This review contains spoilers
Spoilers (Better to just play the game, just leaving my thoughts here)
This game is the golden standard of ARPGS, starting with the gameplay you already have a lot with it's unique variety of pins allowing for player expression. Some pins completely changing the game how you play the game. From swiping on the screen, to tapping, to even blowing on the mic it uses all of the ds' features excellently. The dual screen gameplay requires you truly be in sync with your partner and paying close attention to the attacks, carefully dodging and playing the minigames for fusion levels.
The characters deserve their own section, the story is amazing but the characters are the real highlight here, it's amazing seeing the characters grow as you play the game, and even the common npc's can see some growth along with the protag. It's hard to not get attached to them, they all have excellent motivations (my favorite being beat) It's really heartwarming seeing Neku being inspired by cat's words and realizing "The world ends with him" Hating the sameness, and dullness of shibuya to realizing the people around him are just like him. Beat while looking like some standard punk has so much more to him. Being pressured by his parents expectations he runs from home, this single moment already makes the audience feel empathy as we've all felt that. Unexpectedly his sister which he believes could actually do something in life follows him resulting in both of them being struck by a car as he wasn't strong enough to protect her leading to an immense amount of guilt. Throughout the game they reunite, but she does not recognize him, even with this she helps him through everything, and even sacrifices herself for him.Throughout the rest of the game, he goes through tooth and nail to get his sister back even becoming a reaper. Even as a reaper he refuses to do his duties and erase the players he's helped throughout the game, and just holds what's close to him on his back (Rhyme). Not doing anything like erasing not only because it's not in his character, but because he wouldn't do something like that Infront of his sister. He seems like just a well mannered misunderstood punk on the surface but his writing is top notch. He's constantly helping people as he thinks they'll be something unlike him, he's really a touching character. He's my favorite character even over Neku. No matter how I talk about Neku, I will not be able to do him justice. He's truly one of the best written protagonists alongside Raiden. Starts out closing off his world tired of the same things he sees everyday in shibuya until he stumbles into cat's art with neat messages like the world is as big as you make it, until one fateful day admiring this art he's tragically shot and picked to play in a game. In this game he's forced to work with the people he used to hate so much, leading to him eventually caring about not only his partners but the people around him as he finds out there are people just like him. He started to care for shiki especially when she was feeling off. The constant death of the partners around him dying on him didn't make him want to trust again, but Cat's art and Mr K's words drive him to trust again only to experience the same thing. He helps beat and shiki through their tough moments, and helps them go through it after realizing how much he truly cares for these people. Neku's gone through a lot, the end part opf the game made me cry man. Neku even after all he's gone through after Joshua's reveal can't find himself to pull the trigger as he trusts him as a partner even if he doesn't forgive him. I don't have a lot to say about shiki, but she has a good story. Shiki always had a passion for sewing making designs such as mr mew. She found a friend who helped her make designs as she sewed. This friend meant everything to shiki, to the point where she started seeing herself as lesser. The friend here, could make beatiful designs, she had so many friends, and looked so much better than her she thought. This lead into shiki dying and having her looks taken as the entry fee, to look like her friend. She constantly stares at her old appearance and slowly realizes, she was only shutting herself out. Her friend cared for her and even gave up designing after her. Neku even hammers the point saying even if she changes back into her old appearance, that's the shiki he cares for.
I don't know much about music theory so I can't go over the machinations of what makes the ost so good. Despite my shortcomings here, I want to talk about Deja Vu which is my favorite track in this game. It details over Neku's encounters with Joshua feeling Deja Vu from being in Udagawa, with the same smell, dress ,smile, voice and everything. The beat in this song is absolutely amazing, it's upbeat and fits walking around shibuya in these games. The vocalist does an amazing job here. It really just makes me euphoric, I'm usually just a spanish rock kind of guy but I would listen to this even outside of the game. It even ties in to Neku having his memories taken and having the sense that something feels familiar walking through these streets. It really is just perfection and I have not done it justice, go listen for yourself. I can't talk about all the tracks since I'm not that good at this but it really is one of my favorite osts.
My final thoughts on this game is that it's an experience that should be played by everyone with an amazing ost, stellar characters, and a great narrative with good pacing. It really makes me feel stupid I didn't play this game so long ago. I had marked it down to play since Etika played it and was praising it. I even added the ost alongside with other songs he liked to a playlist when he died. The only reason I'm writing this review is that my friends and some of my family watched Etika with me and I wanted to talk about one of his favorite games. Thank you for the amazing experience, I hope others can have just as much of a great experience I had. I know it's weird to grieve for a content creator, but it truly broke me watching my friends grieve. Fly high Etika FRFX.
This game is the golden standard of ARPGS, starting with the gameplay you already have a lot with it's unique variety of pins allowing for player expression. Some pins completely changing the game how you play the game. From swiping on the screen, to tapping, to even blowing on the mic it uses all of the ds' features excellently. The dual screen gameplay requires you truly be in sync with your partner and paying close attention to the attacks, carefully dodging and playing the minigames for fusion levels.
The characters deserve their own section, the story is amazing but the characters are the real highlight here, it's amazing seeing the characters grow as you play the game, and even the common npc's can see some growth along with the protag. It's hard to not get attached to them, they all have excellent motivations (my favorite being beat) It's really heartwarming seeing Neku being inspired by cat's words and realizing "The world ends with him" Hating the sameness, and dullness of shibuya to realizing the people around him are just like him. Beat while looking like some standard punk has so much more to him. Being pressured by his parents expectations he runs from home, this single moment already makes the audience feel empathy as we've all felt that. Unexpectedly his sister which he believes could actually do something in life follows him resulting in both of them being struck by a car as he wasn't strong enough to protect her leading to an immense amount of guilt. Throughout the game they reunite, but she does not recognize him, even with this she helps him through everything, and even sacrifices herself for him.Throughout the rest of the game, he goes through tooth and nail to get his sister back even becoming a reaper. Even as a reaper he refuses to do his duties and erase the players he's helped throughout the game, and just holds what's close to him on his back (Rhyme). Not doing anything like erasing not only because it's not in his character, but because he wouldn't do something like that Infront of his sister. He seems like just a well mannered misunderstood punk on the surface but his writing is top notch. He's constantly helping people as he thinks they'll be something unlike him, he's really a touching character. He's my favorite character even over Neku. No matter how I talk about Neku, I will not be able to do him justice. He's truly one of the best written protagonists alongside Raiden. Starts out closing off his world tired of the same things he sees everyday in shibuya until he stumbles into cat's art with neat messages like the world is as big as you make it, until one fateful day admiring this art he's tragically shot and picked to play in a game. In this game he's forced to work with the people he used to hate so much, leading to him eventually caring about not only his partners but the people around him as he finds out there are people just like him. He started to care for shiki especially when she was feeling off. The constant death of the partners around him dying on him didn't make him want to trust again, but Cat's art and Mr K's words drive him to trust again only to experience the same thing. He helps beat and shiki through their tough moments, and helps them go through it after realizing how much he truly cares for these people. Neku's gone through a lot, the end part opf the game made me cry man. Neku even after all he's gone through after Joshua's reveal can't find himself to pull the trigger as he trusts him as a partner even if he doesn't forgive him. I don't have a lot to say about shiki, but she has a good story. Shiki always had a passion for sewing making designs such as mr mew. She found a friend who helped her make designs as she sewed. This friend meant everything to shiki, to the point where she started seeing herself as lesser. The friend here, could make beatiful designs, she had so many friends, and looked so much better than her she thought. This lead into shiki dying and having her looks taken as the entry fee, to look like her friend. She constantly stares at her old appearance and slowly realizes, she was only shutting herself out. Her friend cared for her and even gave up designing after her. Neku even hammers the point saying even if she changes back into her old appearance, that's the shiki he cares for.
I don't know much about music theory so I can't go over the machinations of what makes the ost so good. Despite my shortcomings here, I want to talk about Deja Vu which is my favorite track in this game. It details over Neku's encounters with Joshua feeling Deja Vu from being in Udagawa, with the same smell, dress ,smile, voice and everything. The beat in this song is absolutely amazing, it's upbeat and fits walking around shibuya in these games. The vocalist does an amazing job here. It really just makes me euphoric, I'm usually just a spanish rock kind of guy but I would listen to this even outside of the game. It even ties in to Neku having his memories taken and having the sense that something feels familiar walking through these streets. It really is just perfection and I have not done it justice, go listen for yourself. I can't talk about all the tracks since I'm not that good at this but it really is one of my favorite osts.
My final thoughts on this game is that it's an experience that should be played by everyone with an amazing ost, stellar characters, and a great narrative with good pacing. It really makes me feel stupid I didn't play this game so long ago. I had marked it down to play since Etika played it and was praising it. I even added the ost alongside with other songs he liked to a playlist when he died. The only reason I'm writing this review is that my friends and some of my family watched Etika with me and I wanted to talk about one of his favorite games. Thank you for the amazing experience, I hope others can have just as much of a great experience I had. I know it's weird to grieve for a content creator, but it truly broke me watching my friends grieve. Fly high Etika FRFX.