The World Ends With You

[crocky-chocky]

To be fair to the game, it's at least in part about how Neku is a douche. You're not entirely supposed to feel sympathetic towards him.

Yep, that's for sure. Still, I am eager for him to be less of a douche. One thing I like about the story is that it kind of shares Persona 3's emphasis on being all sociable too. Good message to the young 'uns and all that.

[Eight Rooks]

Eurogamer's review is interesting in that they see the wi-fi aspects as a sort of meta-narrative touch expanding on that aspect of the story (Turn the game off and do something else! Go out and meet other people with a DS!). Made me smile, and it's not something I'd seen anyone else suggest.

Also, note for anyone else with the Japanese version - it's perfectly playable for the most part, but there are a couple of story "puzzles" where if you don't know Japanese you probably will have to either hit GameFAQs or work through it on trial and error. Just FYI.

[Taurine]

From what people are saying in this thread, it's making me think of the anime Tekkonkinkreet. Is that anywhere near the mark?

[SuperBeatBoy]

From what people are saying in this thread, it's making me think of the anime Tekkonkinkreet. Is that anywhere near the mark?

Nothing like Tekkonkinkreet. I acually like The World Ends With You, whereas Tekkonkinkreet was aload of poopy pants. As for story they are both vastly different.

[Eight Rooks]

^^^^ Die. (Tekkon Kinkreet was my joint best film of last year and probably one of the best films I've ever seen in my life. )

Anyway, they're not that similar. Superficial stuff, but I wouldn't pick one up if you liked the other, sort of thing.

[Megamoppy]

I loved FF8 and Squall and as such im realising im being vaguely hypocritical when I say is it really that emo? I was really put off of Kingdom Hearts cause the main character annoyed the hell outta me (Though im gonna play it for the music). Also I noticed in a few screens that it uses the current 'leet' speak like 'Its full of fail' is there alot of this aswell?

[Silvergun X]

Only 20 posts?

What a huge shame, as this has to be the best RPG i've played to date. And I mean that.

I'm not a huge RPG fan and as such I find it really difficult to stick with them, the Final Fantasy series being the worst offender. As much as I try, I enjoy the battle system but the storylines just bore me to death and I find no incentive to carry on playing.

I don't know what was different about this, but it gripped me from start to finish and I finally completed it last night, i'm currently going through my second loop trying to get all the secret reports and all the ultimate pins now. (Yoshimitsu, I *WILL* earn you...)

The ending confused me just a little bit:

->Open Spoiler<-

What exactly happened? Joshua fused with Megumi to form the final boss, however he was also helping me defeat Megumi at the same time? I thought if Megumi lost then Joshua was going to completely reform Shibuya, but all he did was put me through another week of the game and it turns out everybody was alive again? (As you see Shiki's real body)

I'm very much liking the post-game incentives to play through again, with noise that only appear on a second loop or the

->Open Spoiler<-

Another Day

mode, but goddamn they rinse me out at my current max level on normal! Levelling required before I entire

->Open Spoiler<-

Ultimate difficulty

, I think...

Overall though, this game is the reason I havcn't been playing GTA4. It's just torn me away from it totally and i've fallen in love with it even after completion.

[Stormtec]

I'm still plugging my way through it, and agree that it's probably the best RPG I've played on the DS. Saying that, I haven't really played FF3, so you can take that for what it's worth.

I've been going through a few other titles at the moment, and waiting for Persona 3 FES to arrive (which shipped from play-asia last Friday and still isn't here, damnit). Though I did just get past the 7th day...

[Dogg Thang]

this has to be the best RPG i've played to date. And I mean that.

I'm not a huge RPG fan

Hmmm...

I have been so tempted to pick this up many times. I love the cover. And I see the soundtrack is up on iTunes now. Still haven't done it yet though.

[Silvergun X]

The only thing i'm struggling with at the moment is finding Scarletite end-game. I'm fully aware you can buy it in a store but you need to trade Dark Matter for it, and trying to find that is nigh on impossible.

Hmmm...

Hmm indeed.

Couldn't get on with the final fantasys, don't like much squeenix stuff i've played at all but I thought this was just superb.

[Eight Rooks]

Oh, it is criminally under-rated. The same faults with the import are still there, but this is absolute gold, one of the jewels of the DS' lineup. One of the best battle systems I've ever played, great presentation, surprisingly heartfelt narrative which does a far better job of mocking itself than crap like Contact, and hugely compelling with a fair bit of replay value. And Squenix have so missed a marketing tie-in with not selling pins IRL. This is easily one of the games of the year and it was well worth buying twice.

EDIT: Penny Arcade's last newspost amused me, where Tycho starts off by acknowledging the strip is about, you know, that GTA game that was just released, then gets down to ranting about The World Ends With You for four or five paragraphs.

[Spatial]

I'm ashamed to admit that I have it sitting here virtually untouched since release day.

Just don't have the time to devote to it at the moment but it's next on my list once I get CV: Dawn of Sorrow out the way.

From what I played of it (just after the Frog attack - told you it was virtually untouched) it looked great. Loved the visual style and the whole intro and looking forward to getting my teeth in to it proper.

[Silvergun X]

The game goes into full swing towards Day 6. The first few days felt a bit weak and Neku's too much of an arse for the game to be THAT great so early on, but when you get past that point and you start getting more pins, unlock more of the city, go deeper into the story, it turns into a drug and won't let you go.

[Wild_Cat]

I got this game a couple days ago, and I echo that. By far the freshest RPG on the DS, it looks and sound incredible... It's like Nervous Brickdown, Jet Set Radio and .hack did a threesome after huffing pok&#233;mons in an emo nightclub, and this game came out.

Headphones are mandatory, by the way. The DS's speakers cut all the basslines, which is just criminal in TWEWY.

[crocky-chocky]

Got back in to this after finishing the meat of GTA4.

The great thing is I made progress without actually playing it! Equipping all my low level pins so they levelled up whilst switched off...real crafty like. It kind of solves the problem I have with some RPG's, which is returning to them after leaving them alone for ages.

Anyway, it's a brilliant game. One of the few RPG's that's intriguing right from the get-go, but then continually adds even more originality as it goes on. I love the combat now that Neku and Co are getting pretty strong. I'm finding I actually want to do the fights, rather than avoid them like I do on 90&#37; of RPG's. I think the system of selecting fights helps...much better than random battles.

I seriously think it's one of the best on DS, it's the most refreshing RPG I've played in many years.