Released in 2008 by Square Enix and Jupiter, The World Ends With You is an action, role-playing game. The story centers around a young boy named Neku in a city called Shibuya, one of the biggest cities in Japan. He wakes up in the middle of the city with no clue who he is and how he got there. He quickly realizes as he explores the city that he’s in the Reaper’s Game, a seven day challenge where the players have to complete one mission a day under a time limit or face being erased from the game. As Neku continues exploring Shibuya, he also fights these creatures called Noise and makes allies with other players in order to survive.

In The World Ends With You, you are partnered up with another player in order to fight Noise and given unique pins. These pins give you powers that allow you to defend yourself against Noise as well as scan the people around you to read their thoughts and further complete your missions. These pins are one of the things I enjoy most about this game because they give you a unique battle experience.

Here are some of the pins from The World Ends With You.

When battling Noise, you are given slots for your pins. Each pin you put in a slot are the ones you can use when fighting Noise. You can put whichever pins you want in a slot as long as they aren’t the same type of pin. This gives the player the opportunity to use a unique set of pins to fight off their foes and level up their pins.

During each fight, you and your partner are on separate screens while battling the Noise. The great thing about this is you can control both characters during your fighting in order to give out more damage. However, whenever you receive damage, your health is depleted from the same bar and controlling both players isn’t always the most ideal because one player could be losing health while your controlling someone else. This can easily be fixed in the menu screen so you can focus on controlling Neku and not have to worry about your partner losing health.

While I enjoy this fighting style, one of its weaknesses is controlling the pins. When fighting Noise, sometimes the pins don’t always work even when you’re doing things correctly. I know part of the problem is because all of the controls during battling involve using your stylus, which can be quite a big turn off during gameplay. I know I definitely can find it annoying at times when I know I’m using a pin correctly, but it’s not doing what it’s supposed to.

What I also enjoy about playing The World Ends With You is the unique art style and storyline. When playing the game, the art really catches my eye. I find it to be beautiful and completely immersive because it reminds me of comic books. I’m also enjoying the storyline because the plot doesn’t give everything away at once. With each day, you learn a little more about the characters you didn’t know before. But you also find out more about this Game and understand why the players are in it.

Overall, my experience with The World Ends With You has been a good one so far. I hope to continue playing this game to find out what other secrets have yet to be unlocked for me.