Are you down with the latest trends?
Do you hate people?
Ever just wanted to control people and things with your mind for a chance at redemption?
Welcome to The World Ends With You: Final Remix.
Brought to us by Square Enix, Jupiter, and h.a.n.d. for the Nintendo Switch, the game starts off with the main character dropped into a bustling city called Shibuya with no memory of how he got there or why these weird graffiti frogs are suddenly attacking him. Soon after, a girl with clothes that don’t look like they should stay on her body except with the power of plot asks him to form a pact with her.
Only with the power of plot are those clothes on her
He agrees and together they defeat the frogs and the main character, that we learn is named Neku, learns that he is in a game made by The Composer with the Reapers keeping things moving along.
With his partner, these mysterious pins and psychs, he must complete each daily mission during the week or face erasure.
Without spoiling too much, you learn right away that Neku is just about as palatable as a two-week-old turkey sandwich that a toddler threw up on.
Yes, he is that bad.
Throughout the beginning of the story, Neku doesn’t seem like he wants to have anything to do with his partner, Shiki, because of the typical high school reasons…
“I’m fine by myself..”
“People just end up letting you down…”
“I want to live by own rules….”
All of that can basically be summed up as edddgggeeee. So much edge.
Present day Mr. Gamer couldn’t stand this guy. I just wanted to choke him. But teenage Mr. Gamer, when he was playing this on the DS many moons ago, resonated with Neku. Take that as you will. When I was young, I thought Neku was the coolest character ever. Obviously, I’ve grown and matured over my years and know better, but I saw the appeal then and I can still see the appeal now.
Neku meets a variety of characters along his journey, forming pacts with different partners and learning just how we are all really connected and benefit from those connections.
For those unfamiliar with the original TWEWY, the pins and clothes you wear dictate how powerful you are but don’t let the trends fool you. You aren’t a slave to the trends and you can change them by wearing more of a particular brand in your battles. Think of it as being a more palatable version of the Kardashians, without the fake ass and batshit husband.
One of my favorite features from the game is how your pins earn EXP while the game is sleeping. Some pins can evolve with use and the EXP that you earn while the game is asleep is different than the EXP earned in battle. Pins can only earn 7 days of sleep exp at max, but that feature kept me coming back. You had to manage that along with the fact that your characters can eat and have to digest their food before they can eat more. You can’t just scarf 26 bags of Potato Crisps as fast as your thumbs can move like in Fallout or pause the world and eat 15 cheese wheels like you’re the Dragonborn. I always found myself trying to maximize the most they could eat at once.
It wasn’t as addicting as Animal Crossing. But close.
I originally wanted to bash the game for changing a formula that I thought worked very well but I can see what Nintendo was trying to do with this “remix”. In the original TWEWY, you used the stylus to move your character around and depending on the pins you had equipped, you swipe or tap on the screen with the stylus to perform each pin’s power, or psych.
Sounds easy enough, right? With the DS, it was simple; system in one hand and stylus in the other. If you absolutely had to, you could set the system on a table and play but you really didn’t have to.
With the Nintendo Switch, you don’t have the same luxury. You would have to awkwardly hold the system in your hand as if you were reading a book and swipe with your finger or lay it down on a flat surface and that’s not really going to work with the ZL and ZR trigger buttons.
Note the awkwardness…
“But Mr. Gamer”, you ask, “What about using the Joycon? You can also have a co-op partner!”
And my response would be, “Why the hell would I do that? That’s way too slow!”
I would argue that the game is too fast paced for trying to use the Joycon as a glorified stylus or not-a-wii-remote. Sometimes victory is decided by a quick swipe and I can swipe with my fingers faster than the system can register Joycon movement. Add the new fusion skills/minigames that you must play to get the best damage and drop rate, why wouldn’t you use your finger?
The game is just awkward to play docked in. And that’s where it lets me down. I remember being able to swipe to my heart’s content and though I went through a touch screen or two, it wasn’t major. I can’t do that with the Switch. Unfortunately, the new feature doesn’t bring any excitement or really add much to the game. I’d say it would have been better as a 3DS game with the same “Remix” story update but keep the game on a two screen system.
I will say that music is still just as awesome as, even the new remixes they added. They didn’t screw that up, at least.
The World Ends With You: Final Remix – A decent remix that falls a bit short of the classic.