I waited years for this game to release. It was the number 1 thing I was looking forward to playing. I tracked every pre-release review, clues in mobile games, scraps of info after Final Remix. Anything. TWEWY is my favorite game of all time. I wanted to love this game so, so badly. When it came out, I played it all in a weekend start to finish. Needless to say, I never anticipated something more in my life. I was ready to get absorbed in everything all over again with a new cast and learn new lessons tailored more to the modern era.

...That's why I'm sorry to say this part. If you played the original, do not play this.

Not because this is a "bad" game or because the art quality suffers or music is bad, no no. It still maintains all those qualities of the original and expands on them tenfold. It really is a Gorgeous game all the way through. I commend the team for what they were able to accomplish with respect to the battle systems, Nomura modern fashion tastes, impeccable music, and the incredible 3d background designs. I think the world of this game is one of the most gorgeous I've ever played. Now, with all that out of the way, what could possibly be the problem with it?

The writing. It's very much a Safe game. It doesn't challenge the player in any way that appealed to me so strongly about the unique vision of the original DS TWEWY. The characters straightforwardly perform all their goals and don't face lifestyle challenges or interact the same with mechanically that Neku was able to with his cast. The game is bloated with meaningless dialogue from minute one to 200 hours in. The characters talk but don't have much to say that is challenging or engaging like Neku's examinations into his loneliness and scorn towards others. I do not feel compelled at all to get the secret reports or do the bonus modes the same way I was for the original. Nagi is introduced as a perfect social communicator despite her neet background and then that's it for the rest of the game. She's able to handle every social scenario onwards and faces no serious shortcomings in the plot. She's another one of Rindo's lackeys. She has a crush on Minamimoto. She has a rivalry with Fret. That's... about it. She's subversive because she's not a depressed nerd, but the writers forgot to give her meaningful actions and arcs beyond that. The whole game is like this but I don't have the energy to go into every nitpick. It's just a very shallow game.

When I finished this game, the only thing I thought was "Well... That was fine I guess." which to me is the biggest sin a piece of art can commit. I so desperately do not want to be a hater for this game. I wanted to love it so badly. But between the troubled development of the title leading to three massive rewrites over a decade, Final Remix, and Nomura's ideas for the story getting tossed aside for Ishibashi's... This is not for me. This is for someone who loves shonen and thinks being a cool teen with powers is cool. And that's a perfectly fine thing to be. It just isn't the mechanically rich and narratively rich character analysis I so deeply loved about the original. It's mindnumbingly just a button masher with stylish characters with no substance beyond that. Worst of all, it's a game that makes me go back and think "did I even really love the original?" And if you loved the original in that same way, you won't love this game.