I love this game I really do, but when this port is so bad that it made me doubt my love for the original I just cant recommend this version which is a shame since this is one of the best games on switch. Its only advantage over the original is an hour and a half long bonus segment, and better audio quality/more music tracks. Still I recommend doing yourself a favor and play the original on DS. Games still a 10/10, the 3/5 rating is simply due to disliking this versions controls.

Update: Tried the co-op mode, and it is definitely a better experience, I now give it a 7/10

Pretty fun game, but I feel that it does become a little bit monotonous towards the end unfortunately

I'm also one of those fucking spergs who actually prefer the motion controls over capacitive touch

(I am not trying the DS version anytime soon so don't ask me to)

Absolutely one of my favorite games of all times.

The characters? Top-notch. I'm not sure how to elaborate without it sounding weird, but... they feel like people, I guess. The protagonist, Neku, grows throughout the game by expanding his world, meeting with people with different ideals and having them clash. And they actually FEEL like people with ideals, y'know? Not just a cardboard cutout with the week's message taped on them. I just... adore them to bits. Even one of the guys who doesn't actually get a proper name!

Mind you, I wouldn't say it's one of my favorite games ever if I didn't like how it played - and I absolutely do. The battle system is really intuitive and there's just something about, say, making a slashing motion and having chains sprout up, pressing an enemy and having flames billow up, or scratching the screen to cause an earthquake that feels super-intuitive and pleasing to do. Of course, with all the touch commands some of them overlap and it's not perfect as a result (a frequent frustration is nothing happening when I press the screen because the enemy is too close to Neku) but it works enough and it's satisfying when it does so so I can't take off points for that.

The partner system from the DS version has been revamped and I think that's to the game's favor - it makes the game slightly easier for a variety of reasons but it also makes it more accessible, since you don't have to split your attention.

I think the only system I wouldn't quite be a fan of is Shutdown PP. Basically, whenever you don't play a game you get experience points (PP) to the skills you have equipped. It's great in concept, but here's the thing: you need Shutdown PP to evolve certain skills. Not all of them! But some of them. Which ones aren't elaborated on by the game. The problem arises with skills that don't evolve with shutdown PP, since they'll still grow because of it but can be screwed out of actually evolving because shutdown PP counts more than the PP you gain from battle. It's annoying to have to juggle and make sure you aren't accidentally screwing yourself over when you put the game aside (to, say, sleep).

There ARE a ton of other weird systems too, some of which work better than others, and others which are kind of... weird. But again - in general it's an amazing experience, in both gameplay and story, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

kinda sucks that there's no "definitive" way to play this game. final remix's new visuals and OST are amazing (though the sprite work of the DS original has charm of its own and could even be considered better), but the gameplay, while still fun in handheld mode, isn't at all representative of what TWEWY's DS version has to offer. it's inevitable though because TWEWY was so thoroughly designed around the DS that any version on a console without two screens would have to make compromises.

either way, this isn't a bad way to experience TWEWY at all, but know it's a bit neutered gameplay wise compared to the DS version.

the gameplay on the switch is a fair bit easier (though not totally braindead), while the DS version has an incredibly harsh learning curve. since i've played the DS original so many times already and couldn't be bothered to learn the controls all over again, i opted for a playthrough on this version and still had a ton of fun. it's still the TWEWY i know and love.

if it's your first playthrough though, i highly suggest seeking out the DS version if possible

Imagine everything good about the base game that I just said, now make it 10x worse. Congratulations! You now have the epilogue, A New Day. Not only does this epilogue decide to ruin an extremely conclusive ending. It does so by using a cliffhanger to end it. If I had played this in 2018, knowing there's a chance Square Enix wouldn't give this game a sequel? I'd be fucking pissed. It is such a scummy way to give a port more content, but I'll give into the reason that I dislike this epilogue so much. It is filled with the most monotonous gameplay seen yet. To spice up the gameplay, the designers of this epilogue decided to give specifications to each battle, which I find okay, but what the game finds difficult is spamming tons of enemies with huge health pools, and having them able to clone and mantain full health, as your health slowly depletes as you try to spam healing items only to get hit by the fucking thousands of frogs that are now on screen. This made the epilogue bad enough, but the game wants you to keep fighting and fighting to progress, so now you have the most dragged out and montonous day IN THE GAME. I had enough by the time I had gotten to the point where to progress, you had to do TEN BATTLES just to make it through, and these battles already take long enough. So I took a break, and decided to play more later, only to find myself frustrated at the very same issues these epilogue has throughout. To take some solace in this, I think the writing, while not as sharp as the original is still decent, and the new music to be really good. NEO: TWEWY's existence now makes it an easier pill to swallow, but still a very boring and tedious epilogue capped with some extremely idiotic decisions by Square Enix.

This game really is something special, at the start I honestly hated it. Was not very fun but, after putting some more time in it the gameplay grew to be more fun and interesting than the start and that music was bopping. But nothing really comes close to the story and cast of this game, Neku really grows and turned into my favorite video game character of all time and the other partners are all extremely interesting especially Joshua. Overall this package is something really magical that I think most people can enjoy.

Yet another game added to my personal "I enjoyed this a lot more when I was a kid" list.

Issues with the port (like the butchered combat) aside, I just didn't gel with the game this time around. I kinda couldn't stand any of the characters? The writing is very 2007, which has a certain charm to it, but it mostly just irritated me. I found the story to be meh too, but it might just be because I knew what was in store going in.

The music's still great though! And I'm still excited for Neo.