Why Is This Game So Annoying?

In this post, I review a game called The World Ends With You. Despite being developed by Square Enix, one of the leading video game developers in the world, it turns out to be a frustrating experience. Here are my reasons for this conclusion.

The World Ends With You

The World Ends With You is a role playing game created by Square Enix. It was released back in 2008 for the Nintendo DS console and later ported to the Wii U in 2013. There were five main games released for this franchise, along with a few spin-offs and re-releases. The original game focuses on Neku Sakuraba, a high school student who becomes involved in a mysterious incident involving a group of friends, all of whom happen to be dressed like ninjas. However, there is much more to this story than meets the eye.

In addition to the main storyline, there are additional missions and mini-games that you can participate in. Each of these is played via touchscreen controls, but it gets increasingly difficult to navigate through the menu screens.

Overall, the gameplay itself is quite enjoyable, at least for the first couple of hours. Although there are a few minor issues, such as the camera angle and control scheme, the overall experience is fairly entertaining.

Unfortunately, The World Ends With You changes after a certain point.

For starters, the difficulty level increases significantly once you’ve reached a certain part of the story. As a result, the puzzles become much harder to solve, which makes progressing forward incredibly frustrating. Also, there are times when the character you’re controlling suddenly loses his/her balance and falls over, resulting in a game over. Not only does this occur randomly, it also happens very frequently throughout the entire experience. This, combined with the aforementioned problems, makes it virtually impossible to succeed without getting frustrated.

Another major problem is that the game takes a lot of time to complete. I mean, the whole thing is supposed to be played over the span of six days, which means you spend a significant amount of time doing nothing. Additionally, the story is relatively uneventful, with a rather predictable plot.

However, the biggest issue in The World Ends With You is the sheer number of glitches that appear during gameplay. I’m not talking about small bugs here and there. No, I’m referring to a bunch of huge errors, which cause various characters to fall off the screen, or crash the entire system. These crashes can be avoided by restarting the game, which is pretty annoying since you lose all of your items and money.

On top of that, The World Ends With You tends to freeze on its own, which results in a game over. Again, this occurs quite often, which forces you to restart the entire experience.

In summary, The World Ends With You is a frustrating game because of the following factors:

1 – Unpredictable Gameplay

Although there are several fun elements to the gameplay, they become far less exciting once you reach a certain point in the story. That is mainly due to the fact that it is extremely hard to progress forward. At this stage, most of the levels are filled with obstacles, such as walls, spikes, and other enemies.

As a result, the player can’t maneuver properly, which makes it near impossible to defeat certain enemies. In addition, the camera angles are not optimal either, which makes it even harder to beat certain battles. Furthermore, the camera will sometimes go crazy and start shaking, which causes more issues.

All in all, The World Ends With You becomes an entirely different game once you pass a certain point.

2 – Inconsistent Difficulty Levels

When I say “difficulty levels”, I refer to the game mechanics and gameplay. For example, the boss fights and mini-games are relatively easy, while the combat is fairly challenging. This means that the difficulty of each battle depends on the level of the character you’re controlling.

On the other hand, the puzzles and navigation menus are much harder than they should be. For instance, the game uses a unique touch screen mechanic, which involves tapping the screen to interact with objects. While this is great for exploring the environment, it is highly inconvenient when you try to move between locations.

This is because it takes a lot of time to find the right location on the map, and then tap your finger in order to move there. As a result, the entire process can get incredibly tedious. It is even worse during certain sections, such as the fight against Boss G.

To make matters worse, you have no choice but to follow the main storyline, meaning you’ll be spending hours upon hours solving these stupid puzzles. After finishing The World Ends With You, I felt like my brain had turned into mush. Seriously, I couldn’t even think straight anymore.

3 – Annoying Character Controls

Once again, this relates to the touch screen controls, specifically those used during the exploration phase. Since this is the main focus of the game, it gets pretty annoying having to perform these actions every single time.

In addition, some of the characters are unable to jump, which makes it almost impossible to traverse large gaps or climb up steep slopes. If you fail to press the correct button, you’ll fall down and die. Once again, this can be avoided by restarting the game.

Also, the control scheme for Neku Sakuraba is completely ridiculous. First of all, he runs slower than molasses, which makes it nearly impossible to dodge enemy attacks. Then, there is the camera angle, which can change randomly, making it hard to determine which direction to run towards.

Last but not least, the touchscreen controls are really awkward to use, especially when trying to navigate through the menu screens.

4 – Lackluster Storyline

The storyline is basically non-existent. It revolves around a group of ninja-like characters who call themselves the Reapers. They gather in order to solve various mysteries, such as why they have been summoned to Earth. However, that’s about it.

That’s right – there are absolutely zero plot twists or revelations that will blow your mind. Sure, there are a few references to popular movies, books, or TV shows, but that’s about it. All in all, The World Ends With You is an average game with an interesting concept, mediocre graphics, and boring writing. Basically, it fails to deliver on its promises.

5 – Bugs & Glitches

Throughout my playthrough, I encountered countless bugs and glitches. Most of them were caused by the touchscreen controls, which made it extremely frustrating. However, there were other instances where the game froze on its own, forcing me to restart the entire experience.

In conclusion, The World Ends With You is a mediocre game with plenty of bugs and glitches. As a result, it is recommended that you avoid playing it altogether, unless you want to waste your time on a frustrating experience.

4 thoughts on “Why Is This Game So Annoying?

  1. It is so annoying that I keep reading articles about how games can be good and then finding that they are crap.
    I liked The World Ends With You, though. But it is true the ending sucked.

  2. What happened to positive reviews? I guess if Lanna didn’t like it, it must suck.

  3. Well done! Well said! And thank you for this article. I found it very useful. I’ve been struggling to finish this game for weeks now…and the fact that I never did finish it was probably what pushed me to buy the sequel on the Switch last month. And it’s still buggy as hell. Maybe Square Enix needs to hire more QA testers.

  4. Great read, I agree 100% and could not have put it better myself. It took me 4 attempts to beat the game, mainly because I was getting so fed up with it. Even when I finally got past the endgame I wasn’t happy, it seemed like such a letdown. My favourite bit of the game was the soundtrack. I do hope that they revisit this franchise in future, maybe give the characters some more depth and story behind their actions.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.