Since the last entry, I…

*Played more of “The World Ends With You” which I am finally — long promised! — going to compare to the game I didn’t play since the last entry,”Grand Theft Auto IV.”

Now I’m not going to say the “TWEWY” is better than “GTA IV,” but there is something that the Square-Enix DS role-playing game game does really well that I hope Rockstar takes notes on. That thing is how the DS game integrates location and, more specifically, the mood of a location, into gameplay.

You know how some painters paint Paris in such a way that you could say that their painting has the feel of that French city?

Ever notice how different regional forms of hip-hop reverberate with the rhythm of the place from where they emanate?

When I play “TWEWY” I feel like my play experience is — how do I put this? — fueled by the energy of a specific place. That place is Shibuya, a Times-Square-on-steroids region of Tokyo I’ve only spent a week of my life in. I only spent a week there so I can only appreciate it as a tourist.

Maybe I don’t really know Shibuya, not the way I think I know New York. But I think I picked up enough of the vibe: it’s crowded, glitzy, full of fashion-conscious hipsters and many business people seemingly lost in thought; it’s bright and noisy but like all big cities full of people who seem lonely and alienated, ambling through life without connections.

All of that has been translated into gameplay.

“TWEWY” feels like I’m playing the Shibuya mood moreso than “GTA IV” feels like it’s playing the mood of a city based on New York.

The DS game is busy. Like Shibuya, it hyper-stimulates anyone who encounters it. The controls require that you watch and manipulate action on two screens at once. The game encourages you to manage at least two characters’ wardrobes, friendships, appetites and special abilities. It’s frenetic like a walk through that part of Tokyo. It’s busy like a wall of neon signs that deny you the ability to focus at any one thing.

When you walk the sidewalks of Shibuya you get the feeling that many people there intensely care about what’s popular. Fashion is worn as a badge of relevance. That idea is integral to Square-Enix’s design. “The World Ends With You” requires its player to be fashion-conscious. You must observe how trends vary from one region of Shibuya to the next, lest the brand of scarf and pants your hero is wearing in one section of the city is so out of style that it hits him with a stat penalty. The instruction manual indicates that battling with unfashionable clothes on — and succeeding — will re-define which brands are hot in the area. It instills in the player a desire to be a trend-setter, just, I suspect as living in Shibuya does to some of its citizens.

Big-city life amid huge crowds can, paradoxically, evoke loneliness. A silent crowd of commuters ambling to a train station can appear to be a tribe of the lonely, or at least a collection of the disconnected. This too is emphasized in the gameplay. As the lead character, Neku, you can scan the thoughts of crowds of non-player characters, people with whom you otherwise can’t communicate with. You are both separated from these urban wanderers and capable of reading their innermost thoughts.

So much of what I’m describing is integrated into the play of “The World Ends With You.” I haven’t mentioned the game’s graphical style nor its music and sound effects. The sights and sounds of Shibuya are done well, as are the sounds of the New York-inspired Liberty City of “GTA IV.”

As I play Rockstar’s game I see and hear thousands of things that remind me of the city I walk through every day in real life. “GTA IV” looks and sounds like New York.

But does it play like New York? Some would say that New York is characterized by its own sense of danger and cast of colorful citizens. Danger and colorful characters are a part of “GTA IV,” but they have been for “GTA” games set in other cities as well. Part of living in New York is being unflappable, sharing in the metropolitan pride of being phased by none of the many oddities in the city. The “GTA” non-player characters have some of that. Nothing feels more like New York gameplay to me in “GTA IV” than stealing a car in front of a gathering of people who can’t even be bothered to turn their heads. I don’t know if the artificial intelligence was programmed with that intent, but, let me tell you, that is a New York vibe.

“GTA IV” is absolutely not a failure in evoking a feeling of New York City. But I feel as if it does so best in its sights and sounds. And I feel that “The World Ends With You,” shows a worthwhile exploration of another method: making gameplay a vessel for a specific urban mood. It’s commendable., and it’s exotic. It feels like a vacation. And it has a rhythm that feels like it came from no place else.

Next: Back to Liberty City. Hoping for an in-game wedding. That’d be cool.