Back in July I wrote about the amazing complexity of the combat mechanics of my Nintendo DS game The World Ends With You. Pretty sure that blog entry was called Holy Effing Ess! The picture above shows the two screens of the DS that the player has to deal with. On the bottom is Neku, the main character -- the player's proxy (the slouchy kid with the red hair) -- whom you control with the stylus. Above Neku is character Shiki whom you control with the 4-way directional pad (see those arrows leading to the three different ESP-card symbols?).
It's an incredible achievement, this game, for a couple of reasons. One: the combat is so daunting as to appear impossible, but ends up being very possible even for a 38-year old geezer such as myself, after which it becomes superfun. To reiterate: the combat is really fun (not always the case in RPGs). You could play the game for the combat alone, and it would be worth the price of admission ($39.99, in case you're wondering).
But there's also a story to this game. TWEWY doesn't pretend to be "open ended" or "emergent" -- it's got a story to tell and it tells it; you're just along for the ride. But it's a good story. And it's not about High Elves and noble Paladins. It's about teenagers in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, dealing with survival, friendship, betrayal, fashion, and marketing -- all of which, with the possible exception of the former, are big deals to most teenagers in the moneyed world.
Barb hates videogames for no particular reason. The World Ends With You is the first game that made me really feel like she's missing out. It's a great work.
Plus, did I mention that it's fun as hell?
It's an incredible achievement, this game, for a couple of reasons. One: the combat is so daunting as to appear impossible, but ends up being very possible even for a 38-year old geezer such as myself, after which it becomes superfun. To reiterate: the combat is really fun (not always the case in RPGs). You could play the game for the combat alone, and it would be worth the price of admission ($39.99, in case you're wondering).
But there's also a story to this game. TWEWY doesn't pretend to be "open ended" or "emergent" -- it's got a story to tell and it tells it; you're just along for the ride. But it's a good story. And it's not about High Elves and noble Paladins. It's about teenagers in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, dealing with survival, friendship, betrayal, fashion, and marketing -- all of which, with the possible exception of the former, are big deals to most teenagers in the moneyed world.
Barb hates videogames for no particular reason. The World Ends With You is the first game that made me really feel like she's missing out. It's a great work.
Plus, did I mention that it's fun as hell?
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