The mystery behind the lack of a PlayStation or PC port for The World Ends With You still baffles me. Square Enix’s lack of plans for putting this underrated masterpiece to more platforms is such a missed opportunity.
The World Ends With You has been one of my favorite games, partly due to how novel it all is. You play as a group of teens transported into a supernatural version of Shibuya and forced to play a twisted Reaper's Game.
It's one of those rare videogames that doesn’t feel like a "videogame" at all. TWEWY doesn't follow common trends and mechanics from the games during that time. Rather, it does its own bizarre thing with its focus on touch and motion controls as part of its gameplay.
Originally a Nintendo DS title, it leveraged the console's dual-screen and touch gimmick, making its gameplay heavily reliant on the DS' touch screen. It was a cult hit back in the day, riding the waves of the late 2000s pop culture zeitgeist, where Tetsuya Nomura’s character designs were all the rage with its plaid outfits, unnecessary number of belts and comically large shoes.
10 years later, the game was enhanced for the Nintendo Switch and shifted from the Nintendo DS’ dual-screen to the Switch’s singular one. This transformation came with some odd sacrifices, resulting in awkward controls. Playing the game in docked mode was a bit weird due to how clunky its motion controls are. The Handheld mode was the ideal way to play it, as it harkens back to its DS touch-control gameplay. But you're gonna have to deal with your Nintendo Switch screen from sweat and dirt marks.
It’s ‘somewhat’ clear that the touch and motion controls are the major hurdles why Square decides to hold off the port The World Ends With You for other consoles. They were already having a tough time dealing with the controls of the Final Mix (or the Enhanced) version of the game, how much more for other consoles.
Personally, that shouldn’t really be the case to hold-off a port. Porting TWEWY could work, especially for a console like the PlayStation 5. Why? The answer is the DualSense controller’s Touchpad. However, players who don’t feel like doing this gimmick can always use of the analog sticks or the controller’s gyro. As someone who grew up with tank controls and a master of the “the claw” in videogames, having to play an entire game using touch and motion controls is no big deal.
The Steam and PC version of the game could work as well. The mouse is literally just right there. Neku and his Shibuya friends can breeze through all the Noise with how simple a mouse control should be. All Square needed to do was tweak its accessibility and controls to support seamless mouse gameplay and call it a day.
If all else fails, Square can always remake the game from the ground up using the same gameplay and engine mechanic they’ve had with its sequel, NEO: The World Ends With You. It was the series’ natural evolution from its clunky touch gameplay to a full-fledged 3D-action game. While it may take a long time and a few investor meetings to justify the series’ lukewarm sales, it could work.
It’s understandable how Square Enix is having a tough time putting their underrated RPG into other consoles. There’s just too much at stake, from dealing with its awkward controls to financial security. All it takes is just one Square Enix exec and more demand from its fanbase to push through all that noise.
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