'The World Ends With You' (Photo: Square Enix)
The last time I thought about The World Ends With You for the Nintendo DS, the world was a simpler place. Barack Obama was president and I had no idea what an NFT was. Frankly, I still don’t know what an NFT is, but either way, that was some time ago. Now, 14 years after the game’s release, Neo: The World Ends With You, a formal sequel, is coming to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on July 27.
The original The World Ends With You made its mark in niche circles for its stylish art and music as well as time-capsuling of New-Japan cool on the streets of Shibuya-Ku. I tried to re-live my Shibuya fantasy when The World Ends With You‘s Switch port came out in 2019. While the original game used the DS’s stylus to move your characters, the Switch port lets you use your finger in handheld mode or pointing with joycons in docked mode. Neither of the new styles grew on me and I ended up shelving the game, while I was actually in Shibuya to boot.
Neo, however, seems to ditch the touch/waggle controls altogether, now looking strikingly like Persona 5 walking around the incredibly accurate entrance to Shibuya-eki.
It is absolutely stunning to see Neo‘s Shibuya, which captures the fast-moving electric neighborhood in a scope never before seen. Anyone else who knows the area will recognize Rindo, the game’s main character, bebopping around the Yamanote-sen bridge and a hill strikingly similar to one that runs parallel to the 109 building splitting after the city’s famous multi-way crossing.
Players can look forward to rediscovering Japan-punk cool this July when Neo The World Ends With You hits store shelves on July 27.
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