Neo: The World Ends With You has the same vibe as the original DS game. It’s still about a group of teens who must compete in a game of death. The soundtrack is still infused with a mixture of pop and hip hop. The design of Shibuya and the characters within it also have that core Nomura drip.
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It’s a stylish game to be sure with many returning elements to seemingly appeal to its hardcore fans. There are also quite a few changes to make Neo: The World Ends With You both feel different and to make it more accessible to a wider audience. Did Square Enix make the right choices in this new Switch RPG, or were these changes a bad idea?
6 Now In 3D
The most obvious change is Neo: The World Ends With You being rendered in 3D instead of 2D. The game is still confined to a set amount of locations inside of Shibuya. It isn’t a sprawling open-world game like some other recent Square Enix RPGs.
There also isn’t a camera system meaning that every angle is predetermined. It’s more like 2.5D then, while exploring the city. In battle Neo: The World Ends With You behaves more like a 3D game. This change then is both drastic and not at the same time.
5 Now With Voice Acting
Another striking addition is the new voice acting. Only about 30% of Neo: The World Ends With You’s dialogue is voiced which is a shame. The rest of it is all in-text just like The World Ends With You. The writing is good and should be exactly what fans have been wanting to see for over a decade now.
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At the same time, one can’t help but feel a little disappointed that the voices aren’t as prominent. This is a Square Enix game meaning that they have money to spare. Even a small indie game like Cris Tales, another recently released RPG on Switch, has more voice acting in it.
4 Gameplay Changes
The battle system is still all about collecting pins. In The World Ends With You, players would have to input certain functions into the DS to execute a move. For example, a simple swipe across the bottom screen could be a slash attack. Other prompts had players tap rapidly to perform a hail of projectiles. In the Switch port, these were converted to motion controls while in docked mode.
Undocked meant that players still needed to perform touch commands. There are no touch, or motion controls in Neo: The World Ends With You. This time around every pin is instead synced to a button making it a lot easier to perform attacks. There are also way more pins to collect meaning that the variety is outstanding with over three hundred in the game.
3 More Party Members
Another change to the battle system is that the party has been expanded. In The World Ends With You, the main character, Neku, got one new partner per chapter. Neku was controlled on the bottom screen while the top screen was reserved for the party member. They could perform attacks automatically using AI or players could command them using the D-Pad and buttons. It was a bit tricky to do that which was like a pat the head, rub the stomach sort of situation.
Since the Switch doesn’t have two screens this partner system was retooled. All party members now fight on the same playing field. The number of party members has also been expanded to four altogether including Rindo, Fret, Minamimoto, and Nagi at the beginning of Neo: The World Ends With You. The aforementioned pins dedicated to buttons are also locked onto characters. For example, the X button may be tied to Rindo while the Y button is tied to Fret. It seems more complicated than it is. It is one of Square Enix’s more unique battles systems.
2 An Improved Food System
In The World Ends With You there was a food system wherein Neku could eat food to then get boosts in battle. Digesting the food fully, which went down based on the number of battles fought, meant that he would gain permanent stat boosts like increased HP. The food system returns in Neo: The World Ends With You but with a few improvements.
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Everyone has a preferred set of foods they like. If the correct food is chosen in a restaurant for a character, they could gain bonus stats. These stats are increased automatically after consuming the food. The digestion period is still here except now it’s kind of like an “I’m full” meter. Fight battles to make the meter go down so that more food can be consumed. It’s a mechanic that falls more in line with a food system in a title like Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game.
1 The Social Network
One of the biggest new features is a skill tree. This skill tree is disguised as a social networking system. Every main, or side character interacted with will become a node in the social network. If a quest is completed for that character then their node bonus will be available to purchase.
For example, there is a character referred to as “The Prince” in Neo: The World Ends With You. If his side quest is completed then Rindo can buy his ability which automatically converts Yen pins into Yen without having to sell it off. There is a lot of variety to these skills which nicely adds another element of customization to an already stacked game of features.
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