Where do I begin to define this particular generation? Nintendo’s multi-million selling DS stood very much alone in it’s field. I mean, Sony’s PSP was technically the same handheld generation; but, aside from a small handful of decent original titles and the ability to play PSOne titles (such as Final Fantasy VII) on the move, the PSP was a bit of a waste of perfectly passable potential. The Nintendo DS had a cavalcade of original and fresh titles that saw some truly ingenious use of the handheld’s touchscreen and other features (in a similar way to the current trends of using the clever technological features of the Nintendo 3DS or Sony Playstation Vita), and none of these were more clever than The World Ends With You.

The World Ends With You is a highly stylised action-JRPG on Nintendo DS (which has now, unfortunately, been ported to iOS), which was released in 2008. Square-Enix, who have fallen quite considerably out of my favour in recent years, masterfully created an alternate-reality Shibuya in which a deadly game was in play for the continued existence of the protagonist, Neku. By ‘highly stylised’, I mean that everything within the title comes under the “cool”aesthetic that the developers decided upon. The music, art style, characters, setting and gameplay all come together to create this image.

Beginning with the music, this game has an incredible soundtrack, perfectly summarising the cosmopolitan locale of extremes that is Shibuya itself. The music ranges from slow tracks with overly dirty basslines, to up-tempo dance, with both ease and finesse. In fact, I challenge you to go onto Youtube and listen to ‘Calling’from the soundtrack and not enjoy it at least a little. That track, along with many others from this game, could very easily stand alone as their own songs.

The characters, designed by a similar team that worked on the original characters from Kingdom Hearts, have the typical (but perfectly matched for the setting) ridiculousness of JRPG character design. The protagonist is most definitely not a people person, wearing headphones to shut out the outside world, so falls into the archetypal ‘grumpy and anti-social hero’category that is inhabited by other JRPG characters such as Cloud Strife. However, unlike most genre stereotypes in video games, Neku breaks through this throughout the course of the game (a feat that most games writers should really take into account). The other characters within the game, both allies and enemies are also spectacularly designed and feel suitably fleshed-out, with some of the villains especially being clever and believable creations.

Gameplay-wise, however, is the area in which this game shines brightest. Some would argue against this assertion, and I can’t understand their opinions, but personally I do not agree. The battles, for instance are played on both screens simultaneously. The actions on the bottom screen are performed with the stylus, and the top screen character is controlled with the buttons. This does, admittedly take a little while to get used to, but is thoroughly satisfying once you master it. If you do not want to, or cannot, do so there is also the option to have the top screen character fight automatically. To add another layer to the combat, and to further tie into the entire title’s aesthetic, there are various fashion brands within the game. Wearing certain brands in particular areas of Shibuya can either increase or decrease your power depending on whether those brands are deemed ‘cool’in that area.

I honestly cannot rave about this game enough. This is one of the, if not ‘the’, best games of the Nintendo DS’entire lifespan and mostly definitely one of the best RPG titles of the ten years. It is an unbelievable shame that Square-Enix have, since The World Ends With You, fallen so far as to release, for instance, a THIRD Final Fantasy XIII title when games this good are nestled quite pleasantly in their back catalogue. This is a must-buy title for owners of either DS or 3DS handhelds; it not only defines the generation it was a part of, but is one of the few titles that define the whole RPG genre as well.

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