The World Ends With You (TWEWY) first launched in 2007 on the Nintendo DS, and it quickly became a popular cult classic among JRPG fans. It was a unique game that took advantage of the dual screen system of the DS, and while the combat system resulted in a lot of tired arms, everyone still loved playing it because it was a great story and good fun.
Fast forward to over 10 years later, and TWEWY still does not have a sequel, but it was released on mobile back in 2012 and now it's arrived on Nintendo Switch. If anything, this is the last chance for the developers to see that there's still huge interest in TWEWY to warrant a sequel of some kind.
It's still as good a time as ever to play The World Ends With You: Final Remix though. There's new content added, all of the graphics and music have been redone in HD, and it's now available to a wider audience. Whether you're a newbie or veteran, we've gathered up some tips and tricks to help you survive the Reaper's Game!
- Stick with the touch controls if you can
- Always experiment with your pins
- Know your fashion
- Buy tasty food items
- Explore and scan everywhere
- Alternate your attacks
- Watch your Sync Rate
- Earn PP for pins while you're away
- Find the hidden Reapers to unlock the "A New Day" chapter
Stick with the touch controls if you can
If you played TWEWY on the DS or mobile, then you're already familiar with the touchscreen controls. Just swipe and tap on the screen to make Neku move, dash, and attack. It's pretty easy stuff, right?
With the Switch version of the game, the Pro Controller is not supported, unfortunately. So you have two methods of controls: Touch or Joy-Cons. The Touch controls work best, as it sticks to the original formula and feels natural with the type of gameplay in TWEWY.
You can play with the Joy-Cons by having them detached from the console or when it's docked in TV Mode. However, doing this means you use motion controls through the Joy-Cons for moving and attacking, and it just feels weird and more cumbersome than it needs to be.
For best results, TWEWY should be played in Handheld mode with the Touch controls. The only time you'd want to utilize the Joy-Cons is with the new 2-player Co-Op mode, but I'm not sure if the annoying controls are worth it.
Always experiment with your pins
At the beginning of the game, Neku finds out he was given a handful of pins only after Shiki points it out to him. You start out with a simple fire ability, but you can also strike with lightning bolts, use telekinesis to throw objects at enemy Noise, fire energy bullets, slash with a blade, and heal with a potion.
These starting pins just demonstrate what Neku is capable of. As you play and explore the various districts of Shibuya, you'll find shops that sell more pins, and you'll earn new ones from the story.
Neku also starts out with only two slots for equipping pins, but more slots become available as you get the stickers for them. You'll want to change out pins often and find the ones you like the most and are most effective in battle, so then you can figure out a play style that works best for you.
As you play through the game, there are a lot of pins that become available for you to use, so you're going to be changing it up a lot. Make sure to use the ones you like often, since each pin gains experience, levels up, and becomes more potent.
Know your fashion
Speaking of pins, each one has a brand affiliation, unless it's specifically marked as "Unbranded." It's important to notice the brands of your pins because each district has certain fashion trends that affect your gameplay.
If you're using pins that are trending and popular in the area, you'll gain boosts in battle. But if you're using pins that aren't trending, they'll become less effective. However, using pins in battle also makes brands more popular, so you can change the trends eventually if you don't want to adapt.
Fashion is always a big part of Japanese culture, and it's clearly demonstrated in TWEWY.
Buy tasty food items
Just like fashion, food plays a big part in TWEWY as well. There are various fast food spots in Shibuya, and you should check them out to see what they have available.
When you purchase food, you can give them to Neku to consume and gain some great stat boosts. Some boost your attack, others boost defense, or give you more affinity with certain brands. If you're looking for good ways to improve your characters, then food is the way to go.
However, it takes a few battles for Neku to fully consume the item, so it's not immediate. The boosts that the food provides is permanent though, so the tradeoff is well worth it.
You must keep in mind that you can only eat so much in a single day in real-time, so the game encourages you to take your time and not rush through it.
Explore and scan everywhere
Neku gains the ability to scan his surroundings at the start of the game, and this is something you'll want to do throughout Shibuya.
Even with progressing through the main story, you'll want to explore around to the areas that you can access. Scanning the area allows you to see Noise, and you can engage them in combat. This is a good way to earn experience, cash, and maybe get some pins.
Even though the missions in the Reaper's Game are "timed" in correlation to the story, you can still spend time grinding and leveling up your character. Take advantage of that fact, and become strong enough to overcome your foes with ease.
Alternate your attacks
As you use your pins' abilities in battle, they'll have to recharge after you've used up the current charge. As you experiment with pins, you may notice that some have good timing with others because they'll be recharged and ready to go by the time you use up another one.
If that happens, you should learn to alternate your attacks so that you're not left vulnerable while waiting for one to fill up again. When you get the timing right on such attacks, you'll always have a skill available to use. It takes a little practice to get the flow down, but when you do, it's wonderful.
Watch your Sync Rate
Sync Rate is important to track in TWEWY. It's a shared stat between Neku and his partner, and it affects their combined health, attack power, and multiplier bonuses.
Keeping your Sync Rate up means your partner means having a higher shared health pool and they'll be able to help you out with attacks for a longer amount of time. Eventually, you'll be able to fuse with your partner for powerful Fusion attacks, which are only possible when the rate is 100 percent.
Avoid getting hit in battle, since this lowers the Sync Rate. It's also lowered if you decide to run from battles too much.
Earn PP for pins while you're away
In TWEWY, in order to level up your pins, you need PP. You earn this from battles while using pins, of course, but there's another way.
If you suspend your game and come back to it later, you'll earn PP for the time you were gone, with a maximum cap of seven days in real time. The game even tells you how long you were away and shows you how much PP you earned in that duration.
This is another method where TWEWY encourages players to take their time with the game and not rush through it. But keep in mind it only counts the time you put the game in a suspended state, not fully closed.
Find the hidden Reapers to unlock the "A New Day" chapter
One of the new things that they included in Final Remix is a new post-game chapter, which is completely original and also just a side-story, so it's optional. However, there's a trick to unlock it: you need to find three hidden Reapers for each story campaign.
The first reaper appears next to the Statue of Hachiko on the seventh day of the Shiki campaign. The second is in the upper right corner of Shibukyu Main Store district (go right instead of left at 104 building) on Joshua's seventh day. The third will be in the Udagawa Back Streets on the seventh day of Beat's campaign.
Once you find each Reaper, you'll engage them in a battle. However, these challenges are not your typical battles, as there are Curses placed upon them, which drain your energy over time. But the second and third fights also have the Restore modifier, which restores Neku's gauge each time a foe is defeated.
When you beat all of these challenges, A New Day gets unlocked and you can access it after completing the original campaign. If you don't find the Reapers during your playthrough and you beat the game, you can still go back in Chapter Select and find them.
Play or face erasure
The World Ends With You: Final Remix is a great port of a fantastic Square Enix JRPG that deserves the recognition. If you've never played TWEWY before, this is a great time to jump into the Reaper's Game and see what all the fuss is about!
