Before there was Octopath, The World Ends With You was my favorite game by far.
Released in North America on April 22, 2008 by Square Enix and Jupiter, The World Ends With You was an angsty teenager’s Nintendo DS dream game. It was eventually remastered twice: first in 2012 as Solo Remix for mobile phones, then second in 2018 as Final Remix with a few narrative additions.
Its storytelling, artistry, and music captivated me as a young player. I connected with the main character who felt disconnected—the title of the game sounding like a finality and limiting. I was taken on an adventure though, one of hope and of finding strength to keep going. The meaning of the title wasn’t to show our ending, it was to remind us all that we create our own barriers. Those barriers can expand and even encompass the entire world if we just allowed ourselves to be part of it. Our world ends at our fingertips, so keep reaching for more.
In 2008, I played the Nintendo DS version. I skipped the 2012 mobile version because I didn’t have money to buy the game at the time. When the 2018 version came out, I didn’t care if the gameplay was a little different than the original—I mean, how can it be the same when you had two screens and a stylus originally? I only cared about experiencing it all over again.
Not yet 100% but I’ll go back and edit for that later since Stardew Valley ate my soul shoulder after I started doing my completionist runs; it’s still a gorgeous game after so many remakes— but give me my sequel. I deserve it.
2018, November 26
Ending cards for the main story:
After a few years, I returned to the game to complete as much as I could. It’s a very grindy game when it comes down to it, so getting passive evolutions for certain items was a nightmare. However, I bought every shop item I could get my hands on, collected all the music, evolved what I could, and beat every enemy on every possible game mode.
(Pt. 2)
Final Scores—
In 2018 I said that I’d go back to complete as much of the game as I could, and so in 2020 here we are. My final time for the back to back bosses is ~18 minutes which is a shock to me because I thought it’d take me at least half an hour or more. I finished the Secret Reports too (they build off each other so Shiki through Beat are all done.) Finally, I recorded all of the noise and as many drops as I could. This means I went through Pork City and Shibuya River stuff.
Ok listen, I know it’s not 100/100, but, this is close enough. Half the pins that I’m missing needs passive evolution (which I don’t have the time for) and other things I need to collect are driving me crazy because of the insane drop rates. I may go back yet again to do more, but for now, I think I’m good.
2020, July 30
Finished as of July 30, 2020.
Onto Neo: The World Ends With You, the Sequel!
Diving in the Deep 