Replayed Twewy and it was pretty good. I adore it when it comes to gameplay experience the things it does it so unique and tied in very well to its own themes. Story wise it is also very well put together but I think I actively ruined the pace with how much I pin grininded. I do think regardless how tighly knit this story is with characters and its themes and its progression for neku is very good and its easy to see why a story like this spoke to so many people. Didn't really do that for me but Still real good regardless

"Brain wave, main wave"
Psycho got a high kick
Collect and select
Show me your best set

"Crystals, blisters"
It's all over now
Psycho cane
You're so keen
I need more candy canes

"Cold cake, cold break"
Freak got a high kick
Mr. Twister
Moist with roistering
Stick it up
Take it up
Step aside and see the world
Effect has defects
"Take a bow to the moon"

I can see why TWEWY gained a little cult following, but it just wasn't up my alley.

Just starting with the positives. There characters were all quite good. Neku in particular made for a good protagonist and seeing his growth throughout the story was the highlight of the whole experience. The rest of the cast was also quite good and simultaneously contributed to Neku's growth while also providing interesting stories of their own. The broad outlines of the plot are also good, though ambiguities at the end held it back from being great.

But what really brough the game down was its gameplay and combat. TWEWY's combat is very unique. Rather than a fixed set of moves, you collect pins. Each pin has a method to activate it (tap, swipe, hold, etc) and an effect (typically damaging enemies in its area of effect) and you can combine these pins in any way you want to build your moveset so long as two pins don't have the same activation method. It's a neat idea, but its one I don't think works very well. First of all, there isn't much reason to choose one pin over another apart from the amount of damage they inflict. Secondary effects are inconsequential and there isn't much tangible difference between pins with the same activation method. And second, all gameplay is conducted through the touch screen alone. You never use buttons or control sticks, just the screen. And while this might have been something that worked on the DS, it was a very poor choice for the Switch. Since all pins are activated by doing things on the touchscreen, its very easy to activate the wrong one. I can't tell you how many times the game registered me swiping from Neku to another part of the screen (which is how you move) as slashing across Neku (the activation method for some melee attacks). Or instead of activating a pin that requires I hold and press a part of the screen, the game will recognize as me tapping the screen and firing a projectile. It just makes the gameplay feel very unwieldy and limits the potential for higher difficulties since you can't reliably perform complex chains of moves.

I kinda wish it was possible to play this on the original hardware without shelling out a lot of money for it. From what I have seen of it, it seems like the gameplay issues I had are much less impactful on the DS since the combat was actually built around the hardware in question. But as for the version I played, it just didn't feel good to play and past the first 1/3rd or so I was just continuing for the sake of the story and characters.

TWEWY is not a bad game, but its a much worse one than it could have been. The story and characters were enough that I don't feel like the whole experience was a wash, but so much of the playtime is spent on a really poorly implemented combat system that I probably spent more of my playtime annoyed than genuinely enjoying it.

The story of this game is really good, and Neku in particular grows into such a likable character. I would recommend playing the game just for that aspect, however, the gameplay holds this game back immensely.

You have to use the Joycons or the touchscreen of the switch to attack the enemies, and on higher difficulties, it gets painful on your wrists and frustrating to deal with. There is fun to be had here, and the story is worth experiencing but it might be better to watch it on YouTube or to try and play the original release on the DS.

I played this via the switch's game trial thing. A funny coincidence that it provided 7 days to play it, and the whole basis of the game is a game to be played in 7 days. At the time of writing this, there are still 3 days left for anyone who has nintendo switch online and wants to play without purchasing it.

I played this in high school, and thought it was good back then, but I didn't fully remember it. I figured returning to this would be like returning to Kingdom Hearts, both due to its presentation and Nomura being a large creative director for it. I was excited to learn that it holds up a lot better than my journey through KH.

I played largely in docked mode with a single joycon, which I find is hit or miss with most games as an analog for a touch screen or motion control-heavy game. I thought it mostly worked here. I would say the amount of time I enjoyed the controls and combat amounted to about an 85/15 split. Far higher than I expected.

A few times I had to undock to get the input smoothness I needed to play properly, and it wasn't too frustrating overall having to do so. I would say 2 bosses out of the game were pretty inscrutable, but I was able to throw myself at them long enough to get through. It felt like luck though, but switch up the pins as much as you can if you run into the same problem. I think if I wasn't playing it for free, it would have made me more upset at how it ran, but take that as you will. Some of it is baked in and there wasn't much to be done other than overhauling the pins, which I would be genuinely surprised if squenix put that much effort in any remake beyond FF7.

I think my biggest complaints were with the slow paced start and the confusing layout. It slowly rolls out features including the pause menu which I thought was an odd choice. Not totally terrible but confusing at first. Then even to the end I couldn't remember where certain parts of shibuya it wanted me to visit were. luckily there's a decent map if you search for it, but my inclination is to use what's in the game first. That failed me.

The basic battle system again controls fairly well, and plays like a touchscreen beat em up. Slashes, swipes, long presses, etc are your input whether it's the virtual cursor or the touchscreen. No clue how this plays on Sony's systems considering the differences. Maybe the touchpad on the controller? The variety of pins allow you a lot of customization to gameplay, even though a good portion of them function the same as one another. The brand system can largely be ignored, though it is a neat idea. And it's neat that you can effectively make the gear you want to use more effective by using it it. And the game is very customizable in its difficulty, which I found interesting. It's a necessary game mechanic in spots to adjust your difficulty, and you can go further by adjusting your level. After you level to 5 for example, you can go back to lvl 1 for more challenge and reward. Something like this I'd like to see in any game, especially an RPG.

The story is pretty good overall! Mostly through the first 75% of it, then it dips into more run of the mill anime plot, but does twist enough at the end it bumps it back a little higher! I wouldn't say it's a masterpiece of writing for games, but even compared to something I'm playing now, Scarlet Nexus, it's very well written with largely believable, if a bit dorkily "hip", characters.

I remember the OST being a big sellling point on the OG beyond its aesthetics and gameplay, but unfortunately it doesn't hold up. It trends Hideki Nagamura with being fairly limited and uninteresting. It's like... a bad version of a soundtrack that's very good. Not sure if that makes sense, but that's how I felt about it. Maybe the crunchy DS sound helped it along back in the day.

Overall I'm very happy I rediscovered this, and that it didn't turn into another Nomura cringefest. Not so well-versed, but it's possibly one of the best DS rpgs.

I was a late bloomer so I was only able to "get" this game after well into my 20's.

Unconsciously, however, this game might have been the reason for my late bloom. I originally played it at a formative age and maybe it shielded me from teen angst until I actually forgot what it was about.

(A New Day is great but the port's battle system is really sad when compared to the original. Serviceable though)