GOTY 2021 mini-reviews: NEO: The World Ends with You (Patreon)

This is the LAST GAME in my (brandon's) series of things I had to review for game competitions in 2021. I don't think I talked about his much on the podcast, if at all? I forget. Anyway, I really expected to hate it because I didn't like the original at all, but I didn't dislike it? I might even go back to it some day? confusing. Here we are:


---
So this one will be pretty subjective. I played the original DS game and bounced off it hard back in the day. Trying again now, I was thinking... maybe the "edgy teen" characters will feel funny now! Maybe the music will loop back around into something I enjoy 15 years later (or however long). Not so. For my money it feels like an old guy writing teen characters and deciding what's hip and cool and youthful. I mean no offense to old guys, I'm getting up there myself, it just smacks of talking down, almost!?

I went into this game thinking it was a remake, so just in case anyone else had that misconception because of the title, it's actually a full on sequel. So I guess it's more accurate to say I *still* don't like the music or the dialog.

Anyway: NEO TWEWY is a game in which you've died, but are able to play a game around Tokyo (mostly Shibuya) in order to get a wish (such as coming back to life, etc). You have to form a team, and it's treated like an app/game within a game where you get missions, have to find partners to group with, and fight monsters, called "noise." You collect pins from fallen monsters and quests and stuff, all of which can be equipped to give you different powers. You can also "scan" the area to read NPC's thoughts, and it can be kind of cool to have folks just talking ambiently as you're running around.

The premise is basically the same as the original game, but this is 100% a sequel. The world is full 3D, the characters are different, the battle system is different, only the tone, themes, and visuals really have the same vibe.

So here's where it gets super subjective. I think the battle system is excellent - it's full 3D, and you control multiple characters at once but it never feels overwhelming. By and large you target one enemy at a time, hitting the button that corresponds to that character. You can then combo by hitting the buttons that correspond to your other characters. If you keep it all straight, you can get a real feeling that you've got an RPG party here. For example you can be using R2 to put a constant effect over an enemy, while peppering it with shots from afar with a character you've mapped to the square button, while a melee character comes in with triangle, or R1. It feels pretty good, and you can quickly go from mashing buttons to intelligent choices.

I also enjoy collecting and leveling up pins, because they correspond to new attacks and are fun to try out. You can also "chain" enemies, meaning you pass by a bunch of them, they follow you around, and then you can activate your battle and fight them all at once. You'll fight four enemies in a row, but you'll get bigger bonuses out of it and better items. This is also handy because you can basically clean up a whole zone with one or two battle sessions and then explore at your leisure since enemies don't respawn until you leave.

ON THE OTHER HAND, I absolutely hate the music. It's numetal or "hard rock," often with vocals straining to hit notes they just can't reach. It's painful to listen to and made my partner put her headphones on. I think people of a certain vintage will like it but as a pure metal enthusiast it's really nails on a chalkboard for me. Likewise, the teens' "omg, like f'realz" style of talking is super grating and feels extremely dated. It's that way even in Japanese, which I think actually makes it worse for me since I understand the language. It is firmly "vapid cool guy" language all the time, where people use super limited vocabulary, most of it slang or shortened versions of words, and it's dramatically uncool despite its intentions. At least for me! So while the story itself actually intrigues, the dialog makes me want to leave the house and go for a walk.

I also don't like tetsuya nomura's character designs and fashion sense which has not changed even a little bit since 2003 (new clothes came out since then, I swear). So it's a tough one! I really think it's a good RPG, with a neat premise, but I hate playing it because of all the audio, textual, and aesthetic choices.

Is it in my top 5?

I don't know!!! I urge everybody to play this one and see what you think for yourselves. If the audio, dialog, and visuals didn't bug me so much I do think it'd be in my top 5. But I can't really ignore that, because it is part of the craft after all. Your mileage may vary! I'm leaning toward no, but guilty about it, if that makes sense.

--

And that's that! My final mini-review. Hopefully you enjoyed these somewhat! Maybe I'll do this again next year??