Video Game: "The World Ends With You"

[brigidmarie]

I’m a big fan of Square Enix games, and I’m interested in playing “The World Ends With You.” The thing is, I know that sometimes Square Enix games have anti-religious themes (like Final Fantasy X or Chaos Rings II, groan), and I don’t want to shell out money for a game that’s going to be offensive. But of course, secular reviews almost never mention that sort of thing, and I don’t want to spoil myself for the game by reading a full plot summary. Is there anyone here who’s played it and can tell me what it’s like?

 

[Brother_Stephen]

TWEWY (The World Ends with You, which is a drastic change from the original Japanese: “It’s a Wonderful World”) is in my opinion a solid game. If you can get around the clunky in battle controls on the DS then there is really no impediment to playing this game, personal preference aside.

It’s plot has some vague references to things of a spiritual nature, such as “Reapers” being the bad-guys with accompanying bat wings to designate them, and the afterlife with spiritual beings being among the cast of characters. I would not call this game “anti-religious”, as it stems from a very Shinto conception of the world, which flows into the in-game world. This conception is profoundly different from the Christian paradigm though, so the use of terms like: “angels”, etc, takes on a different meaning from our mode of understanding.

If things of that nature offend your sensibilities than I would recommend giving this game a miss. I for one found this game’s story engaging and overall found it enjoyable, it even gives you bonus points if you stop playing for a number of real time days (up to a week).
At least that’s my humble opinion.

Peace,
+Stephen

 

[brigidmarie]

No, that sort of thing doesn’t offend me–I actually find Shinto very interesting, which is one of the reasons I like Japanese media. Thanks! This is exactly the sort of info I was looking for.