Developer: Jupiter

Publisher: Square Enix

Release Date: April 22, 2008

System: Nintendo DS

ESRB Rating: T

Official Web site

0:00 Amidst all the GTA4 launch craziness, the unexpected praise for this game somehow broke through to my consciousness. I had to at least give it a try.

0:01 A bunch of urban-looking kids stand around an urban-looking environment over a title screen with piano-infused beats. Catchy.

0:02 Since this is a rental copy, I have to delete the old saved game to start anew. The game asks me three times if I'm sure. "Once you DELETE your data, it's gone and it ain't ever coming back." Fine by me. It's not my data.

0:03 Comic book panels of a hand-drawn city scene fly in from off screen. "Outta my face, you're blocking my view. Shut up. Stop talking. Just go the hell away. All the world needs is me. I've got my values, so you can keep yours, all right? I don't get people, never have, never will." Each line's delivered with real conviction and accompanied with bold text. Good stuff.

0:04 Our loner collapses on a busy Tokyo street. He has a skull amulet thing in his hand. "What the... I can hear voices in my head." The amulet thing is actually a pin, but the guy has no idea where it came from.

0:06 I'm in control. Tapping the pin on the bottom screen scans the crowd so I can read their thoughts. A lot of guys are thinking about girls, it seems. The one girl on the street is thinking about her grandfather. Aww.

0:07 "Voices! Definitely voices! But why?" our loner thinks. Because it's a good plot device? He gets a text message. "Reach 104. You have 60 minutes. Fall and face Erasure -- the Reapers." "It's like junk mail from hell," he thinks. Man, the spam I get is never that interesting.

0:09 A 60-minute countdown clock has burned into our protagonist's hand. Freaky. A big screen on a nearby building flashes "You have 7 days" and then there are frogs attacking him. I have no idea what's going on, but I have a strong interest in finding out.

0:10 My first battle is really just a tutorial on how to avoid frogs, which is useful in real life as well! Dragging the stylus moves Mr. Loner, with quick movements causing a dash across the screen. Easy enough, so far.

0:11 "What the hell is going on!?" At least I'm not the only one confused. My character is just as in the dark. Mr. Loner runs from the crowd in a well-animated cut scene. A random jumble of images and slow pans over characters I don't know plays over credits written in graffiti. I'm loving the J-techno music.

0:13 "Man, here we go again..." says random dude No. 1. "Stop whining, we haven't had work in like forever," says random girl No. 1. They haven't had work in a while, but "Day 1 has the most players" to rack up points. Intriguing. They propose a "player hunt" to make things more interesting. "Loser buys the winner a hot bowl of Ramen." That's it? What a lame wager.

0:15 At the Statue of Hachiko, some demonic runes appear and make a bunch of people disappear. Mr. Loner is again attacked by frogs. Suddenly, a girl comes up and demands that he "forge a pact" with her. Is that what the kids are calling it these days? "If we forge a pact we can beat the Noise." He agrees to her maniacal ramblings and she gives him a fire pin. I love that the game doesn't feel the need to over-explain things early on. Just go with the flow!

0:18 Using the fire pin, I can drag lines of fire with the stylus during battles. Burning frogs with fire -- what is this, "Beavis and Butthead"?

0:20 Using the stylus to both move and attack takes some getting used to. When I try to attack frogs near Mr. Loner, it moves him instead. Bleh.

0:21 Mr. Loner (his real name still unknown) is surprised at his fire-starting ability. Pact girl (again, no real name yet) says he's good at using "psychs" which are what the pins are called. They're safe from the Noise monsters now that they formed a pact, apparently. That was easy!

0:22 Her name is Shiki Masaki. Finally! "We've got a long week ahead of us!" she says. The Reapers' game takes seven days, you see. She asks his name but he runs off before she can get it. SO CLOSE!

0:23 More eavesdropping on thoughts. A girl is happy with her fries, but sorry she forgot her "can of salt" back home. "What are fries without an extra layer of white, salty death?" Good question. Another good question: Who travels around with a CAN OF SALT?

0:25 "Why do today what can wait 'til tomorrow? Why do tomorrow what I can deal with two days from now? My problem-free life rocks so hard." I'm loving the writing on these thought vignettes.

0:26 Apparently the people who disappeared before were "Erased," and if we don't get to 10-four (a.k.a. 104) before the timer on our hands runs out, the same will happen to us. He thinks she's crazy, but given his crazy day, he starts to give her the benefit of the doubt.

0:27 Mr. Loner has a name: Neku Sakuraba! Maybe the game's under-explaining has gone a little too far when it takes 27 minutes to get the main character's name!

0:30 I know I'm supposed to be rushing to 10-four or whatever, but I'm having too much fun snooping on people's thoughts. I'm glad I don't have this power in real life. I'd get nothing done!

0:31 The path to 10-four is blocked. Meanwhile, a creepy guy in a red hoodie is watching us. "Pact confirmed," he says to himself. Suddenly, the path opens up. "Weird," says Neku. I agree.

0:32 We make it to 10-four and the timers disappear. "Only an idiot would screw up on day one," says a passing Reaper, who sends more frogs our way. Really? More frogs? There are nine other plagues in the bible, y'know.

0:35 So, in addition to stylus-based attacks on the bottom screen, now I have to use the d-pad to control Shiki's attacks on the top screen. This is a lot to manage at once! Luckily, there's an auto-play feature for Shiki that seems to work well.

0:36 The battle tutorial finishes up with a fight against a man-sized wolf straight out of Altered Beast. I've mastered one attack combo for Shiki. It involves hitting "right" five times in a row, but it works! I like the way the power-boosting "puck" bounces between screens with combos -- makes it easier to split my attention effectively. "We've got six more days. Are we gonna make it? I... I don't want to be erased." Then why did you sign up for this stupid game in the first place, Shiki? Neku is just as question-filled and frustrated with Shiki as I am. "Chapter Closed!" I get "E" rankings all around. That's fair. I haven't mastered this yet.

0:40 Now our heroes are at a station underpass somehow. Neku wonders how they got there. Our new mission: "Set the cursed sculpture free." The painful-looking timers appear on their hands again.

0:41 Neku's cell phone shows that it's a day later. They "fell asleep" after the mission. On the street? And no one bothered them? Whatever.

0:43 Neku shares my concern over the implausible sleeping. "It's anything but OK! We were in the middle of the street, in broad daylight! Why would we fall asleep?" It's nice having my character mimic my confusion for once. Shiki, meanwhile, is focusing on the next battle.

0:45 Another wall on the way to Hachiko. Red hoodie guy is there, but I can't read his mind. He commands us to erase the Noise in the area, but Shiki says we can't see any Noise around. "The world is more than just what you see." Oooh, deep!

0:48 Neku finds he has a bunch of pins in his pocket! He also finds that scanning can find hidden enemies. How conveeeenient.

0:50 Trying out new pins. One shoots fireballs from my hands like bullets. The other brings down a bolt of lightning from the sky. Both are cool looking but a little hard to control.

0:51 The "shockwave" badge requires a slashing motion on the touch-screen that I'm having a hard time pulling off. The stylus controls are getting in the way a bit, so far.

0:52 Using the slash, I can knock about various objects on the battlefield. Fun! All the Noise has been defeated. "Objective met," says red hoodie guy in his best impersonation of a videogame character. Shiki tells Neku he's a genius with "psych," but seems a little freaked out that I have two player pins, not just one. Neku doesn't take either of these reactions very well.

0:55 Some thug in a sleeveless t-shirt comes up and threatens Neku and Shiki on the street. "I can't scan you. You gotta be widdem. You can't outsmart me, yo." A little girl stops him, telling him we're players too, not Reavers. Saved by a little girl -- how humiliatiing "Yo, sorry I jumped to conclusions." Her name's Rhyme and his name's Beat. Leave it to the Japanese to name two character Beat and Rhyme. Shiki makes small talk, but Neku couldn't care less about the conversation.

0:58 Rhyme and Beat tell us how to use our cell phones to pick out the pins we'll use in battle. Doesn't anyone read the manual anymore?

0:59 Interesting: Beat and Rhyme failed the mission on day one, but they weren't erased. Perhaps Shiki and Neku's success saved everyone else, they conjecture.

1:00 Beat and Rhyme want to help Shiki and Neku out, but Neku doesn't want "a bunch of strangers bringing us down." Beat is mad at being rejected and slinks off in a huff. "I'm not opening up to anyone. Ever," Neku says in the worst bit of foreshadowing I've seen in a while.

Would I play this game for more than an hour? Yes.

Why? Despite some control issues, I'm loving the game's strong sense of style. The writing and cryptic story have drawn me in, too.

This column was based on a retail copy of the game rented from GameFly.

Want to know more about Games for Lunch? Check out the FAQ here.

For more Games for Lunch, visit the official GfL blog.