And given the irony that the original itself felt like a fond throw-back to some 90s indulgence on hip-cool, young excesses - let alone the story takes place only a couple of years after the first game’s tale concluded - NEO is both uncannily yet understandably swift at settling back into the original’s cel-shaded, exposited aesthetic. But more so NEO feels like a time capsule of a former age. Not because its alternative take on combat, or its soundtrack, are similarly fast-paced in putting our minds at ease, though we’ll get to these in due course. But if there’s any fear that the game is to undergo some radical redefining of what made the original so special in many people’s eyes, those fears are quickly dispelled. Enter NEO: The World Ends With You - a whopping fourteen years on from the original…or one mainline, numbered Kingdom Hearts game, if you prefer.Įven from the very first word of its naming, NEO, there’s a suggestion that the sequel is attempting some manner of a freshening itself up. A sequel that, even from its very naming, seemed to acknowledge the difficult circumstance on following-up a game that stands pretty well on its own.
A refresher, one might conclude in the latter case, for what was to be unveiled (even if the 2018 port did lose some of the gameplay pull the DS’ touch-screen brought) last November. To even the original game getting reconfigured for the Switch a few years ago. Both aided and hindered in parts, by Square’s passing-acknowledgment of the original’s appeal - from a dismayed mobile port announcement, to having its characters cross paths with fellow Square property Kingdom Hearts. The World Ends With You for the DS was one of those rare moments where a game stood out so well, the concern wasn’t so much the length of time one will painstakingly have to wait to get a sequel, but rather the internal debate on whether a sequel is even necessary? As justified many fans rightly are in clambering for a return to TWEWY’s hectic Shibuya setting (or UG Shibuya, if you want to be specific here). Arguably one of the better examples of the “roll credits”-esque title drop in a game’s narrative. A game that quickly gained a cult following, if not for its touch-screen implementation of combat, then most certainly for its expressively-bombastic, modern-day aesthetic, catchy soundtrack and story that, most shockingly of all, found a way to weave its titular themes in a way that proved effective. To say that this is but one of the highlights of 2007’s The World Ends With You speaks volumes at just how on-point Square Enix’s standalone action RPG was at the time.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a game from any studio not under Nintendo’s wing that utilized the budding, unique selling point of either of these machines in an interesting way. Excluding any and all attempts on the first-party front, the list of genuinely creative and entertaining releases on any of Nintendo’s what would be deemed “gimmick”-centric devices (specifically the Wii and Nintendo DS) has infamously been a small one.
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