The World Ends with You

The game takes place in a fictional version of the Shibuya shopping district in Tokyo, Japan. While everyday life goes on in the Realground (RG), the chosen dead are brought to an alternate plane of existence called the Underground (UG). The UG is also the venue for the Reapers' Game.[2] By offering their most treasured possession to enter the Game, the dead gain the chance to contest for the prize: to be brought back to life or to transcend to a higher form of spiritual existence. Most of those who choose to transcend become Reapers, the opponents of players in future Games.[3] Lasting a week, each Game is a contest to judge the worth of humanity.[2] Players set out to accomplish objectives under the rules created by the Composer, who is a god-like entity that maintains Shibuya. Another Reaper, the Conductor, tasks other Reapers to obstruct the players' efforts. Failure to complete a mission will disperse the mind and spirit of the player or Reaper, thus erasing his or her existence.[4]

A player in the UG is invisible to the living in the RG, though one can sometimes read and influence their thoughts. The UG is frequented by creatures called "Noise", which are attracted by the negative feelings of the living. To progress in the Reapers' Game, players are often required to defeat Noise by killing or "erasing" them.[5] However, each Noise exists in two parallel universes (or "zones") simultaneously, and can only be defeated by two players simultaneously fighting and defeating the Noise from these separate zones. To do this, players are required to form a pact with another player to survive the Noise.[6] Players receive assignments via text messages sent to their cell phones, and their right hands are imprinted with a countdown indicating the time left in the mission.[5] After a day's mission is complete, the remaining players find themselves at the start of the next day's mission, having no sense of the time that has passed in between.

The player assumes the role of Neku Sakuraba (桜庭 音操, Sakuraba Neku, ネク Neku), an initially asocial teenage boy who claims that he does not "get" people, and rarely interacts with others at first. Computer-controlled characters make up the rest of the cast, which includes players who are paired with Neku.[6] In the first Game, Neku is paired with Shiki Misaki (美咲 四季, Misaki Shiki, シキ Shiki), a teenage girl who takes on the form of her best friend, as her physical appearance was her price of entry for the Game.[7] In the second Game, Neku's partner is an intelligent and sly teenage boy, Yoshiya Kiryu (桐生 義弥, Kiryū Yoshiya), who prefers to be called Joshua (ヨシュア, Yoshua). Neku's final partner is Daisukenojo Bito (尾藤 大輔之丞, Bitō Daisukenojō), an ex-Reaper who calls himself "Beat" (ビイト, Biito).[8] Beat became a Reaper to find a way to bring his younger sister, Raimu Bito (尾藤 来夢, Bitō Raimu) (nicknamed "Rhyme" (ライム, Raimu)), back to life. Rhyme had sacrificed herself to save her brother from a Noise attack.[9] Sanae Hanekoma (羽狛 早苗, Hanekoma Sanae, ハネコマ Hanekoma), the Producer, bound her soul to a pin from which her Noise could be summoned, and gave it to Beat. The final Game Master, Mitsuki Konishi (虚西 充妃, Konishi Mitsuki, コニシ Konishi), crushes her Noise form and transformed it back into a pin.

Besides the Composer and the Conductor, there are other high-ranking Reapers.[10] For each week of the Game, Game Masters are assigned by the Conductor to lead the opposition to the players. Of the Game Masters opposing Neku, Sho Minamimoto (南師 猩, Minamimoto Shō, ミナミモト Minamimoto) is the most dangerous. He willingly circumvents the rules in an attempt to supplant the Composer.[11] Participating in the Games to earn promotions for their performance, the Reapers' goal is to ascend to the highest form of spiritual existence, the Angels.[12] Angels supervise the Games and if the stakes of a Game are particularly high, they send down one of their own to serve as the Producer.[13] For the three weeks of the game's story, Sanae Hanekoma is the Producer. Disguised as a Shibuya café owner, he guides new players and narrates the "Secret Reports" that are obtained by completing additional missions after completing the game.

The game's story follows Neku over the three weeks that he plays the Game, paired with partners Shiki, Joshua, and Beat for each week, respectively. Neku is confused at first, lacking knowledge of how he died or how he arrived at the UG. As he develops friendships with his partners, he starts to understand the rules of the Game. After the first week, only Shiki is allowed to return to the living, and she promises to meet Neku at the statue of Hachiko.[14][15] He also recovers his entry fee, which was his memories, except for the events leading up to his death. However, Shiki has become what Neku values most, and she is used as his new entry fee for the second week; in addition, Beat defects to the Reapers hoping to find a way to revive Rhyme after she sacrifices herself to save him. During the second week, Neku recalls small details of his death; eventually, he recognizes that he was shot at by Sho Minamimoto, one of the Reapers he faced during the Game. At the end of the second week, Joshua seemingly sacrifices himself to save Neku from an explosion created by Minamimoto.

However, because Joshua was never actually dead, the Game is nullified and Neku is forced to play the game a third time. His entry fee this time is all of the other players, meaning Neku cannot form any pacts and stands no chance against the Noise. However, Beat immediately defects from the Reapers and rejoins Neku. Neku and Beat find that the Reapers and the entire population of Shibuya are wearing special red pins that brainwash them into thinking the same harmonious thoughts. Without any missions to complete, the two venture to the fabled "Shibuya River", which Joshua was looking for during the second week. At the river, they find Megumi Kitaniji (北虹 寵, Kitaniji Megumi, キタニジ Kitaniji), the Game's Conductor. Kitaniji explains that he created the red pins in an attempt to remake Shibuya, which the Composer challenged him to do. If he fails, both he (as his price for losing the Game) and Shibuya will be erased.[16][17]

At that moment, Joshua reappears and reveals himself to be the Composer. Joshua returns the missing part of Neku's memory of death: Joshua himself shot Neku, choosing him to be his proxy in his challenge with Kitaniji. Minamimoto, who had been trying to usurp the position of Composer, was trying to kill Joshua in his weakened state as a human. After Kitaniji fails to defeat Neku by using his friends against him, Joshua gives Neku one last challenge: To fire upon Joshua to determine the fate of Shibuya. Neku is too conflicted to make a choice, and is shot down by Joshua.[18] Neku finds himself once again at the scramble crossing, confused by events, but alive this time.

The game's credits show scenes seven days later in the RG. As Neku walks from Udagawa to Hachiko to meet Beat, Rhyme, and Shiki, he discusses how the past three weeks have changed him for the better. In a statement directed at an absent Joshua, Neku says that although he will not forgive him for what he has done, he trusts him. Neku then asks if Joshua will be present at Hachiko as well.[19] Secret reports that can be obtained by completing additional missions after beating the game reveal that Joshua, after seeing the change in personality of Neku over the weeks of playing the game, decides to spare Shibuya, now believing the city to be ideal.[20] The game ends with Neku abandoning his headphones before a title card appears entitled "The World Begins with You".

The Final Remix version of the game adds new storyline content taking place after the main game. Neku and Beat awaken in a geographically distorted alternate version of Shibuya and are assigned a mission to escape Shibuya within 24 hours. Accompanied by a Reaper named Coco Atarashi, the two begin to make their way through the alternate Shibuya while encountering Shiki and Rhyme along the way. As they progress, Neku has visions of a city being destroyed and a strange girl with Shiki's stuffed animal, as well as what seem to be distorted flashbacks of his death and Rhyme's sacrifice. When Rhyme sacrifices herself to save Beat in a manner identical to Neku's vision, Neku realizes that he is having visions of the future. Neku and Beat arrive at Mr. Hanekoma's café, and he reveals that the Shibuya they have been traversing is one giant Noise created by Coco. Neku and Beat defeat the Noise and return to reality. An enraged Coco shoots Neku dead but is driven off by Joshua. Joshua meets with Mr. Hanekoma to discuss recent events; they reveal that Shinjuku has been erased and Noise are starting to appear in the RG and that the strange girl from Neku's visions was a survivor of the incident who they theorize caused Neku's visions and was helping him along. Elsewhere, Coco plots to continue using Neku for her plans and resurrects Minamimoto to serve as his partner.

Neku and Shiki fighting Noise in different "zones" near the same landmark. Neku's "psych pins" are displayed on the upper left of the bottom screen, and Shiki's card system is displayed along the top and bottom of the upper screen. Their shared health bar splits across both screens on the right side.

The game's combat system is called the "Stride Cross Battle System". The combat takes place across both screens of the DS, with Neku on the touchscreen and his partner on the top screen, representing the different "zones" of the same local area; the two characters battle the same enemies that exist in both "zones" simultaneously. Neku and his partner are synchronized during battle; they share the same health bar so that even if one character does not take any damage, the pair can fail in battle if the other takes too much.[5] A green "light puck" will pass between the characters during battle; by alternating battle between the character who possesses the puck, damage is increased. The movement of the light puck is determined by the "sync ratio" between Neku and his partner; the puck stays longer with the character with higher ratios. The player can equip Neku and his partner with clothing that can alter the light puck's speed.[21] The light puck also can magnify Neku and his partner's attacks as long as when they hold the puck, they are not attacked by an enemy and can continue this in a volley.

The player controls Neku by performing touchscreen actions based on the currently equipped pins. These actions may include slashing across an enemy, tapping the screen rapidly to fire bullets, holding down on an enemy to inflict damage or shouting into the microphone to cause a full-screen attack. Other pins need to be touched to activate them, such as for health restoration.[5] Each pin has a limited number of uses before it must recharge for a certain time. Other pins may only be used a fixed number of times during a series of battles, and do not recharge until the battle sequence is over. Neku can only be equipped with a maximum of two pins at the game's start; this can eventually be upgraded to a maximum of six.[21]

Neku's partner on the top screen can be controlled by the player using the face buttons, although players can use options to have the computer assist them. Each of Neku's partners has a card game-based mechanic; for example, Shiki's card game requires the player to match face-down Zener cards.[5] The partner can make a basic attack after the player navigates through a pathway of arrows to select one of several shown cards using the directional pad or face buttons. By navigating to a card that fits within the card game rules, the player earns a star. Once enough stars are collected, the player can launch a powerful "Fusion" attack using both Neku and his partner through the "Harmonizer Pin" that appears on the upper right of the touchscreen (assuming that the player has not rearranged where it is displayed).[5] The player can also help the partner character dodge attacks.[5]

In the game's re-releases on single screen systems (mobile and Switch), the battle system has been modified to reflect the lack of a second screen. The current partner instead acts as a separate pin among Neku's other pins, which the player can call in to perform attacks by similar touchscreen actions like tapping on an enemy or slashing down on one. The player must balance the use of the partner pin with Neku's attacks, going to their partner repeatedly to build up towards the Fusion attack. The Fusion attack is launched by tapping the partner pin on the screen; the player then has a limited period to complete card-based minigames to build up a damage multiplier. For example, with Shiki as their partner, the player is shown one Zener card, along with several other Zener cards that are shown face-up for a moment before being turned over. The player must select those face-down cards that were matches for the shown Zener card. Furthermore, the Switch version offers a local cooperative mode, where a second player using a second Joy-Con has control over the partner character and a limited set of pin attacks during battle.[24]

The World Ends with You was developed by the same team that created the Kingdom Hearts series, with input from Jupiter,[25] the company that developed Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for the Game Boy Advance. Development of the game started two and a half years before its Japanese release, during the development of Kingdom Hearts II and as development of Chain of Memories was concluding.[26] At that time, Nintendo had announced their next handheld system, the Nintendo DS, but it was not yet available to the market; Square Enix requested the team to develop a game specifically for the handheld system.[26]

The creative team — consisting of Tatsuya Kando (director), Tomohiro Hasegawa (co-director), Takeshi Arakawa (planning director), and Tetsuya Nomura (character design and creative producer) — were able to experience the DS during the "Touch DS" event in November 2004.[27] From this demonstration, they had envisioned a version of Chain of Memories in which the card game aspects would be present on the bottom screen and an action role-playing game on the top. As they continued to work on the game, the developers realized that they wanted to use the touchscreen more, to make "a game that can only be played on the DS".[27] However, they also encountered the problem that by focusing heavily on the touchscreen, the top screen would be ignored. From this, the idea of the dual-screen battle system arose.[27] Several other options were explored for the top screen gameplay, including command-based battles or a rhythm game, but once they reviewed the game from the eyes of the player, they ultimately settled on the card-game approach with the player having the option to control the game if they wanted to.[28]

Even with the completion of the Japanese version of the game, the team felt the dual-screen system was too much for overseas audiences, and attempted to change the card-game mechanic into a special meter that would fill up with normal attacks from Neku, but this was not completed in time for release.[28] However, the team was able to alter the "information overload" of the numerous tutorials at the start of the game in the North American release, reducing the amount of text presented as well as allowing the tutorials to be skipped. The "Active Encounter" system, the ability for the player to select when and how to go into battle, was developed specifically to avoid the issues of "grinding" that are common with most standard RPG systems.[28] While they included the mechanics of being able to scan non-playable characters to see their thoughts, the team was not able to integrate this mechanic more into the game.[28]

The team decided to stay with two-dimensional sprites instead of three-dimensional models for this title, believing it would help differentiate themselves from other Square Enix titles as well as better represent their vision for the game.[28] When first approached with the task of creating the art for the game, background art director Takayuki Ohdachi thought the modern-day setting would be too boring, and opted to use highly skewed and angular images of Shibuya to avoid this; the rest of the creative team found this approach to fit the game quite well.[29] For combat, the background of the top screen was selected for visual interest, while the bottom touchscreen background was designed to emphasize the gameplay.[30] Ohdachi was also responsible for the artwork for the psych pins, and used a mix of pop art and tribal designs for the various graphics.[29]

Character designs were handled by Tetsuya Nomura and Gen Kobayashi.[31] Character designs were made to match with the real-world Tokyo setting, after which their outfits were designed based on the character's personality.[32] Kobayashi was also in charge of designing the game's non-player characters and noted how most designs made it to the final product.[33][28]

Hasegawa was responsible for creating the designs for the Noise creatures, and he wanted to have them recognizable as creatures before they decay into skeletons.[29] In keeping with the theme of human emotion in the game, Hasegawa selected creatures that conveyed such feelings, such as wolves and crows.[29] Representation of the Noise in the game required drawing the 2D sprites from several angles to match the action on screen as well as using rotoscoping on pre-rendered sprites,[29] and took several iterations between Square Enix and Jupiter to make sure that the sprites' art matched the style of game, with Kando making the two-hour trip between Tokyo and Kyoto weekly to check on the progress.[28]

Many of the game's sets are modeled after the real Shibuya. The scramble crossing near the 109 department store (far left above) is extensively featured in the game and can be seen in the background of the game's cover.

In addition to creating unique gameplay, the designers wanted to build the game around a real location.[27] Initially, they had planned to use a large number of locations across the entire world as the setting. They narrowed down the settings to specific cities due to practicality issues. Ultimately, Kando selected Shibuya as the main setting within the first year of development, despite concerns that overseas players would find the setting unfamiliar.[28] The team wanted to make sure the city was represented accurately within the game,[27] and went on "location hunts" onto building rooftops without permission to get photographs.[29]

The layout of Shibuya was duplicated for the game, retaining the real-world landmarks while rebranding the names of stores and buildings for copyright reasons; for example, the 109 Building was renamed to be the "104 Building", while one of the busiest Starbucks, adjacent to the scramble crossing, was renamed "Outback Cafe".[5][28][34][35] The success of the game has led to fans going on tours of the district to match physical locations in Shibuya with those in the game.[28] The selection of Shibuya led to the incorporation of much of the game's other features, including food, clothing, and cell phone usage.[34] The team initially thought of the idea of using graffiti around Shibuya as the source of the player's power in the game but had difficulty representing it; this led to the creation of the psych pins used in the game.[29]

The developers knew that for the story they wanted to "throw the player right in the action, with things he had to do without explanation"[29] in addition to creating a sense of urgency and mystery for the player.[29] They developed an initial draft of the game's plot and gave it to scriptwriter Sachie Hirano and scenario event planner Yukari Ishida to expand on. The returned version was very close to the initial vision for the game's story.[29] However, there were still difficulties in filling out the story, only achieving some smooth development about halfway through the process, and even then, there were still changes made just before creating the master image for the game.[28] Several inconsistencies with the game's story were found in the final quality checks that had to be resolved.[28] The Square Enix localization team preserved many Japanese elements while translating most of the dialogue and interface items into English and other European languages to avoid losing the culture of the game.[36] The team was also limited by the size of the dialogue balloons used in the game and took several steps to avoid losing the meaning.[36]

As The World Ends with You focuses on the character of Neku Sakuraba, to create a believable story the developers put a lot of focus on his development, such as how he would feel, what thoughts lie behind his actions, how he interacted with other characters, and how the people around him feel about him. The developers included aspects and daily concerns, hoping that they could be things that players would have to deal with their personal lives and therefore would let them relate with Neku.[37]

The soundtrack to The World Ends with You was composed and produced by Takeharu Ishimoto.[38] The game's music encompasses many genres, combining rock, hip hop, and electronica and was designed to fit the various moods of Shibuya.[28] The song appearing during the credits of the game is "Lullaby for You" by Japanese pop artist, Jyongri. Vocal artists featured in the game include Sawa Kato, Makiko Noda, Leah, Ayuko Tanaka, Mai Matsuda, Wakako, Hanaeryca, Cameron Strother, Andy Kinlay, Nulie Nurly, and Londell "Taz" Hicks.[39] The developers used CRI Middleware's Kyuseishu Sound Streamer, a compression algorithm normally used for voice-overs, to compress the soundtrack and fit more songs on the game media, while replacing full motion video cutscenes with Flash-style animations to save more space. The ADX-compressed soundtrack and cutscene audio on the final version of the game take up approximately one-fourth (32 of 128 total MB) of the game media.[28]

The official soundtrack of the game, The World Ends with You Original Soundtrack (すばらしきこのせかい ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK, Subarashiki Kono Sekai Original Soundtrack, meaning "It's a Wonderful World Original Soundtrack") was released in Japan on August 22, 2007[39] and is on sale in most English-language iTunes Stores.[40] This release, however, does not include the four tracks unique to localizations outside Japan and is simply a digital version of the Japanese soundtrack. Square Enix, however, released the digital 6-track EP Subarashiki Konosekai + The World Ends with You (すばらしきこのせかい + The World Ends with You, Subarashiki Kono Sekai + The World Ends with You, meaning "It's a Wonderful World + The World Ends with You") on June 25, 2008 through the Japanese iTunes Store. This release contains the four songs unique to the international version of the game, along with the English version of "Owari-Hajimari" and a remix of "Twister". A 19-track version of the album was given a physical CD and iTunes release on July 30, 2008.[41]

A port for mobile devices, entitled The World Ends with You: Solo Remix, was released on iOS on August 27, 2012, and on Android on June 26, 2014.[58] This version was developed by Square Enix's mobile development team and h.a.n.d. within the course of the year.[59] The game's combat system was reworked to accommodate the lack of a second screen.[60]

In addition to combat changes, Solo Remix includes redrawn high-definition sprites and is optimized for the Retina display of iOS devices. The original soundtrack and additional remixes of these songs are included. Wireless and social media features are also included: the Tin Pin Slammer can be played with other players via wireless connections, and the game can connect with the player's social media applications to display these as scanned thoughts from non-player characters within the game.[60] The Solo Remix version features a remixed soundtrack from the original DS release.[61] New assets at the conclusion of the iOS game include the appearance of Tsugumi Matsunae, a character from the sequel, Neo: The World Ends with You.[62] The iOS version of the game was delisted from the App Store in February 2015 due to an issue that prevented the game from working with the iOS 8 operating system launched in September 2014, though the Android version remained available.[63] It returned to the App Store in June 2015.[64]

Another port for the Nintendo Switch, entitled The World Ends with You: Final Remix, was announced in January 2018 and released on October 12, 2018. The port, based on the Solo Remix version and with additional development from Square Enix and h.a.n.d., includes a new control system adapted for the Switch, specifically allowing for the use of the Joy-Con in docked mode in addition to the touchscreen and optional co-op support for Neku's partner. An additional new scenario featuring Tsugumi and a new character, the Reaper Coco Atarashi, was added to this version.[66][67][68]

An anime adaptation was revealed with a teaser website on June 25, 2020, and officially announced on July 3, 2020 as The World Ends with You the Animation. It aired worldwide from April 10 to June 26, 2021 through Funimation, as well as the Super Animeism block on MBS and TBS.[69][70][71][72][lower-alpha 4]