On the surface, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV and Square-Enix’s The World Ends With You don’t have much in common. Even beyond their base aesthetic differences, one steeped in realism and the other in hyper-cartoon exaggeration, their bustling urban landscapes are as different as the cultures that produced them. But as I’ve been working through both in the past week, I’ve found myself focusing on the same thing in both: building interpersonal relationships. All of TWEWY is based around bonds of trust between the protagonist Neku and one of three companions he encounters but I’ve become obsessed with working to bring them closer together. Making sure their outfits match – much of TWEWY is about paying attention to and ultimately driving fashion trends – and feeding them certain types of food to boost their “synch” rates and hoping to find that one special item to build their fusion attacks. That might seem a little jargon heavy for a game that’s superficially about dead teenagers fighting monsters while looking cool, but it boils down to the fact that I’ve been spending my time making the characters better friends. Then, over in GTA’s Liberty City, things aren’t so different. Yes, the majority of the game is about committing a veritable ocean of felonies but I’ve spent far more time taking Little Jacob, the Rastafarian pot-dealer, out to bars than I have indulging in the ol’ ultra-violence. The game rewards you for being a good friend. Spend time with your cousin Roman and eventually you can use his taxi service free of charge whenever you like. But the carrot on the end of the stick isn’t new gameplay perks. It’s actually hearing what the characters have to say.
