The announcement of NEO: The World Ends with You was excellent news for fans of the franchise. However, they may also wonder why it has taken so long for those responsible to bring us a new installment in the series.
After its debut in 2007, we haven’t received any news until now. In a recent meeting with IGN, producer Tomohiko Hirano explained why this is. “With the original version of the game, from the beginning we’ve had a lot of fans who have been asking for a sequel,” he says. “But with the content of the game, it’s different. It’s a little bit different from a regular game, and so we needed to secure an environment where we could really focus on developing this team. Up until now, we couldn’t really protect that kind of environment, but now that we’ve been able to do that, we’ve been able to continue.”
“We wanted to do something totally new,” the creative added, to which series director Tatsuya Kando also adds that they had been busy with Kingdom Hearts and so haven’t had time to deal with a new installment until now. As for the future, Hirano adds that “they expect to see more demand from players, which would give them an opportunity to further expand the franchise”.