The World Ends With You

A Gamer's Odyssey

Before getting into the article proper, I highly encourage you to enjoy the killer soundtrack of this game while you read. It’ll help give you a small taste of what makes this game so very special.

Setting The Stage:

I mentioned this title in the main blog in reference to my adventures in Shibuya, so I thought exploring this title further would be a fun little cross promotion. This will also serve as the first entry in a (hopefully) continuing series of explorations into titles that have been deeply influential to me as a person, a gamer, and a game designer. 

When I first played this game, I was an awkward kid. I often felt isolated. I always kept my Gameboy or DS at arms reach at all times. It was my escape. Games made sense to me. They had rules, a part to play, and a happy ending to work for. 

Life made a lot less sense to me. People were cruel. They were mean for little to no reason, and I couldn't find much to be interested in outside of my virtual world in RPGs. This game would change all that.

This DS game, released in North America in 2008 (2007 in Japan), was co-developed by Square Enix and Jupiter, with Tetsuya Nomura working on its character art and production team. This action rpg makes extensive use of the DS touch screen, stylus, and even the microphone. 

Since release, this title has received a mobile port in 2012, The World Ends with You: Solo Remix, and a switch port in 2018 The World Ends with You: Final Remix. In 2021, over 10 years after its original release, it received a sequel in NEO: The World Ends With You. 

You follow Neku Sakuraba, an antisocial teenager who simply doesn't “get” people. Suffering from amnesia, a plague of protagonists everywhere, Neku is forced to participate in the Reapers' Game. A series of trials that lasts for 7 days. Upon death, participants are given the chance to join the games by sacrificing their most treasured possession. 

The Reapers' Game takes place in the Shibuya Underground, an alternate plane of existence that can see, but rarely interact with the real world. Here, players must accomplish various tasks each day set by the Game Master. While attempting to complete these tasks, the Reapers can interfere with players by utilizing the Noise, monsters that straddle the realms of both the Underground and Real World. 

In order to fight against the Noise, each player must find a Partner and create a Pact. This pact allows you to unleash the power of pins, special items that allow you unleash psychic abilities such as telekinesis or pyrokinesis. Together with his partner, Neku must survive the Reapers' Game, reclaim that which he holds dear, and return to his life in the real world. 

Phew. I tried to keep that description as high level as possible, but it's a lot, I know. There's plenty of lore, proper nouns, and plot to keep track of. Not to mention upon seeing the credits, you can replay segments of the story to unlock secret reports. In game documents that further explain and explore the lore and world building. It's extremely my shit. Or, probably more accurate to say, I love this kind of shit because of this very game. 

How Did We Get Here?

I was only 11 when The World Ends With You came out, so you'll have to forgive my memory being a little fuzzy on when exactly this game came into my life. I know for sure I played it before entering high school at 13, since my approach to high school actually shifted dramatically thanks to this very game. 

I can remember going to my friend's house in elementary school, who also had a copy of this game, and setting up Mingle Mode, an early precursor to the 3Ds StreetPass. Together, I would use his copy of the game to help boost and evolve my pins into stronger pins. I've been trying to min max games since I was a little kid, I really do come by it honestly. 

In battle, you use the DS stylus to swipe, tap, and drag Neku around the battlefield to combat enemies on the main screen. On the top screen, your various partners do battle with the same enemies using the directional pad. It was a lot of multitasking for my young brain, and often resulted in furious button mashing. 

At times, I would recruit a friend to help control my partner. Just like in the game, I would partner up with a friend to huddle over a tiny DS to do battle with the Noise. 

Years later I would drag a romantic partner of mine to combat the same noise years later with the Nintendo Switch's Final Remix port of this title. While not able to capture that same essence of the dual screen combat, this port is probably the closest we can get with modern hardware. 

Nuts & Bolts: 

Now, let's get into the weeds a bit, since we've danced around it, let's start with combat. In battle Neku is able to equip up to 6 pins that are activated in a variety of ways. From slashing an enemy, swiping up, tapping the screen, or even talking into the microphone.

Each pin has various effects, and is able to power up through a variety of points, increasing in level, or even evolving into a brand new pin. There are 333 pins in total, resulting in a huge playground of builds and abilities to explore throughout the game. 

The combat has a back and forth rhythm between Neku and his partner. After a series of attacks the “puck” is passed to your partner, powering them up. After unleashing a chain of attacks with your partner, the puck is passed back to Neku, granting him even more power. Through this you can unleash greater damage, and this system helps you split your attention between the battlefields. 

Mercifully, these systems are slowly rolled out, allowing the player to come to grips these systems one aspect at a time. You might think, given how robust the combat system is, that that's the main thing you're doing, but there's plenty of exploration, story and shopping to break up the combat. 

Shibuya, The Youth Capital:

The story is present in delightful comic style 2D sprites with speech bubbles from each party. The sprites and speech bubbles, alongside some killer tunes, help the story feel dynamic, even if the moment is fairly limited during story segments.

Exploration feels great with Neku and his partner following along behind your stylus. The backgrounds are stellar, with plenty of NPCs making Shibuya feel just as lived in as the real thing. And with just a touch of an icon, you can “scan” the world around you, as you listen to the thoughts of various NPCs. 

While you may not be visible to most people in Shibuya, the Reapers' decided to make an exception for stores and restaurants. Even the dead need to look good and have a big bowl of ramen. You can shop at places like the 109 (104) building to buy trendy outfits for you and your partner to help power you up in battle, and grant you various boons. 

What feels so impressive to me, is that none of the clothing is gender locked. Want to wear a frilly headband to boost your attack? Go for it. Find a sundress that gives you a great ability? That's far more important than any silly gender norms.

Small touches like this really help capture the spirit of Shibuya. The urban setting is so lovingly depicted that when I went there for the first time it almost felt nostalgic. The modern setting, the slick 2D art, and the incredible tunes push a great core game into a truly amazing experience. 

Bonds Beyond The Screen:

While all this amounts to an incredible experience, what has really stuck with me is the story and the characters. The growth that Neku and his partners experience throughout the story really spoke to me, and made this a narrative that would stick with me to this day. 

Neku is hard to like at first, he's rude, uninterested in others, and acts like he's above it all. His first partner Shiki, couldn't be more the opposite, she's bubbly, personable, and charming. This first pairing strikes such a strong contrast, that it really helps highlight them both as characters. 

Throughout their week, they clash but eventually learn to understand each other. By the end of the week they're a real team, and you can see Neku begin to soften. Prevailing over the Reapers' Game, they face a harsh truth. Only Shiki is able to return to life, Neku must survive another week of the Reapers' Game. 

Neku's memories are returned to him, and he must pay a new entry fee, the thing he holds most dear, his new bond with Shiki. Shiki's life now hangs in the balance, and her fate is in Neku's hands, someone who days ago couldn't stand this girl. 

This is only about the first third of the story, but it does such a great job at radically shifting your view of Neku. Neku grew to like Shiki in much the same way I did, and now I was determined for Neku to survive the next week of the Reapers' Game, for both his sake, and Shiki's. 

I felt like I could clearly hear what this game was saying to me, your bonds with others are critical. Those bonds are the things that will help you to grow. Your bonds with others will open up your world bit by bit. The title of this game finally begins to make sense here, even if it's a little on the nose. The World Ends With You. Only you can decide how big you want your world to be. 

What Does This Mean For Mr. Hunter?

This game felt like it was shaking me by the shoulders, screaming into my face “your world will only get bigger if you let it”. I had to choose to search for those connections, to face the noise of the world and look for the good. And so I did. I started leaving my DS behind more and more. I stopped asking my parents “when can we go home” every 10 minutes, and I started to try. 

I'm forever grateful for this experience. Among so many other lessons, it taught me that the platform wasn't a factor for a memorable experience. If anything, this game was special because of its platform. The experience of using my stylus on the DS and managing combat across two screens is impossible to replicate, though I still recommend checking out the Switch port if you haven't played this phenomenal game. 

In many ways, I don't know who I would have been without this game. I may never have “broken out of my shell”, and opened up to the world around me. My world might have stayed small, and I would have never come to Japan to see the same sights lovingly depicted on those small screens all those years ago. 

What games or media affected you? As self indulgent as this series may be, I want to explore just a small part of what made me into the person I am. I was shaped by my experiences with various titles and genres, and I think that's worth exploring. 

Gaming is often dismissed as a waste of time, or frivolous hobby. I learned how to read in part due to my interest in games at a young age. My vocabulary increased ahead of my peers thanks to the mountains of text I encountered in RPGs. My love for writing was inspired by the worlds and stories I experienced through a controller. That's more than worthwhile to explore, and I hope you'll join me for the ride.