Yoshiya Kiryu - Reception

Reception

The World Ends with You received positive reviews and has been commercially successful. Game Informer named the game its Handheld Game of the Month award for May 2008. IGN gave The World Ends with You its Editors' Choice Award, and named it the DS Game of the Month for April. In Japan, the game premiered as the second-best selling DS title during the week of July 27, 2007. Nearly 193,000 units were sold in Japan by the end of 2007. The World Ends with You sold 43,000 copies during April 2008 in North America. The first shipment of the game sold out mid-May and a second shipment was made in mid-June 2008. The game was the top-selling DS title the week of its release and again two weeks later. As of September 30, 2008, The World Ends With You has sold approximately 140,000 copies in North America and 20,000 copies in Europe.

Critics praised the departure from other popular titles such as Square Enix's Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series. Both the graphical presentation and the soundtrack were very well received. Reviews also commented that, initially, the character designs were too similar to previous Square Enix titles and may be off-putting to some though in the Shibuya setting they were "absolutely in their element." Some reviewers also complained that the Stride Cross Battle System was too complex for new players; Eurogamer's review felt the "sink or swim" reliance on learning the complex battle system was a significant stumbling block for the game. GamePro noted that the stylus input was imprecise, often mistaking movement and attack actions. On the other hand, the system was praised for its approach, and for the ability to alter the difficulty of the system within the game. 1UP.com's review summarized that the game is much more than the sum of its parts: "By all rights, The World Ends With You should be an annoying disaster, a bundle of tired gimmicks and trite clichés. Yet somehow all the things that should be unbearable fall into place and create a game that's far more unique, interesting, and addictive than it has any right to be."

The World Ends with You won several awards from IGN.com, including best Nintendo DS role-playing game, best story for a Nintendo DS game, best new IP for the DS, as the best Nintendo DS game of the year. It was also nominated for other awards, including best original score for a Nintendo DS game and best artistic design for a Nintendo DS game. It was ranked as the tenth best game of the 2000s released on a Nintendo system by Nintendo Power.

The World Ends with You -Solo Remix- received a score of 9.5 and an Editor's Choice from IGN, who praised the port and its additions, although criticized its price point and lack of universal compatibility (the iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad versions of the game must be purchased separately.) Kotaku also criticized the high price and lack of universal compatibility as 'indefensible', though it praised the port for its controls, saying "in many ways, it feels more suited to (the iPad) than it ever did on the DS."