The World Ends with You (2007)

Gave the Switch remaster a try and I did not enjoy my time at all. Both motion and touch screen controls are inconsolably terrible. The battle system, then, has me overwhelmed just trying to understand it, with lazy LeapFrog-style "HERE'S HOW U PLAY! :)" screen-flash tooltips, little meaningful feedback on if I am playing well or poorly, and then punishing me after each battle by showing me all the sub-objectives I couldn't complete, not out of lack of comprehension (despite the game's best efforts), but because of how unreliable it is to control via any method.

I can't stand combo-counting button-mashers on a good day... so asking that type of play from me with the worst control schemes I've grappled with since Kid Icarus: Uprising gets you the door in my household. The fun cherry on top is punishing casual players who want to play on easy by decreasing drops and EXP, as well as locking you out of endings and content. Why? So unable players like myself just never get to see the entirety of the game? Eat my shorts.

I've been trying out a bunch of different games lately and none of them have connected with me which has been frustrating, so I can probably chalk this up as a me issue. As a player I feel like I'm pretty easy to impress and not quick to lose patience if a game isn't clicking right away. This so abrasively put me off I don't even want to give it the benefit of the doubt. I have never felt so repelled by a game after my first session with it.

Main Storyline: Completed

Noisepedia: Completed

Food Stats for Neku : Completed

Food Stats for Shiki: Completed

Food Stats for Joshua: Completed

Food Stats for Beat: Completed

Thread Completion: I think I have completed at least 98% of it.

Weekly Objectives: Almost complete

Pinpedia: Almost complete

The only reason why it is in my backlog is because it's extrememly difficult to play Tin Pin Slam. I will eventually return to it one day. It's testing my patience.

Reviewing this game is tough because it's a strong experience with some cons.

• The story - I think it was pretty great for a 30iah hour game. I loved the characters and twists, and final mix's extra content gives the story a cool boost: the secret reports dive into what's happening in the game while the two extra levels are just fun and entertaining while presenting a challenge to those who finished the game.

-Music - The soundtrack is probably the best thing about the game, reflecting on their youth and how the tone of the game changes with the remixed versions of song tracks later on.

-The world is ok. It's supposed to be set in Shibuya, so while not a huge area it's big enough to feel like you're just stuck in one place though some levels will close off paths so sometimes you'll be in a linear level while others you can explore.

-Gameplay this is the big one. I played it on switch so a lot of concern was about how it would play but it's based on the mobile version of the game so I played TWEWY in handheld mode and treated it like a tablet. While different I got used to it pretty quickly. The problem was the actual gameplay itself. Some stuff isn't really taught to you or advice is hidden somewhere, the currency seems redundant with you only earning yen pins that you need to sell for yen but some missions require pins. Pretty much anything that had to deal with getting pins/materials or buying stuff became a pain. Aside from that fights can be entertaining or boring. There's no speed up option so in this action-like rpg, so you'll have to deal with gimmicky enemies like the kangaroos that will jump up high enough that they're not on screen and come down aiming on the player or crows that fly high that some moves won't reach and to fight you you use motions of pins to perform actions - tap this vpun to heal, swipe an enemybto slash, draw a circle to release an energy ball, etc. Personally I was fine with the battles until I had to fight enemies in succession which felt time consuming but necessary to clear some levels.

I'd say this game is a 3.5/5. Definitely would recommend for the experience and story.