The World Ends With You: Final Remix

Back in 2008, The World Ends With You quickly became one of my favorite Nintendo DS games. I purchased it again for iOS in 2012 and marveled at how well it played despite losing the DS’ dual screens. After playing the latest re-release on Switch, presumptuously subtitled Final Remix, I’m left feeling disappointed that this may be the way TWEWY goes out. The charming and inventive action JRPG is still here, but only when you play it in handheld mode with touchscreen controls. If you try to play in docked mode with motion controls, it frustrates.

TWEWY tells a touching tale about finding oneself in those painfully awkward teenage years. Its characters have complex personalities that, over the course of the 15-plus-hour adventure, grow in both surprising and welcome ways. You play as Neku, a disillusioned young man who finds himself part of a bizarre game in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. Although Shibuya’s streets are crowded, only other players and game masters can see Neku and his companions, and this key idea artfully touches on the stark difference between loneliness and being alone in a way that few games do.

One thing I’d forgotten about TWEWY was the abundance of dialogue. Small portions of it are voiced, but most of it is presented in text bubbles with static renderings of characters. Thankfully, the writing holds up with a satisfying mix of humor and melancholy.

From a visual perspective, Final Remix looks slightly better than the iOS version, Solo Remix. The Kingdom Hearts-style character models look really sharp, and the streets of Shibuya have a bit more color and detail. Although it’s not a drastic upgrade, it does give more personality to an already visually distinct world.

The action holds up remarkably well with touchscreen controls.

Beyond its grounded urban fantasy, TWEWY originally stood out for its combat, and the action holds up remarkably well with touchscreen controls. Chaining together attacks with a few strategic swipes of the finger is extremely satisfying. It’s simple to get going with touchscreen controls, but once you dive into the elaborate pin system there’s a great deal of nuance to be found. TWEWY feels like a perfect fit for Switch in handheld mode.

Some of the actions you’re asked to do include: a vertical slash, a repeated tap, touching an empty space, drawing a circle, or dragging Neku into an enemy. It’s a deceptively nuanced system that gets better the more you play. At first, you only have two ability slots, but you can eventually unlock up to six to really take advantage of the more than 300 available abilities.

The battle system is further heightened by fashion trends. Each area in Shibuya has a list of brand names – some popular, some unpopular – which smartly compels you to switch up your abilities on a regular basis. Following popular trends leads to stat boosts, but dressing out of style can hurt you in battles.

A risk-reward system keeps combat from ever feeling too easy.

There’s also a risk-reward system that keeps combat from ever feeling too easy. Though you level up and get more powerful like in any RPG, here you can choose to keep playing at a lower level to increase the drop rate of new abilities and up the rewards for completing battles. You can also chain together up to four battles in a row to increase the bounty. All these years later, TWEWY’s approach to progression still feels forward-thinking. You can essentially make your experience as challenging or easy as you want, at any time.

Final Remix does add one new unlockable post-game mission, dubbed A New World, that ups the thrill of going back through the chapters after the credits roll. There are also a few new types of Noise, more pins, and the remix of the excellent soundtrack has a heavier, distorted sound with a fresh arrangement. You can toggle between the original and remixed version.

When you dock the Switch, motion controls severely hinder the battle system.

But when you dock the Switch and play on the TV, motion controls severely hinder the battle system. Even basic psych attacks become cumbersome to use in console mode. On numerous occasions I went to slash one of the Noise, the assortment of animals that do the game masters’ bidding, only to find the cursor had drifted off the screen. By the time I brought it back onto the battlefield I had been knocked down, missing my opportunity to attack. Regrouping is a constant battle itself, since you have to contend with evading incoming attacks and setting up your own. The move to motion controls largely eliminates the intricate balance of offense and defense, simply because the Joy-Con make even the little things a struggle.

These problems compound when partner attacks come into play. Like the iOS version, partner attacks act as assist moves. It’s already frustrating enough to control Neku with motion controls, but when you throw an additional move into play, like Shiki tossing her stuffed cat at enemies or Joshua dropping objects from the sky, everything falls apart. For instance, you have to constantly slash down to trigger Joshua’s partner attack, which makes it pretty annoying to stack moves together. While your arm will get a workout for sure, the complex and rewarding battle system seen in handheld mode devolves into arm flailing and failed attempts to chain together combos with any degree of consistency, and the same goes for important timed minigames like triggering fusion attacks. There’s just too much going on.

The taxing motion controls make Final Remix’s main new addition, drop-in-drop-out co-op, disappointing. Instead of having one cursor on screen, you now have two, and Neku’s companion has a set array of abilities to use. In theory, TWEWY would be great for co-op. In practice, due to a bad control system and the confusing nature of two cursors flying around, co-op is a mess. Admittedly, it’s more fun to play in docked mode with a friend than it is solo, but it’s still a poor way to experience TWEWY.

The Verdict

Because of the Switch’s two modes, The World Ends With You: Final Remix is simultaneously a good port and a bad one. Using handheld mode and touchscreen controls, Final Remix holds up as a great JRPG with tons of depth. It packs all the flair and charm seen in the DS original, along with some new incentives to keep playing after the story wraps. But the moment you dock the Switch and try to use motion controls TWEWY becomes a pain to play, which eliminates the fun of the new cooperative mode. The rearranged and remixed soundtrack is great and the story delights, but if you’ve played before you may want to think twice before double (or triple) dipping.