
Back in November, Square Enix revealed NEO: The World Ends With You didn't meet the company's early sales expectations.
While it might not seem like a bright outlook for the future of the series, producer Tomohiko Hirano recently told Nintendo Life that another entry could happen with enough fan support.
At the moment though, nothing has been decided in terms of future installments:
"Frankly speaking, nothing has been decided in terms of a next installment. However, as a game based on an actual city, there are still many areas that we still haven’t been able to bring to life in the games, so a part of me wants to realize that in some way. If players convey their passion for the game to us, our company may decide to let us make a sequel!"
The series director Tatsuya Kando added to this, noting how he would continue to listen to fans, to help build up even more "thoughts and emotions" for another entry. You'll be able to read our full Nintendo Life interview with the 'NEO: The World Ends With You' development team soon.
Did you show your support for the latest game when it got released on the Nintendo Switch? Would you like to see future entries in the series? Drop a comment down below.
Comments 57
I know I've posted this on every article vaguely related to the topic, but I'll say it again: if anyone's at all interested in the series, please give it a shot. Both games are incredible and deserve a lot more attention than what they both have. If Square bothered to put effort into marketing Neo, I'm sure it'd be in a lot more game of the year discussions. I'd highly recommend playing the original first if possible, but jumping in with Neo is possible too. They're the best action RPGs I've ever played and I really hope that Square can see how dedicated fans are so that a third entry can be greenlit. The combat's really fun and unique, the writing is top-notch, the characters are super memorable, and Neo in particular is a contender for my all-time favorite video game soundtrack. I really can't recommend these games enough to JRPG fans.
Yeah for some reason support is less important to companies than money, so I'm not sure hashtags and tweets are gonna be the decider.
Look, I bought it on PS4, I enjoyed it and would like to see another sequel.
I'm very doubtful at this point.
The World Ends With You could get another game if SE ACTUALLY KNEW HOW TO MARKET THE GAME.
Still very bitter that they did nothing for the game at E3 despite it coming out the very next month.
To be honest I'd rather the series stop where it is. NEO is a fine sequel to the original and I wouldn't want the franchise to suffer from stagnation due to lack of passion from the developers like certain other RPG franchises.
@JR150 Thank god I'm not alone on this. NEO was a pretty much perfect finale for the series imo, I'd say it should stop here while it's still good
@Doofenshmirtz Indeed. There comes a point where it is okay for a series to end. Too many series have been dragged through the mud by uninspired sequels, including times where fans just needed that new game that they regretted in the long run.
Honestly no thank you. Adore the original game on DS. But every single bloody thing since has been a hot flaming pile of garbage. Stop tarnishing the reputation of the original. If Nintendo made a new DS then sure, go ahead but otherwise nope.
It’s Square’s fault for not marketing the game and also not putting the first game on PC and PS4
NEO:TWEWY was great, probably the best JRPG this year (and there were quite a lot of them). I'd be keen for another game if they could do it justice again but after how poorly this one was marketed, this will probably be where things end.
I was considering picking this up but I was alerted that the localisation contains certain... “embellishments” that did not exist in the source material, including mention of “cultural appropriation”, which is astonishingly hypocritical considering that they’re the ones polluting a Japanese work with their rubbish politics.
This is more commonplace than people realise, but I suppose I tend to notice it more given that I am not particularly receptive to rhetoric that is merely fashionable (or otherwise treated as such).
Stick to the script and respect the integrity of the source material. If we wanted inane platitudes in our games, there are plenty of other options to scratch that itch.
I'm actually good on that.
TWEWY is in my top 5 games ever. I struggled to finish NEO: TWEWY.
I would be fine with another sequel, but I definitely don't need one.
@anoyonmus I could kinda see it working on PC, but there's no way the first game would work on PS4. It's way too dependent on having a touch screen. Switch made it work with motion controls, but it'd be impossible to make it work with just normal button controls while retaining what made the game special. The touchpad on the Dualshock 4/Dualsense wouldn't work well for it at all either. If you want to blame failed multiplatform releases, blame Square making Neo an Epic exclusive and barely advertising that release.
@VIIIAxel that too
Really enjoyed NEO. Need the OST if I can get it on sale or something cause it's a little dear for aussies to get it.
Maybe I'll look for it next Japan trip eventually lol.
TWEWT-MOBILE
It was a great game and one of the best ones this year. I think a sequel could be great.
@Silly_G You clearly don't know the context if you think the localizers were trying to preach about cultural appropriation or get political. That's a single line of dialogue from a background NPC, and on top of that, the whole point of it is that he's worried about whether or not his decision to start a curry restaurant with a Japanese twist is right, and after being influenced by entities that amplify negative emotions, he feels that what he's doing is (as he puts it since it's a term more familiar with westerners) cultural appropriation. However, once he's freed of those entities, he realizes that's not true, he's sharing other cultural experiences with his own unique twist and that blend of cultures and experiences is what makes it special. The entire point of the series is about opening up to new experiences and coming together with others to create something new. It's the exact opposite of what Twitter's trying to argue the scene means.
Neo is my game of the year without a doubt. There was definitely a lot of amazing titles this year, SMTV being a close second.. but neo just offered everything I could ask for in a game. Absolutely wonderful follow up to a legendary DS game I was so entranced in at the time. It’s a real shame square neglected advertisement to this game because it’s a true gem any jrpg lover or enjoyer should experience. That being said I highly doubt this content will come which is a damn shame as it would probably be as awesome as the base game. I would really love it to happen but it’s just not likely. Here’s hoping tho
@VIIIAxel so much this, very well said. I find it very funny all of a sudden this Twitter mob is complaining about the localization change when the DS game had the same thing happen and they both were for the better. People just find things to be angry about.(not to mention this was approved by the devs themselves)
@TechaNinja you can find the full ost for both og and neo on streaming services if that’s easier for you
I’m other words see you again in 10 years. This game really had piss poor marketing. Should have made a deal with Nintendo like with Bravery Default 2 and Octopath so it could actually get proper marketing where both are million+ sellers
@Zoda_Fett @VIIIAxel
There's something poetic about a video game showcasing the fact that it's good to be open-minded, and then people react to such a thing with a close-minded mentality. 🤔
Shame, really. TWEWY has some amazing writing that isn't present in any other Square Enix RPG. Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and Kingdom Hearts don't tackle harsh, real-world, current-gen issues like TWEWY does.
I’m right now playing through Neo and I just don’t see the appeal of it. Something about it isn’t giving me that same magic that TWEWY gave me a few years ago. I feel like the characters aren’t personal enough at this point. Take the first 7 days of TWEWY for example, every character comes out differently and you feel their evolution play out. Neku and Beat in particular get genuine epiphanies and new motivations. And this is all before Joshua enters the fray. The best thing about Neo so far is that they really want to get you into the game and they’re quick to get you accustomed to the game and then twist the rules, where TWEWY felt more isolated in comparison. Also the gameplay just isn’t as snappy and fun to maneuver.
@JR150 I agree
@Silly_G you do realise that not buying a game you were otherwise interested in because they added like 4 extra lines and 2 covid jokes makes you look like an insane person right?
Also you understand what localisation means right? And how it differs from translations?
And ofc you have completely misinterpreted the scene and its pretty much 1 to 1 to the original, but thats par for the course with ppl like you
@Zoda_Fett I genuinely haven't found any of the popular complaints about localisation changes to be valid or worthwhile. Its always sweaty weirdos complaining their waifus aren't underage anymore or that they can see a little less boob.
Even in fire emblem fates, where they genuinely butchered a good part of the writing, the majority of the complaints were about how you couldn't fondle your waifu anymore
@VIIIAxel why would you expect a person like op to get the point and message of the game
We are talking about someone who is complaining over 2 lines of text and thinks everyone who follows a different ideology is doing it to be "fashionable"
@Dimitris670 I made that comment less to change their mind and more to clean up misinformation. I figure most of the people angry about a couple lines of dialogue won't change their minds, but exaggerated comments about how the entire localization is awful and ruins the game can put off people who may otherwise be genuinely interested in the game. There's an insane amount of misinformation going around on this site's comments these days to manufacture rage and I'm tired of it, so especially when it comes to a series that's very near and dear to my heart, I want to clear things up for people who aren't familiar with the situation and may be swayed by people making false statements about the localization. The more people playing this game, the better in my personal opinion.
I think NEO is enough for me but a new game for the next gen system would be awesome.
Bought a physical copy of this game and played it for maybe 20 minutes, not joking. Couldn’t stand it. 😐 Attitude, characters, art style, music, gameplay…
Generally in recent years there were quite some games that I thought I’d been missing out on, and once I tried them I realized they’re a bit awful (for my taste!). Final Fantasy X, managed to play a total of an hour or so.
Good to know I guess! Maybe it’s a Square/Enix thing, although I loved Octopath. Too bad the successor will be a strategy game (why…).
I love the games, my youngest loves the games...so bring us more
I wanted to support this near launch, but been on a tight budget this year and finally got round to picking it up around Black Friday. Looking forward to seeing if it lives up to the brilliant original
Wish we could abandon this notion of consuming something as showing support. I bought Gear shifters but not wanting another game (it's not very good.)
How about they make games they want to make instead of only stuff thats a sure thing (even if they have to emotionally blackmail fans to buy multiple copies to 'support' it. Honestly, folk are bonkers!
@VIIIAxel Thanks for the explanation.
@GrailUK They're requesting support because the dev team wants to do it, but the higher-ups at Square won't greenlight it unless they see enough financial benefit. That's how it usually is with these smaller projects. Some studios will try to blackmail fans, yes, but that's not the case here. Square sabotaged the game with awful marketing and acted shocked that it didn't meet their expectations, so now it's up to the dev team and fans to rally together and show Square that this is a series that means a lot to many people. It's a game that really deserved better than what it got so that's why the developers are being so vocal about asking fans to show their support. Management makes the final say on anything, the devs can't just make whatever they want without approval.
Best switch game for me this year
I own it for PS4 (after playing the demos the 60 fps was just too smooth) and hope to buy on NSW when it does on sale physically, but yet to play it. The character designs haven’t really attached to me as much as the original. Possibly too much “ear bling”.
Still likely to kick it off in the new year as my next JRPG commitment.
"If fans show support" by now most fans of the series have already got both games. Does that mean they want them to buy multiple copies of games they already own to show support?
TWEWY is in my top 5 games of all time. Just finished NEO:Twewy and was unimpressed.
Game is fine, I'm not going to claim it's trash. But nowhere near as compelling as the original. Less interesting characters, less interesting story. Combat gave me bad hand cramps, it was just too much at once.
Worst of all though, for me, was that the last 1/3 of the game stopped being a game and just became an extremely long, droning on and on visual novel. They spent a lot of time introducing really interesting game mechanics in the beginning and middle of the game and then they COMPLETELY STOPPED MATTERING. For a while you got some interesting puzzles, interesting things to do in the game but eventually the entire game became "Go to this time/location we told you to and watch the next part of the story. Repeat ad nauseam. Occasionally do a fight if you want to I guess."
It was not interesting gameplay and I was begging for it to finally be over by the end.
Don't really care about this game but if i did care, i would pay 1/3rd the price and buy it on mobile.
Seems kinda ridiculous to not market the game properly before releasing the game on gaming hardware then to release the game on mobile for 1/3rd the cost.
Then they are talking about how "if you want a sequel we need you to buy our game".
Good luck with that.
I enjoyed final remix and what I have played of neo (I just finished the second week). I’d like to at least see a third game for a somewhat silly reason. Neku was designed with headphones covering his ears and Rindo was designed with a mask on his face which relates to both of their character arcs. If they make a third game, I think they would design the main character to always wear sunglasses and I want to see if I’m right lol.
We got this gift of this soundtrack and people are gonna let it go? Pleeeease support the game.
The marketing didn't help and frankly, what put me off was the translation. Is a woke mess and sometimes it didn't match a character's personality. If this how it will be in future TEWY tittles, I say let it end here
This game deserved a spotlight at E3, square. I say it's your move.
I have this game but got so many backlogs to catch on including Pokémon that just came out and SMTV. Have to wonder what does one mean support them when there isn't a game coming out to preorder as such to show the support? That statement in itself is convidluded in itself.
I'm genuinely surprised that a sequel would even be on the table given the sales disappointment this was. Happy, but surprised. The team may want to make another, but would Square even tolerate spending money on it, even if the previous failures were largely of their own making?
@Gamer_Zeus sigh, and this is what we're talking about with Square being at fault for it's failure and their hideous marketing blunders.
This game isn't on mobile. At all. It's Switch, PS4, and PC. No mobile. It was the remaster of the original game that was on mobile (before it was remastered for console and PC based on the mobile and not the DS original.) This game, the sequel, NEO The World Ends with You was never on mobile.
But you're not the first, or the 100th person I've seen that thinks it's the same game, even on hardcore gaming sites....and if gamers don't know what game is what, the mass market certainly doesn't. That's how bad Square failed the marketing of this....
Well, I bought it at launch and really liked it. I think that's about all I can do to show my support. I'm not going to start marching in the streets with a sign.
@VIIIAxel I played a little bit of the original and was really not a fan of the gameplay (it was, imo, horrendous to put it lightly) - what do I lose by not playing it? Because I'm honestly not gonna sit through it, it's pure agony.
The second game seems more tolerable gameplay-wise, but I don't want to be the idiot that jumped at the sequel and has no idea what's going on or who is who.
I was a big fan of TWEWY for several years, but honestly they waited far too long for a real sequel. Any real hype that they could've had with the release was lost a long time ago.
They definitely made it faithful to the original, but imo it was a bit too faithful. The original came out in 2007, and it hasn't aged well. NEO comes off as low budget. If they had evolved with the times in the gameplay and visual department more, or released the game many years earlier...But what is done is done.
I was surprised we even got NEO in the first place to be honest. As an older hardcore fan, I'm satisfied. I can see why it didn't sell, being do dependent on playing the original that is now quite clunky to play nowadays, among other things.
@NEStalgia i guess so yeah, seems they failed the game themselves. But i don't care anyway, it doesn't look like something i would be interested in at all.
@Blizzia There are some character and plot ties that come up as the game goes on. It generally tries to explain everything for newcomers, but not everything will make perfect sense without context. It works on its own for the most part though. If you really want to understand the story without playing the first, there's an anime adaptation of it, though the pacing is kind of all over the place and it leaves out the Switch-exclusive epilogue.
@VIIIAxel Square was busy marketing Balan Wonderworld instead.
@SmaggTheSmug There were four months between Balan and Neo where Square could've focused on it but they didn't. Neo got something like three seconds of footage in their E3 conference. Seconds, not minutes. It's absolutely absurd how much they seemed to sabotage it. Of course it won't sell Final Fantasy or Marvel numbers without any advertising. It's a shame because most fans loved the sequel and the dev team is very enthusiastic and passionate about the series, but they keep getting screwed over by the higher-ups in the company.
NEO is hands down GOTY. If you haven’t already played it, give it a try!
I’ll likely double dip if/when it comes to Steam because I don’t wanna deal with Epic anymore.
Apparently SE does though. This, FF7R and KH all ended up as Epic exclusives. Ugh.
I'd be down for a third game, but not yet. Not for several years. Not saying we should have to wait 13 years again, though. Maybe because I'm older and busier, but I'm not over this game yet. There are still things that need to be wrapped up anyway. Dread won my personal GOTY vote, but NTWEWY is high up there.
@Dimitris670 The covid bits didn't seem bad to me at all (then again, I grew up long before woke was a thing), but what are the other 4 lines? I beat the game, but haven't 100%'d the postgame yet.
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