tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168605864153569088.post-5162522745754716002008-07-04T15:56:00.001-07:002008-07-22T10:40:37.231-07:00"The World Ends With You" is indeed proving to be a pretty solid Square-Enix title. I'm not going to bother writing out a whole review about it, but I will mention a few features I found cool:<br /><ul><li>They more than doubled the challenge of typical JRPG action combat by requiring you control separate fights on two screens at once.</li><li>They separated individual stylus gestures into equipped "pins." It's like a mini game for every equipped weapon.</li><li>The artistic style, which exudes pure creative talent, exalts Japanese and youth culture to a fantastic (likely better than life) degree.</li><li>The JPop/Trance music is an unusual choice that lends a unique flavor to the game.</li><li>The plot somehow makes the main characters' forced slavery ("do this in x amount of time or be erased") downright hip.</li><li>There's a Tamagotchi-like system that allows your characters to digest only so much stat-enhancing food in a 24 (real life) hour period. (Your equipped "pins" also level up while not playing.)</li><li>There's nice additional features such as wireless-compatible mini games (perhaps as to be expected from the makers of Crystal Chronicles).</li></ul>What we have here is a definite gem of a game. It's little wonder GameFly is having a hard time getting these back from their renters.<br /><br />While I generally enjoy the artistic talent that went into "The World Ends With You," there is one noteworthy flaw in the character design. I'm a little distracted when nearly every cutscene clubs me with <a href="http://sdb.drshnaps.com/sheets/Misc/Square/Other/MugshotsShiki-ItsAWonderfulWorld.gif">Shiki's overexposed thighs</a>. Youth culture fashion or not, that's a pretty provocative outfit, and this draws undue attention from the game. In any case, I honestly didn't buy the game with this in mind.Geldon Yetichskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09895030335553502772noreply@blogger.com