Paul RobertsSeptember 09, 2021Maxi Geek Review, Neo The World Ends with You, Square Enix, PS4, SwitchComment

Neo: The World Ends With You - Review

Paul RobertsSeptember 09, 2021Maxi Geek Review, Neo The World Ends with You, Square Enix, PS4, SwitchComment

Square isn’t afraid to revisit their franchises, one I hoped to see more of was The World Ends With You. This cult hit on the DS, with stylish sights and sounds and interesting use of the DS’s input capabilities, has always had a place in my heart. Since it’s release, there’s been mobile ports and an all-too-brief appearance in Kingdom Hearts 3DDD. Then the Switch came along to bring a remastered (although somewhat compromised) Final Remix. Now in 2021 not only are we spoiled with an Anime series, but a follow-up game in the form of Neo: The World Ends With You. Let’s see if it’s been worth the wait to jump back into Shibuya for another round of the Reapers Game.

Shibuya is a different place from the first game. The locations may look similar, but the Reaper’s Game is anything but. Rindo and Fret are best friends that find themselves in the Underground, after an accident lands them in the Reaper’s Game. Something isn’t right with the game, and Rindo keeps getting visions of much worse to come. Can the duo build up a team to survive the week and get a chance to be brought back to life?

To play the Reapers game the teams taking part have to complete missions given each day, while fighting the creatures called the Noise. Rindo and Fret have their own abilities or ‘psych’s’, which help to clear a mission or unlock some social network points. Fret can help people to remember, and Rindo can turn back time, Nagi joins early on and can imprint on people. With their psychs combined, the team has a real chance of uncovering what’s really going on.

Following on from a game with so much style and personality like The World Ends With You leaves Neo with a lot to prove. It was only through the more recent Final Remix where the game felt open to a follow-up. After seeing the final credits roll on Neo, I can safely say that it ultimately feels like the second half to a two-part story. That’s not to say Neo doesn’t have its own story to tell and characters to get to know, but Shibuya does have some familiar faces. Given how Final Remix finished up, Neo does a great job of resolving some story threads left dangling while also having a great time getting to know the new kids like Rindo, Fret and Nagi. It wouldn’t be a TWEWY game without the characters trapped within the Reapers Game having to face their fears and flaws and learn to embrace their strengths. Rindo’s paralysing indecision and Fret’s burying of emotions are notable ongoing traits, impacting the story in ways quite different than Neku from the first game.

The combat is a big change from the original game. While Pins return, the way in which they’re used has changed. Instead of having to swipe and tap the screen, or blowing into a microphone, now it’s all button presses. Each pin is used by pressing or holding the button assigned to it until they need to cool down. There’s a variety of attack (and support) types and elements, with a wide variety of pins to collect and level up. The game eases you into the combat with just the three separate pins to control. As your team grows, the more you have to juggle. You can either attack in turns or by hitting multiple buttons you can unleash hell all at once on the noise. Throughout the game, I managed to hold onto my favourite pins for a while because you can level them up, even evolve some to more powerful pins. If you feel certain types of pins don’t suit your playstyle, there are more than enough options.

As you go through the story you’ll be able to unlock different levels of difficulty, these can either help with tougher moments or give you more of a challenge. It’s encouraged that you choose harder difficulties to increase the amount of pins that get dropped at the end of the fight. You can even drop down your teams level to help boost that drop rate. You’ll also be encouraged to take on groups of noise in a ‘chain’, allowing you to take on a series of fights, each one getting more difficult. It’s not necessary to change all of these options, but it’s a great incentive to take on the noise at a disadvantage to reap the rewards. It helps that the combat is fun, I found myself wanting to take on a series of battles where ever I went.

While fashion still plays a part in Neo as armour, you no longer have different fashion labels being stronger depending on where you are. Now you can equip whatever clothes you want, although you’ll need enough of the style stat to get the most out of your clothing. While clothes help build on stats, you’ll need to stop off at Shibuya’s many restaurants to get the real stat increases. When you level through XP, you mostly increase your party’s HP. It's food and drink that helps boost everything else. As a result, you’ll want to be eating all the time, well as much as your hunger meter allows. Eat too much and you’ll be too full for anything until the meter is completely empty.

Instead of passing a ball of light across screens, you now build up Groove when you build up combos. When a combo starts you can keep it going by using different attacks as you build up the groove meter. When you hit 100% you can unleash a powerful team move. It works well and when you have a great combination of pins you can easily build up that groove.

The original game grabbed me instantly with its art style and designs. With the change into 3D Neo is jam-packed with a similar vibe. There is still plenty of lovely 2D art for the story dialogue and cutscenes. There’s also a surprising amount of voice acting given the original had very little, but it’s welcome.

As the days progress you’ll open up more of Shibuya, revisiting many familiar places. Even though you’ll revisit the same locations often, they never get boring, Shibuya grows on you and is a welcome sight for returning players.

While I really enjoy so much of the game, some areas of the story can drag. This is strange to think back on, because really what’s asked of you doesn’t change too much. The story is strong enough to keep you doing similar things throughout the many hours without them getting stale. When the day is dragging it becomes all the more obvious. It doesn’t happen a lot, but days using Rindo’s psych tend to feel much longer than needed. Ultimately, it’s a pretty minor gripe. I was still on board right through to the end, but that’s also because I have plenty of love for the original game. You could start this game without any prior knowledge, but you definitely will get less out of the game. As I mentioned earlier it ultimately feels like the second half of a larger story, it is such a great conclusion too. If you don’t want to play the original game, there’s always the recent anime series out to get up to date.

Neo: The World Ends With You has big super-stylish shoes to fill, but it manages to live up to expectations. It’s an enjoyable romp around Shibuya, either for the first time or for those who want to see what happens next in TWEWY. It’s not a perfect game, but there’s a lot to like. Even though it brings everything together, there is still a part of me that hopes for more. Although, we’re lucky we got Neo at all.