50 Reasons to Love The World Ends With You, Part 1
Entry posted by Pahrak Model ZX
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(I just figured I'd make one of these each day this week. You'll see why in a minute! If you've played TWEWY, feel free to drop by to reminisce, and if you haven't played it, please stay tuned to find out why should look into this obscure gem of gaming.)
1. As you might expect, a lot of TWEWY fans would love a sequel—it’s a great game and we’d like more. But at the same time, the reason we haven’t been louder about it over the past 4-5 years is because TWEWY is capable of standing on its own as a fantastic game. Most fans will be content wheather we get a sequel or not—some fans are even against the idea of a sequel. TWEWY has a capacity for independence that we don’t see a whole lot in modern gaming.
2. The art in the game is just beautiful. The areas, the characters, the enemies, the graffitti—everything in TWEWY is a visual treat…except for the guns…
3. Like many Square Enix games, TWEWY’s music is a major characteristic. The songs all have a wonderful sound to them, and you can enjoy them even if you’re not a fan of the genre. There are a fair number of rap songs in the game, and though I am far from a rap fan, listening to these songs every once in a while in no way detracts from the experience because they’re so well-done. Plus, in-game you can “buy” soundtrack CDs and listen to the songs at any time from the main menu, and any song obtained this way can be set as background music for the menu.
4. If there was ever a game that justified owning a Nintendo DS, it would be TWEWY. This game takes full advantage of the system and pushes its capabilities to its absolute limits—you use the touch screen for literally everything, both screens are essential to play, some attacks require you to use the microphone, there are wireless functions, and defeating one enemy actually requires you to close the system (with precise timing) to defeat it. How many games think to utilize the fact that the system can close?
5. The official name for TWEWY’s battle system is “the Stride Cross Battle System,” and boy does it shine. You control one character on the touch screen entirely through touch control, and at the same time, you control a second character on the top screen through button input. Sound tough? You bet it is—I still haven’t mastered it! But controlling two characters on two screens at once, difficult as it is, is something you can only do on the DS, and if you find it too tough, you can always set the top-screen character to computer control.
6. The best way to gain permanent stat boosts actually isn’t through levelling up—it’s through consuming food items. When you feed a character, a number of blocks on their “bytes” grid will fill up, and with every battle you fight, a block will disappear. Once the food has been completely “digested,” your stats will permanently increase and you can eat a new food item. There is a restriction—your character can only consume a total of 24 “bytes” per day—but in the post-game you can obtain a special ability that removes this restriction, allowing you to gluttonously increase your stats at ferocious rates.
7. Rather than equipping your characters with armor and weapons, you equip them with clothing items called “Threads.” Threads will increase your characters stats and/or grant them new abilities, and play into the brand management system (discussed later). You can equip up to 4 threads, so long as you don’t have two or more of the same variety (you can only wear one hat) and your character’s “Bravery” rating is high enough. Some of the threads are way out there—the Samurai Sword, the Samurai Armor, the Mr. Mew suit—and yes, crossdressing is allowed.
8. Each store in the game has one specific shop keeper, and as you buy more items from them, you begin to develop a friendship. Raising friendship with shopkeepers will make new items available for purchase and also incline them to reveal the secret abilities of your Threads, making this system invaluable for making the most of your equipment.
9. Decided to try Hard mode, but found yourself in a bit over your head? No problem! You can adjust the difficulty from the main menu at any time over the course of them game! You will need to get through one or two chapters on Normal before Easy is made available, but that’s nothing a little power-levelling can’t fix. Later on you unlock Hard mode and, in the post-game, you can even obtain Ultimate for a real challenge. This option keeps the experience just plain fun for everyone, wheather they want to be tested or just want to slide through on Easy.
10. With a battle system this fun, power-levelling your characters feels more like a privilege than a chore, but some of you may be afraid that this will cause you to quickly outlevel your enemies. Don’t worry—on the main menu right next to the difficulty setting, you’ll find the level slider, which allows you to reduce your level as low as you want. Not only does this handicap make the game more interesting, lowering your level also increases your drop rate, making it easier to earn rare pins by defeating enemies. There are other methods of raising your drop rate, but they’re much more difficult to use effectively, so a level handicap is the best way to catch a rare pin. Like you needed another reason to power-level.
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