the-twewy-sequel

[the-twewy-sequel]

We Got A Sequel. The Sequel Has Been Enjoyed. This Blog's Purpose Has Now Been Fulfilled. Thank You.

Originally, this blog was just a revival of another one that used to post often with the day count and a message reminding us we didn't have a sequel. When said blog died down, I missed the posts and figured I'd try to do something similar with my own (admittedly kind of wacky and not necessarily even funny) sense of humor, and though I was definitely not always active/on top of things, I enjoyed doing what I could and interacting with the community a bit.

Ultimately, perhaps in part due to the general desire of fans like you and me, we did actually get a sequel to The World Ends With You. It took a while, but I think despite anything it may lack or such, it was enjoyable and worth playing, and imo no game or other form of media is "perfect" in this world anyway—no, not even the original TWEWY—so as I more or less mentioned in my review, I'm content with how things turned out, and certainly enjoyed the sequel.

It was fun leading up to the release of NEO: TWEWY as well, and though it took longer than it should have, I think with the most recent posts here, I've basically said/shared all the things I most wanted to.

I may post again eventually for any given reason, because it's not like I'll stop being a TWEWY fan all of a sudden, but this blog's purpose has been fulfilled, and I don't think it'll really be "active" for the foreseeable future, if ever again.

And so I'd just like to thank everyone again for your support and patience, as this kind of thing is only worth it because of you all. I hope that you keep supporting the franchises/series you care about, support TWEWY in the future if you can, and are nice to your fellow humans as much as you reasonably can be.

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"Enjoy every moment"—"expand your world"—TWEWY's messages inspired me, and I intend to keep those feelings that TWEWY instilled in me somewhere within my heart for years to come.

I don't think I'll forget the fun I had with this little blog, either. I am the sentimental type, after all.

And so as one journey ends, another begins.

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Life is often what we make of it. We can't control other people, but we can make our own decisions, try to understand other people's, broaden our perspectives... and with time, change.

Change not just ourselves, but the world.

After all...

Take care, everyone.

[the-twewy-sequel]

NEO: The World Ends With You Japanese Limited Edition Photos!

So, being the TWEWY fan I am, I kinda couldn't resist importing the super expensive and much-cooler-than-what-the-West-got limited edition for NTWEWY (https://store.jp.square-enix.com/item/SE_E2694.html), and I've actually had this kind of huge box just sitting in my room for ages, so as mentioned, I finally opened it today and took some photos of my spoils.

The bag, which contained a box with almost all the other goodies, looks pretty cool imo, and has the "funny game master saying", but I don't think I'll actually be able to use it. Not quite my style, I guess. Maybe one day I can come up with an excuse to use it anyway though, haha.

At first, the box just has the game and the Mr. Mew plush, and the game is, of course, in Japanese. Obviously I already played it and beat it, opting for the English Switch version, so now I've got a copy for both systems and in both languages, haha.

However, opening the box further reveals that there are multiple goodies! Here's a poorly lit photo above, lol. (I'm sorry, unboxing this took a while and I only had so much energy/effort to spare into taking good photos rn ^^; haha)

This cassette-player like box contains a Rindo pin and a reaper pin (think that’s what it’s called) that... looks pretty cool, but unfortunately can't turn back time no matter how hard I squeeze it. Though I dunno, maybe I just don't know how to use it right. Don't think it came with instructions, but if it did, they were in Japanese and I didn't try to translate them XD

This is the artbook, but with the cover taken off. That's right, it says "TWEWY"! Thought this was really interesting given that the Japanese name is, of course, quite different, but it seems like the English name has kinda caught on to an extent even in Japan, which I think is pretty neat.

Also, I did look at the inside, and it's classic artbook stuff, but well, it's NTWEWY, so I enjoyed it! Had some art I hadn't seen before too. (And some spoilers I guess, but hopefully collectors know it's better not to open such limited-edition-artbooks before beating the game, haha.)

The game and Mr. Mew. Dunno if I'll actually ever play this version of the game, especially with the PS5 already being a thing, and uhh, honestly I'm not a plushie person, so Mr. Mew doesn't have much use either, but... that's ok, collecting stuff I don't use isn't so bad if it's for TWEWY, right? XP

Lastly from the collector's edition, a mini soundtrack! Inside is a list of the songs, as well as a little booklet or such that has lyrics for the songs. only listened to a couple songs so far but between this and the full soundtrack I showed earlier, I think I'm set for NTWEWY's music, haha. Also, I lowkey still own a CD player that doubles as an alarm (not sure what it's called anymore), and I put this mini soundtrack in it, so now I might end up waking up to NTWEWY music sometimes. :P

But wait, there's more! Actually, I got something from the TWEWY Animation merch line that Square Enix also had on their Japanese store. So this is separate from the NTWEWY collector's edition, but I had it shipped in the same box, and so here it is!

W-What are these? Acrylic stands! Each one was about about $15 or so, but when I realized they all form a mural or w/e when put together, I kind of couldn't help but get all of them...

The lighting in my room at night is kinda poor and the photo doesn't look good with a flash imo, but I think y'all get the idea—the 5 of them complete a set, and I'm happy to have them as a way of remembering/appreciating TWEWY.

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Overall I'd say I'm very happy with the collector's edition and acrylic stands, even if I do realize it's kind of a waste of money—felt like I needed to live it up for the sequel of one of my all-time favorite games, you know?

But at the end of the day/as I basically just said, these are kind of just ways to help remember and convey my passion for the series, and I think the most important thing is our own experiences with the games and how we feel about them. Merch is just a bonus, haha. And I mean, I think with this I should be good on TWEWY merch for a good, long while now, ;).

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Gonna try to finally wrap up the post-sequel-launched posts I had today, not much left really because I ended up not feeling like writing up more about the TWEWY animation series... ><; sorry, got kinda busy and also lost a bit of motivation (I think in part because it was diverging so much) and never even finished it, tbh

But I have 1 other thing I'll probably show and then a 'conclusion' post for this blog to wrap up both it and the year~

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Ok so, I bought these a while ago and finally opened them up! (Been playing a bit of catch up, as you may have figured... 😅)

Definitely more excited for the NTWEWY soundtrack personally, but glad to have both regardless, haha. As for why CDs... I’m weird and enjoy owning music more physically, + I think it’s a nice way of supporting the series and composer

Anyone else get these? And what’d y’all think of the animation’s and sequel’s OSTs? Curious to hear any thoughts!

[the-twewy-sequel]

NEO: The World Ends With You - Review - Summary & Final Score

Time to wrap things up!

Gameplay: 8.5-9/10 - Slightly lacking in depth and variety for me, but otherwise quite enjoyable.

Visuals/Presentation: 9-9.5/10 - Fresh, colorful, vivid, and overall enjoyable, but maybe slightly lacking in budget and variety sometimes.

Music/Audio: 9.5/10 - Great OST, but used remixes of old songs a little bit too much for my tastes. Solid sound design and great voice acting imo.

Story/Characters: 9.5/10 - A mostly enjoyable story with lots of mystery and intrigue to keep me invested and that didn't fail at time travel imo. A wide variety of characters, both playable and not, each generally with enough going for them to keep me interested, in a story that almost felt driven by the characters at times, although the greater premise and dangers were certainly still important.

OVERALL SCORE: 9.4/10

NEO: The World Ends With You was a great game and is about as much as I could reasonably ask for from a sequel.

I mean, considering how the sequel could have turned out, and the fact that we didn't get one for so long, I'm exceptionally grateful to even have a decent sequel at all, nevermind one with such beautiful art and music, an engaging and memorable story and cast of characters, and action-packed combat that still retains much of the spirit of The World Ends With You.

Thank you so much Square Enix for creating this. It's basically a life dream of mine that came true, and even if we don't get a 3rd game now, I think I'm satisfied. I just wanted to see that world, that light, that potential, tapped into one more time.

Now that it has, I can say with certainty: The World Doesn't End Without A TWEWY Sequel.

And I'm very glad it doesn't.

(Illustration by Gen Kobayashi. Thanks to Google Images for helping supply images used throughout the review. I take no credit for any of the images used.)

[the-twewy-sequel]

NEO: The World Ends With You - Review - Part 4: Story/Characters

Last but not least: the story/characters. I'm guessing anyone reading this (thank you!) has finished the story, but beware of spoilers if not!

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I'll admit I was a little worried about the story taking place in Shibuya with the Reapers' Game again, but turns out it wasn't so bad—having multiple characters with different personalities interacting with each other kept things fresh and interesting, especially with Fret being kind of a goon, Rindo being a bit sarcastic, and Nagi having her own types of interactions with the two.

Of course, Minamimoto added his own little spice/flavor, and Beat his own, and the trend continued to the end, ultimately ending up with a dynamic cast that held my interest throughout. However, it's far more than just the main characters: the enemy reapers, the ones that help you, the other teams and their quirks... they weren't necessarily all likeable, but each one expressed a tiny bit of character when given the chance, and sometimes that "character" led to interactions that affected the game.

Of note, I like that the other teams weren't always in direct conflict with the Wicked Twisters, and the relationships were a bit more dynamic—they're all players and fellow human beings, so while they all want to live and that's important, I appreciate that they didn't immediately dehumanize these characters either. You can see that even with the followers, they had their own little bits of story or quirks that sometimes played a role in the main story or side quests, and there are lots of little connections between characters that pop up through the "Social Network" as well, which I also thought was interesting. The game's cast definitely felt bigger and more varied than the original TWEWY!

For the story itself, I thought it did its job and was fairly interesting throughout. Using the rumors of Neku, the futility of trying to beat the Ruinbringers, and other aspects to keep the mystery going and interest gauged was done well, and it was even a bit of a struggle not to spoil myself to find out what happened next, just because there was so much to be curious about.

Where is X character and what are they doing? Why is Minamimoto tagging along? What are the little bird-like noise that the game keeps showing us? WHO IS SWALLOW?!?!?!?! The game offers a lot of questions and an occasional hint or answer so that it doesn't feel like we're not making any progress, and I appreciated that.

Regarding the time travel aspect of the story... I don't usually like stories about time travel because my standards for execution are a bit higher than most can meet, I also felt the time travel in NEO: TWEWY was usually well done enough and didn't suffer from getting too out of control or having major plotholes, which is really important to me.

Overall, I'd say the story was exciting, full of intrigue, sometimes a bit sad and tense, and in general just a bit of a rollercoaster. Did it change my life like the original? No, but I don't think that would have been a fair expectation—how we relate to and appreciate stories can have a lot to do with us at the time we experience them. And so I'd like to look at NTWEWY's story for what it is, and say it was certainly both enjoyable and memorable.

Overall Story/Characters Score: 9.5/10

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NEO: The World Ends With You - Review - Part 3: Music/Audio

TWEWY's legendary OST was a big part of what made it such a unique and memorable experience for many of its fans, and so the pressure was on to deliver in NEO: TWEWY. Thankfully, Takeharu Ishimoto returned for the sequel, and if you ask me, the team behind TWEWY's music and sound design did great with the game in general—not to mention the stellar voice talent behind all the characters!

For the soundtrack, the game features many new tracks that really capture the vibe of both Shibuya and the new Reapers' Game. Of course, everyone won't quite enjoy the same songs, but there's the vibrant, almost motivational Scramble, the slightly eery and tense Shibuya Survivor, and rap-filled, head-boppy Bird in the Hand that plays during battles, just to name a few of the new songs.

Of course, old songs make reappearances too, often slightly remixed, and it's usually pretty awesome to hear a classic song reappear along with an old character or such. However, I had one small complaint about its usage, which was that the old tracks played a lot imo, and I'd have liked to hear a greater ratio of newer songs, because I didn't want the nostalgia of older songs to overstay their welcome, or for the experience to not feel fresh.

For general sound design... actually, it's been a while, so I don't have much to say there, but I don't think I had any complaints, and sound surfing was really cool imo, haha.

But for the voice acting, I'd stay it was stellar—both in cutscenes and battles, the characters have a lot of personality to them that bring the portraits and such to life, the 1-liners in combat didn't grate on me too much despite how often they can play, and the voices more or less fit the characters well imo, even for returning characters where the original voice actors voiced them over a decade ago. (Okay, maybe a couple sound weird, and Coco is kind of just annoying, but I don't remember anything too bad.) Note that I only played in English though, so I can't comment for the Japanese voices!

Overall, the soundtrack was great, the voices were great, and I only had some small gripes, so I'd say the game was a success on this front!

Overall Music/Audio Score: 9.5/10

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NEO: The World Ends With You - Review - Part 2: Graphics/Presentation

OK, so to me, gameplay is usually the most important part of a game—and so I spent a lot of time writing about it. But for the other sections, you can expect them to be a bit more brief.

For NTWEWY's visuals, the game has gone full 3D, with a simple, cel-shaded, anime-like art style. I think the style isn't exactly high-fidelity, and the game feels like it cuts corners with the presentation sometimes, but it looks fairly clean overall and serves its purpose well imo.

However, the game isn't JUST 3D—the dialog, which comprises a lot of the game, uses beautiful 2D illustrations with various poses and expressions. This "comic-book-like" format is laid out similar to the original TWEWY, but adapted for the widescreen format, and I found it both fresh and visually appealing.

The pre-rendered cutscenes looked a little off to me, but weren't a major feature of the game imo, and thus were fine, and combat seems to use the same models as the exploration part of the game, making for a fair transition between the two. The battle effects are simple and cartoon-like, but I think it fits the nature of the game and its psychic abilities, and actually welcome that the game owns up to its stylistic choices.

Overall, I'd say NTWEWY is nothing revolutionary, but does what it tries to do rather well, and so I don't find what might be a lack of budget to be worth much criticism here, because I feel like they did well with what they had.

Overall Presentation Score: 9-9.5/10

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NEO: The World Ends With You - Review - Part 1: Gameplay

So, the NTWEWY review finally begins. It's been months since I actually played the game, and maybe it's pointless to post a review so long after, but even so, having waited so long for a sequel, it only feels right to me to put out a review *eventually*.

For this review, I'll be making separate posts for different categories, and in light of it being late, will probably not fuss too much over the details/be talking a bit more casually about my thoughts.

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NTWEWY's gameplay has been "modernized" in various aspects—having released on multiple platforms and no longer being designed with very unique hardware like the DS in mind, the gameplay was made to be compatible with more standard controllers. Furthermore, the action now takes place in a 3D "arena" of sorts, and while the player can control multiple characters—up to 6, in fact—control over said characters is much more limited than the original, with one pin being attached to one character.

Generally speaking, one button is also mapped to one character (though this can be changed down the line), and so the player is in essence taking turns fighting with multiple characters—for much of the game, 4. As one character finishes a combo, they can start a Beatdrop, allowing another character to follow-up with "good timing" (which is rather lenient) and increase groove in the process. A basic strategy is thus to keep on the offensive by ensuring that characters cooldowns don't overlap too much and you can constantly put out damage while also dodging as necessary. After enough groove, you can also do special attacks, which can also provide some much needed healing.

That's about the basics of the gameplay, but what are its strengths and weaknesses? Well, to start...

Pros:

- Not too hard to control, as each character can essentially be mapped to a button, and movement and dodging are straightforward

- AI doesn't usually take a lot of damage when not controlling them

- A lot of abilities feel like they complement each other with how they activate beatdrops or their cooldowns, giving a natural sense of teamwork

- Later, you can time your follow-ups even more (within an orange window) to get greater groove bonuses, which makes the game more engaging

- Psyches often allow you to move and attack at the same time, or be charged without having a character be the main one you are controlling, which help make the combat feel a little bit more fluid than it might otherwise

- It can feel fast-paced and chaotic because of the nature of controlling multiple characters

Cons:

- After a while, gameplay can get repetitive because you can find a "cycle" of psyches that is really good and just end up feeding into the same loop, no longer needing to adapt your attack patterns much. But, at least said loop generally feels good to do imo

- It's hard to get groove against bosses with some pins because the beatdrop requirements don't really work with them

- In scenarios where one of your characters is unable to be controlled (e.g. being attacked), it can sometimes be cumbersome to save them with the remaining characters, depending on the pins and their cooldown(s)

- Overall, it feels like it lacks a bit of depth and excitement compared to the original TWEWY, like you can master most of the gameplay much quicker, and there isn't as much to "squeeze" out of it, because in the end you only have control over 6 pins, which is similar to controlling 1 out of 2 characters in the original game.

Overall I would say the combat is quite fun, and I usually didn't mind fighting a lot of the same enemies because getting groove and launching big attacks felt nice. The big enemies and bosses were mostly fine as well imo, though a couple maybe dragged on a bit much or had hitboxes that were weird or awkward to avoid (e.g. not being able to tell what's supposed to be avoided exactly). However, it could use another layer of depth for people who want something a bit more, which might also help with the really long reduction chains.

Outside of combat, shopping is pretty similar the original and was fairly enjoyable, as the variety of options and abilities make it not as simple as just buying the "strongest" or most expensive items, and trying to find items with good synergy was one way to power up the cast.

Exploration was more or less fine (with the ability to speed up movement later on being quite fun and welcome imo), and the other bits of gameplay—like using special abilities—were mostly "okay" to me. Time travel is, mechanically, basically just going through menus, but it's fine, and most everything else in the game felt like it boiled down to fighting, though maybe with some gimmicks (e.g. in Dives). And then there's Fret's remind ability, which was a little weird to fiddle with, but it wasn't that big a deal so... whatever, I guess. The game could maybe benefit from a mini-game like tin pin slammer to spice things up, but it wasn't like I was offended that it was mostly combat. However, I also just really like action-packed combat, so I admit I'm fairly biased on this front.

In the end, the gameplay feels "TWEWY-like" for sure, and it's cool to see psyches in 3D and control an entire party of characters. I just wish there was a little bit more teamwork, or a little bit more options to tap into, something where if I went back now I'd be like, man, I still haven't mastered X, or some way to feel like I hit my stride in the combat and was really doing something a bit more than just the usual damage-dealing routine. But as said the game is meant to be more modernized, which also means easier and more accessible, so it probably can't be helped too much, and I still enjoyed it a lot for what it is.

Overall Gameplay Score: 8.5-9/10

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Uh... my b

Sorry I kind of left the blog without conclusion, namely not posting a review or anything else. I didn't really mean to, but life got really difficult and it was just... really hard to come back and conclude things. It's not like I stopped liking TWEWY, or didn't like NTWEWY, it was just a me problem. ><;

So anyhow, I'ma try to at least conclude what I can for this, and then it'll be back to being mostly silent again, but as long as I can access this account I'd always like to leave the option of posting again open to myself, just in case.

And with that, uh... better late than never, right?

[the-twewy-sequel]

NTWEWY Quick Thoughts #11

ngl, Coco's still a little obnoxious (given that I had already met her in both Solo Remix and Final Remix...)

but that's ok, not everyone can be obnoxious yet still kinda likeable like Pi-Face is

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NTWEWY Quick Thoughts #10

Too many of my thoughts are too spoiler-ridden for me to post them

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NTWEWY Quick Thoughts #9

Where can I get some super stylish air in a can

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Heyo, so about the review, it's not like I haven't beaten NTWEWY, just been busy and don't wanna rush it, didn't really take a lot of screenshots as I played either (which I probably should have) so I'll have to hunt some down, so uh... yeah, I'll try to get that done by the end of the month But (spoilers maybe) the game was highly enjoyable, I'm really grateful for the sequel, and (little posts like this aside) after the review and a farewell post that'll be about it.

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hey, do only specific people get that twewy email? coz id love to give them my praise too

I don't think so? I bought the game digitally via the Switch eShop, and I would guess that is the requirement for getting the e-mail with the survey, so... did you buy it on the Switch eShop? If you did, maybe it's dependent on the region or some other factors, I'm not sure. Maybe you've already gotten it by now, but sorry if this isn't very helpful :(

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Twewy quick thought: in week one my favorite pin to give pi face was that one that let him launch boulders at people because if I can’t give him the moon to drop I’ll give him the next best thing 🥧🌕💕

See, now this is great thinking. Including the pie emoji

[the-twewy-sequel]

WE DID IT !!!!!

I'm not sure what this is referring to anymore, but sure!!! WE DID IT!!! (Got a sequel to happen? Lived until it was released? Beat it? I suppose we did do those things!!!)