Square Enix has announced NEO: The World Ends With You, a sequel to its 2007 Nintendo DS cult hit.
The follow-up will release worldwide next summer on Switch and PlayStation 4, hot on the heels of an anime adaptation of the original game premiering in April.
Rindo, a new protagonist, is thrown into a new iteration of the Reapers’ Game, “a life-or-death battle for survival.” Players will help him and his party explore a stylized reinterpretation of Tokyo’s iconic Shibuya ward, fighting monsters and completing missions as they work to change their tragic fates. Unlike its predecessor, gameplay is in full 3D, with battles taking place on seemingly open arenas.
In The World Ends With You, protagonist Neku was also a contestant in the Reapers’ Game, a supernatural competition where dead souls can wager their most precious possession to compete to either return to their former life or become a Reaper, a higher life form that opposes contestants in the games. The DS original made novel use of the handheld’s features, earning high critical praise and considerably high sales for a niche title. It has since been ported to mobile devices and the Switch, and the forthcoming anime will retell its events for new and old audiences alike.
No directors or producers or producers have been named as of this writing, but Tetsuya Nomura is handling character design alongside Gen Kobayashi and Miki Yamashita. Nomura’s artwork contributed heavily to the original’s signature style, and looks to be a strong influence once again as Square Enix renders Shibuya in full 3D.
