A 
Review by Time
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Developer: Square Enix
Platform: DS
I got to play this game for a while, and what I saw I was very impressed with. Although I haven't played through the entire game, I got a good taste of it. Boy oh boy was it a sweet taste!
The Story:
In The World Ends With You (TW), you end up in a second universe type deal. You bump into someone, who seems to know the ropes a little more than you do, and you find out some information from them. It turns out you are in a "Game", where you are being hunted. (Creepy, right?) So now you are in this modern city setting (Presumably Tokyo) and you can't leave. But you have some enemies trying to kill you, as well as... well I'll let you play the game :)
Game play:
What I like about this game, is unlike many RPGs, it is almost entirely played with the stylus. Personally I hate having to swap between stylus, D-Pad, ABXY, so on and so on, so this was a major relief to me. Essentially you drag the stylus around, starting at your character and dragging away to make him run. This takes a little getting used to, but eventually turns into effective battle-dodging. Do you guys want to know what I hate? When a game has lots of text, in slow scrolling bubbles, that you don't even want to read because it sounds about as smooth as something a Homeless person would write on the back of a Domino's Pizza box. Luckily, this isn't the case. The conversations occur between the characters on the top screen, and when you tap, the next bubble comes up, covering the old one. I don't know why, but this actually made me read everything they said. (Who knew watching bubbles was so fun?)
Battles:
Because I haven't played the game in its entirety, I can't vouch for the end of the game. But in the beginning, this is how the battles work. Because you are being "Hunted" by others, they have monster type deals. These attack you, and you go into a battle screen. (Modern City Setting) From here, you and whoever your partner in crime may be, begin to duke it out with the monsters. You can control your partner's moves by using the D-Pad, or simply leave them alone and let it auto-fight. They get some sick combinations going, and you and your teammate can really open a can of Whoop-Ass!. The way it works is, both you and your partner share the same health bar, but only one character is on each screen. (1 up top, one on bottom) Not only do you and your partner share the same health, but the monsters on either screen are one and the same too! So, say you have two Rabid bunnies and a demon frog. The demon frogs (1 up top, one below) are going to have the same health bar. For the pair of rabbits, (Which will look like 4 on the screen) only have two health bars. One per rabbit on the screen. This is what allows the teamwork to be so effective. Also, as you get combinations off, you pass the "Puck" to your teammate. This increases damage-done to the fiend. "But how is this freakishly skinny kid doing so much damage?" Well, in combat things called "Pins" are called to work. I'm not going to go very deeply into them (Although they are majorly important!) but these are used to be able to use "Spells" of sorts. You control differen't spells differently. Ex: You could drag your stylus in an open area to start a Fire-Pin (called pskyo--- something in the game).
Review:
From what I played, I really liked the game. I can't wait until I get it myself. Once I do, there goes my life. The smooth, 2D graphics are funky, but fresh. Some of the characters look really cool, while others bother me. (2 inch waists!? HELLO!!!) The music is cool, but can get annoying after you listen to it for a long time. Very fun battle mechanics make this game a very fun adventure, and I would suggest you pick it up once the US version is available!
Pros: Fun Fighting, great characters, good storyline, new and creative ideas
Cons: Some characters look very.. annoying, music isn't my cup of tea
The verdict
Get it once available!
10/10
tashi on 04/21/2008
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tashi on 04/23/2008
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Time on 04/23/2008
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tashi on 04/24/2008
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