The World Ends with You -- #08 Over and Over
1If you're watching this on a mobile device or a screen that turns right 90 degrees for some other reason, try this version:
https://youtu.be/_nj2d0IWlFA
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We BEGIN... with a quick flashback to how the previous episode abruptly concluded. Yes, I thought you might like or need that. I'm so thoughtful!
I am quite certain that this will be the one episode that goes down in the annals of videographic history as being the one above all others remembered most fondly.
Okay, with that out of the way, some unsoftened blows: getting a Game Over puts you back at the title screen. Yes, one of THOSE games. Which means that it's up to YOU, the player, to save the game rather annoyingly liberally if you want to avoid listening to the borderline scare-chord dissonance that is the title screen. By accessing the menu... which is (by default) ALSO accompanied by the tune "It's So Wonderful"... Also the exceedingly long save screen. (It plays things like Pocket Monsters with only one save file and a lot of meticulously-collected data, right down to the average save time and explicit pre-deletion shenanigans as reached their most pronounced in the same generation.)
Also, since you didn't save all those conversations you successfully completed, those are all still waiting for you! ...I mean, yes, there actually IS a way to skip conversation much more quickly... but only once you've seen it... which as far as the game's concerned, you haven't. Because you didn't save having done so. (That right there's a Catch-Ten-Four, good buddy!)
I think, if we can set aside the general frustration and furious attempts to catch back up to where we left things off... you actually DO have to admire the battle system that just killed you. No, no, no, stop with the eye-rolls and the marching out of the room indignantly, I'm serious! This is one robust action-based RPG battle system!
In most RPGs, no matter how action-oriented the facade, they remain RPGs first and foremost, the numbers do all the talking and the action gives it a very slight amount of wiggle room... but if you get in over your head and end up doing single-point damage to an enemy (or, in more coldly calculating cases, a big fat zero no matter what you do), all those actions you can take don't really matter... it was over before you started, because you're not going to finish the battle favorably when that same foe shows you the disparity in damage output. This battle wasn't for you, and you're going to need to come back later. (It's even worse now that RPG characters are so chatty these days and will often openly complain how hopeless the situation is once the initial surprise of their ineffectual attacks wears off.)
I'm not saying that at its heart, The World Ends with You isn't a numbers game... what I'm saying is that those numbers are clearly meant to be worked with and around more flexibly than most of its genre. For a less stressful look at what I'm talking about, take the Pig Noise... short battles, same exact characters and conditions and attacks... drastically different outcomes depending on how you use them. If you try to treat this like some turn-based affair where only one thing at a time matters and everyone gets orderly and falls in line, your pig's going to run away. Or those wolves are going to eat you alive.
My point is that while it might seem frustrating to lose without ever knowing WHY you lost, even if you have the benefit of being able to see the thing in replay like I have here... which you obviously don't get the luxury of with the actual game itself... which, honestly, even as a viewer, it's hard to know where to look--much less where to ACT--to prevent the worst from coming to pass, the outcome becomes much more dependent upon what YOU, the PLAYER, happened to be doing. Like... just standing there... while wolves tear at Shiki's incredibly... er, limited attire. Neku... NEKU!
And this is perhaps the crux of what one might consider the most limiting or problematic portion of the game itself at large. It's TOO experimental. It throws basically every possible idea it had in development at a wall and lets you figure out what sticks. It tutorializes every element in great detail, but still doesn't prepare you for even the most basic of REAL battle. Because... how can you? This is a game that's about experimentation. Testing your limits. Facing the unknown.
These aren't actually that different from most gaming in general. You couldn't have KNOWN there was a boss fight there. You couldn't have KNOWN a Goomba was waiting after that really tricky jump. You couldn't have KNOWN Ryu was about to throw out a Shoryuken! So you lost. Because there were just too many unknowns all at once in this case... you'd be GLAD that it was just about run, jump, boss fight, fireball, dragon uppercut, kick the ball, somersault, present the right piece of evidence. (Wait, what game is THAT now? I want to play it instead!)
Yes, it hurts. But pick yourself up and try again!