The World Ends With You (Nintendo DS) Review

Players take on the role of Neku Sakuraba, a punk-styled young boy who one morning wakes up to find not only a strange message on his mobile phone that refuses to be deleted, but a timer on his hand. As it turns out, he has been enrolled on a mysterious game whereby if certain tasks are not completed within a set time limit during a seven day period, he will simply be wiped off the face of the Earth! Straight away players are thrown into a battle against some evil frogs and are taught the basics of the game in bit-by-bit stages, starting with a simple 'Escape from Battle' move. Each time something new is learned, a special pin is collected and added to Neku's collection as he attempts to overcome the 'Noise' that seem intent on not only causing general havoc, but actual physical pain to the game's protagonist and the female partner he comes across early on, Shiki Misaki, as they traverse the busy Japanese district of Shibuya in the hope of unravelling the mysteries behind the whole Game and the Reapers that help enforce the rules. On top of all this, Neku can now read people's thoughts, all mixed in with the background sounds of traffic, people chattering away and other day-to-day static...

The first day or so of the game is taken up with simply getting your bearings and trying to get your head around the innovative battle system employed, and this is where many players might be put off. Whilst the stylish 2D characters and pseudo-3D world help to make the game look extremely impressive and definitely a cut above other DS titles, and the soundtrack is littered with cool, funk-filled, vocalised songs that certainly benefit from use of earphones, the dual-screen battling may seem like a little too much for most. Basically Neku is controlled using the stylus on the lower screen, with him either walking or dashing around dependant on whether the stylus is placed near him or further away. Dashing allows him to circumvent the attacks of enemies (ranging from frogs and wolves to large bears), which gives time for his ability pins to recharge before specific stylus motions can be drawn on the screen to unleash the likes of fire balls, lightning bolts and all manner of other devastating forms of firepower as more pins are attained later in the adventure.

That does not sound too complicated, right? Well, whilst attempting to balance that aspect of any fight, players are also tasked with controlling Shiki on the top screen using the d-pad! Her attack manoeuvres all rely on combinations of directional-pad button presses, tapping variations of right-left-down several times to pull off her standard move (there are combination moves that both Shiki and Neku can pull off if either certain directions are pressed on the D-Pad for Shiki or enough chains are connected between the two leads). Trying to pay attention to both screens at the same, carrying out the necessary attacks with both characters will make your brain ache and your hands cramp up until everything clicks into place. Thankfully, though, it does not take too long to get the right balance thanks to the computer taking up the slack by controlling Shiki if she is left inanimate for a set period of time, leaving players to find their rhythm and pick things up at their own pace.

What also helps is that pretty soon in the game you are offered the chance of reducing the difficulty level, which means when there is the need to just churn through a large batch of Noise, the game circumvents the frustration that plagues old school RPGs that have ridiculous amounts of enemy encounters by making battles simpler to clear. To prevent the game from becoming too much of a cake walk, though, some of the compulsory objectives dished out by Reapers that block progression at certain stages require the difficulty level to be upped and health points manually reduced. One particular example is how specific tokens with monetary value are dropped when certain conditions are met, with lower numbered pins appearing on the easiest mode, meaning if you need to collect several higher priced ones, the settings need to be adequately tweaked. Other tasks generally involved clearing a set amount of Noise, which can be found by tapping on Neku's default pin to open up a special bubble in which he can read people's thoughts (a large chunk of time can actually pass just by playing around and reading the innermost secrets of people's minds - that is how well crafted the game's script is).

Rather than simply being an action game, The World Ends With You employs traditional RPG elements such as having players wander round stores to purchase new clothing and equipment that will aid them in battle later, as well as extract information from specific passers-by that can be of use later on by reading their thoughts. Customisation is quite a significant aspect as well, with Neku not only able to obtain new pins as the game goes on, but buy new ones from different stores, before starting to level each one up by using them repeatedly during battle (or simply turning the DS off as you earn points for the time spent away from the game as well!). In addition to this, in-game 'armour' takes the form of fashionable items of clothing and as the adventure continues wearing certain brands on a regular basis will help to mould the tastes of others around you on the street.

There is so much to offer in The World Ends With You, which might surprise those that believe '7 Days' will pass by in the blink of an eye. Between the likes of the main objectives that prolong each day considerably anyway, placing thoughts into people's heads later in the game and the whole customisation angle, plus lots of extra side elements, and even multiplayer modes in the form of 'Ten Pin Slammer' (knocking pins around an arena, last man standing wins) and 'Mingling' (power up pins when meeting people in real life), there is more than enough value for money and Square Enix's new IP proves to definitely be a winner all round...