Vagrant Story has similar meditations on the value of a character presently versus their past actions. Joshua’s motivations are also quite similar to Sydney Losstarot.

lmfao i get that. personally i related to and obsessed over my guy fret

@@playertoo9730 Do you deal with “triple threats” like Kanon in your daily life as well?

Ha gayyyyyyy

@@mauroalvarenga7002 correct yes

CAT’s outlook on life in the first game helped my entire worldview when I was an impressionable teen.

The interesting thing about those design choices is that they primarily take inspiration from the Three Wise Monkeys proverb (“see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”) and the devs have said that if they were to make a third game, they would most likely design the protag of that game around the see no evil part. Another interesting thing is that you can see all three proverbs represented in both protags despite them primarily being designed around one. Neku’s hair covers his eyes in a lot of his sprites, representing his inability to see the people around him as more than just shallow faces in the crowd, and his high collar covers his mouth, representing his tendency to shrink away from the crowd in order to not draw unneeded attention to himself. His NEO design is a great reaffirmation of his growth as a person: his hair is slightly shorter, he doesn’t have the high collar anymore, and most importantly, he doesn’t have his headphones anymore. He’s fully opened up to the world around him. Rindo primarily blocks out the world via the smartphone he practically keeps surgically attached to his hand and a lot of his sprites has his eyes practically glued to the screen and he tends to block out what his friends are saying while they prattle on and try to include him in the conversation and in the ending, he finally puts the phone down to reach out to Shoka, signifying his own growth as a person.

Personally, I think rather than Rindo’s “crutch” being his mask, it’s his phone. It’s something he puts down in the last part of the game for a real friend. Edit: whoops I didn’t read the first reply completely I agree completely

There is also Rindo's jacket, which is patchwork of random shapes and designs, additionally reinforcing that he is not good at making decisions. I just love some good in-the-face unsubtle character design sometimes.

Also tying into the three monkeys motif, Neku's preferred style is literally Jupiter of the Monkey.

​@@dr.velious5411 Rindo's too, going by the label on his chest.

@Alpha Beta I’ve played through Persona and Final Fantasy and I don’t particularly care for them as much. TWEWY just appeals to me way more.

@Alpha Beta twewy unironically clears them both

@Alpha Beta I disagree. It is in fact THAT deep. It's got subtext that goes far beyond face value and is very reflective of the disenfranchised youth of both the early 2000's when the first game came out and the social media hungry youth of today who are both hungry for meaning and identity in a cynical world that rejects authenticity.

@@thebigchungus4515 opinions, to me the franchise is mostly cringe.

@@Dark-Fenrir_65 And I’m sure that you’re the epitome of what’s cool, huh, pal?

Thank you for sharing your story. I don’t know you, but I’m glad you’re still here.

you see humans always tend to overtake whatever is against and for them. difficult task taking care of these little buggers... they break at every step... like a game would... if you do it right.

It gives even more PP if you go and meet other people, counted by having DS. Especially if they also have TWEWY on it.

hold up i mentioned this

Lol this was definitely mentioned. Loved the system though. Especially when you consider that certain TYPES of PP were necessary to evolve certain pins in the original. Like if you want this super cool pin you legit have to go touch grass or make some friends first. Great stuff.

The Active Grass Touching System

What is PP?

yeah kbash is a savant alright, just not in the way you might initially think

we never seize to find whats beneath or on the horizon! always keep that in mind!

If Neo twewy is going to die out, I'll be the first person to take back where it's rightfully heir 😌✋🏻 Don't worry, I hype things up and make sure twewy have a proper game in the future (well, I have a story light novel/web novel based on real life places. Which starts at Yamanashi, Tokyo, every district and prefectures. Luckily, they are perfectly suited for my timeline favorite game like twewy, so it's a rare chance to spice things up after Square gave it a whole bad game rep, I hate how they did that to my comfort game 😭😭💀)

we dot not say no to experience... only to complexity... beauty lies in simplicity... life is not easy... but if we embrace whats difficult and complex... we can prepare for whats ahead.

I agree and same, I kept getting distracted singing along to the songs that I like which is most of them lol

man, i wanna 100% the game on ps4 and read those SO BAD!! i beat it on switch, but next time it goes on sale i’d love to experience a better looking, higher quality version

*processing It's early

You play TWEWY by blowing.

speaking of persona 5 shiki kinda reminds me of kasumi i won’t say why to avoid spoilers for twewy and p5r

You can crank the sound and literally feel the music pulse in your fingertips, I love it

@@starbreaker6441 No, they're not. It's actually better AND more fun than the DS version, including the whole touch screen combat as a whole. It's okay if you're just not good at it, bro

@@amnesiaWTF in terms of gameplay the DS version still takes the cake. Reducing your partner to a just another pin was understandable as we're no longer using dual screen but it's limiting to say the least. It was more fun controlling both characters at the same time and have unique combos depending on the directions inputed on the Dpad

​@@kaos-qc5ho Despite the fact that the combat with pins was always infinitely more fun than pressing buttons on the D-pad, the partner in SR and FR isn't "just another pin", much less "reduced". The fact that you can use the touch screen to control both the partner and pins *at the same time* and combo with them (since pins themselves can only be used one at a time) adds an elevated layer of complexity and fun to the best part of the combat that the DS version didn't have. Of course, the enjoyment of this is subjective and if you had more fun using the D-pad than controlling Neku, that's fine. I played both versions extensively, so I understand each of their appeal - I just personally believe the modern version is way more fun (and vastly superior in practically every aspect of the game).

To be fair, you had the benefit of not seeing the second (and last) trailer for Neo, which spoiled a bit of the endgame

@@enrique7925 still I can't say I've regretted seeing them at all tho All the hype leading up to this was unreal. Even though square utterly failed in marketing the game to a wide audience... I still gotta say they were totally on point with what they decided to show and when.

Maybe you're not as in the know as you think you are...pulse man. 🙄

Yeah, Square utterly failed to promote it. They were too focused on that Avengers game as well as Guardians of the Galaxy. At least the latter was good, but it still hurt to see. Especially with such good games.

Yo, this guy knows about every video game. Poggers.

you can afford two!

i really want to know what you think abou ethics, not in a bad way... since i know youve made it this far.

@@sebastianwardana1527 huh

so you played the game and didn't listen to anything it told you?

That's a good friend right there

Side note: punctuation marks are for nerds

@@indecisiveponderer643 Dang it, I was too Zetta Slow to correct you in time.

Same while I enjoyed NEO I did feel the time travel aspect dragged the story down a bit with how often it was used and I don’t think it was especially used in an interesting way.

Dude, just spam Lightning Rook.

@@thebigchungus4515 can you believe its EVEN stornger in Solo Remix and onwards? They BUFFED it. Double Lightning go brrrrr

I don't actually pay attention to the second screen tbh. For me and lots of other people it amounts to mindlessly pressing the button as fast as possible without looking or thinking about it, only paying attention to the top screen when you need stars for a supermove. And I've 100%ed the game on EX with that strategy. Or you could use a mic-blow pin whilst looking at the top screen or something. Also for an OP setup check out the Burst rounds pins, and the green shorts or the purple sneakers.

You should definitely play the original first. It's aged well, and is better than the sequel.

@@halkon4412 I honestly view both as equal. There are aspects that one does better than the other.

@Daten-shi Ⓙ Mild disagree, I think the original used the system it was on much better than NEO did and had better gameplay as a result Storywise, I’d have thought the original was better too but the final act was so goddamn good that I actually prefer NEO at the end of it all

(I also stan Shoka harder than just about any other character like anyone with good taste does)

@@SunshineJesse I disagree on that. Most of the time, you’re fighting separate enemies that just so happen to share a health bar and while that’s cool and all, I feel like the only times the game ever actually took advantage of the concept of the screens affecting the other’s end was in Konishi’s fight, where you can send Taboo Noise into hole in the ground to make her visible for Beat to tackle or send her up to Beat and back again with Rhyme or the bat boss, where you have to use Shiki or Beat to free the lights in order to make the bat visible for Neku to fight. Those were genuinely really cool and I would’ve loved for the game to do more fights like that. I also think that Week 3 loses some steam mechanically and it’s especially noticeable in the boss design. Taboo Sho mechanically is really stripped down from his previous incarnation, having less moves overall and just spamming long-ranged projectiles at you, making him little more than a glorified Kariya, who at least had Spark Core for close-range. He lacks the duality aspect of his original fight, which asked you to not only manage him but also the Taboo Noise that he summons and absorbs into himself to transform, not to mention how you can influence what screen he appears on by taking out the Taboo Noise on one end to make him appear there in order to take advantage of those puck-boosted finishers. Uzuki and Kariya are still pretty damn cool even though I have some minor problems with the fight (mainly how some of Uzuki’s attacks are telegraphed). It’s a really great showcase of the game’s themes not just being used for the heroes but for the villains as well, which I’m a sucker for. Though I do find it a bit odd that their berserk forms are able to use Fusions while their normal selves aren’t. Wouldn’t it make more sense for the opposite to happen? Eh, it doesn’t really matter in the long run. Kitaniji and Shiki I’m mixed about. On the one hand, Kitaniji is actually pretty solid on his own. He has good tells, a pretty cool time stop gimmick that you can maneuver around, and a good variety of moves to use (dragon arm bite, fireball spam, orbs that can summon slow-moving projectiles [which you can actually attack to make them disappear), lasers that move along a line, etc…). Plus the fishes in the floor actually follow Neku where he moves, which is a neat touch. On the other hand, Shiki’s top-screen portion is a mess. For some reason, the devs didn’t think to take away her invincibility frames in her portion of the fight so you’ll be stuck doing nothing despite mashing Beat’s controls no matter what and she has no openings at all even if you give Beat threads that decrease his combo panels. Also doesn’t help that Mr. Mew’s attacks come out too fast for Beat to consecutively block. In short, one portion of the fight is super solid, the other portion is a mess of design. Konishi is actually a really cool puzzle boss. Takes advantage of the dual screens in a really creative way, has great presentation, and actually ties together the story and mechanics in a seamless way, allowing you to take her down with either Beat or Rhyme for the cathartic finish. Anguis Cantus is just “eh, okay.” The top screen portion has a tendency to just go down to the bottom, which basically means free damage for your partner while you focus on Neku and his attacks are pretty easy to dodge thanks to the generous wind-up they each have. Draco Cantus mechanically and thematically sucks as a final boss. The battle system revolves around you learning how to control two different characters at once and has you getting down each of your partner’s movesets to reinforce the game’s message of trust and communication only to throw all of that away to have Neku’s partners acts like glorified Light Puck batteries and more and less have him take on the final boss himself in a boring bullet hell-esque segment that you can cheese like it’s nothing with Psychs like Lightning Arrester, Entanglement, and Time Bomb. Sure, the final Fusion Neku does is cool but that’s about it. Hell, even the Blue Noise feel uninspired compared to what came before. Compare the Grindcore Minks and Progfox (bosses that actually do have unique moves to them that their base Noise archetypes don’t have) to Wooly AOR and Goth Metal Drake (just buffed up versions of their base Noise archetypes with stat tweaks). Overall, I still like Week 3 for the narrative payoff and the chemistry between Neku and Beat and some of the new Noise introduced are pretty cool but between all of this, the inclusion of the random Reaper encounters everytime you enter a new area, and the repeat of bosses (you not only get to fight Pteropus AGAIN with no actual moveset change but also Uzuki and Kariya back-to-back three separate times), I can’t help but wonder if they were pressed for time or they were just tapped out at that point. Even the plot feels like it's largely just blasting towards the end rather than giving you as much in between to build on, though that at least makes sense with the story. By contrast, I think Week 3 in NEO was more mechanically solid and had more good payoffs throughout. Granted, I don’t think it’s perfect (I think Kanon’s Plague Noise possession was a missed opportunity to have an actual Kanon boss fight instead of just Plague Scorpion and the last day can feel particularly repetitive with how you have to jump back and forth in order to get everything in place to combat the final boss) but overall, the boss line-up is much more solid (Sho, Shiba, Ayano, and Suzy K in the same week? Hell yeah), the payoffs are excellent, and even the days change up in interesting ways, like having to help Shoka learn to how deal with facing Ayano via VN choices or the entire day where Rindo loses his memories due to the Plague Noise tampering with his mind and now he has to travel back in order to piece together what happened.

Are you serious? The localization is terrible. Games so Japanese should not be this horribly westernized. They absolutely destroyed the scene where Shouka gets erased by translating it incorrectly, thank goodness I played with Japanese audio so I could enjoy the scene the way it was meant to be with that revelation that happened, even with my limited Japanese.

@@eri_noemi1462 You know that people like you are the reason why Weebs are the butt of the jokes of the entire internet almost 24/7, right?

Honestly, Beat purposely posing as Neku would’ve raised more questions and plot holes if I’m being honest.

Word? Is there any way to see that original draft on the Internet?

I like run away better than lullaby for you. I don’t know why, but there’s something about lullaby for you that doesn’t click for me, while run away can almost always bring me to tears.

@@Beefboss72 To each their own.