NEO: The World Ends with You - Review

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RPGamer reviews NEO: The World Ends with You. This action-RPG is currently available on PS4 / Switch, and will be available on Epic Game Store for PC this summer 2021.

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Take a Bow to the Moon

It took thirteen years, but Square Enix's urban fantasy RPG The World Ends with You finally received its much deserved follow-up. NEO: The World Ends with You is almost exactly what one would hope for in a follow-up, and Square Enix and h.a.n.d. have done a fine job transposing the distinct gameplay of the original onto modern systems. Though there are a few weaker elements, primarily combat, they're overridden by the audiovisual style and another engrossing tale and cast.

It first bears noting that though NEO: The World Ends with You brings in new protagonists and other major characters, it's very much a sequel and it's recommended that players are familiar with the events of The World Ends with You. Taking place three years after the first game, NEO's main protagonist is high school student Rindo Kanade, who - along with his friend Tosai "Fret" Furesawa - is drawn into a new edition of the Reaper's Game. This is a week-long competition for those who have recently died and takes place in a plane called the Underground, which semi-interacts with the real world and is home to Noise, hostile manifestations of negative emotions. Those who lose the Game are erased, while the winners get their wish granted.

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This year has already been a strong one for RPGs, and NEO: The World Ends with You just adds to that case. The opportunity to return to Square Enix's take on Shibuya has been far too long coming, but now that it's here, it's immensely pleasing to say that NEO: The Worlds Ends with You does everything I was hoping. Despite some repetitive combat, the rest of the experience more than makes up for it, with the narrative, audio, and visuals combining excellently to make the game enthralling for the length of its forty-plus-hour runtime.