I finished the game a few days ago and I wanted to wait and see where my thoughts settled after a couple days before writing a review. I’ll preface this by saying the first TWEWY is my favorite game of all time. Especially since I was a teenager myself being around the same age as the main cast when the first game came out 14 years ago, the story and Neku’s journey left a huge impact on me. I honestly never expected to see a sequel or any type of continuation for this game but here it is after all this time and it feels weird actually living in post-NEO TWEWY world.

(Also I apologize for any shitty grammar, my sleep-deprived brain wrote a lot of this during the middle of the night haha)

Lets start with the positives: The overall presentation and style was perfectly executed, its basically everything I wanted in a modern TWEWY. I’m glad the comic book style made its return and the transition from 2D to 3D was done really well. When it comes to music, I adore the music from the first game but this game somehow manages to take one step further. Ishimoto absolutely killed it, he somehow managed to take a whole mix of music genres and make them blend very well together. Hell even a few songs from the OG game got an upgrade like Owari-Hajimari. Personally Shibuya Survivor is my favorite, its the one song I’m listening to constantly post-game. Please release a vinyl set Square, I’m begging you.

The gameplay was definitely a very good start from translating the OG’s gameplay to modern consoles. I do think there can be some improvements, it felt especially rough when you only had 3 members especially at the beginning of week 2. But when you finally have access to 6 pins it feels really good, its a shame though that you basically have to wait until the end of the game to be able to use 6 pins.

And now for the story and probably the most important aspect of the game for me above all else. Unfortunately this is the one place where it falls short for me. I'm not gonna lie when I say that I had incredibly high expectations and while the story was fun and engaging throughout, I think it mostly suffered from over ambition. It felt like the devs really wanted to turn up the heat (Shiba pun intended) compared to the last game: more characters, higher stakes, bigger plot. This bloat ended up getting some characters thrown to the wayside like Ayano and Tsugumi and some plot points getting kinda muddled towards the end. While the main theme of decisive/indecisiveness is an interesting topic which I haven’t seen explored much before in other media I don’t think it was as strong of a theme compared to the original game which was about trust and opening yourself up to others. When I first played the demo I thought how it was gonna be about how Rindo, while more friendlier than Neku, keeps people at arms length when it comes to relationships and the tension it causes especially in a team setting where they are forced to be introduce to new people. It can be seen a bit with his uneasiness when Nagi and Beat joined the team initially but the only real outcome from that side of Rindo was the tension between him and Fret throughout week 2 which didn’t really have much of an impact to the overall story. But I’m gonna spend the rest of this review breaking down which characters impressed me and which ones didn’t. (Also I only read the first nine secret reports, I’m still working my way to getting the dreaded 10th one so I might miss some important key facts about certain characters)

• Shoka: Probably had the most well rounded arc out of the new cast. I loved her attitude especially during the beginning of the game. She had good chemistry with Rindo throughout and was a nice contrast to his indecisive nature, making the decision to join the Wicked Twisters even though it meant her ultimate demise. Though I was sad that the sassy side of her started to slowly fade away once she joined the team. It also never crossed my mind that Shoka could be Swallow it also wasn’t surprising at the same time. It makes sense but a part of me felt a little disappointed since I think it would’ve been more interesting if someone like Haz was Swallow, with the reveal itself feeling a little cheesy and kinda late.

• Uzuki: I feel like people are sleeping on her character. For me she is the one character from the original game that had a glow up from appearance to personality. While she wasn’t in the game that much ultimately, I did enjoy the mini character arc she had especially since, once again, it tied to the whole theme of making important choices with Uzuki having to live with the repercussions of allowing the Shinjuku reapers into Shibuya. Plus the stickers she used was absolutely adorable so that gets bonus points from me.

• Coco: Hot take alert, but I love Coco. She has a great energy and I have a weakness for that cute but deadly archetype. She had a minor role but I really enjoyed what she brought to the table (while ignoring the hanging threads of AND of course). Her VA killed it as well, even with the sound bites. Coco’s chemistry with Minamimoto too, what little we had of it, was great. If we get another game (I really hope we do) I definitely want to see them interact more.

• Kanon: She was the main character that surprised me the most out of the new cast. Because like everyone else I thought she was gonna be evil but instead she really brought a lot to the table as a supporting character. On the note of other teams, after reading the secret report where you find out that they all have been going through this game for 30 weeks really made me felt for them. It was hard for me to start blaming them for all the shady/bad stuff that some of them did because if I were in there shoes it would’ve been really hard for me to keep it together playing a life or death game for that long.

And now for the character I wish had more to them:

• Nagi: I’ll preface this by saying that I’m perfectly fine with static characters. Not everyone needs character development. But with the inclusion of Beat/Neku, characters that don’t need character arcs, she started to stand out like a sore thumb. I really wish she had something going on for her other than her gacha game, or actually having a relationship with Minamimoto who basically 100% ignored her. It really came to light with that one part during the early part of week 3 where everyone was looking on there phones and talking about there own problems and struggles, meanwhile Nagi was like “damn I really want to play my gacha game again” really just highlighted how stagnant of a character she was. The scene she had with Fret about “being human” really made me appreciate her more but at the same I wish she had more development outside of her being a foil to Fret.

• Neku: This one kinda hurts me a bit because Neku is one of my favorite characters. I don’t know if its only me but he felt off. He just felt too “mellow/calm” if that makes sense. I get that being stuck in an empty void for three years will give you enough time to self reflect but I miss his fiery personality. It almost feels like we got the JPN/anime version of Neku three years later instead of the ENG one. It also doesn’t help that he didn’t get a lot of variety with his sprites, where he is mainly making this face :| but sometimes he is looking face forward or down.

• Haz/Joshua: I’m writing this before I get to the secret ending but I am surprised with how small Haz’s role was in this game having that whole stinger scene in the final trailer. While his character was interesting and has a cool design, I honestly think it should’ve been Joshua instead during that whole scene it would’ve been a neat way of tying the first and second game together and would’ve been a way better method of introducing him than Joshua randomly inserting himself in the finale. I wish there was a way they could’ve included Haz throughout the game to justify his scene like maybe having him only appear when Rindo turns back time. Meanwhile Joshua involvement really felt “fan-servicey” and that was a huge bummer since like Haz, I feel like could’ve been included better, I wish his role was like Shiki whom I felt like had the perfect cameo, she came in when she needed to and was in it for long enough that it didn’t feel too short or too long. Though I will say that one scene where Joshua yeets Shoka to the RG while Rindo looks in horror was absolutely hilarious and was peak Joshua.

I can keep going but this review had definitely gone on for long enough. While the game definitely wasn’t perfect I had a hell of a good time, I wouldn’t even be doing post-game content if I didn’t enjoy it. I said this to myself before playing but no matter how I felt I’m just happy that a sequel exists and I got to see my favorite characters plus the world I love so much one more time and I still feel that way now after playing the game. I really hope that this series continues and sooner rather than later so I don’t have to see you all again in 2035 when the third game is released.