Photo courtesy of Unsplash
Last time I was rotated onto the music review, I wrote about the music from the popular video game “Persona 5.” Now that I’m here again, I figured I’d make this my niche to set me apart from the others. This week I’ll be writing about another video game with a highly acclaimed soundtrack: “The World Ends With You” (TWEWY).
TWEWY is perhaps the Nintendo DS’s best game from the Japanese Role-Playing Game (J-RPG) genre. There is much to be said about the game itself, but one of reasons why TWEWY is still mentioned today, despite its release in 2008 for Western audiences, is its incredible soundtrack.
To best appreciate the game’s soundtrack, we need to understand how the music is influenced by the game’s setting and plot. TWEWY follows asocial teenager Neku on a series of missions in Shibuya to “win” his second chance at life after being mysteriously killed. The Shibuya setting and Neku’s rebellious disposition influence the style of music heard throughout the game; the hip-hop, electronica and rock elements in the soundtrack help shape that punk atmosphere as the player runs across the stylized Shibuya streets, fighting monsters with graffiti motifs. Street and graffiti culture play an important part in the game — with Neku’s idol being a graffiti artist — and the soundtrack plays a crucial part in immersing the player in the minds of rebellious Shibuya youth.
There are three songs in the soundtrack that get more attention than the others, so I’ll focus on those, but not without mentioning a few other TWEWY gems.
“Twister” serves as the game’s theme. It appears in both cutscenes and battles. Frankly, its lyrics don’t make any sense — like, “Crystals, blisters / It’s all over now / Psycho cane / You’re so keen / I need more candy canes,” which I cannot even begin to try and explain — but the allure of this song is the heavy autotune in SAWA’s voice. Her voice is so captivating over the disc scratches in the instrumental. Considering how this song is meant to play in a battle, the focus isn’t really on the lyrics anyway since the player’s attention is on the enemies. The importance is the ambiance of the song, and “Twister” is the poster song for TWEWY in its punk vibes and hip-hop elements. It does its job, and that’s what matters. In fact, this song is one of the most frequently remixed. There are two remixes in the base version of the game, “Twister-remix” and “Twister-Gang-Mix.” It also represents TWEWY when some of the characters appeared in “Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance” (KHDDD), with a modernized remix, “Twister -kingdom mix-,” playing in Neku’s introduction scene.
“Someday” gets a similar treatment as “Twister.” This song is exclusively a battle track, and while it can play in regular battles, it has a reputation for playing in the math-obsessed demon Minamimoto’s battles. The lyrics don’t really fit that boss fight either, since the song is from a teenage girl’s perspective, but the lyrics are exponentially more sensical. Hanaeryca sings about insecurities, uncertainty and conflict over a heavy rock instrumental. Like “Twister,” “Someday” gets a “-kingdom mix-” version in “KHDDD,” though “Someday” gets a dramatic overhaul. In something Minamimoto would call “zetta slow,” the “-kingdom mix-“ version becomes a sad ballad, showing the insecure lyrics in a new light. I like the new version, since I must agree the sadness in the new arrangement fits the lyrics better, but the old version is fantastic as a battle track, and it never fails to get me hyped for a battle.
Another notable track is “Calling,” which appears as an overworld theme, normally right after the characters learn new, game-changing information. Personally, this is my favorite song of this trio. This song falls between “Someday” and “Twister” in terms of how much the lyrics make sense. There are just a few lines that slip up and sound odd, but it’s overshadowed by a chorus with a strong message: “Wake up / Leave your hesitation / Wake up / Time for us to realize / Wake up / Show appreciation / Wake up / Time for us to realize.” Leah’s vocals here are rather gentle over a whimsical, electronica instrumental.
“Calling” excels in its purpose as being the “enlightened” track, since its variation from the rest of the soundtrack shows how the song represents the characters’ new perspective or understanding. Its “-kingdom mix-” version switches things up a bit, with the new version having stronger vocals and a more rock-based instrumental. It plays more into TWEWY’s punk motif better, reframing the lyrics as a message urging people to step up. The vocals bounce between sounding frantic when presented with the “calling,” and sounding determined when reaching the chorus inspiring others. “Calling -kingdom mix-” is the only TWEWY remix that I like better than the original, but every rendition of “Calling” is fantastic.
Those three songs are the staple songs for TWEWY, but I have to at least mention a few other ones, since that was only a fraction of the TWEWY soundtrack.
“Make or Break” gets a shout-out right out the gate for being my favorite song in the whole soundtrack. It’s very dramatic and dream-like. In fact, I’d call it a nightmare song.
“Satisfy” is the perfect theme for the villains’ base. It’s unsettling yet still cool enough for the fantastic set of villains from this game whenever they congregate to scheme against Neku and his allies.
I need to put “Give Me All Your Love” here because of how impressed I am with the TWEWY team for sliding this one into the game’s soundtrack. I never noticed the sexually explicit lyrics in this one because the battles with this song playing never lasted long enough for me to get to the racy stuff. It was only when I listened to the full version that I noticed the steamy lyrics, and apparently everyone else in the YouTube comments never noticed them while playing the game either.
Lastly, “Déjà Vu” needs a mention as well. It captures Neku’s situation perfectly, and it’s generally a very calming and serene song.
The soundtrack is a crucial part to TWEWY worldbuilding. While the soundtrack is generally punk-sounding and rebellious, there’s a little bit of everything in the soundtrack that can suit anyone’s music taste. TWEWY has been a constant in my video game soundtrack playlists, and I highly recommend anyone interested in street and graffiti culture to check out more of the soundtrack on YouTube.
