Crazy that they drop this very very surprising bombshell right around the time I start having way less fun with the game. Like Clockwork.

I thought PvE was the whole reason they branded this game as Overwatch 2. It's even less than that now. It's a skinned version of the original with better aspects on some fronts, I'm ngl, but way worse on other facets. What a fucking disappointment. At least this game gets me get a lot of discussion out of the query "What makes a sequel a sequel". I'm really starting to think multiplayer shooters just aren't my thing.

"This world really ends with me huh Fret?" says Rindo.
"That's neo dude." says Fret.

A worthy sequel to the cult classic, but falters in some areas whilst being better than it's predecessor in others. The game is MUCH more accessible than the original taking on a more ARPG or Kingdom Hearts/ Modern Final Fantasy approach to it's gameplay. It's a bit mashy yes, but timing hits correctly gives me dopamine so idgaf. The original game you had like three different ways of playing it. Playing it on an og DS with the touch screen, an unorthodox playstyle but still unique and challenging, the mobile port which changes a lot of things so it can fit on one screen and the switch vers. which is basically just the mobile vers. but now you can play it on your TV and give yourself carpal tunnel. Now it's just universalized with one controller which is good.

The story isn't as hard hitting/impactful as the original for me just cause I relate much more to the previous protag (the char in my pfp) Neku, than I do Rindo. The og twewy was the type of game I could've really used during middle school. Anyway, it's sound and enjoyable from start to finish but I just don't find the main protag as interesting as the chars around him. They all have a lot more personality, and ended up being more likable imo. I don't hate Rindo but he's just ok. There's also a number of random plot devices that just get added into the game just for kicks. Lot of Deus Ex Machina type situations. The game has a time travel mechanic in which you go back in time to stop something bad from happening, but at times I felt that this mechanic just added WAY too much damn fluff to the game. It doesn't help that there are so many damn textboxes in the game either. I'm not joking there's so much fucking text in this game, and it turns out to be a massive pacebreaker sometimes.

Music is once again phenomenal. I didn't think they'd be able to translate the urban mid to late 2000s style all that well here. And yet it still works almost 20 years later. I don't love every single track in this game like I do with the original but there's still some major highlights in the form of 'Kill the Itch', 'OWARI-HAJIMARI - NEO MIX', 'We're Losing You', 'Breaking Free' (especially) and more.

On a performance front, I played half the game on switch and played the other half roughly on PC. It really doesn't make that much sense to me that the Switch version runs the way it does. The World Ends with You as a series strikes me as a Nintendo series in the same way that Kingdom Hearts strikes as a PlayStation series. I really wish they optimized the game for switch in a similar vein to how Persona 5 Royal and Nier Automata were optimized for switch. It runs at 30 FPS max but drops when way too much effects are on screen. The PC version on the other hand has an uncapped FPS, much better visuals, etc. Purchase this game anywhere but the switch if possible. The jump in frames genuinely took a bit to get used to as the gameplay was much faster. Other than that the game still nails this weird urban atmosphere that I'd argue the TWEWY series is known for and the visuals are nice enough.

Even though there is some really annoying shit in this game, some of the bosses, side quests, constant backtracking, overabundance of text, etc. I generally really enjoyed my time with the game. I played most of it on Hard mode and only had to switch to the easier modes a few times. It really feels like The World Ends with You again but modernized. Unfortunately, this seems to be the last we'll see of this unique, risk-taking series. It's extremely low popularity despite not even being advertised at all by Square and then again being shadowdropped on Steam the day before Persona 5 Royal released on PC solidifies it. I really love these games, and it's extremely unfortunate how poorly they were handled. Please consider these underrated modern classics.