NEO: The World Ends with You was absolutely worth the fourteen year wait. Its unique battle system, beautiful art, and accessibility for multiple audiences make it worthwhile. Beyond that, the lack of a grind and ability to play as you want make this JRPG worthy of being added to your collection. Although the menus can contribute to information overload and the game itself is fairly linear, NEO: TWEWY succeeds in telling a unique and engaging story without the slog of other games in the JRPG genre. In short: NEO: TWEWY is outstanding; be warned: you will become addicted.
Fourteen years ago, Square Enix and Jupiter released the World Ends with You for the Nintendo DS, an action-JRPG set in modern-day Shibuya that very quickly became a best-selling DS game in Japan and North America. In 2018, TWEWY was ported to the Nintendo Switch, reminding players of an incredible JRPG from before 2010. Now, fourteen years after the release of the original game, Square Enix has blessed us with NEO: The World Ends with You (NEO: TWEWY). Before you ask: Yes, this game has been worth the wait.
NEO: TWEWY should be considered a standalone game rather than a true sequel to TWEWY, as you begin the game as Rindo, a new character to the series, as a new (and deceased) player of the “Reaper’s Game” where he must survive Hunger Games-style for seven days for the chance to earn his life back. If you haven’t played TWEWY (like myself), worry not: any important references to TWEWY are referred to (when appropriate), meaning that you won’t miss out on too much lore-related content as you play. To say that this game is addicting is not doing it justice. I’ve spent nearly 15 hours in-game and have reached parts of the story that I will not spoil here. NEO: TWEWY has kept me on my couch playing rather than actually able to write this review. That’s right, I did not want to write this review because I wanted to keep playing. If that doesn’t speak to this game’s ability to keep me stationary and glued to the game, I am not sure what will.
GAMEPLAY AND MECHANICS
I’ve been told that JRPGs contain problematic gameplay design, be it overly complicated battle schemes, gameplay that punishes you for not spending a ridiculous amount of time grinding enemy encounters to advance the game and/or unlock high-level content, and “properly” building characters by assigning them very specific moves/equipment. I am very happy to report that NEO:TWEWY contains none of the above. NEO: TWEWY should be considered a JRPG-lite in the sense that it’s stripped away a lot of “strategy” (both during encounters AND on the overworld) that you would find in games like Persona 5, FFXII, and Tales of Berseria. You can expect battles to be quick, a manageable amount of grind, and interesting (albeit, linear) spaces to explore.
In terms of battles, I think the closest comparison of the gameplay would be to compare NEO: TWEWY to Tales of Berseria. However, instead of having multiple individuals’ health to manage, you have a team health bar (literally ONE). This means that your entire team will stay alive until that health bar is gone. You don’t have to worry about revive mechanics and worrying about missing out on experience (will talk about grind/experience later).
The way battles are conducted (generally) is that each character in your party is bound to exactly one input (🔼, ⏹, L1, R1, L2, or R2). Each character’s “move” can be changed in the overworld, so you can test out different input strategies/movesets depending on what enemies you’re against. You acquire additional moves by playing the game/purchasing them from vendors/increasing the difficulty (will explain the difficulty/grind later). While you technically move one character at a time, pressing the button assigned to another party member can make it so that you control their movement (unless you’re trying to chain combos together, then the game only lets you move the character whose input you pressed first).
Timing is key in battles, meaning that how you chain your abilities and when will result in opportunities to use “Super Moves” (that differ depending on the type of move you assigned to a character). You can dodge enemies’ attacks using the ❎ button, but most (even on HARD) can just be dodged by moving your character and/or switching to another character by pressing their input. Depending on what moves you assign to each character, each move has a unique “style” and “recharge time.” For example, my current set up has two characters with a “rapid fire” move (meaning that I can spam 🔼 up to 15 times before the move recharges for a few seconds) and one with a “charge” move (meaning that I hold L1 for 3 seconds, the move activates, and I can switch to another character for chaining; using the charge move 3 times in short succession puts it on cooldown for several seconds). Thus, the timing of your abilities matters in the sense that you have to be mindful of your moves’ cooldowns when you’re in longer battles.
All of this sounds good on paper, but I will admit that it is entirely possible to button mash your way through the game without trying to create combos and use special moves. However, I do not consider this to be a significant drawback to the game. If you want to play through the game and button mash your way through Shibuya, you can do so without fear of being punished for lacking creativity. If you want to experiment with new abilities, the game gives you that space to experiment and the opportunity to modify the difficulty to get a handle on your characters’ new moves.
The enemy grind is pretty unique, and in no way does the game punish you for opting out of fighting enemies over and over. There are no random encounters, meaning that you can see what enemies you could be fighting. It’s possible to “chain” encounters together in the sense that you “group” the enemies together and fight them back to back. The key thing to note here is that you’re not fighting them all at once. For example, if you chain three enemies together, you’ll do three encounters back to back. During these encounters, your health bar will remains the same, so if the first encounter brings you down to half health, you will have that half-full health bar for the second encounter (unless you take further damage/assigned a healing move/equipped an item that slowly regens your team’s health). I remember setting aside several hours when I played Bravely Default (2012) just so I could get my characters’ jobs to level 99 and unlock their special perks; I did not have to do that here. It is totally possible to do the bare minimum (and decrease the difficulty, too) if you want to just experience the world of NEO: TWEWY. The game allows you (at literally any point) to decrease/increase the difficulty at will (so if you’re on a boss battle, you can die, return to where you were prior to the boss, decrease the difficulty/change your loadout, and try again).
If you’re familiar with the grind (like me), then it is entirely possible to overlevel and get to a situation where you’re 20 levels over the recommended power level (even when you’re playing on HARD). Luckily, the game lets you “modify” your power level, which in turn greatly increases the loot you get from battles. Increasing the difficulty, decreasing your power level, and chaining encounters together will grant you the best amount of loot to a ridiculous extent. I decreased my level by 10, maxed out the difficulty, and chained together multiple enemies just so I could have a 200% drop rate (you can go beyond that). By doing so, I was able to max out my money in several minutes.
Equipment in NEO: TWEWY is an afterthought in the sense that you can equip just about whatever you want on whomever you want with the sole exception that your character’s “Style” rating is the appropriate level. If your character lacks that minimum style rating, then you will be allowed to equip the article of clothing but will be unable to benefit from its unique perks (such as additional experience gained per battle or additional loot drop rates). Aside from the arbitrary minimum style rating, my issue with the equipment system is twofold. First, there really is no incentive to think about what equipment to assign which character. While this can also be a benefit, the fact that there is so much freedom to assign whatever you want, even if it is drastically underleveled, takes away from giving the player the choice in how they want to/should build their characters. The second issue is the fact that there really is no aesthetic benefit for equipping clothing: NEO: TWEWY gives you the opportunity to purchase some really silly clothing, yet equipping it yields no visible aesthetic effect. If I purchase a rainbow afro from a vendor, I want it to be shown in-game (for the silliness alone). I do wish that players had the chance to customize their characters, as NEO: TWEWY lacks aesthetic customization. These two issues are minor, and should in no way detract from you deciding to purchase this game.
At this point, you’re probably wondering how to increase your Style rating (as well as your other stats). The way in which you do so in NEO: TWEWY is not by grinding endlessly; instead…you purchase stats in the overworld rather than seeing them increase each time you level up. Yep, that’s it. You literally purchase stats at restaurants/cafes (and the game literally tells you to do so, too!). The “hunger” system that exists in NEO: TWEWY makes it so that you can purchase whatever food you want (with small bonuses for purchasing dishes that your characters like) until you’ve reached or exceed 100% on your “hunger” battery. Once you do so, you have to fight enemies (a few encounters, at most) to deplete the hunger battery to zero. At zero, you can visit your favorite restaurant/cafe and eat whatever you want! After playing through so many JRPGs and seeing diminishing returns on the leveling system, I vastly prefer NEO: TWEWY’s hunger/food system as it guarantees stat increases on a regular basis (and gives you the choice in choosing what to increase).
Without spoiling anything, you have a lot of freedom in this game to play however you want, be it grinding, assigning moves, and building your characters. If you’re a completionist (like me), this game is “better” than Persona 5 in that it’s possible to replay missions in case you missed something. Again, you don’t have to replay a chapter you’ve already completed. I remember being anxious when playing P5 because I only had a set amount of time to level/modify equipment/increase stats; I am not anxious here.
Outside of the overworld and battles, NEO: TWEWY contains a plethora of menus that border on cumbersome and unintuitive, especially for those unfamiliar with JRPGs. There are menus that document everything, from what you collect in-game, to a “social network” that functions as a space for you to unlock content spanning from new difficulty modes to important gameplay mechanics. Equipping new clothing/pins can be difficult, especially since the menus themselves are slow to navigate and it is very easy to miss out on critical information because of information overload. A cleaner UI would have been helpful for the amount of content that NEO: TWEWY throws at you at first, but it becomes easier to filter out the “fluff” menus and return to the parts that matter as you play.
WORLDBUILDING
Compared to other JRPGs, the world of NEO: TWEWY can be considered to be tiny and linear. Without spoiling the plot, the story takes place in a city setting (Shibuya), with variations. While this might be a benefit in the sense that there are fluff areas that were added for the sake of making the game larger, it would have been interesting to see a greater variation of urban biomes. The game itself is fairly linear in the sense that there are few side quests and grind-heavy portions. I personally would have appreciated some more hidden sections, but NEO: TWEWY’s linearity is acceptable.
The entire cast of characters fit NEO: TWEWY’s theme of Shibuya Streetwear to a T and give players a glimpse of a wide range of styles spanning multiple age ranges. Each character’s unique personality treads on mocking the outlandish personas often featured in JRPGs while avoiding being cringeworthy. NEO: TWEWY does well on giving players just enough lore about each character without locking it away in the menus or bombarding them with content that might or might not matter in the end.
Yes, there are cutscenes in NEO: TWEWY. A select few are animated, with the rest being text-based (most of which feature voice acting). These text-based cutscenes take place manga-style, with stylized text bubbles. If you don’t care about a story, you’re welcome to skip past the cutscenes entirely (which is helpful if you want to replay a chapter of the game), but I can say for certain that you won’t want to miss anything. The story is unpredictable, intriguing, and appropriately paced.
Should you decide to pay attention to the cutscenes, there are little tidbits that link the world of NEO: TWEWY to ours. I appreciated the small details in the form of advertisements for “socially-distanced” events and other new phenomena that are present in our COVID-filled world. If you pay attention, you’ll be left with many pleasant surprises and meta- jokes.
Again, it is important to note here that although NEO: TWEWY is a sequel to TWEWY, you should not feel disadvantaged if you hadn’t played TWEWY. The important parts of the “lore” of TWEWY are briefly discussed and you won’t be beaten over the head by unfamiliar references. Of course, there have been a few instances where they refer to an event that occurred in TWEWY to act as a nudge-nudge-wink-wink for those familiar with TWEWY.
ART & MUSIC
Never has Shibuya looked so beautiful, colorful, and alive, and exploring it (initially, at least) is intriguing. Rather than trying to replicate modern-day Shibuya (as was done in Tokyo Jungle, remember that?), NEO: TWEWY gives players the opportunity to explore modern-day Shibuya as though it was in a comic book. Some areas are bustling and packed with passerby, others are presented in a fish-eye-lens style where the buildings loom over you, and others seem dark and dingy. Each part of the map can be considered its own distinct area, containing unique enemies, perspectives, shops, and designs. The first time I explored a new area, I was intrigued to see what I would discover and was curious if what I was seeing existed in the real world or a relic of the game’s imagination.
The music is fantastic. NEO: TWEWY embraces its street roots and draws inspiration from the JRock genre. The music is in both English AND Japanese (with some remastered tracks from the original TWEWY). As you explore Shibuya and defeat enemies, you will (literally) rock out to the game’s original soundtrack. My only complaint is that I wish that each area had its own track rather than the game randomly assigning some songs to others. Moreover, entering a store/menu can also cut the song you’re listening to and then begin playing an entirely different track upon your return to the overworld. All this aside, I loved the music. It felt quite fitting with the theme of the game (and some of it was catchy, too).
FINAL THOUGHTS
NEO: The World Ends with You was absolutely worth the fourteen year wait. Its unique battle system, beautiful art, and accessibility for multiple audiences make it a must-buy for those wanting a new JRPG to play. Beyond that, the lack of a grind and ability to play as you want make this JRPG worthy of being added to your collection. Although the menus can contribute to information overload and the game itself is fairly linear, NEO: TWEWY succeeds in telling a unique and engaging story without the slog of other games in the JRPG genre. In short: NEO: TWEWY is outstanding; be warned: you will become addicted.
