Platform: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Square-Enix
Developer: Square-Enix
Zippers and Belts: OH YEAHHH
Type: Action RPG

So here we are with The World Ends With You the flag ship of Tetsuya Nomura’s love of zippers and belts. Well I would say that but Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy 10 pretty much win in that area. However, I will say that there is at least one WTF moment where the main character is like “I WISH I HAD MORE ZIPPERS” in which, if you know Nomura’s love of zippers, would see the absolute humor in that.

Of course, we’ve got some more stuff after the jump, unless you’re reading the full thing already which means SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH.

Hey, did you see that sentence there, yeah that one. There you go there is the review. If you get the culture of Japan, if you get where this game comes from, if you can get the jokes then you can get the game. The story will merge into your advanced mind that has trained on figuring out what the fusk went in on Final Fantasy 7. If you’re not into that stuff then you’ll be stuck trying to figure out what’s going on, but that’s fine, because it’s still a fun action RPG.

The inside jokes account for most of the story. The tale of a shut-in who only listens to music and people obsessed with fashion in the fake Shibuya. The opening up to the world. The love between two characters who barely know one another. The inside memories, the unfair fights, the mystical cryptic talking, and well everything else you can find in Kingdom Hearts except without Goofy being all really creepy on you. Why is he even a character in the game? Why can’t you get other humans? Why do you go around fighting with GOOFY along side of you? Donald is bad enough, but he’s a pretty smart duck if you ask me.

Well the story is pretty good, as I said, if you can get into it. The combat is really good as well, but managing the bottom and the top parts are difficult and grind is the name of the game. You’ll be grinding more monsters than Mario grinds mushrooms just to get enough Yen to buy some fashionable clothes or level up. You also either have to play at the lowest level possible or at a really high level, except for bosses, which are going to kick your butt no matter what. If you don’t mind repetitive gameplay against monsters that have the same sprites and are really slow in the head then well this game is for you.

Music. Why do reviews go into music? Well because there isn’t a lot to talk about without spoiling an entire story. The music is really good until you’re stuck on your 4th hour of grinding just to beat the smirk off some kids face in Tin Pin Slammer or to beat some stupid boss. There is also a lot of repetitive tasks and a confusing world until you get a hang of all of it.

So, story, gameplay, music, what else? Oh, yes the Grim Heaper. Characters! Yeah, they’re nothing special. The main star is an emo kid who grows out of being emo like every Hikki in Japan wants to do… wait hold on we have an advertisement real quick…

It’s not too late to change your hikikomori ways! Just as a brief reminder.

Anyway it’s pretty bleh. I won’t spoil the girl for you, but she was a surprise. Beat is pretty stupid. The bosses are kinda lame. Joshua is well, err, well he wants Neku that’s for sure. The Grim Heaper is an amazing character because guess what…

YOU’RE SO ZETTA SLOW

For not playing the game and reading this far. Seriously, why even listen to me ramble on about buying it. You know you want it. You’re this far into a review about it. You’ve reached over 500 words to hear my unyielding opinion on it. Well, ok here you go.

Do you wake up and log into Deviant Art to look at the latest Kingdom Hearts pairings?

Is Fantasy Fantasy X the pinnacle of console gaming to you, only beat out by Kingdom Hearts?

Do you own an Nintendo DS?

Do you want to play Kingdom Hearts 3, but without goofy?

If you answer yes to any of these questions go out and get it.

If you’re a normal person then, well, I can only tell you do what you want to do. It’s an alright game, the combat is fun but it’s only a novelty. It gets stale and pins get really confusing. If you want to catch ‘em all then you’ve got your work cut out for you.

I hate number scales, but opinions seem for some reason to need a number attached to them so here you go:

4.0/5.0

One point taken off for the lack of zippers and belts. Another point taken off for the boring gameplay and the grinding. A point given for the game acknowledging the need for more zippers and belts.

That’s a review folks.

Screenshots after the jump:

•   Jump! Ultimate Stars This is a link to the GameFAQs page with the FAQ to understanding the gameplay, characters, etc.
• Use the FAQ in building your deck. If you cluelessly add stuff together you’ll probably be less powerful then someone who put some time into it
• Characters are upgradeable. You do not have to be Luffy and Naruto the entire game, unless you want to. You upgrade characters by going to the world select, pressing Y, going down one then hitting enter. From there you can put it together. You gain points by playing missions that can be spent to upgrade your “Koma”.
• Help characters are sometimes awesome (Death Note for instance) and sometimes lame. Sometimes they can be harmful. Kinda like how the Light koma where he writes someones name in the Death Note… it’s helpful in that it kills enemies but it doesn’t kill them with special attacks which are needed to get certain objectives completed.
• You get more worlds by defeating all of the current worlds. I’m not exactly sure what “defeat” is, I guess beat every mission’s main objective. I cleared them all and get the next j-universe thing.
• Certain characters are just better then others. For instance, Kenshin is better then Gintama in that he can triple jump, his ultimate flings people and can hit them easily, and he does a good bit of damage. However, Gintama is pretty awesome because hell, it is Gintama.
• Eyeshield 21 is an anime I need to see.

That’s pretty much it. Go read the FAQ people who search “Jump Ultimate Stars Help”. Heh.

The game, as mentioned earlier, features almost the full cast from Weekly Shonen Jump ranging from Naruto, Bleach, One Piece to Gintama and Dragonball Z. Each various series has a cast of characters that can be chosen to be played as either actual combatants, helpers (who come in, do something, leave), or as a form of a passive buff to one character or all. These characters are referenced as koma and come in those three types (battle koma (actual combatants), help koma (helpers), and support koma (passive buff).

These “koma” are laid out on a board and are arranged like pages of a manga. These are considered a “deck” or “panel”. You can choose different kinds or for some missions the game has a pre-set one already made for you. The fight plays out very Super Smash Bros. Melee like with you battling, using helpers, switching characters, and doing other things with the characters from Shonen Jump.

The game is completely awesome. For instance, you can be Goku. Fighting your enemies, you summon Light Yagami from Death Note. He writes their names down in his Death Note and they die 10 seconds later (we assume 45 in the game). Then, you switch Gintama. You hop on your scooter and dash into 3 enemies pushing 2 of them off the cliff. These enemies of course are Naruto, Luffy, and Vegeta.

This kind of gameplay is just amazing. For the DS that is. Each match usually lasts no more then 3 minutes so you can play, put down, pick up, play some more, put down. You don’t need to know much Japanese (but I urge an FAQ for assembling decks do you know what you’re doing). Doing Kenshin’s ultimate attack, followed by Goku’s Spirit Bomb, followed by some good ‘ol Death Note action is amazing.

If you can import and are even a remote fan of Shounen Jump I’d pick this up. If you don’t like Shounen Jump then I can understand skipping it. If you’re netural I would still say get it for the fun the fighting game presents however it’s way more enjoyable if you know a few of the characters (like Naruto and One Piece).

Upgrading your characters, unlocking new stages, and just battling will consume a ton of time. I think I’ve put about 5 hours into it and am at the second stage of worlds. Although I’m doing a lot of collecting and mission completing. There is just a lot to do.

It’s kinda expensive, ranging between 30 and 50 bucks imported. It’s also only for the Nintendo DS and not everyone has one of those (shame on you). You should get it though.

If I had a solid rating system, I’d say 5 out of 5 or 9 out of 10. It’s just a really solid game. Only thing lacking, of course, is the music. Totally not gar enough.

Since there may be a total of four people who check out the RSS, I’ll just go ahead and use that nifty more tag and post the review below.

System: Nintendo DS
Game Length: Over 10 Hours
Difficulty: Hard – Mental Workout

Introduction

Phoenix Wright is an adventure game by Namco for the Nintendo DS. It features an an “Ace Attorney” who is just starting out with his first case and advances through a total of five cases. Each case past the first one spans several court room sessions along with in the field work, exploring the scene and scanning for clues.

It is an adaption from the GBA game Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten or 逆転裁判 蘇る逆転 or the literal translation: Turnabout Courtroom: Reviving Turnabout. The DS version features the original four GBA cases with little added functionality along with a fifth DS only case that is enhanced by the DS’s unique features, such as the microphone and touch screen.

Review

Phoenix Wright was one of the few actual Nintendo DS games I could actually get deeply involved with the story. As each OBJECTION! and TAKE THAT! poured in I slowly found myself getting more and more involved with the game. The characters, the story, and the caption all was just… wonderful!

I got in on the Phoenix Wright scene a little late, as the hype was just starting for the second game. So maybe my love for it was slightly derailed some, but nevertheless, I found it to be an absolutely amazing adventure game. Adventure game… amazing… 2000′s…. WHAT IS THIS MAGIC?!

The game is, without a doubt, very boring and non-interactive. You get unlimited saves, so even if you mess up you can start right back from the point you lost the game. It’s a very hard mental workout but at the same time easy. Only a very few times I had to consult an FAQ because the links to the items didn’t make as much sense as they should have.

When I say boring, I don’t mean it isn’t fun, it’s just not something you’re going to be sweating as you rush to whip Dracula or wall walk past some kind of cavern. It’s kind of like playing Chess or Go, you can take as long as you want to make a choice so it’s a rather relaxing thing.

Relaxing is used loosely, though, as the BURNING JUSTICE involved in some of the trails has you wanting to know what happens next. You rush feverishly to find out who did what or if this path you are walking is the correct one.

Overall, I say Phoenix Wright did a rather good job of reviving the adventure genre and it’s one hell of a game. I’d say more, really, but there is about ten billion other people who do the same. So I’ll just leave it at this: If you own a DS, go buy this game.

Rating

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

This game is too unique to nitpick at anything other then music, which is gets a full 5/5 out of me.

I’ve done some thinking and episode reviews are not something I’m going to continue. I’m going back to the original idea of reviewing older series. Even though the two most popular pages on the site is “AIM Icons” and “Orange-kun”, so I’m probably going to expand those as well.

Been sort of busy the last few days with my Nintendo DS. Man, what a great system.

Anyway, the cliched catchphrase: look for some cool stuff soon, or by cool stuff I mean a ton of AIM icons of medium quality.