The dramatic title is pretty apocalyptic, but the game really proves that the JRPG still has a world of potential beyond waifish man-boys and fighting via nested menus.

by Jeff Edwards, Games Channel Editor

Square Enix isn’t famous for taking risks. If anything, it’s the poster developer for clinging desperately to familiar cash cows. That’s not to say the milk isn’t any good; I’ve yet to be totally let down by their work. Heck, I’ll tell you right now: their pre-rendered clips are so beautiful that I’ve cried man-tears. But for all the quality, they haven’t really pushed into new territory since the Super Nintendo when you consider that The Bouncer is essentially a dolled-up Secret of Mana.

But bravo to them! The World Ends With You, developed by the folks who brought us Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and designed by the zazz fountain that’s made Kingdom Hearts the fantasy of more than a few x-rated nerd girl fantasies, is the most stylish, inventive, and explorative piece yet to ride in the DS.

The story is pretty off the wall, surrounding a game where dead people are given the chance to fight for their lives for one week, provided they ante up the most valuable thing to them. The antisocial Neku wakes up, oblivious to his situation, in Tokyo’s High Street, Shinjuku. In order to fight, he has to pair up with a girl who’s measurements run something like 22-8-49 and use magic pins to fight animal-like monsters called Noise. Mr. Mopey has his trust issues, and is forced to grow as a person, yadda yadda, plot twists, yadda yadda. Really, even explaining as little as I do spoils certain things. They know this is new ground, and everything for the first couple hours seems like a revelation.

But it’s not a fated child! The universe isn’t at peril! It’s just a dangerous game! A refreshing change of scope.

But what really turns me on about this game is the combat system. No random battles! The player must “scan” the area, and encounters appear as drifting logos the player must select to fight. The player then controls Neku and his partner simultaneously but separately. The top screen houses Neku’s partner, who fights by creating combos with the D-pad or the face buttons (for the comfort of lefties). The same enemies appear on the bottom screen, where Neku responds to a slew of different touch commands and even microphone input, based on which Pins he’s wearing. All of the enemies in the fight appear on both screens, so attacking it on one screen will deal damage to both it’s versions, allowing the player to focus both characters on one enemy, or split his focus as necessary.

Pins are really something new. Instead of having a handful of canned abilities, Neku has to equip Pins. Each Pin has its own attack, touch or microphone commanded, and a brand. Gone are the heady days of Fire beating Ice! Each area is under the fickle influence of wildly flailing trends, so while Pins of a favored brand get a bonus, one unlucky brand gets its effectiveness halved. There’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 different Pins available, however, so before long the player is ready to deal with any situation. If the player just grinds in an area, however, the Pins she’s using will grow more popular.

Oh, and these Pins evolve. Like Materia or Pokemon, the Pins can evolve into stronger incarnations. It’s not a simple “get x points, pins get better” formula: there are three distinct types of experience points. Battle points for winning fights, Mingle points from meeting up with other DS users in the special Mingle mode, and points the game gathers between times you’ve played. Yes sir, this game rewards you for not playing it.

And using the Pins turns into its own ballet. Tapping, holding the stylus against an enemy, slashing across the enemy, slashing upward anywhere, slashing downward on an enemy, shouting into the microphone, and turn fighting with Neku into a deep, cathartic, and enormously rewarding experience. A few well timed dodges, and controlling Neku becomes a wildly deep experience. Did I mention that there are three elemental natures his attacks fall under?

The combat was a mushy morass for my entire first play-through, which was difficult to time because of all the hours counted in Mingle mode. About 15 to 20 hours, perhaps, and I was only just getting comfortable enough with Neku that I was doing more than mashing left or right for the partner’s inputs. But even after the story proper has ended, there’s still a boat load more content, Pins, items, etc. to unlock.

They’ve also done away with armor, replacing it instead with branded clothing that confers stat boosts. Focusing on a particular shop will net you some sort of friendliness points with the shop keeper there, and the more they like you, the more you can buy from them. Every wearable item in the game also has a hidden ability that often only works for one character.

Seriously, the only conventions they haven’t done away with are hit points and leveling up based on experience points, and even then the player can scale back their level between fights to increase the drop rate of pins.

As long as they keep going nutso wild on new games like this, they can make all the Final Fantasy they want.

Oh, did I mention this is one of the prettiest and most stylish games ever? Yes, every character, the crowds of Shibuya, the environments based on real life Shibuya, every Pin, every clothing item, and every dialogue oozes with style.

And that extends into the sound design, too. A sort of hip, J-Rap sound rides through every fight, menu, and dialogue. I’m not up to date on the hottest music acts in Japan, but the bands responsible get credits, and each song can be “bought” and listened to in record stores throughout the game. The voice acting has a lot of personality, and each fight includes useful dialogue, such as when special combo attacks are available, and when health is getting low. They even give snappy commentary on how the fight went, causing me to groan when I hear “At least we won, right?” after giving it my all.

As fun as it is, and as inventive as the story gets, it’s far from perfect. Pins often have overlapping commands, and may not always work the way you intend. The top screen offers a chance to really do something interesting, but most of the time I wound up just mashing left or right, or letting it run on auto-pilot. Certain plot points near the end seem extraneous, as if they’d written themselves into a corner and needed to pad the remaining game time.

The game also caters to the hard core RPG player in a lot of ways. Every time you save, it ranks how many pins you’ve mastered, how many Noise you’ve fought, and a lot of that content is only available after the first play through. Since I’m not terribly thrilled with the prospect of farming for hours for certain objects, which then must be combined with certain other objects I need to farm longer for, a lot of this high end content is out of my reach, and each time I save I feel as though I’m being punished for it.

Despite those few gripes, it’s deep and there’s a lot of room for mastery. The World Ends With You does a lot to free Action JRPGs of certain conventions without going so wild that it turns into something else completely. If you liked Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and wished it wasn’t a card game, then this title is exactly what the doctor ordered. Few games really use all of the DS’s functionality and make it work, but this title really pushes the boundaries and has a lot of fun along the way.

For those who like numbers: 9/10

Jeff can be reached at jedwards@megazinemedia.com.