Hey, It's That Guy! Thanks, That Guy!
More notes from my NEO: The World Ends with You replay! I’ve just finished week two. Once again, I spend most of this entry talking about vanishingly minor characters.
'See, Rindude? Beat gets me in a way you never will,' Fret says, trying to make Rindo jealous.
Just scanned a woman's thoughts, and she was thinking, The guy working at Hog Fang was a total hunk! And the fact that he's so shy is, like, super adorable. I'm glad to know I'm not the only person obsessing over this shopkeeper.
heck yeah, my favourite shopkeeper gets AN EXTREMELY MINOR STORY ROLE. It does feel realistic that some Players would take advantage of 'you disappear onto another plane of reality the moment you leave a shop' for shoplifting purposes!
I told about my fascination with Hog Fang shopkeeper Yudai Miki.
Riona: He has an in-game bio that says he’s an underground brawler in his spare time and his friend advised him to take this retail job to improve his terrible social skills. None of this has any relevance to anything, because he’s only there for you to buy clothes from. I don’t understand why they gave this barely-a-character lore, but I accept it.
RD: He’s in an UNDERGROUND FIGHT CLUB?????
Riona: shhh don’t talk about it
RD: What are you going to do when he serves you at the shop with a bruised cheek and bloody lip?
Riona: Make out with him, obviously.
RD: Correct answer.
Meanwhile, I think the Tigre Punks shopkeeper at O-East is flirting with me. He goes 'Got a feelin' you'll look real good in our stuff' when I sell him pins. The creepy Cony x Cony twins also express the wish they could have seen my 'pretty face' for longer if I leave without buying anything.
Aww, Rindo yelling 'You can't die now - we just met!' at Motoi.
My favourite examples of the Purehearts' pretentious habit of peppering their speech with words from other languages are Motoi's 'Time to show you what je'm really made of!' and the Pureheart whose ambush goes awry:
Pureheart: Never mind. I was aware this plan may prove too risqué.
Fret: Too what?
'I know what you're thinking: "boy, I wish I could get past this cool Reaper."' I continue to love all the no-name Reapers.
Speaking of which, the sidequest where you help the Reaper commentator find a new hobby (so he stops commentating on everything in his spare time, bless him) might be my favourite in the game. Last time, I asked Nagi to give him advice; this time, I went with Fret. Fret advised him to get into fashion and, when the Reaper protested that he knew nothing about clothes and couldn't get pierced because he's afraid of needles, suggested he could just start by changing the colour of his underwear. ('But... no one sees my underwear except me,' the Reaper protested.)
Reaper commentator: So what colour's your underwear, then?
Fret: Oh, stop! You're gonna make me blush.
Fret continues to be startlingly shippable with everyone.
I succeeded in befriending my favourite shopkeeper and he now excitedly greets me with 'Hey, it's you!' when I enter his shop, which is cute, but I find myself missing his awkward greetings. As multiple songs have warned me, you don't know what you've got till it's gone.
NEO: The World Ends with You is a flawed game in some ways, but the love and passion and playfulness that went into it shine through. It may be a clumsily written love letter, but there's no question that the love is real. A mess, but a beautiful mess, and so many of the games I enjoy are beautiful messes.
'See, Rindude? Beat gets me in a way you never will,' Fret says, trying to make Rindo jealous.
Just scanned a woman's thoughts, and she was thinking, The guy working at Hog Fang was a total hunk! And the fact that he's so shy is, like, super adorable. I'm glad to know I'm not the only person obsessing over this shopkeeper.
heck yeah, my favourite shopkeeper gets AN EXTREMELY MINOR STORY ROLE. It does feel realistic that some Players would take advantage of 'you disappear onto another plane of reality the moment you leave a shop' for shoplifting purposes!
I told about my fascination with Hog Fang shopkeeper Yudai Miki.
Riona: He has an in-game bio that says he’s an underground brawler in his spare time and his friend advised him to take this retail job to improve his terrible social skills. None of this has any relevance to anything, because he’s only there for you to buy clothes from. I don’t understand why they gave this barely-a-character lore, but I accept it.
RD: He’s in an UNDERGROUND FIGHT CLUB?????
Riona: shhh don’t talk about it
RD: What are you going to do when he serves you at the shop with a bruised cheek and bloody lip?
Riona: Make out with him, obviously.
RD: Correct answer.
Meanwhile, I think the Tigre Punks shopkeeper at O-East is flirting with me. He goes 'Got a feelin' you'll look real good in our stuff' when I sell him pins. The creepy Cony x Cony twins also express the wish they could have seen my 'pretty face' for longer if I leave without buying anything.
Aww, Rindo yelling 'You can't die now - we just met!' at Motoi.
My favourite examples of the Purehearts' pretentious habit of peppering their speech with words from other languages are Motoi's 'Time to show you what je'm really made of!' and the Pureheart whose ambush goes awry:
Pureheart: Never mind. I was aware this plan may prove too risqué.
Fret: Too what?
'I know what you're thinking: "boy, I wish I could get past this cool Reaper."' I continue to love all the no-name Reapers.
Speaking of which, the sidequest where you help the Reaper commentator find a new hobby (so he stops commentating on everything in his spare time, bless him) might be my favourite in the game. Last time, I asked Nagi to give him advice; this time, I went with Fret. Fret advised him to get into fashion and, when the Reaper protested that he knew nothing about clothes and couldn't get pierced because he's afraid of needles, suggested he could just start by changing the colour of his underwear. ('But... no one sees my underwear except me,' the Reaper protested.)
Reaper commentator: So what colour's your underwear, then?
Fret: Oh, stop! You're gonna make me blush.
Fret continues to be startlingly shippable with everyone.
I succeeded in befriending my favourite shopkeeper and he now excitedly greets me with 'Hey, it's you!' when I enter his shop, which is cute, but I find myself missing his awkward greetings. As multiple songs have warned me, you don't know what you've got till it's gone.
NEO: The World Ends with You is a flawed game in some ways, but the love and passion and playfulness that went into it shine through. It may be a clumsily written love letter, but there's no question that the love is real. A mess, but a beautiful mess, and so many of the games I enjoy are beautiful messes.