Be Excellent To Each Other

Has anyone got this? It's a (relatively) new Square-Enix game for the DS.

Set in modern Shibuya (with a heavy dose of Jet Set Radio weird style), you play an angsty emo-kid who is forced to fight psychic monsters or be 'erased'.

It's utterly marvelous. In one of the most creative uses of the DS screens, the battles take place in real time on both screens AT THE SAME TIME. You control your hero on the bottom screen with the stylus, drawing gestures to use his various powers, and the dpad to control his partner on the top screen, playing a simplistic card game to launch their attacks. If this sounds hopelessly confusing - it is. But once you get to grips with it, you'll be an unstoppable force and until then, the game can control your partner for you.

The art style is lovely pixelly stuff, and suits the wacky teens of Shibuya perfectly. And the music - oh, the music! If you enjoyed the catchy Jap-o-pop from other games like Jet Set Radio or Phantom Crash, you'll love this. A huge selection of brilliant songs (proper ones with lyrics and everything) plays constantly over each screen.

There are also lots of other funny options, such as 'mingling' with your friends DSes in wireless mode to unlock hidden stuff, setting up an in-game shop for friends who have copies of the game too to swap equipment, and a cute minigame where you fling your 'pins' at each other trying to knock them off the table.

Has anyone else got this?

No, but I want and have wanted for some time. Lewie P, help me!

Well, if you do get it, play it a bit (the whole first chapter is filled with you just unlocking stuff like menus and options and stuff - there is a bewildering amount of detail to this game, right down to each 'pin' you use in battle being from a certain shop and certain shops being trendy in certain areas and this affecting their power) to unlock all the stuff like the mingle and the shop and such... and then we can trade pins or something. Dude.

Is it a western release or all in Jap-o-text?

Western -- and it's pleasing to see that it's yet another Square Enix DS game that received a near-simultaneous Europe/US release.

Yahtzee doesn't like it, though.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... s-With-You

He's at Glastonbury, so you'll have to wait!

Don't mention the 'G' word.

The music is distracting.

The game doesn't appear to play that great. It's a bit hard to control small things with a stylus, especially when your hand gets in the way.

I gave it a quick blast and was utterly confused.

Lovely artwork and music but I just didn't get the gameplay.

I'll give it another shot though.

The D pad is the same as the buttons for battles.

So instead of going Right - Right - Right - Right - Right - Right - Right - Right for the middle path top screen move, you can press A - A - A - A - A - A - A - A.

Yep, that was part of the design of the device. Left-handers should use the buttons for a D-pad and vice versa.

Yahtzee makes a few good points but as he admits many of them can be levelled at all JRPGs anyway.

The World Ends With You IS confusing at first. The manual has reassuring statements in it to advise you not to worry about this, and early on it takes things slowly to ease you in - for the first several battles you can't even die, while you get the hang of the controls. You can adjust the difficulty of the battles at any point, so if you feel more confident later you can increase the risk/reward ratio.

Trust me - I was blundering around hopelessly at first, especially trying to control both screens. Eventually it clicks. The game has a glowing indicator that flashes over the character you SHOULD be directing at any one time for maximum damage, but this doesn't matter so much either (though it does help to follow it)

The story and puzzles are fairly generic (read: patronizing) JRPG stuff, so be warned.

I have this, and am ploughing hours into it most days - thoroughly enjoying it, even though the main characters can be a bit annoying. The central battle gameplay is pretty great, especially when you get some good pins (flame and electricity for me so far), and I quite like the storyline.

I am RIGHT AT THE END of the first chapter (there is one side-task that I'm trying to finish first).

I find the best pin 'deck' is the one that causes giant icicles to stab out of the floor, the one that lets you throw the cars and other debris around, and one melee attacking one. Which leaves a slot free for the 'drink some coke' health-revival pin.

Be warned, people, this isn't a game if you hate characters who say '...'

Just wait till you see what's coming, dude - I was a big fan of the icicles but don't use them any more. I'm a bit further on than that, and there's a couple of electricity jobs, a flame one and...hmm, after that, perm any from several options.

I want Neku to get his own game where he can get on with being a misgob in peace.

How long does it take pins to evolve? I'm tasked with getting a Natural Magnum which I know is the evolution of the Happy Beam, but my Happy Beam is at maximum level and hasn't changed yet.

...

A few things from my drunken self (so please bear with me a bit);

The pins that I've had evolve have done it as soon as they hit their maximum level - they get their PP (I'm going to have to as well, in a mo), flash a bit and then off they go

I have heard that some do different things when given PP (seriously, one more mention and I'm in trouble) from leaving the game alone rather than battling

*However*, those early ones - no probs at all, so it's not an evolution problem. Is the natural magnum not just one you get left by one of the noise?

...right, I've switched on and had a look. Natural Puppy is the brand, is the pin "One Love Magnum"? There are some that are slightly rarer, and might need you to let the jellyfish things live for a bit so they kick out their bastard spawn - those different jellyfish give out some different pins.

I'm a bit of a level-grinder when I get going (terribly conservative in my game choices, taking lots of battle opportunities just to let pins build up etc) so didn't have a problem with this, but it's probably because I used pants pins in a battle, so accidentally picked up the necessary. I certainly have a One Love Magnum in my stockpile stack which means I either bought it or got given it (as I wouldn't have let something evolve and then not carried on developing it until I'd mastered it).


*I am loving the fact that this post will be as impenetrable to anyone who hasn't played the game as poker talk is to me*

No, it's definitely Natural Magnum... the Pin FAQ says that with Battle PP it will evolve into Natural Magnum. The thing is, some of its PP is from Shutdown PP so does that mean it just won't evolve?

In any event, I just played a few more quick battles and it's still at maximum level and hasn't evolved. Grrr!

I have a Love Magnum.

I love Magnums

... and Magnum

Man, imagine Magnum eating a Magnum in soft focus slo mo, that would be a full on cream dream.

It may be that, on the pp front, yes, though I know that I didn't use to change pins when I shut down, and that would have been at that stage of the game, so I can't see how I got past it. Some pins become available in shops later on, so maybe I got the unused version I now have from there; if I see that I own 0 of a pin, I get it in case I've never had it.

But it might just be that the faq is wrong. If you've to get this pin, do you not get a clue in the game as to where to get it? The only times I had to supply a particular pin, I'd either got it or they said "x noise is good for it". If you've access to different battle difficulty levels yet, bear in mind that different pins sometimes get dropped on different levels.

Sorry I can't be more help.

It's a task from a reaper who will remove a wall if you bring him one... and he even says 'wait until you see what happens when you break in a Happy Beam' so I... oh sod it, it can't be that important.

Perhaps it isn't - I certainly didn't open each wall, so perhaps I just never did that one. I'd either start again with a fresh Happy Beam or go round it.

Yeah, I can just go around it - I got to the area with the final boss. This side quest is optional, but I figured I'd try and beat it. Oh well.

I tried TWEWY a while ago and was frustrated that it took so long to get going before I could save and the dialogue was annoying. Once in the game I couldn't really seem to even figure out the most basic controls in the fighting.

Unlike Yahtzee I've nothing against JRPGs or the picture book type game (I love Ace Attourney games). This one just didn't do anything for me though.

Some of the pins are a bit fiddly to use but it does get going. Still - it won't convert anyone who doesn't fancy the rpg format and the cut scenes do bang on more than a little.

I suppose it's a small mercy that TWEWY is on the DS - so if you're interrupted during one of the

SHIKI: Perky Enthusiasm!
NEKU: (to himself) I don't have time for this... what, am I gay? I should totally want to hit that.
SHIKI: Still disappointed with your emo-ness
NEKU: ...

dialogue sequences you can just close the lid and come back to it later. I remember having to fight the final battle against Metal Gear Rex in Metal Gear Solid as I was 'only' five minutes into Liquid Snake's interminable ramblings when I was called down for dinner and couldn't pause or do anything except skip it.

The controls do take getting used to, but you will eventually work it out (hence the great pains of the game to ease you in)... my biggest problem was remembering to move Neku around to avoid his getting killed.

Ha! Wait till you see what comes next in the dialogue - especially if you play with the sound on. Rubber walls to save the DS from where you throw it.