How to not market a game: The World Ends with You

One of my favorite series of all time, sadly brushed under the rug

May 03, 2025

I was unfortuntately not one of the people who got to play the original The World Ends with You on the DS despite owning a DS. To my knowledge, the original TWEWY was never shipped to my country and I never knew about it. I learned about it later when I became a Final Fantasy fan and people were talking about other Square Enix works. The game was shockingly ported to mobile platforms and even adapted to single screen combat. I was so excited and immediately bought the game on the Play Store.

Years later, I found out about the existence of its sequel, NEO: The World Ends with You. The marketing of it was so quiet and so subdued that I don’t even remember if I bought it at launch or later on. But I was so enamoured with it. The polished presentation, the originality of the plot, the charming characters all captured my heart and didn’t let me go until I finished the game.

Then just the other day, I wanted to relive the memories so I went to Google Play Store to download the original TWEWY - only to find out that the game isn’t available on any of the mobile stores anymore. What? Why? I don’t understand the reasoning, but to say that I was devastated would be an understatement. These games don’t get enough recognition as it is, and now they are removed from the most accessible stores in the world.

This might be shocking for some people, but I actually enjoyed NEO more than the original. I think they are very similar in terms of quality, but the battle system was more engaging in the sequel. This might be because the original was tailor-made for the DS and not single screen so my enjoyment of the original may have been hindered because of this.

The image of Minamimoto (guy on the right) sitting there with a mysterious aura, enjoying his slushy while being surrounded by a bunch of kids is hilarious to me

But I’ll be honest, I enjoyed the characters of NEO more and cared more about their character arcs. Maybe it’s recency bias, but I thought they were more compelling and multi-faceted. Not to say that Neku and the gang were one-dimensional or anything. It’s just that I enjoyed the interactions between Rindo and the others a bit more.

Despite how good both of the games are, they are rarely mentioned when talking about Action RPGS and JRPGs. I think this is because of a few reasons:

The play style. The games have a very unique playing style that differs from the rest of its competitors. It’s not the usual grind and level up, even though those elements are there. For the first game, the usage of touchscreen is unique and cannot be easily adapted to controllers, so they never released it on consoles like PlayStation or Xbox. The second game’s mechanics are more straightforward, but still quite unique.
The top and bottom contain different gameplay elements for the DS. You play the top screen with the D-pad controls, whereas the bottom screen is played with the touchscreen
Non-existent marketing. The original TWEWY made some noise when it came out, due to its great visuals, captivating music and unique gameplay. However, the company failed to ride on the hype train. NEO came out in 2021, 14 years after the first. And there was NOTHING. No noise, no marketing.
It’s considered a niche game, even among the JRPG community.
Availability. The first game cannot be found easily other than on the Switch and NEO is available on Steam. So if you want to play TWEWY and go on Steam to buy it, you’ll only be able to find the sequel. Needless to say that playing only the sequel is not how most people want to play a game.
The name. Yes, I think the name is a factor. The World Ends with You is a very iconic name but unfortunately, it lacks the conscise branding of its peers, such as Final Fantasy or Persona. Shortening the name into TWEWY is not enough to make it into a brand of its own.

The worst part is that I can’t be like, oh just play the games, they are so good. Because as I’ve said, the availability of these games is absymal. If you have a Switch, go ahead and play both of them. If you only have a PC, good luck playing the first game. I can’t even recommend you to play it with a DS emulator because the gameplay mechanics don’t translate well without both a touchscreen and a D-pad.

Despite this, I absolutely adore the story, the art, the music and the characters of these games. They are silly, compassionate and earnest. If you ever have the chance to play these games, however that might be, I absolutely recommend you to try them out!

If you don’t have a Switch, I think the most optimal way to experience the story in its entirety would be to watch the anime, which covers the entirety of the first game. Then buy the second game, NEO: The World Ends with You on Steam or PlayStation.

As a side note, I think I learned so much about Shibuya (both from these games and Persona 5) that if/when I go there, I don’t think I’ll be lost. Still, I gotta replay these games to prepare myself for a potential visit heh.

Thanks for reading! Hopefully this article can help bring this game to your attention and you have a chance to give it a try. If you like JRPGs mixed with action combat, I promise you that it’s one of the best out there!