The World Ends with You: Final Remix

iOS and Android versions of TWEWY couldn’t handle the unique combat system with two different fights on two different DS screens, so they cut one of them. Switch port mutilates the game even further. [Issue#234, p.74]

My favorite artistic element of The World Ends With You has always been the soundtrack, which is carried over successfully in Final Remix.

For anyone still having avoided or otherwise missed the original release a decade ago, a willingness to look past the temporary frustration of its controls notwithstanding, The World Ends With You: Final Remix remains, in both gameplay and story, as splendid a JRPG as it’s always been.

If you have missed the initial release of The World Ends With You, Final Remix is a great opportunity to experience the story of this excellent JRPG for the first time. However, be aware that the battle system controls in this edition are the worst... "Noise" of the game.

The World Ends With You -Final Remix-, while still great for newcomers, should have been the definitive version of the Nintendo DS classic but it ends up being just an improved version of the mobile game with far too little new content.

Still a courageously original action role-player that breaks almost every rule in the role-playing book. Although what it really needs is a sequel, not another remaster.

Purists will likely still prefer the Nintendo DS original due to its superior controls and increased difficulty, but this provides newcomers a perfect chance to experience a JRPG that, for many, fell well under their radar all those years ago.

Presentation wise, the Switch remaster both looks and sounds great, improving upon the original mobile remaster wherever it can, but the gameplay is severely neutered when compared to the original Nintendo DS release. Combat will never be as smooth with the Joy-Con setup as it is with touch controls, and the modifications made to the partner system in order to make gameplay work on one single screen remove a great deal of the original battle system's charm. Final Remix is a good game as it is still, at its core, The World Ends with You, but it is a deeply flawed, deeply disappointing reimagining of the DS classic.

The new music is wonderful, the additional stories are engaging, and the updated visuals make it hard to return to the pixelated appearance of the original DS release. Still, despite these obvious improvements and extra pieces of content, there’s a downside to the update. Some people, especially newcomers, won’t find issue with the new control scheme, but for many long-time fans the dual-character combat of the original is a huge part of what made it a game worth remastering.

For newcomers, if you can push past the awful touch controls, The World Ends With You provides a gripping tale that will consume you from start to finish.

After 10 years, The World Ends With You is still an original game. OK, gameplay wise we’re not getting the full experience on Switch due to the lack of a second screen, but nonetheless the option of playing in local multiplayer all by ourselves manages to recreate some of the original feelings. The HD graphics are spot on, but the overall experience isn’t as good as we remembered, and the price point seems a bit off given the age of the game.

As frustrating as it is brilliant. Whilst the story beats and core gameplay have fairly aged gracefully, despite the shiny HD sheen, the overall presentation of the game looks less flattering in 2018. It’s odd – in a game that’s very much the ‘how do you do fellow kids?’ of Japanese role-playing games, the story is the one element that doesn’t feel dated.

You can safely sit this one out unless you're a diehard fan. [Issue #37 – January/February 2019, p. 68]

The World Ends With You: Final Remix brings a cult Nintendo DS classic to a modern platform that should be a good fit, but some poor choices in how the combat is handled bring down the experience and actually makes it the inferior version.

Now on Nintendo Switch, The Worlds Ends with You Final Remix is still a good and enjoyable game, but the port is lazy. Everything comes from Solo Remix, a mobile version from 2014, and the added gameplay system, with one Joy-Con that is used as a wiimote is not as efficient as it should be.

My opinion of The World Ends With You: Final Remix is one of indifference. All the consideration that went into making the original a compound piece of craftsmanship, inseparable from the device on which you played it, is absent. In its place is a more user-friendly experience, and while I'm not against taking a traditionally difficult game and making it more accessible -- something Square Enix already did when it ported the title to mobile devices -- Final Remix's failure to utilize the extent of the Switch hardware shows a lack of understanding as to why so many people consider the Nintendo DS original to be the masterpiece it is.