TGS 06: It's a Wonderful World Impressions

TOKYO--Today in Square Enix's Closed Mega Theater, a long trailer for a new Nintendo DS game was revealed to the assembled throng. We haven't heard much about It's a Wonderful World before now, but with the extended trailer on display, it's a sure bet that Square will be talking more about it in the coming months.

Since the trailer was exclusively in Japanese, it's a bit difficult to get a feel for how the game's plot will play out. It appears to revolve around a boy, Neku, and a girl, Tsuki, dressed head to toe in exaggeratedly hip clothing; the fashions are somewhat reminiscent of Sega's old Jet Set Radio games, with huge headphones topping an outfit consisting of a sleeveless bodysuit. There are other characters involved in the plot, each with a somewhat similar sense of fashion.

From the cutscene, it appears there's a seven-day countdown that the characters are working under as they attempt to save the city they live in from what seems to be a demon invasion. The demons, which appear as small red symbols, inhabit the citizens of the city by a full-body infestation. The two protagonists can travel around and examine the citizens by using some kind of energy pulse while standing in the middle of a crowd, which causes the crowd to glow blue and pulls up text descriptions of each nearby member of the crowd. Presumably this information will let the characters know whom to exorcise.

A good amount of combat was shown in the trailer, as well. Although the movement around the city seemed to be a relatively simple 2D exploration, the combat seems to be stylus-heavy. When the stylus is swiped across the enemies, the male character can perform rapid sword slashes. Some kind of gunfire is also performable by rapidly tapping enemies. The girl is capable of casting spells, although this seems to be based on the D pad, as you have to tap up and down on the directional pad to get through what seems to be a small onscreen branching menu before the magic is unleashed.

At the end of the trailer, another upbeat J-pop song was played, which asked whether the situation was caused by angels or demons, emotion or illusion. While enigmatic, we're sure that any forthcoming details on the game will clear up the mysterious plot of this heretofore unknown game, so stay tuned to GameSpot for more information as it becomes available.