Yesterday saw the very welcome announcement of Neo: The World Ends With You, a brand new game in Square Enix's The World Ends With You series and a sequel to the DS original. To celebrate the occasion, series character designer Tetsuya Nomura has shared a special piece of artwork.
The piece shows off the new game's lead character Rindo alongside the series' previous protagonist Neku. Nomura reveals that while designing the new character, he had no idea just how relevant face masks would become worldwide, confirming that Rindo's design hasn't been influenced by the global pandemic (thanks to Nintendo Wire for the translation).
You can see the art below:
The new game is planned to launch on Switch in summer 2021, with an anime based on the franchise also scheduled to air next year. If you missed Neo: The World Ends With You's announcement trailer, you can check that out here.
Thanks to Greatsong for the tip!
[source twitter.com, via nintendowire.com]
Comments 24
Man, what’s with Nomura and his million layers of cloth? Neku’s practically wearing Joseph’s technicolour dreamcoat and the new dude has Sora’s new weird hoodie shirt thing going on.
@nessisonett It’s Tetsuya Nomura. That’s all the reasoning needed.
Honestly? I've never been a fan of Nomura's design. Of course, it's the whole visual identity of Kingdom Hearts series and I wouldn't have it any other way, but outside of KH, everyone looks the same with over the top hair and clothes that don't make sense.
I'm glad this is real and SE isn't snubbing the Switch.
@Cr4shMyCar The picture cuts off the 40 million zips in random places all over their outfits. Just zips, nothing being zipped. Fashion zips. It’s like Rob Liefeld and pouches at this point.
These poor characters. I wouldn't be caught dead wearing those clothes.
Again, if a KH remaster was in the works for Switch my hype for all other releases would increase tenfold. Hearing this is "the one other Tetsuya Nomura game on Switch" kind of kills the hype for an otherwise perfect announcement.
Screw all of this unfortunate context.
@IronMan30
Of course they aren't, as long as precious PS4 still gets the one Square Enix franchise that we could claim as our own.
@Bobb
Dunno, PS1/early PS2 era Nomura art was great.
Still rocks today though.
@nessisonett
@AlexSora89 yeah, and SE does still seem a little salty. I believe it was Dr. Serkan Toto who said it, but never underestimate the pettiness of a large Japanese company.
@NEStalgia while I agree, at least the original game was great. Hoping the sequel lives up to the hype.
@AlexSora89 Brilliant 😂😂😂
@IronMan30 I wondered if the joke would go over everyone's head. Glad I wasn't disappointed.
@AlexSora89 That's one great piece by him, but you can tell he had to play outside his confort zone by drawing stylized characters like DK, Mario and Kirby. Link is Cloud mirrored wearing his signature clothes
Sorry, I don't want to sound any more negative. He is an accomplished and skilled artist. We just don't see eye for eye
@IronMan30
Context?
@nessisonett
One fan once asked Liefeld to draw a pouch. Liefeld, ever the self-aware one, obliged.
@Bobb
Not really. He had to draw Mickey, Donald and Goofy first. Additionally, Japanese artists have some kind of a gift. Chris Kohler once talked about a "culture of the images"; it shows.
@AlexSora89 Sorry, I meant me and Nomura don't look the same direction.
I trust your good taste in art and game design
And yet all I want is more Dragon Quest on Switch. Happy for the people excited about this announcement, but it’s not for me.
Is that some kind of beard or a chin protector. Looks strange.
@Bobb While I respect your opinions otherwise, I want to chime in on something specific you mentioned, about how "Link is Cloud mirrored." In defense of Nomura, many artists both in the East and West settle on a distinct "look" for all the faces they design. Call it their style or just the way their skills developed, but many artists will contain the same look in the face no matter how many characters they draw.
@Ulysses that's a fair point and I completely agree with you.
Just want to say I didn't point a distinction in artists from east, west or anywhere else.
I personally dislike the shallow criticism that is "japanese draw everyone alike". That's a fault that belong to any artstyle and I didn't mean to say Nomura does it because he is from Japan.
@NEStalgia lol, the world does end with me after all.
Hopefully shows he is excited to be working on it.
Cant wait! day 1.
i love nomuras art style and character design
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