I Need to Be Honest About NEO TWEWY

In this video I discuss the good and bad of the sequel to TWEWY from the Nintendo DS from 2007. NEO TWEWY is available on the Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
#twewy #jrpg #squareenix

[always_serpico]

Yeah, there are some super good pins- but you’re doing yourself a disservice if you’re just slapping on all powerful pins. Mixing and matching can turn a damage sponge into a joke. The cool down on weaker pins can help to keep enemies stun locked while strong pins recharge, for example. Which helps to make sure you’re always actively participating in the battle, and not just fleeing while waiting for your pins to recharge. How repetitive or how time consuming combat is, is almost entirely up to your willingness to explore pin combinations. The only real exception to that is the T-Rex. That damn thing is never fun to fight.

And I definitely agree with you about the overuse of Rindo’s Replay ability. I get that it plays into the final conflict, but it was too much by the end.

NEO:TWEWY is up there with Vanquish, End of Eternity, and Asura’s Wrath for me, as far as hidden gems. It has a few problems, but fantastic characters and a battle system that can cater to any play style- more than makes up for it.

[thebigchungus]

With all due respect my man, I feel like you didn’t experiment enough with the combat, especially with your complaint of the pins lacking balance. I played through the game Dripless (no stat boosts and no thread equips) and from my experience, I was able to progress the game and majority of bosses/encounters just fine through a combination of intuitive pin set-ups and utilization of Mashups to their fullest extent. Even low-powered pins end up being useful in the lategame thanks to quick reboot time compared to the higher damaging types, which is also great for building up Groove faster and getting those 6x Mashups, making for an incredibly balanced system for the most part. The highest power pins aren't always the actual strongest, even for a given attack type. Differences in attack pattern, element, uses, and recharge time can make a huge impact on the flow of your combat, and it's better to do sustained damage that controls the flow of battle and consistently allows for Mashups than having huge burst damage and then waiting five seconds for everything to come back online.

I also much prefer the Mashup system in comparison to the Fusion system from the first game. While Fusions were stylistically really cool, they really only served as screen nukes with healing properties and while the Fusion star requirement for each partner was different, they all lead to the same result (that’s not even getting into how ridiculously broken Joshua’s Lvl 3 Fusion was). Meanwhile, in NEO, all you have to do with Mashups is combo pins into the Beatdrop circle but the way each Mashup is set-up allows for wide variety of effects that can lead into more interesting combat scenarios. Whether it’s using the Gravity Mashup in combination with pins with Aerial Assault in order to increase your damage output, using the Time Mashup in combination with pins with Frozen Fatality, using Black Hole in combination with the Fire Mashup in order rack up even more damage, and more. Combine that with how Mashups themselves can provide Beatdrops and Groove points and how you can combo into them and it makes for a really engaging system.

What I also love about Mashups and Killer Remixes in particular is how they have a great amount of synergy with each other. With the right set-up, Mashups can become potentially more damaging than Killer Remixes, especially when you use them in combination with your pins. And you can build up more Groove during them, which allows you to just keep dishing them out whenever you want.
On the flip-side, Killer Remixes become less powerful on higher difficulties BUT they allow you to get a free full heal AND refill all of your pins. Which pretty much eliminates the need for healing pins entirely and in turn allows you to just go nuts with your pin builds.

[Diolover-yjxz]

3:01. Huh i dont get what you mean they all look just fine the lighting is a little weird but thats about it

[jairekambui]

This game is right on par with the original for me. I like both for different reasons. In neo, I like the gameplay, music and characters more, but in og I like the plot and themes more. Art style and visuals in both games are really good. Neo edges out the og a bit for me because I just really don’t like the gimmicky touch screen gameplay. I liked the more traditional action rpg combat of neo a lot more. I also think Rindo and Shoka are probably the most well written characters between both games, as much as I love Neku and Beat. Overall both games are great and worth playing for jrpg fans. It sucks that the series is probably dead because neo sold poorly. But I’m glad neo exists at all.

[Haseodarkness]

I dont even think that the amount of text is the issue with the story, Its that bit where you said TWEWY is about the characters, and Neo just Features characters.

Nothing really happens in Neo until the very end....
In the first game you spend alot of time learning about Neku, Shiki, Beat, Rhyme and Joshua.
every week explores the personality, motivations, and emotions of the characters, using their entry fee as an extra layer to explore more sides to the characters and slowly pulling back Neku's shell, until eventually provoking his character development.

In Neo.... I learned nothing about Rindo, he barely has a personality.
Fret is.... just a goofball with no broader context.
Nagi is the only interesting core member of the wicked twisters, but we still dont learn that much about her.
Shokie's thing felt like it came out of no where, and the team trusted her way too fast.
I have no idea why Beat and Neku are even here.... and why tf is Beat emo now?

[axelsgf]

I just finished the original TWEWY after finishing NEO and seriously the original is amazing i honestly had way more fun playing the game on my ds it helped me understand the original story more and felt so nostalgic for it being my first time playing it, as for NEO introducing me to the games I enjoyed it but the english VA absolutely sounded so robotic idk why man I just sticked to the Japanese VA the stories are a bit confusing but overall an enjoyable game it was something different for me but I 100% think NEO had more potential with its creativity on the story and its new characters.

[tntsickthugzwlf]

Loved this and the first played the s*** out of the first and second from childhood

[rindou]

Agree on time trivel thing and the game being too long, but I don't agree on characters. Sure, adding certain returning characters at the end was just "whatever" and I wish Neku had his own DLC to make him pressence and role feel more relevant, but the cast in general was quite neat. I really like how the game was more subtle about some key aspects and made characters feel more real for me. And I think the interpersonal scenes they get are really great, and make me impossible to find a favourite. TWEWY was a more special game, but also hadsome wasted points. Sure Neo has wasted points, but I think both do a great job. While TWEWY was a personal character studio about Neku, Neo was a group dynamics studio, and I love both approaches. Tho, after thinking it carefully... Neo combat was better. TWEWY combat is super unique, but Neo was more satistying.

[mathewhosier]

Never played the original because i never owned a DS, i was always more of a PSP guy, but i definitely love this game, incredible combat, cool progression and tons of exploration, whats not to love, definitely one of the better AAA action JRPGs of 2021

[michaeldelloro]

I dunno. Ngl, I don't mind that the story is not as good as the first one but man...the pacing is so off. I enjoyed The World Ends with You: Final Remix so much that I completed it to 100% getting all stars. But man oh man, NEO is so fucking slow. I'm on Week 1 Day 5 and already wondering when will the gameplay start gaining momentum.

You're definitely right that the game has way too much text. The pacing really suffers from it.

[purpleplasma]

I dropped the game in week 2 day 6 and hearing about the final day being worse I just kind of don't want to play the game anymore it makes me upset because I love the artstyle and the original was fun too but hearing how it crumbles at the end while I don't enjoy the midway section of the game puts me off. Not only that the scramble missions are annoying and the same techniques over and over get so boring you just do four things in the game, clothes, food, battle, puzzles cool video though i'll play the original.

[siv]

The first game's story was really special to me, seeing the sequel's terrible story was a real gut punch.
The game loves wasting time and padding itself as much as possible, so much time that could've been used to develop the characters but nope, you gotta replay the same events from before. It is so bad in fact that you play the final day 3 times.
It almost feels like they only remembered the story around the 3rd week and then cramped everything in it regardless of quality.

And dear god the new characters... They try to do their arcs the subtle way, but it's so subtle that it ends up almost not existing. Rindo's indecisive mentality is almost never challenged, never gets called out for it and never faces any consequences for it because whenever something bad happens he can Just rewind time. He spends most of the game complaining and looking for a babysitter. Really hate this character, his outfit has more going on than him.
Nagi was such a nothing character, like aside from diving and giving an extra pin slot, she's kinda pointless for the most part.
Fret is the only passable one of the trio, because it is easy to guess he's faking by listening to his in-battle voice lines.
Other characters vary from bad to decent.

I came in blind with a very open mind, really wanted to love this game, but. No.. Extremely disappointed with the story... (gameplay and soundtrack are straight fire tho, carried the game for me)

Edit: forgot to add that some interesting plot points and threads are barely given any attention and are forgotten about by the next day, for Example fret dropping the act and conflicting with rindo for his indecisiveness(late week 1 - early week 2 not sure which one it was) never really goes anywhere

[Deadforge]

Great video keep it up and keep improving.

[ddtn]

Why are you tapping the bumpers instead of holding them for like half the video + just freeze the Trex with ice pins

[giganticmoon]

The game’s a visual novel and Kingdom Hearts combined.

[CReeseMLP_OW]

I Am A New Comer!!! I Never Heard of T.W.E.W.Y At All During my childhood in 2007 when I had the D.S.! I ONLY Heard and PLAYED the entirety of Neo: T.W.E.W.Y recently and I got it in 2021 October.

I.M.O NEO IS AMAZING AS HELL: but it does have flaws.

Example
• Kanon DOESN'T join our fight against Mr. Mew 2

•Character required Pin evolutions is not known until very late in the game.

• getting certain achievements Are Hard depending on what has to be done in the game. (The golden crowns in dives, and remind images)

• Originally, I Believe the game was supposed to have Kanon fight us but instead she isn't a Noise alongside her variabeauties in the noisepedia.

• pin Drops are Insanely HARD and A lot of them are Hard To Buy Or Farm to Get.

• The inability To Choose how many people can be on your team by the end of the Game!

• Rindo Uses Replay Too Much!!!

• Certain items I miss for my thread, book or pin collection is Insanely Impossible to Track down unless I look at the streets in order to if there are new arrivals