for my disappointment with Spirit Tracks. Brad has been trying to get me to play this game for a while now, but I always found another game to play instead. I finally relented and I will never regret it. Sadly, this game was a limited release and not heavily advertised. Sounds reminiscent of . . . let’s see . . . Okami?
I will not say I put this game up on the same pedestal as Okami, but it’s definitely one of my FAVORITE DS games.

Forewarning, this game does have a bit of language in it. Not harsh language, but I’m not suggesting this for anyone under the age of . . . 12? It’s mild language, I don’t know how ratings go nowadays, they’ve become a bit less strict since I was young. Sooo I’m going by MY experience, because I’m a genius and all. (right . . . ) Anyway! Back to the game!

The first thing that made me a little averse to the game was the title, I mean . . . “The World Ends With You.” I’m used to short titles, the ones that don’t make you think. Well, this game will make you think. HOWEVER, it’s absolutely perfect in it’s simplicity. The plot is straight forward and the fight sequences take full advantage of the DS’ feature set. The fight sequences use both screens, the stylus, AND the D-Pad. Yeah, I was intimidated too. It is the first time I’ve gotten an utter sense of panic playing a DS game, the same panic I get playing a crazy console game.

It was a bit amusing have a generally “emo” protagonist and the plot throws you left and right punches throughout the whole thing. I had so many jaw dropping “omg I can’t believe that just happened” moments and any time you think you’re finished, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The bosses were interesting and it’s the first game where you can actually CHOOSE to go into a fight for the experience. You turn on this “senser” in your mind and all of the sudden you see these weird icons floating around, the bigger the size the harder the fight, and you can actually click more then one icon so you can line up fights. It certainly makes the whole game a lot more entertaining. The enemies are creative and some of them you actually form a weird connection with.

There are parts of it that are a bit . . . well . . . biblical in the most elusive sense. The ending was this head tilting moment for me, where all of the sudden you feel an utter sense of clarity and you GET IT. The whole storyline is so riveting that when you have to watch the credits to get the whole story you will sit and watch all of the credits. This is the first game (outside of the Phoenix Wright series) that I have watched the credits with full attention because it’s the end where it all comes full circle. I have to admit I teared up a bit too, the ending was totally cheesy but so totally worth it.

I wish I could tell you more about this game but the whole story is intertwined so much in the surprise that if I went too far into it this review would be nothing but spoilers.

If you can find this game I suggest you buy it. If you’ve played the game and stopped in the middle of it because of frustrations I all-too-well understand, go back and play it. When I commented on how much I loved this game on my Facebook one of Brad’s old buddies in the flash world commented saying he didn’t really like the game; he thought it was too frustrating. He had stopped in the middle of it. I told him to go back through and play it ALL the way through, I understood the frustration but it was well worth it.

Honestly , if it wasn’t for having to review the game I probably would have given up in frustration. Then again, Brad probably would have made me go back and play it all the way through. So who knows!

I will say that if you don’t like to think and, in a way, realize your own mortality, you might not like this game as much. It’s very heavy handed when it comes to the whole emotional, why am I here sense. I like that a lot because I appreciate anything with a slightly philosophical touch. It’s not very often you can find a game that allows for entertaining story, gameplay, and comes with a heavy message that (I think) everyone should be exposed to.

Sorry to be so vague guys, but you know how I hate spoilers!!