The World Ends With You Review - A Modern Classic

the world ends with you was one of the most recognizable names for jrpg fans while this game hasn't exactly reached a mainstream success yet it does have a pretty decent following the original game was released for the nintendo ds back in 2007 before receiving an enhanced re-release on the nintendo switch in late 2018. somewhat recently we've also received the announcement of a direct sequel to the game as well as an anime adaptation so for today's video we're going to be looking at why this game left such a big impact on people and whether or not i fully agree with the praise or criticism this game has garnered a few things before we get started i'm going to be using the nintendo switch version of this game for the basis of this video this is the version that i have the most experience with and is the most readily available way to play the game while i do own a 3ds capture card i sadly don't own an original copy of the world ends with you and if you're familiar with my channel you know i like to keep things official around here from the research i've done into the ds version of the game they're largely the same experience other than one major change that admittedly will make her break your enjoyment of this title whatever i end up saying in this video will only apply to the switch version specifically so just keep that in mind there's also going to be major plot spoilers in this video so if you're at all interested in the world ends with you i suggest that you either proceed with caution or even play the game yourself before watching there's a lot of twists and turns that this narrative goes through and i don't want to spoil it for any new players so with that out of the way let's just jump right in the main protagonist for this story is neku sakaraba a 15 year old boy who has a very bleak outlook on the world neku is very introverted and has a disdain for social interaction by his own admission neku doesn't understand people and mostly just wants to keep to himself blocking out the world with his headphones this all changes however one day when neku awakes in shibuya crossing and discovers that no one around him can see or hear him before he can get any answers he receives a text message from a mysterious group known as the reapers saying that he has to reach the 104 building in an hour failure to do so will result in erasure a timer appears on his hand and slowly begins to count down neko has entered what is known as the reapers game it's revealed early on that everyone participating in the reaper's game is someone who recently passed away but by playing through the game and surviving for one week the survivors will be granted a second chance at life people participating are known as players and are giving these black pins in order to assist them in the game in order to enter the reapers game the player must give up whatever is dearest to them if the player fails then not only will they be erased from reality but their entry fee will also be destroyed in neku's case his memories were his entry fee meaning that neku has no idea how or when he died the reaper's game isn't going to be a walk in the park as there's these mysterious creatures known as noise that attack the players in order to erase them a player can't fight noise on their own only by forming a pact with another player and teaming up are they able to defeat noise neku learns this the hard way when he's attacked by noise thankfully a girl named shiki misaki arrives and is able to convince neku to form a pact with her while neku doesn't want anything to do with shiki or the reaper's game he's going to have to participate in order to survive this is the basic setup to the plot of the world ends with you while on the surface it may seem like a standard story with a conclusion in plain sight there's far more to the plot of this game than what's first established the game wastes no time at all and throwing us right into the plot and wasting no time establishing character motivations and explaining the mechanics of the world to the player what i summarized was one of the bare necessities in order to get an idea of what the premise of the game is for the next week neku and his partner will receive a new task that they have to complete on a time limit after completing their mission the next day will come while they'll receive a new one without going into too much detail now the world ends with you is a very character driven narrative there's a lot of time spent flushing out the character's personalities and beliefs i have a lot more i want to discuss involving the plot but before that i want to get the main gameplay out of the way first the place where i want to begin is actually the overworld the world ends with you unlike most jrpgs doesn't feature any traditional dungeons instead the entirety of shibuya acts as the game's map you only have access to a certain amount of the map depending on which in-game day you're on over the course of the game you unlock more shibuya to explore but overall the map is actually quite small it's pretty difficult to get lost in the world ends with you because areas integral to the current mission will usually be guarded by the reapers and the red hoodies these red reapers put up walls to block the players from proceeding that is until they complete their specific task these can range from defeating a certain amount of noise collecting an item or even testing the player's knowledge on the world around them the reaper roadblocks aren't the main focus of the game and are mostly used to make sure the player has grasped how to use certain mechanics i never found these particularly difficult and other than one exception they never quite got on my nerves but if i'm going to give an example of the worst the system has to offer real quick about halfway through the game there's a chapter that features multiple reaper's walls of varying challenges if you know the prerequisites to open the wall beforehand you can easily just blaze through them without much effort but if it's your first playthrough then be prepared to do a somewhat tedious back and forth the reaper review sections in particular can get very annoying because you have to answer all three questions correctly get one wrong then you fail the test it's just in this one chapter where i feel they went a bit overboard with how many reaper walls you need to clear out for the rest of the game they're used in moderation to not distract from the main missions that you're trying to clear a core mechanic to the world ends with you is the ability to read the minds of people in shibuya this can be done by pressing the player pin at the bottom right of the screen while this can be used to get an insight into the lives of the people of shibuya the main use for this feature is reprint thoughts onto the people since neku and the others are invisible to the living they have a more unique way of getting what they want out of others by imprinting memes into people's thoughts the player can essentially convince them to do something without having to talk to them yeah you heard me right memes but anyways imprinting ideas is a concept that's used quite a few times throughout the game though this is a limited power for the characters since they can only imprint ideas relating to their current mission to use an early game example naku and shiki need to find a way to restore power in the a east building so they can defeat a noise inside they do this by getting the key word for the items needed and imprinting the idea into someone that can help out this is honestly a very cool idea that's used a few times throughout the game it's also directly tied into the story and is a major plot element later in the game but in terms of how it's used in the game design it's fairly straightforward the most unique aspect of the world ends with you is its core combat mechanics these mechanics actually do differ between playing the game on the ds versus on the switch as a reminder i have yet to play the original ds version of this game so everything that i'm about to say only applies to final remix in order to fight noise you need to equip pins to neku these pins act as your attacks and battles and they run off of a cooldown system in order to do an attack you need to do the motion corresponding with that pin this can range from tapping swiping dragging holding and many more you can only use a pins attack so many times in battle before it enters a recharge phase the time it takes for a pid to reboot varies depending on how powerful the attack is you start off with a measly two pin slots before upgrading to four slots and eventually all the way up to six slots to play around with neku's partners can also join in to provide assistance think of them as a pin that's permanently equipped there are a total of three partners neku has access to throughout the game those being shiki joshua and beat shiki is activated when tapping an enemy she sends her stuff cat after noise that you targeted for combo attack joshua is activated when swiping downward his main gimmick is that he drops objects on enemies at scale and size going from something as small as a signpost all the way up to entire vehicles to crush his enemies and finally beat is activated by dragging in empty space he rides a skateboard onto the battlefield that you control by having him run into enemies beat will begin a combo attack you need to make sure to keep dragging beat into enemies to get the most use out of him the main goal of the combat system is balancing neku's attack with his current partners by attacking the same enemy at the same time you start to fill up your sync meter when your sync is at one hundred percent you can perform a screen-wide attack that can be powered up through a quick mini-game this is the basic idea of the combat system while it may sound simple on paper there's a lot of depth and customization that can be found pins are your main bread and butter and can be used to drastically alter your strategies in combat pins can range from being projectile attacks melee combos and even more creative ones such as psychokinesis and the ability to summon ice pillars you're heavily encouraged to experiment with your deck of pins in order to find out which ones have the most synergy with not only each other but also your partner at the start of the game my deck would consist of mostly attacks that would activate when tapping an enemy this is the same input as activating shiki's partner ability meaning that i was easily able to combo neku's attacks with hers to fill up the sink gauge quickly along with maximizing damage this same rule applied when i had joshua enbeat as my partners i would build my pin deck around their abilities in order to maximize their effectiveness even if that meant i would have to get used to certain attacks that i was hesitant on using at first for example the up close melee combo works very well with both joshua and beet especially when combined with the pin that lets you create a small vortex to group enemies together pins can be purchased from shops in shibuya dropped by enemies and some pins can even evolve into more powerful versions if the right conditions are met much like the characters pins themselves can be leveled up with ap earned in battle leveling up pins mainly just improves their current stats such as having a faster reboot time more opportunities to attack and just more damage in general pen evolution was something i wasn't actively paying attention to mainly because after doing two playthroughs of the game i found it wasn't really necessary to have sure evolved pins are objectively an improvement but i didn't find this game difficult enough to actively seek them out speaking of difficulty the way it's handled in the world ends with you is honestly excellent during your playthrough you have the ability to change not only your current difficulty setting but also your character's current level these modifications not only allow you to customize the gameplay experience to your liking but there's also an incentive to add these modifiers into a casual play through turning your difficulty from normal to hard yields extra experience for both neck you alongside his pins making it faster to gain levels playing on hard mode also increases the drop rate of pins which can be further increased by lowering your current level i love this idea it encourages the player to master the game's mechanics so that when they're ready to give themselves handicaps they'll be rewarded for doing so there are exclusive items that you can only earn while playing on the higher difficulties and if you want a better chance at those items dropping then you'll need to lower your level to do so for me personally i was almost always playing with a lowered player level unless it was for a boss fight you're able to earn a lot of money which you can use to spend on even more pins and items that can help you in the future plus if you're just in the mood to be challenged then you can drop your levels and increase the difficulty whenever something else that's very interesting about the world ends with you is its focus on not only fashion but the idea of trends that constantly change both the pins and the equipment use are actually classified through brands there are 13 brands in the game that are in constant battle for popularity the power of your pins will be affected depending on where the brand ranks in the current district if the brand is in the top three then there will be an increase in power the strongest buff going to the top ranked brand for double power if the brand is in last place in terms of popularity then the pin will only be at half power brand popularity will actually be manipulated depending on which pins you're using in the clothes that you're wearing for the most part you don't need to be constantly using the top rated brands but it's something that you should consider at points whenever you pause the game you can see which brands are currently in the lead and which one's at the bottom there are a few points in the game where you have to raise the popularity of certain brands in order to proceed but it's not something that you should be actively concerned about the world ends with you has a different approach to how engaging in combat works instead of having random encounters or enemies that roam the overworld it's up to the player to choose when they want to battle enemies other than the few forced encounters for story purposes you're never at risk of being caught off guard i mentioned earlier that you can use the black pin in the corner of the screen to read people's minds this is also how you find noise that you want to battle you can chain up to four waves of enemies for a single encounter chaining together encounters is a quick way to rack up some experience points along with increasing the drop rate of items as much praise as i've been giving the gameplay side of the world ends with you it sadly isn't perfect in fact the biggest flaw that this game has at least on the switch is one that's most likely a deal breaker for certain players i believe it's time to address the elephants in the room everything that i described in the main combat system from gestures to activating pins and partner commands to even something as trivial as moving neku around on the battlefield is all done via motion controls when playing this game docked you are required to use a single joy-con in order to control the game in battle this means they use the controller's gyroscope to move a cursor around on the screen to perform actions since this is a gyroscope and not an ir pointer like the wii you'll have to recenter the cursor every once in a while with the y button when the calibration begins to drift this is the make or break aspect for whether or not you should pick up the switch version of this game the world ends with you even on the ds has a very unique control screen that's a part of the game's main identity translating the ds control scheme to another system that doesn't have the same screen setup as the original hardware is certainly a difficult task while you can play the game in handheld mode use the switch's touchscreen to control the game i personally found this even more awkward than the gyro controls due to the lack of a stylus when the port of this game first came out the biggest complaint laid against it were the controls and while this is totally a valid criticism i can't help but feel as though it was slightly over exaggerated it was made to seem as though this game was unplayable with these controls while the gyro controls are far far from perfect i think that saying the game is unplayed with them is going a bit too far from personal experience the switch version's control scheme never gave me too much trouble but i would be lying if i said that it was a flawless experience in a combat system that required a lot of rapid and precise movements the game failed to register the proper input more than just a couple times this would happen the most during the boss battles in the game i can safely say that almost all these were frustrating due to the controls more so than the encounters themselves something that you might notice after a while is that when battling noise they don't seem to move around the battlefield that much other than a few exceptions the enemies in this game are either stationary or have very slow movement this is a good thing because you don't need to be 100 accurate in order to execute pin attacks the most annoying enemies in the games are the ones that are constantly moving around the battlefield because it makes amy the gyroscope cursor a hassle this is especially true if the enemy hitbox is on the smaller side my least favorite boss in the game is the boss battle against the reaper sho minamimoto this fight requires you to be very precise with your inputs because he's constantly dashing around the arena he'll leave himself open for attacks at points but the window is pretty small combine this with the fact you need to constantly reset your cursor calibration and this boss becomes very annoying to fight funnily enough i find his second form easier than the first about halfway through the fight show will transform into this giant beast and become more powerful this is actually a benefit to the player because not only does his hitbox grow but he also becomes much slower i don't find the actual boss fight hard the real challenge comes from the limitations of the controls which is something that i can't excuse while i haven't played the ds version of the world ends with you i don't need to in order to say that this game is far more fitting to play with an actual stylus not only do you have a smaller screen real estate to work with but you also have the benefit of the precision that a stylist provides from what i've seen of that version of the game it also has its own unique quirks that you need to abide by but the main difference is that for the ds version the challenge comes from learning how to balance your attention between two screens and not the finicky controls with that being said i believe i should clarify that despite the somewhat unreliable controls i still had a good time with this version of the game sure i ran into a few snags here and there more so than i probably should have but i'm the type of person that's willing to meet the developers halfway if a game has unconventional controls or odd mechanics i'm willing to learn and adapt to them but that doesn't mean i can excuse when and where they can go wrong in the case of the world ends with you you might be better off avoiding this version of the game unless you're willing to put in the extra effort with the gyroscope the ds version is generally considered to be the better version of this game and even though i haven't played that version i think that you should pick it up given the chance when it comes to the gameplay discussion that's all i really wanted to cover but before i move on to the story i want to quickly talk about the world ends with used presentation this is one damn good looking and sounding game i'm no professional when it comes to discussing the techniques and details about music and artwork but i can explain when i like or dislike something the world ends with you has what i consider to be one of the best art directions in any video game only rivaled by that dreaded p word the character artwork features very sharp edges and thick outlines which are complemented by pitch-black shadows fashion is a huge part of the game's identity and i think that tetsuya nomura really knocked it out of the park with these character designs even someone as simple looking as joshua radiates style the soundtrack to this game is also fantastic it dips into multiple genres and has a surprising amount of variety final remix does a great job at rearranging the original soundtrack in my opinion but the option to play the ds compositions also exists some of my personal favorite tracks are some day game over calling runaway and of course the main theme of the game twister there's a decent selection of battle themes here as well so there's no fear of repetition cutscenes are presented in a fairly simplistic way usually they consist of characters talking back and forth to each other through comic book text bubbles there are a few scenes that have a bit more to them with the inclusion of animated cutscenes but it's mostly done in the former way i personally don't mind the presentation for this because the artwork used is gorgeous and this is far more of a compliment to the script but the dialogue is very snappy speaking of which i believe it's time that i covered what the rest of the story is about if what you've seen so far has interested you then this is your last chance to click off the video to avoid major spoilers the world ends with you has a very heavy focus on its ongoing narrative and i don't want to be the one to rob your potential plot revelations with that out of the way let's go into a little bit more detail about what's going on here while the setup of this game may imply that the main goal for our characters is to survive until the end of the week to win the reapers game things throughout to be much more complicated than that due to certain rules with the reaper's game neku ends up having to participate more than just a single week the story actually lasts for a total of three in-game weeks all of which features different partners that neko needs to team up with the cast for the world ends with you is actually a lot smaller than most rpgs there are four main party members in the game along with a few recurring side characters most of them belonging to the reapers not every character gets an equal amount of screen time so i don't find it necessary to go into great detail about all of them the characters i do want to focus on are neku and the three partners he teams up with throughout the game this doesn't mean that i think the side characters are bad by any means i actually find all of them to be pretty entertaining in their own rights but the main story is clearly focused on the players less so the reapers first up to bat is shiki neku's partner for the first week of the reapers game on the surface she's a very easy going and optimistic girl that has an interest in fashion design and becoming a seamstress shiki's personality works very well as a foil to neku she's a very sweet and caring person who's very quickly able to make friends with the other players contrast this with the cold and antisocial neku who wants nothing to do with people and is against the idea of opening up to others this personality that she outputs is actually far from her true feelings it's revealed on the sixth day of the first week that she he isn't actually the person who she says she is the upbeat and snarky personality is just a front she uses in order to hide her inferiority and jealousy of her best friend iri before she he died she spent most of her time with her friend and they bonded over their shared love of fashion iri was very good at designing clothes and she he was the one who was able to bring those designs to life eventually shiki became very insecure of herself when she began to put her friend on a metaphorical pedestal she saw eerie as someone that she aspired to be in shiki's own words eerie was smart pretty popular all the qualities that shiki believes she lacked herself a deep self-loathing manifested from sheiki's tendency to compare herself to eerie she he explained that after her death she awoke in the reaper's game with the appearance matching that of her best friends shiki was a stack to finally become the person that she looked up to the most but eventually realized that this isn't what she truly wanted for herself it's never explicitly stated as to why her entry fee ended up being her appearance but through my personal interpretation i believe that shiki never wanted to become eerie in a literal sense in shiki's mind she saw eerie as the type of person that she needed to strive to be but that doesn't mean that she had no attachment to her current identity even if she didn't like herself she didn't want to become anyone else only find a way to improve her current self her physical body was used as her entry fee this could represent her individuality being something precious to her but it's thanks to neku's encouragement in hearing the true thoughts of erie that shiki is able to at least know that people still do value her for who she is now while her jealousy is something that she needs to work on in the future hearing that eerie did care about her and sara as an equal did boost her self-confidence while she may still have some self-esteem issues she's at least regained her will to win the reaper's game i enjoy sheiki's character there are many people that can relate to feeling inferior to their peers i find the banter she has with neku entertaining and i like that he's the first person to tell sheikhi that she's appreciated for who she is now before this it seemed neku hated being around shiki and found her constant push to be friends annoying so shiki hearing these words from the most unlikely person most certainly had an effect on her joshua is introduced during the second week and is a bit of an oddball he's a smart kid that has plenty of knowledge of the reaper's game though most of the time he's very arrogant and condescending much like neku joshua has the same deep rooted disdain for people in a way the two can relate to each other because of their worldviews though joshua comes off far more antagonistic about it joshua is also a very unpredictable person with his own ulterior motives he's far less interested in directly participating in the reaper's game preferring to leave the main mission up to the other players but what makes joshua far different from the other players is the fact that he's actually alive and is looking to take down the person in charge of the whole reaper's game operation known as the composer to keep things concise joshua is the only person that's able to see players in the real world this resulted him in feeling inherently isolated from others because no one would believe his stories though thanks to a loophole he discovered in the rules joshua is able to enter the reapers game despite being alive his main reason as to why he wants to take down the composer is currently unknown and is very evasive with his answers joshua is a character who likes to surround himself in mystery and even though he's one of neku's partners he acts as an antagonist for him joshua enjoys the situation that he's in and is willing to tease neku with the truth of what's really going on around him this of course causes neku to distrust joshua and even begins to resent him but the nail in the coffin is that joshua has some sort of involvement with neku's death unlike the other players neku is actually able to scan joshua's thoughts and over the course of their week together neku believes that joshua is the one who killed him this obviously begins to cause discourse between the two because joshua isn't giving a clear answer leaving it to neku to decide whether or not he should be trusted this happens a lot with the events surrounding joshua and is the main reason as to why i find him such an interesting character he's inherently untrustworthy and keeps the player guessing where his true alignment lies what are joshua's motives why does he know about the reaper's game despite being alive why is he actively willing to participate in the game he may think that he's an antagonist because of the visions we saw where he shot neku but that isn't exactly the full extent of what happened that day it's eventually revealed that joshua didn't kill neku but it was actually the reaper show minamimoto this turns all preconceptions neku had about joshua being a murderer on their head it was neku who was the one who failed to trust his partner in this situation when that's something that he thought he learned with shiki joshua even ends up sacrificing his life for neku by taking the full force of show's attack for him joshua is probably my favorite character in the game because he's so complex you can never guess what he's going to do next and that's part of the reason as to why i find him so entertaining the final party member is beat he's a character that neko and shiki meet during the first couple days of the reapers game when we're first introduced to be he's partnered up with a younger girl named rime this partnership doesn't last very long because rhyme is tragically a race protecting beat this event actually motivates him into joining the reapers when giving the chance over the course of the story he attacks neku and joshua during their missions but eventually ends up defecting from the reapers in order to pay back neku for returning rime's pendant to him pete's relationship with rime is far more tragic than what's shown at the start of the game while not stated right away it's eventually revealed that rime is actually beats younger sister the two of them passed away when beat tried to save her from getting hit by a car there's even a point where neko and beat come across a memorial dedicated to the memory of the two kids this visibly makes beat uncomfortable which contrasts his usual abrasive personality beat lived a pretty destructive home life his parents were obsessed with his academic performance they wanted him to do well in school so that he could guarantee himself a good future though this would spark many arguments that would end with beats storming out of the house beat was constantly compared to his sister which is something that he grew to hate as a result he began to emotionally shut himself off from her and attempt to push her away despite all of this ryan would support beaten whatever he wanted to do in the future even though he admits that he didn't actually have any dreams when beat first found rhyme in the reapers game she had no memories of him so it was assumed that those memories were rime's entry fee to get into the game but it's eventually revealed that her memories were in fact beats entry feet into the first run of the game with his second fee being rime's soul it's never elaborated what rime's entry fee was but it's implying that rime didn't care about beat as much as he thought she did i find this an odd decision because we never end up learning what rhyme's real entry fee was i assumed that the two still were very close when they were alive due to the fact that she was willing to run away from home with beat after the arguments he had with their parents it's speculated by fans that her entry fee were her dreams and ambitions considering that she admits to not having any while she was in the reaper's game this causes beat the lie saying he wants to be the world's greatest skateboarder to hopefully inspire her it's a pretty plausible theory but i think that rhyme's entropy isn't that important to the overall narrative beats entropy being rhyme's memories actually says a lot about his character while he did try to distance himself from his sister deep down rhyme's encouragement and support really meant a lot to him beats the classic tough on the outside soft on the inside type of character that's been done before but it's his relationship with rhyme and the lengths that he's willing to go through that makes his character compelling beats the kind of person who puts family above all else he's willing to go through trials and suffering just so that he's able to make sure they're safe his ultimate goal by the end of the game is to take down the composer so they can fulfill the role not so that he can have control over shibuya but so that he can bring rhyme back to life something interesting about beat is that he's the only party member that's an active force throughout the game he's introduced not too long after the start and ends up making appearances until he joins neku's team during the last week of the game while he may not always be relevant to what's going on in the story beat does get the most screen time out of every partner not that this makes him inherently better than shiki or joshua but it's just something i thought was worth mentioning i wanted to save neku for last because he gets the most amount of screen time and development out of all the characters in the game which is appropriate because the main plot and themes for this game revolve around neku and his changing perspective on the world to give a refresher really quick at the start of the game neku was very anti-social and hates the idea of letting people into his life in his point of view people do nothing but chain others down his world view is affirmed when rime is erased early on in the game he comes off as cold and uncaring about what happened laying the blame on teaming up with a partner to begin with rather than finding any real solution in neku's mind rhyme trusting beat was what led to her erasure of course she he doesn't agree with this at all and calls him out for his horrible mindset but neku doesn't care about what she has to say unfortunately for neku he has to learn how to work together with his partner if he wants to survive the reaper's game he can't do everything on his own and one of the lessons he learns throughout the game is trusting his partners early on in the game neku was given the opportunity to get out of the underground early if he did a mission for the reapers he accepts the proposal without really thinking about it and is shocked to learn that the mission is to erase shiki if he doesn't kill her then he himself will end up being erased the reapers even go as far as saying that shiki was a spy for them to give him extra motivation to do so despite shiki telling neku that they're lying to him he almost goes through it anyway since he only trusts himself thankfully he stopped by the producer of the reaper's game with mr hanakoma i haven't mentioned this character yet but he's essentially the rule enforcer of the reapers game he also gives guidance and assistance to neku throughout the story it's because of mr hanakoma's advice that neku slowly starts to make changes to himself at first neku puts in the bare minimum effort when it comes to interacting with his partners shiki for example is someone who he only tolerated because mr hanakoma said so but he eventually learns that there's far more to trusting someone than just putting up with them what really helped was neko hearing shiki open up about her insecurities making him realize that deep down he did care about her company was able to console her the two begin to develop a legitimate friendship while they spend their time together so much so that when neku was forced to go through the reaper's game for a second time shikhi ends up being his entry fee what makes neku an interesting character to me is that they managed to strike the perfect balance of being intentionally flawed yet at no point did i feel as though he was a terrible person writing unlikable characters is very tricky to do because you run the risk of making their flaws their entire personality or making their eventual development feel forced something that i appreciate about neku is that even though he managed to become friends with shiki his problems don't disappear after this he begins to fall back into old habits during the second week because he failed to trust joshua it's understandable because neku believes that he was murdered by him but neku doesn't really make the effort to talk to him about it he instead falls back into treating joshua as the villain so when it's revealed that joshua didn't kill neku and he ends up sacrificing himself to save him neku feels guilt he understands where he went wrong and is regretful that he never had the opportunity to apologize for what happened neku's character arc reaches a climax at the end of the game but in order to explain why i need to give some context during the third and final week of the reapers game these red pins have swept the city of shibuya they look very similar to the player pins but their purpose is far different the people wearing these red pins all end up losing their free will and begin to think as one entity this ends up being the work of the conductor of the reaper's game megumi katanaji neku beet and shiki end up confronting megumi and take him down on the final day of the week it's then revealed that joshua is in fact alive but not only that joshua's true identity is a composer of shibuya this is a lot of information to take in at once so i'll break it down before the start of the game joshua and megumi made a bet that involved the state of shibuya joshua feels as though shibuya is filled with shallow selfish people that are unwilling to change he believes that the only way to solve this issue is to destroy shibuya and rebuild it from the ground up it's possible for him to do that thanks to his immense power magumi doesn't agree with joshua's view so the two made a wager on what they should do joshua gave migumi one month to find a way to change the mindset of the masses if he failed the mission then joshua would proceed with the erasure megumi's plan was to brainwash everyone in the city so that he himself could guide everyone in the path that he believed was correct to express his ideals he compares what he's doing to his symphony everyone in shibuya is an instrument that needs a conductor to guide them down the right path but joshua rigged this game so that he would eventually win it's revealed that joshua was in fact the person that killed neku and entered him in the reaper's game as a proxy joshua chose neku because he believed that he personified everything wrong with shibuya joshua even went as far as entering the game himself to make sure that neku would come out on top since nekuena's partners managed to stop megumi's plans that means he's free to erase shibuya for a fresh start neki was tricked into helping joshua fulfill his plans but because of his cooperation joshua gives him an ultimatum joshua has one last game that he and neku can play for the fate of shibuya he hands neku a revolver and says that if he's able to kill him before joshua can kill neku then neku will become the new composer the two boys ready themselves but neku is unable to bring himself to kill his old partner this gives joshua the opportunity to shoot neku leaving the fate of shibuya up to the composer surprisingly though neku awakes in the shibuya crossing where it's revealed that joshua didn't destroy shibuya but instead he brought neko and his friends back to life so what exactly just happened here this is how the game ends and i've seen a lot of people online confused as to why joshua did what he did if he hated the way shibuya was and orchestrated this entire game to justify erasing it why didn't he just do it after his duel with neku the answer is actually pretty simple he saw that neku was able to change himself neku's main character arc is learning that the world is only as big or as small as he allows it to be it's his choice as to whether or not he will allow his own worldview to stay narrow only by allowing others to enter his life is he able to expand that view this development happens throughout the entire game neko is able to realize that it can expand his world through other people's values and that to really enjoy life he has to open up to others the final duel between joshua and neku is the best example of how neku changed over the course of the story he went from someone who was contemplating killing his own partner for his own benefit to showing that he has faith in them neku acknowledges that joshua put him through hell over the past few weeks and that he probably can't forgive him for that but despite all of that he still trusts that joshua will do the right thing if he lets him win this goes against joshua's preconceived view of the world if the candidate that he personally selected as the worst person shibuya can change then there's the possibility that he had the wrong idea he awards neku and his friends with a second chance at life because they were able to grow and change his people the ending of the game sees all the previous players meet up with each other for the first time alive while joshua and mr hanakoma watch from the distance after the credits we see neko remove his headphones symbolizing that he'll no longer block out the rest of the world and is willing to embrace others and that's all for the world ends with you i left out a lot of specifics just so we wouldn't be here all day but the story is actually very solid these are very believable and fleshed out characters the only exception being rime because she lacked a lot of screen time it was mostly used to develop beat i feel that's worth mentioning because a lot of her character is mostly told to us through beat rather than explicitly being shown as an overall package the world ends with you as one of my favorite square enix rpgs it's up there with kingdom hearts 2 and final fantasy 10 for me the only major problems i have with it relate to the gyroscope controls used in combat and to be fair it's a pretty big problem for this version of the game i haven't played the ds version but from what i've seen it does look to be the superior way to play the game despite the attention and praise this game has received over the years it's still a pretty niche title at the end of the day i personally recommend that you at least give it a shot if what you've seen has interested you if you can get behind the controls then you're in for one of the most unique rpgs that you'll ever play but that all hinges on whether or not you're able to adapt to the gameplay quirks that this title brings to the table to the fans of the world ends with you that are watching this video i hope i did the game justice this is an experience that i won't be forgetting for a very long time [Music] hey everyone thanks for watching i'd like to give a special shout out to all of my patrons whose names are on screen now it's thanks to these very generous supporters that i'm able to get videos out as fast as i do now if you would like to support my channel and receive some special perks such as early video access and a special discord rule please click the link in the description the next video is going to be on the first persona q game i currently have all the footage recorded so the wait won't be that long if you want to get updates on that project feel free to follow my twitter or join my discord those links will be in the description as well once again thank you so much for watching and take care

Channel: Nam’s Compendium

Views: 55,164

Rating: 4.948204 out of 5

Keywords: the world ends with you, the world ends with you review, the world ends with you analysis, the world ends with you anime, the world ends with you anime review, nam's compendium, nam's compendium persona, nam's compendium the world ends with you, the world ends with you review a modern classic, the world ends with you a modern classic, nam's compendium persona 5

Id: ONrjsTv1avI

Length: 34min 32sec (2072 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 07 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Agent_Random]

One of the best videos I've seen on FR!