Strategy Guide Review: The World Ends With You
BradyGames' Detailed Walkthrough for Nintendo DS Game
BradyGames supplied the strategy guide for Square Enix's first original Nintendo DS role-playing game, The World Ends with You. The Guide has many of the elements expected in a strategy guide -- a map, overview of gameplay, walkthroughs, and item indexes -- but the Guide goes above and beyond most guides in terms of detail.
While it's helpful to have this much detail in a guide, especially when it comes to boss fights, some of the detail is excessive and unnecessary. At the same time, some important details were left out or organized poorly within the Guide.
Shibuya Walkthroughs
If there's one thing the Guide does very well, it has highly detailed walkthroughs for each day Neku spends in Shibuya. Each chapter starts with a "Mission Checklist," listing every element Neku must -- or in the context of sidequests, should -- complete for the story to progress and for the player to obtain all of the items needed to ease the quest for Neku, such as pins, stickers, and clothing. It also lists all of the new shops available that day and all of the merchandise they sell.
The walkthroughs themselves take players by the hand and lead them step by step through the day. They do more than simply say, "Imprint the 'Fuse' meme on the tech." The Guide will say, "Head back to Shibukyu Main Store and imprint the tech with the 'Fuse' meme." It's very serious hand holding for the player.
On the downside, the walkthroughs are a bit overly detailed. Overly detailed in that they contain far too much exposition. The walkthroughs are almost rewrites of the entire story. They even describe the cut-scenes encountered, no matter if the cut-scenes have game spoilers or not. One really does not need to play the game at all to learn the story; just pick up a Guide and read it. This exposition makes much of the Guide useless, and users will sometimes have to gloss over several paragraphs in order to find the information they are looking for.
Bosses of the Reapers' Game
At then end of each walkthrough chapter, the Guide covers the bosses and optional bosses of the day. It not only goes over the various attacks of the bosses, but also offers tips on how to avoid the attacks and the most opportune times to attack.
The Guide does not, however, suggest what pins to use on the bosses. Since Neku has a huge plethora of pins at his disposal, some players will be more comfortable with using one type of pin over another, so the Guide does not offer advice on what pins to use. That said, it still would have been nice if the Guide advised on what pins are the most effective on a boss.
For example, the Lightning Rook pin is highly effective against the final boss, moreso than other pins, but the Guide never suggests players to arm Neku with this pin.
And as for the final boss, this is the one boss with incomplete coverage. Of all bosses, this should be the most important one to cover, as it's the last fight the player will have. The Guide explains the various attacks of the boss and gives tips on how to help avoid it, but it never once explains that if the player fails to activate the fusion technique when triggered, the boss regains a third of its HP. This omittance is odd, because it mentions how other bosses can regain HP.
Pins, Swag, and Noise, Oh My!
At the beginning of every chapter, right around the Mission Checklist for the day, the chapter lists all of the Noise Neku will encounter, the pins Neku will receive for completing certain tasks, and the new shops available that, including the shops' inventories. The pin and Noise lists are the most helpful. For every pin, the Guide details the task Neku must complete to earn the pin. The Noise list is a table with all of the Noise's stats, including HP and pins dropped for each difficulty level.
The shops list is the only real disappointment. While each chapter lists what new shops are available each day, it doesn't list everything new at a shop for each day. For example, the Mind and Body shop is first available on Day 3 of Shiki's story, but the Tin Pin Versus sticker isn't available at this store until the fourth day of Shiki's story.
The Guide lists the Mind and Body shop on Day 3 with its complete inventory for the entire game, but it is never mentioned on Day 4 that the sticker is now available. Unless players studied the Guide's inventories on Day 3 or visit every shop while playing the game, they may miss the opportunity to purchase this item. It would probably be more useful if each chapter listed the shops and what new items they have added to their inventories that day.
But never fear. The back of the Guide has indexes for pins, swag, and Noise for what they are, what they do, and where and when players can find them.
All in All, BradyGames Published an Excellent Guide
Some guides leave gamers wondering why they wasted their money, but this one will not. Despite its imperfections, it's still very helpful for most of the game. If players make the Guide their personal Bible for the game, they will have no difficulty finding all of the pins and helping Neku win the Reapers' Game.
Even for gamers who don't like to rely on Guides, the map of Shibuya and the item indexes are worth picking up a copy.
Guide Cover
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