TWEWY's uncompellable attractiveness is thanks to the convergence of many strong points in a RPG.
We can see the difference right in the background of TWEWY: it's not a fairy world like in Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy but a real location - the quarter Shibuya in Tokyo, Japan. It's here that the fatal game of our leading character Neku Sakuraba starts. One day the inaccessible hip-hop enthusiast is strolling along the street when he suddenly falls unconscious. Regaining his senses, he realizes a badge in his hand which strangely allows him to read everyone's mind. In the moment of confusion, Neku receives a phone message from a mysterious character called "The Reapers" who claims that he has to go to the building 104 within 60 minutes or die. The boy is even more astounded when figuring out the message can not be deleted from his cell-phone, and the time on it is counting down. Left with no choice, Neku reluctantly does as The Reaper's command and accepts to play his weird game...
Implemented by Jupiter - the squad behind the relative success of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for GBA, TWEWY also resembles the fast-paced game play of a hybrid Action-Role Playing. Its stand-out is the way two screens of NDS is utilized at the same time to provide gamers with maximum support in control, starting from the fight against the monsters "Noise", which is actually the embodiment of human evil ambitions. While the touch pad and stylus take the responsibility of controlling Neku, simultaneously the upper screen allows manipulating his companions through Control Pad or A,B,X,Y (depends on your forehand).
The mainstay of the game is to discover and use the Pin, similar to the cards in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memroies, allowing you to return hostile actions with physical or magical attacks. There are over 300 of such Pin throughout the game and each requires different movements with stylus. Take Natural Pupy, you will have to cross out Neku's body to fire the energy bullets towards enemies; Psychokinesis requires dragging objects in the scene like automobiles or signpost with stylus to attack; Thunderbolt demands a point right at the target... More particularly, some Pin like Shout forces players to shout into microphone to activate. As you see, the variety of Pin and their usages stimulate discovering and using them, an interest much like hunting Pokemon or powerful card in Megaman Battle Network. Moreover, each pin has the potential to be upgraded, depending on the time they are equipped. Once upgraded, their attack power, duration, times to use (especially important for healing Pin) ect... will increase. It's a pleasant surprise to see some how weak and nearly useless ones at first can reveal their true usages if you take the trouble "ploughing" for them. Besides using Pin, gamers can also enjoy fatal Combo attacks of the main character through a combination of key suitable to the situation in game. This alternative allow you to finish many fight quickly.
One point to acknowledge in TWEWY compared to prior Square Enix products (Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy XII) is that the fights are no longer contingent. Instead, when it's necessary to practise with monsters, simply touch the Pin icon on the right side of the screen to activate Neku's mind reading ability, then touch the Noice icon to start the battle. On the other hand, you do not have to keep an eye on checkpoints any more, but can save the game whenever you see fit. More remarkable, if you have little time for the game, the Pin you equip on your character can automatically gain experience, but of course not as fast as when you spend time on them. Such small details show us how the developers take care of players' condition, especially busy ones.
Money always plays an important role in RPG and it's also true for TWEWY - buy and equip new gears for you character like shirts, trousers, gloves, accessories, food ... to increase his attributes. Notice a real factor that after eating food or drinking pep pill, the character needs time to digest all of these. If you cram too much, there will be unexpected side-effects. Along with this, the way you dress also affects the equipped Pin directly. Catch the fashion trends in the area, plusing combining it with the right Pin, will even double the damage you can deal. One more interesting thing is becoming regular patron in a shop. You will gradually accumulate an amount of point there and finally gain many privileges like discount or access to top quality, rare items. Once you have finish this beautiful game, TWEWY allows replay certain chapters to discover more secrets or the fates of each character. Besides, exchanging gears with friends is possible through Mingle. Otherwise, you can play several rounds of Tin Pin Slammer (a mini game for 4 players) to relax and upgrade your Pin.
Designed by the very artist Tetsuya Nomura, one of the key figures in Square Enix who is responsible for major projects like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, along with his reputed peer Gen Kobyasahi, Graphics in TWEWY is quite decent though it's all 2D. From costumes to manners of all character, all are lively and lissome. The usage of many bright colors along with proper lay-out gains favour with players at first sight. Music quality is also pushed up to "top" when undertaken by Takeharu Ishimoto (Legend of Mana, Vagrant Story...) among other famous musician like Jyongri, SAWA, Ayuko Tanaka.
Converging many advantages of its genre, TWEWY is certainly the number 1 choice for RPG fans these days. It may be too soon to conclude but the game may win many awards this year.