There’s a rhythm to fighting the Noise, a pulse that goes beyond the click of a stylus or the press of a button. Every battle inrequires that you spread your attention across multiple bodies, multiple means of engagement, and most practically, across the Nintendo DS’s two screens. The current versions of the game, on Switch and mobile, remove this element. Everything you need to see is on one axis of engagement, a screen unsplit.
At first, this is decidedly awkward. Enemies flip between screens. The game allows you to dodge with both characters, however dodge mechanics vary between Neku’s partners and all require you to read enemies’ visual clues. That can be difficult when you have to pay attention to two screens at once. Therein though is its power. It emphasizes the game’s themes of cooperation. Anyone who has worked on a group project knows that getting people to work together is hard.
There are plenty of things that do transfer from the DS version to its mobile and Nintendo Switch remakes. I adore the fuzzy pixel art of the original, but the hard inked, Saturday morning cartoon lines of “Final Remix” have a charm all their own. The blocky, low resolution sound of the music has its own beauty, but I would also love to hear the music as it was recorded. Most importantly though, is the game’s setting of Shibuya.
It would, of course, be deeply silly for me to talk about the accuracy of the depiction of Shibuya, as somebody who does not live in Japan. What’s more important is that it takes the district seriously as a place. Shopkeepers remember you from day to day. Trends ebb and flow; you’re incentivized to follow them because wearing the right brand gives you an attack bonus. There are multiple battle songs and multiple wandering around town songs. More are added with each in-game day.
That experience has been left behind, left only to emulation, piracy, or the shelling out probably a little too much money for a cartridge on eBay. If you are lucky, like me, you still have a copy around. Otherwise, Square Enix isn’t going to help you find one.proves a lot of things. It proves how far an expressive setting can push narrative forward. It proves the untapped potential of action RPGs, the variety of settings and ideas they could inhabit.
grace_machine I'm thrilled effort was taken to port the game at all, but the original is probably the single game that best celebrates all the wacky gimmicks of the DS, highlighting the silliness and elevating it at the same time. Purposeful chaos.
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