Retronauts Episode 618: The World Ends With You

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This just in: Japan is cool. Not perfect, not “living in the future” no matter what Twitter users say, but Japan’s got a lot going for it. One of those things happens to be Shibuya, a bustling neighborhood in the middle of the country’s massive capital city. While there’s no shortage of video games set in Japan (whether made in Japan or elsewhere), our topic this week is distinctly Tokyo-esque, connecting its characters, music, and themes to youth trends of the early 2000s.

Jeremy Parish—already a seasoned visitor to Shibuya when The World Ends With You debuted—serves as host for this discussion, joined by one-time Tokyo resident Kat Bailey and Stuart Gipp, a man trapped on a very different archipelago who’s never set foot in Japan. But he’s played this game a lot, and that’s what counts!

Description: Jeremy Parish, Kat Bailey, and Stuart Gipp put on their trendiest threads and rub Hachiko’s nose for good luck as they work their way through the Shibuya-shaped maze that is Square Enix’s iconoclastic DS classic The World Ends With You.

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Artwork for this episode by Greg Melo and editing thanks go to Greg Leahy.