The World Ends With Youoriginally came out in 2007 in Japan on theDS. A year after that it launched in the West. It was one of the system’s best RPGs as seen by critics all across the globe, but it never got a sequel.
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Square Enixported it to iOS in 2012, followed by an Android port in 2014. These both reviewed well but again nothing happened. It came to consoles once again, via theSwitchin 2018, after a decade of being absent. Now, at long last, a true sequel has arrived. Was the wait worth it forNeo: The World Ends With You?
10Best: That Nomura Drip
Tetsuya Nomura didnot directNeo: The World Ends With You. However, his influence is still all over the place because he was a character designer. The Nomura drip is intensely cool in this game. Say what one will about the excess zippers and belts on some characters inNeo: The World Ends With Youand his past work, but this dude knows fashion.Persona 5 Royalwas the previous drip god championwith its style, but this might replace it.
Something that does not drip aboutNeo: The World Ends With Youare the load times. None of them are intensely long. At most, there might be an eight to ten second delay. The time isn’t that annoying, it’s the frequency. Battles need to load. Some cutscenes need to load. Going from area to area needs to load. It’s not the worst example on the Switch but it definitely could be better.
8Best: The Pin System
At its core, one could say this is a hack and slash action RPG. It is definitely that but what makes it so unique is its Pin system. Each pin discovered will give players a new ability from shooting bright neon beams to igniting foes.
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There are so many inNeo: The World Ends With Youthat combat always feels fresh and new. Keeping track of them all can be a hassle though, but that’s a good problem to have.
7Worst: Lots Of Repeated Monsters And Areas
One ofThe World Ends With You’sfaults is met with this sequel. Monsters and areas are repeated a lot which is to say there is not much variety. Bosses are unique which is a plus on the monster side. The many streets of Shibuya are colorful and well designed but fighting in these areas over and over can be tiring. This is especially true next to more expansiveSquare Enix RPGsthat have dozens of locations.
6Best: Hip Hop Music
One of the best things aboutThe World Ends With Youwas the soundtrack. It was impressivethat Square Enixcould get such good results from the DS’ sound system. It was a great mixture of pop and hip hop. Not only do some tracks return in a remixed form, but there are plenty of new tracks as well. This adds to the aforementioned drip ofNeo: The World Ends With You.
5Worst: Nu Metal
Most of the new tracks are good butNeo: The World Ends With Youintroduces a new style to the mix: Nu Metal. There are some hip-hop and pop tracks that had a heavier rock tone before which worked well. The pure Nu Metal tracks are very silly though.
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It makes the game feel dated like it was made in the 2000s and mixed together by Fred Durst. Music taste can be very tricky to measure so maybe this new style will gel more with some players than others.
4Best: Autoplaying Dialogue
Autoplaying through dialogue is becoming more and more prevalent in new games. Not all games do this. For example,Cris Talesis another recent Switch game that used the same text style asNeo: The World Ends With You. However, there wasno autoplay featuremeaning one had to manually click through dialogue. Doing so is not the worst feeling in the world but it is nice to just sit back and listen to conversations with autoplay. It’s a small plus forNeo: The World Ends With Youbut still very much appreciated.
3Worst: Not Everything Is Voiced
The downside to the autoplay feature is that most ofNeo: The World Ends With Youis not voiced. This means that players have to click through boxes anyway. This is a rough estimate but it seems like only 30% of the game is voiced. That does not seem okay in a 2021 game especially one from a giant company like Square Enix. To bring upCris Talesagain, to its credit, it does voice almost every single character. It is one ofthe game’s best featureswhich is a huge win overNeo: The World Ends With You.
2Best: Lots Of Accessibility Options
One ofNeo: The World Ends With You’sbiggest pluses is that all types can jump into it. That’s because it supports the player’s needs. There are a lot of difficulty options that unlock in the game as one example. Not only that, but death is never the end. If one fails then they can simply try the battle over again. The autosaves are frequent and it supports manual saves anywhere.Neo: The World Ends With Youis an accessibility king.
1Worst: Watermarks
There is one strange feature that fights players on accessibility though. In the 1.0 version ofNeo: The World Ends With Youplayers can take screenshots freely on the Switch. However, if players update the game, then the 1.01 version adds watermarks. If a patch can add watermarks then certainly a patch can get rid of them again.Hopefully, Square Enixdoes this. Using watermarks in games is such a weird thing for companies to do.
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