![]() ![]() It's a set-up that will be familiar to fans of the first game, but with the interesting new twist that instead of pairing off, players can form teams of unlimited size and work together as a group to "win" and set their entire group free. Across seven days, the group completes challenges, fights off strange monster-like enemies called the Noise, and solves puzzles set by the death warden Reapers. The passive new protagonist Rindo and his charming cinnamon roll of a best friend Fret are sent to this alternate reality after Rindo has a strange and upsetting vision of Shibuya in chaos, and are later joined by the fangirlish Nagi and returning, math-obsessed, former antagonist Minamimoto. NEO: The World Ends With You takes place in a parallel version of Shibuya, Japan, where the deceased are sent to play a sadistic week-long “Reapers’ Game” for the right to return to life. Still, it’s a homecoming that’s pulled off well enough, with a flashy signature style and entertaining combat mechanics that were translated surprisingly well to the Switch. While NEO mostly delivers in that regard, what’s also clear is that Square Enix was so eager to at last revisit the same stories, characters, and places of its predecessor that it left this follow-up little room to tell an interesting new story or reach a new emotional peak of its own. ![]() Rather, I hoped it could recapture the feelings that made the original so special: themes of growth, connection, and love of a place because of its people. So my desire for its long-awaited Switch sequel, NEO: The World Ends With You, was not necessarily that it would answer every hanging plot thread that had been left at the end of a game I played years ago. Its incredible soundtrack, the irresistible vibes of the city of Shibuya, and its compelling coming-of-age journey stuck with me even when the weird intricacies of its plot had faded. I’ve thought about The World Ends With You often in the 14 years since its Nintendo DS debut. ![]()
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