Even with a laggy emulator this game never fails to get me hooked.
The game starts off with a emo kid named Neku Sakuraba, who wears a headphone 24/7 to block the noise of people around him. He hates socializing because it seems to him; everyone is stupid, backstabbers and whatnot. Don't we all feel the same sometimes jeez. Before he/we know it, he woke up at the middle of Shibuya Street and was forced to play a life-death game to get a second chance in life.
Storyline
I regretted for spoiling myself in the beginning. The plot is very engaging. You will be thinking "wow this is a short game", and suddenly your thrown back into the same beginning again which makes you go, "… HUH?!" There are a lot of plot holes in the game, even to the end, because the game sort of just ended abruptly in my opinion. But apparently, there are secret reports that were SUPPOSE to explain the plot holes of the game. I'll try to get them when I have the time.
Gameplay
NDS being a double screened console was able to almost fully utilize every single button and stylus to its max. First will be the keypad controls which are used to control your second player/AI at the top and the bottom will be the full use of the stylus to control Neku. Its like, a mix of Wii and PS2 at a small gadget. There are different kinds of pins which gives you different kinds of power/magic. Some are useful but some are downright hard to control. You can choose up to 6 pins if you are able to fully open all the pin slots.
System
Equipping your clothes is like dressing up your Barbie. I kid you not. Different area/streets of Shibuya have different types of trends ranging from Gothic-Lolita, Rock, Punk, Casual, Sporty and much more. Each clothes you wear will give you an extra boost of Attack power or percentage. But equipping the wrong threads gains you a minus. A combination of the same type of threads and pins will give you the chance to affect the areas trend popularity to suit your needs.
Mini-games
There is only two mini-game to play in this game. One will be the Tin Pin Slammer battle which I failed with utter misery, and the other is hunting Pig Noise. Hunting the Pig Noise is HARD. One being, some runs fast, some needs a certain pin to defeat and some even needs you to close the NDS lid right when the game starts. It can be fun when you win but downright frustrating when you have to try again. The Reaper conditions to pass through their walls are a must to proceed through the game, but it can also be under the mini-games category I guess. It feels like being ragged sometimes because you can be asked to go buy them food or dress up fully of a certain trend of clothes which gains you to be laughed at only. (swts) But most of the time will be spent on fighting Noise.
Music
A full blast of hip hop and pop is used in this game. Although, it's kind of surprising to have a slow song at the end after listening to so much rapping. But considering the ending of the game, I guess choosing "Lullaby For You" by JYONGRI (Is she a Korean?) was appropriate to a degree. Having hip-hop/ rap for a Square-Enix game was definitely a first, since, everyone knows how much the company loves orchestra-blend music.
All in all,
It's a great game. Highly recommended to all NDS holders. The philosophy behind it is actually quite deep too, but also normal as it relates much about real-life scenarios. When I get my NDS, I'll get the game too and play it without lag and chompy sounds for once.