One of the biggest surprises of 2021 so far has been 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:NEO: The World Ends With You. The original TWEWY was a cult classic, and many thought a sequel would never get made,ꦯ much less rise as a worthy successor. NEO manages to do both, and a huge reason for that has to do with its fantastic cast of both new and returning characters. Pe🐼rhaps one of the most impressive new additions to TWEWY’s roster is Rindo, a phone-obsessed teen with the power to reverse time, who reluctantly becomes the leader of The Wicked Twisters.
In order to come to grips with wha💙t has cemented Rindo as such a beloved character, I sat down with Paul Castro Jr., the actor responsible for bringing the series’ latest pro༺tagonist to life.
“I remember hearing about the original game, at first I didn't know what it was,” Castro tells me. “I wasn't sure if I was going to be into it, but once I started playing past the first hour or so, when you really get to see the nuance of Neku, and how it wasn't kind of this stereotypical pure-hearted jolly protagonist, I was so shocked to see a game that showed darker elements or more nuanced human emotions. As a kid growing up who didn't really like reading and wasn't a huge fan of school, I just got engrossed in this story that I had never really been exposed to before in a video game”.
Though Castro was a huge fan of the original game, that wasn&rsquo𒉰;t what motivated him to audition - in fact, he didn’t even know it was the sequel until he was in the vocal booth.
“I only knew what the game was when I stepped in to re🙈cord the first day,” he says. “I had my speculations of what it might be based on the artwork, but that was the only real thing that I could draw on. I was like, ‘This kind of reminds me of The World Ends With You’. So when I found out what it was in the session I lost my mind. I really had to pull myself together to give a good performance. I just felt so honoured.”
Rindo is a contemporary, youthful figure, highly attuned to the fashion, culture, and zeitgeist of Shibuya in 2021. He’s designed to be relatable to a completely different generation than Neku, the protagonist iꦡn the first game. Castro, a decade older than Rindo at 17, explains how he was able to tap into Rindo’s relatability.
“Obviously I’m not the same age as Rindo,” he says. “My whole life I've had this perpetual adolescence with all my interests and the way I look and the way I sound. I think I've kind of stayed there, and I knew for Rindo it was going to be important to be as authentic and true as possible to the themes of today. I wanted to portray that as authentically as possible, so it was really a combination of who I am today, who I was as a kid, and also who the kids of today are, and the interests they have and the way they carry themselves. Rindo is like so many people we know - kids we know are how we were at his age.”
Fortunately for Castro, fans instantly took to Rindo’s journey and his performance in the lead role. Since NEO launched, the game - a🐭nd Rindo specifically - have been near-unanimously praised by the community despite the pressure of living up to the cult status of the original. As someone all too aware o🍃f the inaugural game’s iconic status, Castro knew there was a lot to live up to.
“First of all, the community is unlike any other,” he says. “It was scary to walk into the shoes and basically be compared against, in my eyes and many other eyes, a masterpiece. You’re almost set up for failure and to see how the community was like, ‘No, we love this content, this is a great story, you all did a phenomenal job acting’. I blush every time I read something that somebody sends me. The fan art is off the charts - these people are so talented, and if I can do anything I can to help share their love for this fandom a little, that's my mission.”
One of the ways Castro has been sharing this love is by streaming his playthrough on Twitch for everyone to see. “It's surreal, I cried the first time I heard myself,” Castro says. “I couldn't believe I was in a game like this. If you told me when I was a kid that I’d be a protag in a Square game - I would have taken the shopkeeper! I was able to lose myself a little bit after I got over the initial shock. I'm lost in the story, which is really hard to do.
“It's a game that I would have played regardless if I was in it or not. I'm still only on week one, so I'm itching to get back into it. I know most of what happens, obviously, but you don't really know the way in which they're going to present it because sometimes you're recording out of order. I’ve been taking my time with it because I also want to relish the moments and the experience myself. I don't want it to be a flash in the pan. I got to experience the game already when I got to record it, so this is the bonus round.”
Speaking of bonus rounds, one crossover that Square Enix fans are always wanting to see is The World Ends With You and Kingdom Hearts. Castro opened up about the possibility of The Wicked Twisters appearing in a future entry. “I’d cry,” he says. “I love 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Kingdom Hearts in the same way as 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy and The World Ends With You and all these games. They all had such an effect on me, so it wou🦹ld be another dream come true. So heck yeah, that would be so dope. As a fan, the only thing I can say is that would be so, so amazing.”
A sequel to the original TWEWY always seemed far-fetched, but given that NEO has enjoyed a slightly more mainstream breakthrough, a trilogy is now a firm possibility. If Castro has any clues on that, he&rsquꦅo;s not giving them away.
“I can't speak on behalf of Square but I hope they do,” he says. “I hope we get to see more of the series, whether it's with Rindo or with new characters. Whatever it is, I just love this series so much. You never know, they came back 14 years later when they added the extra content at the end of the original The World Ends With You. I'll be crossing my fingers just like everybody else.”
