Set years after the first game, the story focuses on Rindo and Fret who suddenly find themselves in the Shibuya Underground. It’s not long before they have to fight for survival in the Reapers’ Game, teaming up with the likes of Nagi and Sho Minamimoto. Many features like using pins for attacks and engaging in lengthy conversations still exist.

However, new gameplay features include fully 3D combat, unique abilities that range from completing puzzles to Remind individuals of certain thoughts to time travel, and much more are also implemented. Check out our review for more details on the same. NEO: The World Ends with You is also available for PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

NEO: The World Ends with You originally released on July 27th for PS4 and Nintendo Switch, and serves as the long-awaited sequel to the 2007 cult-classic. The story focuses on a new cast of characters, namely Rindo, as he leads the Wicked Twisters to survive Reapers’ Game in the Shibuya Underground. New mechanics include Remind for prompting NPCs to remember vital details and Rewind for going back to previous times in the day.

Combat is also fully 3D as players swap between different characters (each having their own assigned button and Pin) to string together combos. Build enough Groove by successfully stringing together combos and you can use powerful Mashups to decimate foes. Check out our official review for the game here and stay tuned for more details on its PC release.

Players once again return to Shibuya Underground, a Purgatory-esque world where they must compete in the Reapers’ Game or risk being erased. Rindo is the protagonist this time around, joined by his buddy Fret, Sho Minamimoto from the previous game and the moody Nagi. As the Wicked Twisters, they must battle it out against other teams and emerge on top.

Along with fully 3D exploration, the combat system has been overhauled, focusing more on comboing attacks to build up Groove and unleash Mashups for extra damage. Other new features including powerful Psychs for traveling through time or diving into people’s minds along with the Social Network to keep track of all the various NPCs (and net rewards for completing tasks).

NEO: The World Ends with You is out now for PS4 and PC with the PC version releasing this Summer on the Epic Games Store. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

NEO: The World Ends with You could easily have fallen into that category. It’s coming 14 years after the original, and it’s launching in a very different market than the one that the original title released in. Back then, JRPGs were on the decline, and the overwrought nature of their plots and characters had turned many off from the genre. The World Ends with You, with its urban setting and extremely relatable themes, as well as a striking sense of style, refreshing aesthetics, and hip hop soundtrack, as well as its extremely unique dual screen gameplay enabled by the DS, stood out from the pack right away. But the trail that The World Ends with You blazed was followed and built upon by many. Even as Square Enix ignored the property for over a decade, urban JRPGs started to become more and more popular, and JRPGs as a whole started to mount a comeback. Where the original game was remarkable in large part because of its novelty, NEO has to stand out on its own merits.

Time has not dulled the series’ edge, apparently, because NEO manages to come through, succeeding remarkably at almost everything it tries to do, successfully evoking the original, and building upon its canon with its own fresh ideas. NEO: The World Ends with You is very close to being the perfect sequel to a game like The World Ends with You – it is, essentially, everything that fans of that game have been asking for for 14 years. It’s hard to believe that there is almost a decade and a half separating the two entries because of how well NEO channels the original, in fact. And at the same time, it also takes advantage of the intervening 14 years and of the far more capable technology it gets to be on to deliver a substantially bigger and more fleshed out experience – it never feels like it’s content to just stay within the boundaries the original title marked, either. It’s a remarkable balancing act, one that even sequels born in less difficult circumstances often have trouble with, and it’s a wonder NEO pulls it off as well as it does.

"Time has not dulled the series’ edge, apparently, because NEO manages to come through, succeeding remarkably at almost everything it tries to do, successfully evoking the original, and building upon its canon with its own fresh ideas. "

The basic premise is the same here – a bunch of teenagers who realize they’re caught up in something called the Reaper’s Game, a twisted game that the deceased have to play through in the afterlife in an attempt to win back the right to return to their lives and the world of the living. NEO generally stands on its own merits – a newcomer to the IP will still be able to follow through its substantial story, and be able to follow most of the developments without any trouble. That said, however, the full significance of a lot of it all may well be lost on them, since NEO is a far more direct sequel to the original game than we have been led to believe. It goes beyond just having a similar premise to the original, or some references and nudges to that game, this is a very literal direct follow up to that game, and knowing what happened in The World Ends with You definitely enriches NEO by that much. Even though it is decidedly newcomer friendly, NEO: The World Ends with You is definitely a game made for the fans of the original, and they are the ones who will get the most from it.

This isn’t to say that newcomers can’t enjoy the story – they can, and presumably they will as well, because it’s done really well, with some sharp writing and great characters. I’d go as far as to say that the new cast of characters is far superior to the original batch, with Rin being a far more likeable and pleasant character than Neku, whose dourness didn’t make him the easiest person to relate to. The supporting cast similarly shines as well – Rin’s best friend Fret is a total loudmouth moron, but he never gets obnoxious or grating, and is generally just a fun character who you’re more than happy to have along for the ride. Nagi is an anti social otaku, but her interactions with the other characters (whether it be her jeering dismissal of Fret’s stupidity or her swooning and unrequited crush on a fellow party member) make her a delight. Every new character seems far more immediately fleshed out and compelling than characters did in the original, and the tropes they are initially presented as are then built upon and subverted in some really interesting and compelling ways. 

The cast and storytelling in general benefit from the game’s excellent and sharp writing. The characters sound like you would expect teenagers to, and that’s a really hard thing to nail down, because generally, adults trying to write teenage dialog just ends up being cringey. There are a couple of occasions NEO veers into that territory, but on the whole, it’s extremely well written, with some fantastic dialog punctuating the game’s surprisingly brisk pacing. It also helps that the game’s presentation and aesthetic is so sleek and immediately striking. The art style is bold and stands out, the cut ins used for most conversations and cutscenes are incredibly expressive (and rarely seem to hold back the storytelling like you ordinarily would expect them to), the voice acting is a triumph on every level, with every character and every actor a delight, and the music-

Well, The World Ends with You was especially notable for its soundtrack, and NEO seems to realize that, because it mostly brings over that entire soundtrack wholesale and as is. A lot of the songs are remixed, and while I can see some fans and purists unhappy at the (frankly very minor) changes these remixes result in, I think on the whole, the new versions are superior to the originals. NEO also introduces new songs of its own, these ones tending more towards punk rock and metal, and they’re generally great enough to stand side by side next to the older songs and blend in effortlessly enough that it might take you a bit to realize that a lot of them weren’t ever in the original game to begin with. 

"The battles are the highlight of the experience, and they benefit from just how many systems the game has that feed into them."

While the story side of things is definitely a bit diminished for newcomers, the gameplay side will find them on even footing with fans and veterans in terms of the enjoyment they can get from it. The Reaper’s Game involves a seven day marathon of different objectives and quests that sees its players going through Shibuya, taking down Noise (the manifestation of negative feelings and thoughts) that infests it and its inhabitants, with “psychs” (as in attacks) they can activate by equipping pins. Unlike the original game, which was very specifically built around the DS’s unique hardware, NEO was built for consoles and PC – so no unique battle system or control schemes here. At first, this can feel like a bit of a step down – combat seems far too simple, with each character getting only a single button (and therefore, a single attack) assigned to them, and battles feeling very button mashy. But NEO fleshes its mechanics out over time, layering things on until the battle system becomes extremely involved, necessitating players thinking in three dimensions for multiple characters at the same time, and also rewarding customized pin load outs that can work together to stack effects and bonuses to devastating effect.

These battles are the highlight of the experience, and they benefit from just how many systems the game has that feed into them. Said systems are slowly introduced and built upon over time – for example, in a bid to recreate modern teenage culture’s obsession with style, fashion, and brands, NEO: The World Ends with You sees your characters’ equipment basically become clothing from different brands, with special bonuses being unlocked if you wear multiple pieces from the same brand, or if you are stylish enough to really rock what you’re wearing. Or, for example, the ability to delevel your party – lowering your level lowers your stats, and makes battles far harder, but magnifies the quality and quantity of rewards you can expect (something that can especially help players of all persuasion find their sweet spot with the challenge, especially when combined with the extremely flexible difficulty levels the game also offers). Then there is this game’s version of social links – these aren’t handled like you would expect them to be based on other JRPGs, but rather take the form of a skill tree. By befriending the people around Shibuya, you add them to your “social network”, and by becoming closer with them and helping them out with their problems, you get to unlock unique abilities associated with them – whether it be new items to buy at a store, or the ability to have multiple pin loadouts.

All of these systems were in the original game too, but NEO adds a whole bunch of new mechanics of its own as well. Each new character, for example, gets a unique power associated with them – Fret can essentially plant ideas and thoughts in people’s minds by reminding them of specific ideas or things at specific points to induce thoughts related to them. Nagi can help clear people’s depression or frustration by targeting the specific noise that is manifestation of their lethargy, and help motivate them to do something, which typically involves them doing something so they can clear the way for the party. And Rin’s power is the ability to reverse time, to try and redo things with foreknowledge and prescience if things go south for the party. These abilities can make for some extremely interesting gameplay scenarios – Rin’s tie more into the main story progression, but generally, being able to go around Shibuya and impress thoughts upon people and clear their heads with Fret and Nagu definitely makes the city and its inhabitants feel more real and authentic this time around, and causes a better connection with them for the player – it’s hard not to like the people of Shibuya more when there is more to them than just a one line thought bubble over their head, and when you have delved into the deepest recesses of their mind to try and help them get their lives back on track.

"NEO: The World Ends with You is that rare thing, a long awaited and belated sequel to a cult classic that ends up thoroughly recreating the brilliance of the original, while pushing against its boundaries."

NEO: The World Ends with You‘s many victories on the gameplay side of things can often feel undermined, however, by its bevy of technical issues. The unpatched Switch version of the game is a bit of a mess, with severe frame rate drops with very little provocation (including on the loading screens! How do you have frame rate drops on loading screens?), long load times, and infinite load loops and crashes that disrupt the experience. I would say this is an unacceptable state of things – but the day one patch actually fixes most of this, surprisingly enough. Framerate drops are exceedingly rare with this patch applied (though they do still occasionally crop up), and I’ve run into no crashes or load loops since either. Load times themselves have been shortened a little bit, and while on occasion they can feel annoyingly long, on the whole they are no longer disruptive. This is good, and it means most people who play it get to play the game without any of the significant problems it has in its unpatched state – but if you play it via a physical copy, there is still a very large chance that you run into these problems if you don’t patch it up right away. So that’s something to keep in mind: under no circumstances should you play NEO without the day one patch. Make sure you have the latest updates.

However, there are some problems with the game that can’t be patched away. Chief of these is the camera – NEO: The World Ends with You employs fixed camera perspectives, and these can be extremely frustrating and disorienting for players, particularly since the camera just jumps from one fixed angle to the next without warning or transition, and sometimes totally flips the directions around the player. You tend to get used to this over time – each location has specific camera angles at specific points – but it’s a learning process for sure. 

There’s also the trouble with some bizarrely obtuse or sloggy objectives you can sometimes get. Earlier on, I called the game’s pacing brisk, and it is, it’s remarkable how little things seem to drag. But that’s on the story side of things, and on the gameplay side, there are definitely a few in-game days where it can feel like you’re just being made to go on a series of infuriatingly trite fetch quests, which can grind the game’s momentum to a halt. On the whole, just running around Shibuya and chaining battles with Noise can be fun, so NEO never threatens to get boring – but it does come closer to it than it needs to at times with what feels like objectives only added to introduce some unnecessary padding to the play time. Which can especially feel like a shame, given that one of the original game’s triumphs was how lean and streamlined it was.

These problems, such as they are, don’t detract from the game, however. NEO: The World Ends with You is that rare thing, a long awaited and belated sequel to a cult classic that ends up thoroughly recreating the brilliance of the original, while pushing against its boundaries. That it has more shortcomings and failings than the original did comes down to it being a far more ambitious game as well, and in the end, even with the flaws it does have, NEO: The World Ends with You delivers an experience that at the very least manages to stand side-by-side with the original, if not outright exceed it in many ways. Whether you’re a long time fan of the original who’s been eagerly awaiting the follow-up for fourteen years, or a newcomer jumping in now to see what all the fuss has been about for all this time, you’re in for a hell of a ride. You have seven days – survive. Fail, and face erasure.

This game was reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

Much of what made the original game work is still here: the art is beautiful; the music, both the remixed and original soundtrack, is wonderful; the characters are still endearing; the humor is charming and funny; the story is engaging. In many ways, it’s very similar to the original DS release. But it isn’t really the same game.

"What drew me into The World Ends With You was its characters. They’re all fun, interesting people with desires, hopes, fears, and damage, and I genuinely enjoyed spending time with them."

The World Ends With You is set in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, a part of Japan known for its fashion, culture, and shopping. The story follows Neku Sakuraba, a spiky-haired, misanthropic teenager who generally doesn’t like other people and thinks he’s better off on his own. Unfortunately for Neku, he’s stuck in the UG version of Shibuya. See, the world of The World Ends With You is split into two parts: the RG (Real Ground) and the UG (Underground). The RG is basically the world we exist in: it’s a real, tangible place with stuff you can interact with. The UG operates on a different plane of existence and is run by the Reapers. The Reapers pull unwilling participants from the RG, strip them of what they value most as an “entry fee,” and force them to play a week-long game in which they must complete different “missions” within a set time or be permanently erased from existence.

Neku isn’t happy to be in Shibuya in the first place, but he’s really unhappy to find himself in possession of a pin that allows him to read minds and even more upset when he’s attacked by monsters known as Noise. He’s saved at the last moment by a girl named Shiki. The Reapers’ Game requires Players to partner up to survive, so Neku and Shiki form an uneasy alliance. They spend a week together, learning more about the Game, the UG, and each other, before, well… I don’t want to spoil too much for those who haven’t played the game. Suffice it to say, this is not going to go the way you think.

What drew me into The World Ends With You was its characters. They’re all fun, interesting people with desires, hopes, fears, and damage, and I genuinely enjoyed spending time with them. Even Neku, who initially comes off as a joyless jerk, has redeeming qualities, and the characters around him make him change. It’s the little moments – the acts of kindness and understanding between characters, the jokes, the quick dialogue exchanges – that make the game’s characters work as well as they do and provide a large part of the game’s appeal. I could hang out with The World Ends With You’s cast for a long time.

"Final Remix features both the original soundtrack and the remixed tunes, and you can switch between them at any time. TWEWY’s soundtrack is diverse, featuring a mix of hip-hop and electronica, some vocalized, some not, and the entire soundtrack is wonderful, no matter which version you decide to run with."

Then there’s the music. Final Remix features both the original soundtrack and the remixed tunes, and you can switch between them at any time. TWEWY’s soundtrack is diverse, featuring a mix of hip-hop and electronica, some vocalized, some not, and the entire soundtrack is wonderful, no matter which version you decide to run with. I personally preferred the remixed soundtrack, but both are worth a listen to figure out which you prefer. The voice acting is good, too, and the art is absorbing and unique.

What isn’t the same is the gameplay, which is likely what will frustrate fans of the DS original. See, Final Remix isn’t so much an expanded port of the DS game as it is an expanded port of the mobile port of the DS game and the gameplay changes reflect that. To be effective in the original game’s combat system, you had to make Neku and his partner work together. That meant controlling both of them at the same time. You’d command Neku via the stylus on the DS’s bottom screen, while using the face buttons (or the D-Pad) to control his partner on the top screen. If you got the timing right, you could pass a glowing puck back and forth between the characters that charged up a powerful special move. It was complicated, yeah, but it got one of the game’s key themes – work together with others and don’t cut yourself off from the rest of the world – across through gameplay.

That system is gone completely in the remake. Instead, you have two control options: the touch screen, or the motion detectors on a single Joy-Con. The game simply won’t allow it to be played another way. See, attacking in this game requires you to make different gestures on the screen. Some require you to repeatedly click an enemy or an empty area of the screen, while others might have you make a quick slashing motion to attack up close or move your finger across an enemy, an object, or empty space. Controlling Neku often works the same way, requiring you to make quick slashes or slow movements to have him dash or run across the screen, respectively.

"The touchscreen controls are burdened by delay, which means that certain motions that certain pins require you to make don’t work very well, if at all. The Joy-Con controls are better, because you get to press buttons for certain things – clicking on something, running, etc – but you still have to hold the Joy-Con up to the screen almost constantly, and you’ll often have to reset the pointer to have any kind of accuracy."

This might work well for a mobile game, but it’s something of a minor disaster on the Switch. The touchscreen controls are burdened by delay, which means that certain motions that certain pins require you to make don’t work very well, if at all. The Joy-Con controls are better, because you get to press buttons for certain things – clicking on something, running, etc – but you still have to hold the Joy-Con up to the screen almost constantly, and you’ll often have to reset the pointer to have any kind of accuracy. This isn’t a gamebreaker, but it is an annoyance that doesn’t have to be here.

These changes to the control scheme mean that there is no longer any way to control your partner. Instead, they become a pin. Like any other pin, they are activated a certain way – tapping, swiping, or dragging – once they are off cooldown, and when their time is up, they disappear until they can be used again. Using your partner’s pin builds up a synchronization meter, which can then be spent on a special attack that does enormous damage to everything on-screen.

It isn’t a bad system, really, as combat is still fun, but these changes do combine to make everything very, very easy. So easy, in fact, that there’s often no point in moving your character at all. It’s much more efficient do just sit there and do the motions for your attacks, rather than try to dodge and avoid taking damage. The one upside to the new systems is that you can now play the game in co-op with another person. This not only makes battles more fun, but gets back to the spirit of the original game and forces you to communicate to get combos and actually avoid enemy attacks since you share a health bar. This is only available with the Joy-Con controls, but that’s a minor qualm when those controls are better. The only weakness of the co-op mode is that, unlike Neku, his companion characters can’t change their pins – what they have is what they get, and that’s it.

"Shibuya is a fashion hotbed, so the gear you wear and the pins you wear matter. See, each pin and piece of gear is part of one of thirteen brands, and the popularity of each brand varies between Shibuya’s district. Being on-trend is important, because it actually affects how well you do in combat."

Managing your gear – this is an RPG, after all – and your pins is actually a big part of TWEWY but the game adds a twist to the whole thing by tasking you with keeping up with Shibuya’s trends. The area is a fashion hotbed, so the gear you wear and the pins you wear matter. See, each pin and piece of gear is part of one of thirteen brands, and the popularity of each brand varies between Shibuya’s district. Being on-trend is important, because it actually affects how well you do in combat. Rock items that represent one of the district’s most popular brands will get you an attack boost, while being out of style will actually decrease your damage.

You can win items in combat, but you can also buy them from the shops scattered around Shibuya. Thing is, you’ll have to befriend the various shopkeepers before they’ll sell you certain items, or unlock a piece of gear’s specific abilities. Befriending shopkeeps is as easy as spending money at their stores, but it’s an interesting system that adds depth to gearing up and supports the game’s world, to boot.

The game handles leveling in an interesting way, too. Pins gain PP (pin points. Yes, I’m serious) when you use them in combat, but you also earn PP when the game is turned off. In addition, you can switch the game’s difficulty level on the fly, and even lower Neku’s level. The benefits of the former are obvious, but using the latter to handicap yourself makes enemies more likely to drop good pins and items. It’s a nice system, and I wish more RPGs would do something like it.

"The World Ends With You: Final Remix isn’t a bad game. But the game is being billed as the definitive edition of a modern classic and… it just isn’t. It’s still good, mind; TWEWY is too good a game to be ruined by flawed control schemes and a neutered combat system, but it’s not the version we deserve, nor the one we were promised."

The other big change to Final Remix is the addition of A New Day, a new storyline that adds a new plot, new characters, and some interesting battle mechanics. You might be asked to defeat a series of enemies quickly, for instance, or have to deal with a fight that constantly saps your health. This new content is solid, but it’s not anything special, and it’s hard to imagine it appealing to anyone outside of the hardest of the hardcore of TWEWY’s fan.

Perhaps that’s the real issue with Final Remix: it’s inconsistent. A lot of what’s here – the remixed soundtrack, the co-op mode – is good, and much of the presentation aspects are a step up from the DS version. But there’s a lot of bad, too. A New Day is just all right and the changes to the battle system are, in many ways, a step down from the original game. Controlling the game with the Joy-Con works fine, but the touch controls are absolutely horrendous, and it’s frankly a wonder that the developer didn’t simply remaster the DS version rather than port a version designed for mobile devices.

Don’t get me wrong: The World Ends With You: Final Remix isn’t a bad game. But the game is being billed as the definitive edition of a modern classic and… it just isn’t. It’s still good, mind; TWEWY is too good a game to be ruined by flawed control schemes and a neutered combat system, but it’s not the version we deserve, nor the one we were promised. If this is the only way you can play the game, it’s more than adequate, but it loses much of what made the DS game special in its transition to the Switch. The developer should do better by their classic games, and we should expect them to. Right now, this version is just good and it could have been much more than that. Because The World Ends With You wasn’t just good; it was great, and Neku and Shibuya deserve better.

This game was reviewed on the Nintendo Switch.