The World Ends with You is back, in a transition to 3D which works far better than I anticipated. The demo has left me extremely happy as a fan of the original and I am positively salivating for more. And this is even considering that the visual package is very rough.
Story
The Story in the demo progresses over the first two days of in-game time. The premise is similar to the original, the MC Rindo and his Friend Fret suddenly find themselves in the Shinigami game, and have absolutely no idea what they are involved in and the plot ensues. I am not going to say much more as you should experience it for yourselves. I will say that the actual script is fantastic, with the writing being very much like the original, and each character has their own charm and way of speaking and all the dialogue feels organic. It’s surprisingly well-written for a sequel, after all these years, and considering the hit-and-miss nature of Square Enix’s latest games.
Visuals
Now, this is where the game is a slightly mixed, yet very fixable bag. After the trailers, I was quite concerned about the budget for this title considering the quality of the visual package based on trailers, however, I am happy to report that for the PS4 version at least, the quality of assets and artistic direction are actually quite competent. The art style is fantastic, the 2D drawings are sublime, the 3D part is stylized and works very well, and the low resolution does not detract from the artist’s intention. That’s not to say that the game looks amazing, however, as due to its relatively low budget it has basic shadows, lighting, and rendering, but is presented in a way that it becomes less glaring.
There is one major issue with the visual package for me, the game has no native PS5 version, which means that the game is likely running at 1080p, just by my eyeballing it. On my 24-inch 4K monitor, it looks significantly blurry on distant objects and screams low res, even more so than Rift Apart in perf RT mode as there seems to be no upscaling. I do not understand how there is no GFX upgrade for PS5 users 7 months into the PS5 launch. I really hope this is rectified by SE as I believe at native 4k this game would shine due to its style. So, now I’m faced with the choice of living with the low resolution on PS5, or wait to get the PC version… I’m not sure I can hold out, to be honest.
Sound
As soon as I booted up the main menu, my fingers were tapping and my head was bobbing. No DNA from the original has been lost; the soundtrack is fantastic and the mix in genres works perfectly, and the game is absolutely TWEY. All the themes are great, whether that’s the main menu, in-game menu, exploring, and so on. Although, the in-game menu loops a bit poorly. I cannot stress enough how strong the music package is in this game. If you loved the OST in the OG, you should love the OST in NEO. The sound effects are an average affair, competent but nothing to write home about. TWEY has always been about OST though.
Gameplay
The gameplay is also unmistakably TWEY. Obviously, there is a transition to 3d here, now every char has 1 button for their attack, and you can swap their pins out, although some pins can only be matched to specific people. The level system of the pins is back and finding amazing combos is still there. If anything, the move to 3D and the new input system has allowed the action to be even better than before.
There are some crazy combos you can execute and with later pins in the game, I can see some absolutely crazy mixes being possible. The transition to 3D has not affected exploration at all. In fact, Shibuya feels more alive than ever because of it. It is an incredibly smooth transition and works perfectly. My only real complaint is the difficulty, but there are two levels higher than Normal that are not available in the demo, which should rectify this issue. Overall, the gameplay also screams TWEY. I cannot believe how good a sequel this game is shaping up to be.
Conclusion
After a clear lack of budget as seen in the trailers, coupled with the sheer lack of push from SE about this title, and how long it has been since the original, I was very concerned for this sequel. However, I am happy to report that the game seems to have improved on every single aspect of the original, and I am absolutely floored by how good this is. As a die-hard fan of the original, I cannot wait to play this. Square Enix has finally delivered a sequel, and not only that, but a sequel that looks to be even better than the fantastic original, and is a special product that SE is not giving anywhere near enough marketing to. This could actually be their best game this year and might even surpass FF7R.