You would be hard-pressed to find another game that is more singularly-focused in its vision than The World Ends with You. There’s a very good series of video essays on YouTube that goes into detail on how every little aspect of the game’s design ties back into its overall themes, and so I won’t get into the minutiae of it here, but suffice it to say, the entire game centers around Neku’s character arc. Of course, that’s not to say the other characters aren’t developed—Shiki and Beat in particular are very well-fleshed out and entertaining characters in their own right—but their development is all ultimately in service of Neku’s development. This results in what is quite possibly my favorite character arc in all of gaming as well as a narrative that is both confident and concise, coming together to make for one incredibly strong piece of writing.
These are all things I’ve come to appreciate with time, but when I first played this game at the age of 13, when my sense of media literacy was only beginning to develop, these weren’t all things that I initially picked up on. It helps, then, that on top of having the kind of laser-sharp theming that you would expect to come out of the indie scene today, The World Ends with You is just generally a blast to play. Like Katamari Damacy, The World Ends with You is one of those rare games with a genuinely unique gameplay format that manages to knock it out of the park on its first try. Finding pins you like and customizing your deck around ones that work well together is such a gratifying experience, one made even more so when you develop enough muscle memory to begin focusing on your partner on the top screen. Beyond the larger thematic elements, the line-to-line dialogue is witty and full of heart, the cast is filled with charming characters, and the story has plot twists aplenty. The artstyle is about as sharp as the dialogue and unique as the gameplay is, and none of that is to mention the soundtrack, which, though not quite eeking its way out over EarthBound for my favorite soundtrack in gaming, sits very firmly in second place as the soundtrack with the greatest number of songs that work as well out-of-context as they do in-context—that is, as an album isolated from the game itself, it is second to none.
The World Ends with You is a masterpiece in how it marries its artful writing with its fun, more traditional game-y elements. It is one of the most unique JRPGs to come out of a major studio, and I absolutely implore anyone and everyone interested in the genre or just good storytelling in general to play it. It is simply that good.
These are all things I’ve come to appreciate with time, but when I first played this game at the age of 13, when my sense of media literacy was only beginning to develop, these weren’t all things that I initially picked up on. It helps, then, that on top of having the kind of laser-sharp theming that you would expect to come out of the indie scene today, The World Ends with You is just generally a blast to play. Like Katamari Damacy, The World Ends with You is one of those rare games with a genuinely unique gameplay format that manages to knock it out of the park on its first try. Finding pins you like and customizing your deck around ones that work well together is such a gratifying experience, one made even more so when you develop enough muscle memory to begin focusing on your partner on the top screen. Beyond the larger thematic elements, the line-to-line dialogue is witty and full of heart, the cast is filled with charming characters, and the story has plot twists aplenty. The artstyle is about as sharp as the dialogue and unique as the gameplay is, and none of that is to mention the soundtrack, which, though not quite eeking its way out over EarthBound for my favorite soundtrack in gaming, sits very firmly in second place as the soundtrack with the greatest number of songs that work as well out-of-context as they do in-context—that is, as an album isolated from the game itself, it is second to none.
The World Ends with You is a masterpiece in how it marries its artful writing with its fun, more traditional game-y elements. It is one of the most unique JRPGs to come out of a major studio, and I absolutely implore anyone and everyone interested in the genre or just good storytelling in general to play it. It is simply that good.