History VideoGame / TheWorldEndsWithYou

** [[YMMV The satisfaction of creaming the final boss makes getting those things worth it, though - [[spoiler:Kitaniji,]] ''taste my revenge.'']]

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler:Technically, this is what happens to all the Players upon entering the game. The Secret Reports reveal that the Underground is on a slightly higher plane then the real world, meaning Players ascend to a higher plane upon death.]]

* AmbiguouslyGay: Joshua [[hottip:* :except for "Another Day"; then you can pretty much scratch the "ambiguously" part.]]

** The pins Lefty Cat, Brainy Cat, and Righty Cat make a trifecta of [[TheLegendOfZelda power, courage, and wisdom]].
** In "Another Day", Higashizawa uses the phrase "Dilly dally, shilly shally" to lure contestants into Molco. This is widely known as the exceedingly confusing phrase blurted out by Tifa to Cloud in ''[[AdventChildren Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children]]'' in an attempt to make him put his past behind him about being powerless to stop Aerith's death. Neku, rightly, is confused.

* HeaveyMetalUmlaut: '''Def Märch'''.

* DarkSkinnedBlond: Nao-Nao and Sota.

** And this one-

[[MarketBasedTitle Also known as]] ''Subarashiki Kono Sekai: It's a Wonderful World'', ''The World Ends With You'' is an action RPG by SquareEnix and Jupiter (you know, the ''[[KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Chain of Memories]]'' people) that tells the story of a [[EmoTeen teenage, angsty and antisocial]] tagger named Neku Sakuraba who wakes up in Shibuya, Tokyo, with no idea of how he got there. He discovers that not only can he not leave Shibuya, but he has the "pleasure" of playing the deadly weeklong "Reapers' Game"--and if he loses, he'll be erased from existence.

* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: Who didn't see [[spoiler:Kitaniji's Noise form]] coming?

* DevilInDisguise: The Hidden Secret Reports reveal that [[spoiler: Sanae Hanekoma is a fallen angel that gave the taboo powers to Sho Minamimoto]]. Although technically, the TWEWY cast is not alive at all.

* TitleDrop: The Japanese title "It's a Wonderful World" refers to how the world was always an amazing place--Neku just refused to notice; the English title "The World Ends with You" refers to how Neku controls his own isolation and has the power to open up.
** The Japanese title also gets a far more ominous drop late into the final week. [[spoiler:And then it drops it again. And again. And again and again [[AssimilationPlot and again...]]]]
---> [[spoiler:"To right the countless wrongs of our day, we shine this light of true redemption, that this place may become as paradise. What a wonderful world such would be..."]]

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler:Technically, this is what happens to all the Players upon entering the game. The Secret Reports reveal that the Underground is on a slightly higher plane then the real world, meaning Players ascend to a higher plane upon death.

** It´s a good way to distinguish different types of noise too ([[color:red:red]]: chump; [[color:orange:yellow]]: negative; black: Taboo; [[color:blue:blue]]: boss; [[color:green:green]]: pig).

** [[spoiler:Joshua, who was the Composer all along, REALLY killed Neku, after being seen as guilty first and innocent later. Then there´s the whole "Angel Hanekoma is more powerful than Joshua and reborned Minamimoto to send him after Josh, who is trying to destroy Shibuya, while Neku is being manipulated by Josh to win a Game he has with Kitaniji, the [[BigBad Big Bad]] who really wants to SAVE the city (using [[AssimilationPlot Instrumentality]], but still wants to protect the place").]]

** It´s a good way to distinguish different types of noise too ([[color:red:red]]: chump; [[color:orange:yellow]]: negative; black: Taboo; [[color:blue:blue]]: boss; [[color:green:green]]: pig).

** Apart from a few minor differences, Kitaniji's time-stopping ability looks suspiciously like [[JojosBizarreAdventure Dio's "The World".]]

** [[spoiler:Joshua, who was the Composer all along, REALLY killed Neku, after being seen as guilty first and innocent later. Then there´s the whole "Angel Hanekoma is more powerful than Joshua and reborned Minamimoto to send him after Josh, who is trying to destroy Shibuya, while Neku is being manipulated by Josh to win a Game he has with Kitaniji, the [[BigBad Big Bad]] who really wants to SAVE the city (using [[AssimilationPlot Instrumentality]], but still wants to protect the place").]]

[[MarketBasedTitle Also known as]] ''Subarashiki Kono Sekai: It's a Wonderful World'', ''The World Ends With You" is an action RPG by SquareEnix and Jupiter (you know, the ''[[KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Chain of Memories]]'' people) that tells the story of a [[EmoTeen teenage, angsty and antisocial]] tagger named Neku Sakuraba who wakes up in Shibuya, Tokyo, with no idea of how he got there. He discovers that not only can he not leave Shibuya, but he has the "pleasure" of playing the deadly weeklong "Reapers' Game"--and if he loses, he'll be erased from existence.

Also known as ''Subarashiki Kono Sekai: It's a Wonderful World''. An action RPG by SquareEnix and Jupiter (you know, the ''[[KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Chain of Memories]]'' people) that tells the story of a [[EmoTeen teenage, angsty and antisocial]] tagger named Neku Sakuraba who wakes up in Shibuya, Tokyo, with no idea of how he got there. He discovers that not only can he not leave Shibuya, but he has the "pleasure" of playing the deadly weeklong "Reapers' Game"--and if he loses, he'll be erased from existence.

* ItGotWorse: At the end of the game things are spiraling out of control [[spoiler:Rhyme is gone, the pin her noise is in the hands of a person who will destroy it if you don't win the game, the third week Joshua is "dead" and shiki is your entry fee, and now after you get everyone back you find out that Joshua is really the composer and then the conductor in one last resort absorbs every one of you partners and turns into a dragon!]]

See also ''{{Sh15uya}}'' and ''{{Gantz}}'', which have similar premises. For a game similar in setting theme rather than story matter, see ''{{Jet Set Radio}}''.

* CrutchCharacter: Shiki has elements of this. Since female clothing has high bravery requirements she has high bravery, making her easier to equip than Joshua and Beat. Her attack chain also has frames of invincibility at the end, making [[strike:paying less attention to]] ButtonMashing for the top screen a more viable strategy.

* EmbarrassingFirstName: [[strike:Daisukenojo]] Beat.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname / TheNicknamer: The entire cast, though, admittedly, some more than others. Justified in some cases, as Neku and his partner are usually never formally introduced to the GM or other reapers, and thus actually don't know their names.

* OntologicalMystery / [[YouWakeUpInARoom You Wake Up In A Pedestrian Scramble]]

* PowerFloats / MidairBobbing: Joshua, when using his [[FanNickname Jesus Beams]].

* SacrificialLion / MauveShirt: [[spoiler:Triple 7.]]

** They then parody the whole concept with the bonus chapter, "Another Day" which takes the minigame, Tin-Pin Slammer, the characters, and transports them all into a [[strike:''YuGiOh'']] ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries''-type setting in which the game is all-important. Lampshaded in the Secret Reports:

* WhamLine / WhamEpisode: The first one occurs during Day 4 when [[spoiler:Rhyme is killed by a Noise]], and they keep building from there, sometimes with one new Wham every day. Especially Day 7 when [[spoiler:Neku discovers he's forced to play The Game for ''another'' seven days]].

** They then parody the whole concept with the bonus chapter, "Another Day" which takes the minigame, Tin-Pin Slammer, the characters, and transports them all into a [[strike:''YuGiOh'']] ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series}}''-type setting in which the game is all-important. Lampshaded in the Secret Reports:

** I, for one, don't see how it must change anything from first time player point of view, as besides that he tells he watched the previous game and specifically wanted this particular partner as a professional and, assuming he could do that, really also could just find out his name by stalking. If anything, an attentive (what? that was subtle? 'cause the player knows?) player will realize they are both extremely dumb, when he still verbosely asks for a name five seconds right after showing he knows it already. Probably was going for a surname and a proper handshake...

** I, for one, don't see how it must change anything from first time player point of view, as besides that he tells he watched the previous game and specifically wanted this particular partner as a professional and, assuming he could do that, really also could just find out his name by stalking. If anything, an attentive (what? that was subtle? cause the player knows?) player will realize they are both extremely dumb, when he still verbosely asks for a name right five seconds after showing he knows it already.

* NaughtyTentacles & CombatTentacles: One of the Jellyfish Noise actually uses this as an attack. {{Lampshaded}} in the Noise Report.
--> "If you're not careful, that obscene tentacle will start violating your HP!"