10 Massively Underrated Japanese RPGs You Must Play
5. The World Ends With You
JRPGs sometimes suffer from containing very conspicuous tropes; crazy hairstyles, huge fantasy worlds where mages and knights are commonplace, massive impractical swords and often a large dollop of angst. Whilst the crazy hairstyles are still there, The World Ends With You breaks free from these tropes, resulting in one of the breakout pocket RPGs this side of the millennium. This game is very difficult to describe, because it does so much so differently to other RPGs, and a lot of it is incredibly complicated. Take the battle system, for example; you control Neku, the protagonist, with the touchpad on the DS, whilst at the same time inputting controls for his partner with the D-Pad. It feels like rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time even the game itself tells you to take it slowly but when youve got it down, you can unleash absolutely devastating combos. Visually, the game is set in a very stylised Shibuya District, making heavy use of manga-type graphics but considering that this title is on the DS, they look pretty damn good. The audio is great too - it really captures the atmosphere of a busy modern-day Tokyo, rather than the generic fantasy lands were so used to seeing. Probably the only major qualm with the game is that it is very, very hard. This game is truly one for the hardcore gamer, despite its presentation. Theres so much more to it, though, more than can be described here. Stick with it if you pick it up. Itll be well worth it.
