'World Ends With You' (aka It's a Wonderful World) coming Stateside
 

Source

So, is anyone excited about this? It seemed to be a bit iffy at first, but, now SquareEnix's interesting little DS RPG is slated for a US release! Of course, I'm sure you can tell that by the title...

I personally find this great, as the DS really needs some good RPGs for its library, and it's interesting battle system, it seems fun at the very least. The clothing aspect seems cool, but I'm wondering how that works out in-game (I haven't looked at any Japanese reviews yet). The story's a little... familiar though.

So, lovely members, what do you think? Will this game be great, a flop, or just, kinda floating around in that sea of 'who gives a damn'?

And for people who haven't heard about the game until now, here's a little bit of info about it.

Looking at many screens of this game, it looks awesome... I honestly can't wait for this to come out.

But I'm wondering why they changed the title... It's a Wonderful World seemed like a good title.

I heard that the gameplay is actually challenging and different from regular RPGs, and the story is kinda... trippy? It also had a lot of Japanese puns so there was alot of skepticism about a localised release in the states or anywhere else... But I'm glad this is coming out and will probably pick it up as soon as its out.

The soundtrack is also good, got it from gamemp3s, and the music is an important element in the style and setting of the game. Its overall a different feel to the usual fantasy or futuristic Sci Fi turn based RPGs Square churns out latly.

And the title changed cause of copyright issues. There's an old film of the same title, and a music album.

It's a Wonderful World - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's a Wonderful World (album) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have the game in Japanese, however I haven't played it much. The story & battle system are pretty unique. I will for sure play it in english and I am happy it is coming stateside.

To quote a good friend of mine's "review" on it from way back in July:


For some reason I see a lot of the content losing meaning when translated into America so we'll have to see how it turns out.

I enjoyed what little I played of it, so unless they find a way to completely screw over the English release I don't see why I won't enjoy the stateside release all the same.

Now I want to play it again =(

Its confirmed that alot of content WILL be lost, alot of the dialouge relies heavily on Japanese puns that made most imported fans were skeptical of a US release, that and the whole Shibuya street culture...

I'm really curious as to how they'll handle the localization of this one. I wonder if they'll change the location of the game to a US city or something or if they'll just do a text translation and adjust the dialog for a US audience.

Ooo, that's a very nice looking DS your friend has there.

I'm also kinda worried about the localization issues with the heavy Japanese culture. But, then again, with us Westerners becoming more saturated with Eastern influences, maybe Squeenix will be either smart enough to leave it intact, or find good Western counterparts people can relate to.

But, honestly, though, as long as they don't mess up the battle system (somehow?), I think it'd still be a pretty good game.

If they change the location that would require new artworks to be made. The background artworks are 100% Shibuya, not a knock off, but the an artist depiction of how the city district actually looks. I doubt Square US is going to ask Nomura's team to just make some new artwork of NY or something, so I say its probably the latter of your statement.

Yeah, the game takes place in THE BRONX.

Word.

I'm sure the game itself will still be enjoyable. Just... the whole point of it was the Shibuya style and all these funny puns.

If it worked for Persona 3, it can work for this.

Also, there's a partial translation for this game already.

If every single character in this game doesn't have a heavy Bronx accent I'm going to be very, very disappointed.

I really don't see why they had to change the location, though. It's not like that would've turned people off from the game; People would have just seen "HEY HE LOOKS LIKE SORA" or "SQUARE-ENIX? COUNT ME IN" and it would've sold like hotcakes regardless.

Oh good, and I was running out of RPGs for my DS.

PASS. This sounds absolutely dreadful for anybody who's not a die-hard Japanophile. The gameplay sounds interesting, but I pretty much consider Nomura's involvement to be the kiss of death for any game.

Haha... I"m not very fond of Nomura's work either... but, then again, this game DOES look promising, at least to me. I'm wiling to look past it if the battle system and story can deliver.

It sounds kind of cool, but after watching a video clip I find it looks WAY too remniscent of KH: Chain of Memories. I bet it's really, really repetitive.

Would you be saying that when Versus XIII eventually releases to Japan and then the U.S? Though, I hate to burst your bubble guys. But trailers like those hardly do any justice. Playing the game and watching are two different things.

I'll have to agree with you here; there's no real reason to do much of anything other than translate. Honestly, I think it odd to assume that US gamers are comfortable with all manner of alien worlds (high-fantasy or otherwise), yet would be turned off by something from across the Pac.
If nothing else, the setting would ensure that it stands out from the crowd; whether that is for good or ill is a judgement I leave in the hands of the players.

I tried it out a whle back. Didn't really understand jap (obviously) but the gameplay is pretty trippy. So not knowing what's going on, gameplay and the OST is what kept me going. Can't wait for this to hit our homes.

Thread bumpage, again. Sorry. ;_;

So the European ROM just got dumped online today. Has anyone tried the English version yet?

Really looking forward to this game. I couldn't really understand the combat system from the videos I watched, but the game looks very interesting.

It's actually kinda refreshing to see a game where the character design by Tetsuya Nomura doesn't suck all flavors of awful.

Gonna try it in just a few minutes here...

You have to put the stylus to work for this game. No worries since in every event battle in the beginning has a little tutorial. Funny cuz when I played the jap version , it wasn't too hard perform slash attacks but in the US it took me a while ;p.

The difficulty was bumped down a bit (not too much though) for the US version, but I don't really mind I guess, since they nixed the idea to make it take place in America.

Shiki is voiced by Colette from Tales of Symphonia. Not sure how I feel about that. Neku is voiced by some fellow who has only done some minor roles in kid shows.

I believe the game still takes place in Japan. Early in the game, Neku does mention Shibuya and why he's still there or something like that.