Shibuya is often cited as the epicentre for youth culture, at least at it's peak in the 2000s and early 2010s, many aspects of this district embody this from their shopping centres, to the type of music you would hear from the giant billboard television advertising loud jpop to a massive crosswalk of people walking every direction, surrounded by art trying to speak to someone, no matter how manufactured, or genuine a message it is. All of this is embodied in The World Ends With You, a remarkably unique game because of how it incorporates its style, aesthetics, and cultural history into every element it can. It is impossible to seperate this game from the culture and time it belongs to, ironically this makes it timeless in a lot of ways as a time capsule to an era where punk and angst manifested into noise, bombast, and individuality.
Remarkably, The World Ends with You deftly weaves this into its mechanics, with fashion being, appropriately, stat boosting "armour" that varies in effectiveness with the varying trends of fashion in each district, and pins (think more badges) which are the attacks of the game. While a relatively negligible mechanic in practice, particularly in post-game due to the large assortment of extremely powerful unbranded clothes, it cannot be denied that it has a purpose extended beyond gameplay and weaves itself into the foundation of the game. The way the game's foundation of Shibuya manifests even further into its story, while on a surface level it can feel like a dated story about an angsty teen angry at the world learning to see past himself and look at other people as well, there is a lot of subtext present about the way his eyes open up, even beyond his ability to develop friendships once he focuses more on other people, such as the way he views at art, fashion, and individual expression in general.
The key in what makes The World Ends with You one of my favourite games in how all the little details contribute to the greater themes and ideas. A detail I've often seen overlooked are the thoughts you can mindread from people around Shibuya, while you may look at a few thoughts here and there, I find most players would only beeline towards the relevant thoughts for story progression but there are a surprising number of unique thoughts spread across the many generic npcs in the world. Again, this directly loops into our main character's realisation about the people outside his own peripheral vision, as the player perceives people outside the main cast, or even the side cast, and their thoughts permeating the players view, as this mindreading view is required to encounter enemies outside of bosses.
The World Ends with You is getting a sequel in a few months, but whether that game is good or not won't affect how this game is still a beautiful time capsule of an experience, that is well worth your time if you have even a passing interest in anything that Shibuya was about before it's, arguable, modern corporatization and sanitisation. Feel free to post copium if NEO: TWEWY sucks.
Remarkably, The World Ends with You deftly weaves this into its mechanics, with fashion being, appropriately, stat boosting "armour" that varies in effectiveness with the varying trends of fashion in each district, and pins (think more badges) which are the attacks of the game. While a relatively negligible mechanic in practice, particularly in post-game due to the large assortment of extremely powerful unbranded clothes, it cannot be denied that it has a purpose extended beyond gameplay and weaves itself into the foundation of the game. The way the game's foundation of Shibuya manifests even further into its story, while on a surface level it can feel like a dated story about an angsty teen angry at the world learning to see past himself and look at other people as well, there is a lot of subtext present about the way his eyes open up, even beyond his ability to develop friendships once he focuses more on other people, such as the way he views at art, fashion, and individual expression in general.
The key in what makes The World Ends with You one of my favourite games in how all the little details contribute to the greater themes and ideas. A detail I've often seen overlooked are the thoughts you can mindread from people around Shibuya, while you may look at a few thoughts here and there, I find most players would only beeline towards the relevant thoughts for story progression but there are a surprising number of unique thoughts spread across the many generic npcs in the world. Again, this directly loops into our main character's realisation about the people outside his own peripheral vision, as the player perceives people outside the main cast, or even the side cast, and their thoughts permeating the players view, as this mindreading view is required to encounter enemies outside of bosses.
The World Ends with You is getting a sequel in a few months, but whether that game is good or not won't affect how this game is still a beautiful time capsule of an experience, that is well worth your time if you have even a passing interest in anything that Shibuya was about before it's, arguable, modern corporatization and sanitisation. Feel free to post copium if NEO: TWEWY sucks.