The World Ends With You
I’d basically abandoned my DS for the better part of a year. Not consciously, just drift. Sunday I was bored enough staring out the train window that I decided to find something worth playing. The rides home were too long to waste.
I spent a weekend searching. Media Markt had nothing. Amazon and forums turned up the usual suspects and nothing I actually wanted. I almost just grabbed Anno 1701—city builders have always appealed to me in a basic way—but then I saw The World Ends With You was coming out that week.
I’d been cooling on Square Enix. The new Mana games disappointed me, and Final Fantasy lately felt more like obligation than joy. But this game looked like they were actually trying something new. Music, graffiti, Tokyo, fear, style wrapped into a real RPG. Not the same path recycled again.
That was enough. I bought it immediately.