They’re Actually Making a The World Ends with You Sequel
Against the odds, Square Enix’s latest The World Ends with You countdown ended with the announcement of a brand-new significant project: NEO: The World Ends with You. The trailer and accompanying information reveal how this will be the long-awaited sequel to the — if you can believe it — 2007/2008 hit. It has seriously been well over a decade since this company has been hearing cries from fans for a successor, and they’ll finally provide that in 2021. The fact that it’s been so long makes this news even more surprising. When anyone’s typically waiting for a sequel for that long, it’s time to give it up.
I’m not referring only to me there, but I can talk from experience. I always intended to post about whatever awaited behind the teaser website Square Enix launched last week, but had mentally prepared myself for a snark-heavy entry about how yet another TWEWY teaser site ended with disappointment, even if the previous announcements weren’t “bad” per se. The first one from way back in August 2012 ended with the announcement of the first game’s mobile port, the version later ported to Nintendo Switch. The teaser website earlier this year was for the anime adaptation, fine enough in theory. Considering those, why would anyone in their right mind have expected a sequel announcement from this none? But it turns out the third one was indeed the charm.
Not many details have been shared about NEO: The World Ends with You yet, but it’s already clear that it will take place in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Japan again. The main characters will be forced to participate in the Reapers’ Game of life and death, again like the first game. The protagonist will be Rindo, who will take the place of the first game’s Neku Sakuraba in uncovering the mysteries behind the game. He’ll be joined by Fret, Nagi, and, it seems, Sho Minamimoto, the very memetic villain-ish figure from the first game.
The presentation will be fully 3D this time around, with a cel-shaded style that compliments character designer Gen Kobayashi’s art style. It’s tough not to think of Persona 5 upon seeing it, but it should very much be its own thing, and it’s far from the only Japanese game to utilize the Shibuya setting. The visuals show how Square Enix did not assign this game a large budget, but the game isn’t unattractive. The presentation switch means the battle system will be different from the first game’s, no longer made to work with a dual-screened setup and touchscreens. It will, however, keep the format of only having two characters participating in battle simultaneously, so not everything will be discarded from its predecessor. The comic book/manga-style story presentation is also being kept from the first game.
What they’re showing looks good, though I’ll miss the unique battle system that took advantage of the DS’ unique capabilities. It’s the name that’s giving me the most concern. I have already read too many comments from people who wondered if this was a sequel or remake, thanks to a name that doesn’t do a good-enough job indicating that it’s the former. Its identity is clear to anyone who’s played the first game given the different set of characters, but Square Enix could run into advertising problems if the company and fans have to keep correcting people.
NEO: The World Ends with You will release for Switch and PlayStation 4 in summer 2021 worldwide. In the meantime, the original game was ported to Switch in late 2017, which seldom gets discounted thanks to being a Nintendo-published title in western territories. But at least it’s easily available to play, unlike some prequels. NEO isn’t far off, so Square Enix should show it often from here.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
