Back in 2007, a little known game came out on the Nintendo DS. After a friend told me about it (because they liked the art style), I tried it out. Only to lose interest after the first few minutes because of the timer. Fast forward several years and the game would come out on mobile devices, and then later on the Switch. Not wishing to waste the second chance I had been given, I bought the game and wrote up my thoughts of the title on this very blog.

Imagine my surprise then when a sequel was announced in early 2021. NEO: The World Ends With You was one of the few games I actually cared enough about to pre-order. Unfortunately, with the Delta strain entering Australia, my hopes of picking up a physical copy were dashed. Still, that didn’t stop me from sucking up the cost and getting the game via the Nintendo eStore and playing it soon after my first major love: The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles.

As soon as I started the game, I was struck by so many familiar elements to the original game. The art style screams Tetsuya Nomura for one. Two, the Reaper’s Game where Players are forced into a life-or-death situation and fight against the Noise. Shibuya as the setting is a close third. 

But that was where many of the similarities started to fall away. Rather than playing as Neku or Beat or any of the old cast members, the main character for NEO is Rindo Kanade, a fifteen year old with an ahoge and also seems to wear a mask as fashion. According to Nomura, it was a coincidence that one of the fashion accessory to differentiate his character became the norm in everyday society in 2020 and 2021.

With Rindo was best friend: Tosai Furesawa (also, commonly known as Fret). Unbeknownst to them, the two were drawn into the UG despite being alive and kicking through the activation of their powers through special Player Pins. Just as with Neku and the rest of the old cast before them, they are forced to partake in the Reaper’s Game lest they face erasure. Along the way, they pick up allies in the form of Minamimoto and Nagi, a college student fascinated with mobile game: Elegent Strategy.

As the first week progresses, they discover that they all have special abilities. Fret is able to ‘remind’ individuals about anything they’ve forgotten or specific topics of interest. Nagi can ‘dive’ into people’s heads. And Rindo? Well, he has the super fancy ability of ‘replay’ where he can travel through time.

Speaking of time travel, I usually hate it as a trope. And it’s why I’ve shied away from games such as Returnal and Deathloop. Rather than loop time around, however, it’s very much alternate dimensions that disappear as soon as Rindo is able to change the past. As the narrative continues, it becomes an important point and helps up the stakes in the final battle battle while in other games it’s more of a gimmick or left unexplained.

By using their powers, they make it to the end of Week 1 and would have been able to leave the game after narrowly besting Susukichi (a member of the Ruinbringers and a minor antagonist) in battle before it is ruled invalid due to the interference of a hooded figure that looks somewhat like the legendary Neku (gone from the RG in an extra episode that came packaged with the Final Remix version of The World Ends With You, which came out on the Switch). 

Forced into a second week of the Reaper’s Game and losing the valuable Minamimoto, the unlikely allies fight their way through until they have to hunt down the interloper that had saved them earlier. Except, of course, it’s not Neku. But Daisukenojo Bito (or Beat as he prefers to be called). With one of the old cast members supporting the team, they manage to survive Week 2. By the end, they even manage to recruit a former member of the Reapers, Shoka Sakurane. 

Alas, though they managed to win against Susukichi a second time as well as defeat Tsugumi, they are forced into a third week of the game because the leader of the Ruinbringers is none other than Shiba: the Game Master. Honestly, as I played, I couldn’t help but decry the unfairness of it all. The deck was stacked against all the human players from the start and I honestly felt for the teams that had been there ever since the beginning.

It’s during the third week that a lot of the underlying plot is unravelled such as the revelation that the Reapers in charge are from Shinjuku and that they had fled to Shibuya three years ago.

But, the best reveal of all was Neku coming to Beat’s rescue at the end of Day 4 of the third week. I could not have been even more excited to see the character that I played in the first game return in all his glory!

There’s a lot about NEO that I loved. The character relationships (and the budding romance between Rindo and Shoka) in particular helped gave both the protagonists and villains alike, depth. Then there was the reunion between Shiki and Neku. I’m not afraid to admit that I got a little teary at the scene.

Most important of all, NEO, like The World Ends With You before it, taught that what makes a place special aren’t the buildings but the people and the connections one builds. That was why Rindo decided to risk it all and use his powers again even though it might have proved disastrous.

And while I would like nothing but gush about the game, there were quite a few things that irked me about the title. The fixed camera angles – while understandable – also made it occasionally difficult to navigate around the world and its fixed settings. It didn’t help that the minimap on the lower left wasn’t orientated in the same way as the locations – which made it all the more confusing.

This also extended to combat where player characters were focused on one enemy and the use of the right analogue stick merely shifted the target.

Instead of swiping madly at the screen, NEO also changed up how pins were used. Each pin was assigned to a specific button. Whether that was X, Y, L, R, ZR or ZL. By the end of the game, I could feel my hand cramping as I button-mashed my way through most of the combat encounters (although there are a few buttons that one needs to hold/ or charge). It became a dizzying dance of seeing which pins had been recharged and how effective they were against each enemy.

The groove display was a fun addition and dropping the beat meant there were new creative ways for my team to do damage. But my goodness…those Scramble Slams were the worst when it came to racking up points. And all for what? A pin that became obsolete by the third week as I picked out my favourites.

Still, this was a solid game by Square-Enix and I’m still very curious about the lore of the world that has been so lovingly crafted. Angels, Composers, Conductors…

Let’s hope it doesn’t spiral into Kingdom Hearts level of ridiculousness when it comes to backstory.

Also…before I forget, I love the stickers that Rindo uses in his chats with Swallow and Fret! Square-Enix…please release those stickers for use! I want to send my friends Cactuars, Tonberries, Chocobos and Moogles!