The World Ends with You

I concluded the game's story, unraveling its final mysteries (well, except a few I had to check the interweb for) - and I did it all without being terribly frustrated. Granted, I did have to do several boss fights on Easy to get by; but TWEWY never outright stopped me from going on, just because I wasn't good enough, and I really admire the game's design for that.

My own shortcomings aside, there are things about the battle system that could be improved. When enemies can shoot me from off-screen, but I can neither see them, nor hurt them with full-screen attacks, I feel slightly cheated. Touch-screen maneuvering (moving and dodging) can be sketchy, as the game struggles to properly recognize gesture input. Not to mention several pins activated by gestures, which, naturally, fail to register at the worst possible moments.

As for the partner battles on the top screen, I never did delve too deeply into that system; I had my hands full with Neku. Brad commented on how this is supposed to work, I guess, but splitting my focus never worked for me - the AI didn't do a great job, but when I left Neku alone, all he could do was take damage. At any rate, ignoring the top screen worked for me. And like I mentioned before, when the game wasn't kicking me in the junk (or failing to pick up my touch input), the combat was pretty fun.

Well, aside from a few fights where the enemy was able to dodge 90% of the time, and couldn't be stunned. That was pretty lame. But, hey, Easy made it work.

TWEWY's "message" comes off a little strong, but isn't as whiny or saccharine as Kingdom Hearts'. This game's keyword is "imagination," and aside from some bad first impressions on Neku's part, the themes, characters, and plot help make that message seem genuinely meaningful. The hidden reports get into some dubious metaphysics, but as supporting text for the main story, they help everything come together.

Somehow, I haven't yet mentioned the game's music. I like it - for the most part. Some tunes are great; others, not so much. Most of them are catchy, at least. It grew on me once I was able to get over the often-jarring vocal tracks (though I'm sure the "I always dress in rags!" lyric will haunt me in my nightmares).

So I ended up liking it. My problems with the game - superfluous item management, and the overcomplicated combat system - could all be mitigated with no real negative consequence. The story was good, and I'm glad to have seen it through. That being said, if Square-Enix and Jupiter want to sell me on a sequel, they'd do well to polish up the touch input, and cut some of the fat out of the item system. I wouldn't miss the clothing items at all.

Better than: Lunar Knights
Not as good as: Contact
Hard to compare with: Pretty much everything

Progress: Finished the main story (some bosses on Easy)