The World Ends with You

This game plays like it should be from that series and elements of the plot seem like it should be from it as well, but it is one of the better games that Squaresoft has made lately as I wait ever patiently for Final Fantasy XIII to be released and from the way it looks now that may be never. This game has a very clever plot, interesting characters, and game play that takes full advantage of the duel screen feature on the Nintendo DS. This is very nice indeed, the last role playing game I played on the DS, DragonQuest four or five, did absolutely nothing regarding the touch screen. This one has it so that the touch screen is the main source of inputing commands during combat for the main character in the quest, Neku. The story has Neku involved in a game at the beginning, unfortunately for him he has no memories of why he is being forced to play this game where the object is to do a quest once a day for seven days and if you win you will not be erased by this group of people known as the reapers. I do not really want to go into any more detail as the game is really full of surprises that I do not wish to spoil. Along his journeys, Neku teams up with a girl named Shiki because the only way to survive the game is to have a partner. In the combat, Neku fights on the bottom screen and the other person on the top. You use the stylus to control Neku and the controls to to input commands for the top screen player. It is a bit tricky at first, but it was easy once I got the hang of it. The game is not perfect though, I did not care for the whole clothes thing as that got really annoying at times and the ending was kind of a let down. It was okay, but they really needed to explain things a bit more. Still, for the most part this game had a much more interesting story than other more recent Squaresoft games including Final Fantasy XII, The Last Remnant, and Infinite Undiscovery which all had way to many side quests and such that detracted from the stories.