For about a week, Square Enix has been tantalizing fans of the their offbeat Nintendo DS RPG The World Ends With You with prospects of more news for the IP. On Monday, many noticed that a teaser page had gone up over the weekend on Square’s Japanese domain with a shrouded silhouette and countdown clock. Forcing their computer time forward a few days, super sleuths revealed an outline of the game’s iconic box art. The hunt for info was on.
For about a week, Square Enix has been tantalizing fans of the their offbeat Nintendo DS RPG The World Ends With You with prospects of more news for the IP. On Monday, many noticed that a teaser page had gone up over the weekend on Square’s Japanese domain with a shrouded silhouette and countdown clock. Forcing their computer time forward a few days, super sleuths revealed an outline of the game’s iconic box art. The hunt for info was on.
And then, Radio silence. Sneaky time manipulators were able to push the countdown only so far before they discovered that Square had (smartly) left the trail cold in the couple of days leading up to the reveal. Nonetheless, the subdomain – Subaseka – all but confirmed the link to The World Ends With You, whose Japanese title is Subarashiki Kono Sekai. Still with me? Excellent, Watson.
This brings us to today, when tech. blog Andriasang noticed that Square’s e-shop had posted a track listing for a new The World Ends With You soundtrack. In of itself another clue, perhaps, but laced, it turns out, with one crucial piece of info! The soundtrack summary noted that an “iOS version of the game will have new music;” something which has since been removed by the company. And while I’m usually hard pressed to consider the non presence of information to be informative, the sudden take down of platform details seems to all but confirm an impending iOS release for this gem.
Self-referential, pop-culturally obsessed, and completely distinct in its design, The World Ends With You is an “action RPG” in which the main character – Neku Sakuraba – is forced to make his way through a deadly virtualized “game.” The title introduced a DS-specific system of multi-screen combat, with battles taking place using both touch screen and D-Pad controls simultaneously. It will be interesting to see how The World Ends With You converts to iOS, where big developers have had a rocky history with virtualizing their game’s controls to begin with.
I, for one, can’t wait to see it in action. Stay tuned to Gamezebo for concrete confirmation of the title as the countdown ticks towards zero, as well as eventual previews and reviews of the game!
[Article icon credit to Satoshi Lucis Caelum, whose excellent piece can be found here.]
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