The World Ends With You: A Retrospective

So you may remember my earlier post about a Nintendo DS game from 2007 called “The World Ends With You.” Every once in a while I get the urge to replay that game, and this summer I went through the whole thing again. It’s still amazing, with a powerful message, unique gameplay, and memorable characters. There’s a reason why it has a dedicated (if small) fan base online.

This game dropped while I was on the verge of going from middle school to high school. Not exactly the easiest part of a person’s life. I picked up this game because I saw a ton of hype for it online, and thought that it looked interesting. Not exaggerating here, I think it was formative for me to be playing this game during these years.

Back in those days, I was starting to get into thinking about philosophy, and how I want to live my life. This isn’t the only piece of culture that influenced it, there was also Ishmael by David Quinn and other various works that turned me into more philosophy. But this game was influential because of its message about opening yourself up to other people.

“The world ends with you” is a sentence dropped by the archetypal teacher in the game, instructing the protagonist to quit holing himself in and talk to other people. It doesn’t refer to the end of the world or any of that dystopian stuff, it actually refers to the world inside of your head. To the literal world that ends with you. To grow and change you need to open up to people, talk to them, and expand your world bit by bit. If you stay stuck in your own world, it’ll never grow, and you’ll never learn or change. That’s not a way to live.

(Note: in Japan, the game’s name is “It’s a Wonderful World” which, to me, is less related to the message of the game and I don’t like it as much. But to each his own.)

This message is so important now, more than ever. People are being trapped inside their own way of thinking and ignoring everything that comes into conflict with it. People aren’t bothering to clash and learn from each other, they’d rather ignore it and continue down the path of ignorance. This isn’t going to solve anything, these problems are just going to fester and grow until we have a major problem on our hands. And I’m not immune to it either, we all need to seek out and talk to people that disagree with us and expand our world and theirs to solve any problem.

But there still isn’t a sequel to this game, even though it’s been nearly 10 years now. The signs are there, it could easily get one. The bonus chapter at the end alludes to it, and when they released the mobile version there was the image of a new character who could possibly be in another game. Specifically, in Another Day when you find Mr. H he says something along the lines of “you want to help me huh? Well that time could be sooner than you think.” Mr. H it’s been 10 years! I want to help you!

I hope that Square Enix doesn’t forget about this great game, or the fans that it has inspired over the years. Video games can create so much good in the world, as they are another way to consume stories and grow from them. It would be wonderful to see it get more attention and support, as it certainly deserves it. I know that I, personally, won’t be forgetting about this game anytime soon.