Although Neku’s mask isn’t obvious unless you relate to him like I did, the fact that he and the other characters each have one is part of the reason that they have a hard time connecting to others. Meanwhile, Beat projects an impulsive tough guy image, but this belies a caring side. In addition to Shiki, Neku also becomes partners with Joshua and Beat, two other main characters with their own “masks.” Joshua is enigmatic and snarky to Neku, but another character eventually reveals that Joshua is really lonely deep down. Once Shiki sheds her mask, Neku starts to shed his own apathetic and reclusive mask. Neku realizes that he and Shiki share similar fears and uncertainties and finally starts to open up to her and others. He soon discovers that Shiki’s bubbly personality is actually a mask for her self-hatred, as well as her envy of her best friend Eri. One is that he and every other Player in the Reapers’ Game is dead-in fact, they’re playing for the chance to return to life, with the thing they value most as their entry fee. In between missions and battles, Neku also learns a few things that start to change his view of the world. Once you have the Fusion ability unlocked and get your sync rate to 100% or higher, you can perform a big attack that involves Neku and Shiki combining their strengths to wipe out a lot of Noise at once or do major damage to an enemy. By attacking with Neku and Shiki at the same time, you increase your sync rate in battle. In Solo Remix, Neku battles Noise using pins with special abilities while Shiki attacks by telekinetically controlling a cat plushie named Mr. Neku’s trust in Shiki is especially crucial to battle Noise. Since Shiki is more open to people than Neku, she can talk to others in order to get more details about each mission. Shiki’s friendliness is both a foil to Neku’s standoffish attitude and a key factor in completing missions. Sometimes, defeating Noise is key to gain access to certain areas or complete missions. In addition, the black skull pin is also used to scan surrounding areas and initiate battles with Noise, who are the embodiment of people’s negative emotions. By tapping the black skull pin, Neku can scan the people of Shibuya and read or influence their thoughts in order to solve certain missions. Using one or two fingers, you control both Neku and Shiki as they roam Shibuya in order to complete mission objectives. In order to see why Neku trusting Shiki is important, you need to consider the gameplay of the mobile port of TWEWY, Solo Remix. Hanekoma, the producer of the Reapers’ Game, that Neku tries to learn to trust Shiki as a Partner. In the first couple of days of the game, Neku tries his hardest to keep to himself by ignoring Shiki and even almost killsing her to save his own skin. Not only does he outright state that he can’t and won’t connect with other people, but he is unexpectedly thrown into a situation where he has to work with others in order to keep existing. Soon, Neku and Shiki discover that they’ve been forced to participate in the Reapers’ Game as Players and must work together to survive the week by completing missions while figuring out what is going on.Īt one point, Neku says, “Shut up, just go the hell away! I’ve got my values, you can keep yours!” It was clear to me that he was going to go through a rough time. He defeats them when he becomes partners with a teenage girl, Shiki. Armed with nothing but a black skull pin, Neku is soon attacked by creatures called Noise. You play as fifteen year old Neku Sakuraba, an antisocial purple-clad boy who wakes up in an alternate version of Shibuya called the Underground.
Although these factors make the game grounded and relatable, it is underscored by the theme of the struggle for personal connection. It is based on a real place- Shibuya, a district in Tokyo, Japan-and the game’s soundtrack features Japanese hip-hop, rock, and electronica (rather than sweeping orchestral scores that I’d been used to in other JRPGs).
When I first played the mobile port of the 2007 video game The World Ends With You, its setting was immediately striking for a few reasons.