Teenagers Neku Sakuraba and Shiki Misaki have seven days to complete the Sinigami Corporation's Death Game... The rules are varied and intricate. Neku has been endowed with psychic powers by means of which he can sense the presence of monsters living within the thoughts of strangers. As they advance through the game, the motives of the Shinigami corporation's bosses and their lackies, represented by the stylized skull and cross-styli insginia, will come into sharper focus.
Facts & Trivia
- The World Ends With You incorporates Nomura designs, a rhythm action battle system, and Ishimoto hip-hop tunes in an urban lifestyle fashion statement and animated riff on Japan's Shibuya youth culture.
- The game's original Japanese title translates roughly into "It's a Wonderful World," but the name was changed to "The World Ends With You" for the North American release in order to avoid copyright infringement.
- The monster ("Noise") designs of TWEWY are strongly inspired by tribal art, as well as co-director Tomohiro Hasegawa's (apparently extensive) collection of bones. The Noise were intended to be "a motif of human emotion." [via a "Creator's Roundtable" interview]