Replay

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or character details follow.

"Let's change our fate!"

"Hang on—I'm having some serious déjà vu. This happened before... Can I make sure it doesn't?"

— Rindo awakening to Replay, DeeP DivE (Week 1, Day 3)

Replay, known in the Japanese version as Restart (リスタート, Risutāto), is a game system in NEO: The World Ends with You. It is Rindo's unique psychic power brought out by his Reaper Pin. He can travel back in time on a given day and change his actions for a better outcome.

Replay can only be used when triggered by the story. When triggered, pressing the Square button will open a menu of points in time to which Rindo can return, plus a "Change your fate" option which is used when all goals in the available times have been completed.

The individual points in time behave as if they were locations. Usually, it is not possible to move between locations physically during a Replay. Rindo travels during Replay by convincing the group to go to a different destination, and then jumping forward to the point when the group are there. Returning to a given Replay point for a second time does not require you to redo what you did there. Replay is "mental time travel", in that Rindo sends his future knowledge back, so it does not result in encounters with himself. Because of the knowledge being from a possible timeline, it is unable to be provoked by Remind either.

Available Days

• Prologue: Rindo uses Replay during the opening cinematic to prevent Fret being hit by a truck.
• Week 1, Day 3 (NEO): to return with knowledge of the pin that Nagi wants.
• Week 1, Day 5 (NEO): to pay greater attention to events that could disrupt the Deep Rivers Society and to sabotage the sales of plush pigs that create Negative Noise.
• Week 1, Day 7 (NEO): to return with knowledge of Kaichi "Susukichi" Susuki's final location and to ensure that Sho Minamimoto helps with the fight.
• Week 2, Day 2 (NEO): to learn in advance the location in which the new player will be erased.
• Week 2, Day 6 (NEO): to complete the Scramble Slam more quickly in order to arrive earlier at the meeting between Motoi Anazawa and Shoka Sakurane.
• Week 2, Day 7 (NEO): to learn that the team is being secretly pursued by Support Reapers and know to take steps to evade them.
• Week 3, Day 2 (NEO): to ensure that Shoka is mentally prepared to fight Ayano Kamachi.
• Week 3, Day 3 (NEO): to recover Rindo's memories and prevent Tosai "Fret" Furesawa becoming infected by Plague Noise.
• Week 3, Day 4 (NEO): to prevent Plague Noise spreading out of control in Miyashita Park.
• Week 3, Day 6 (NEO): to prevent the Twisters being trapped in the Shibuya River.
• Week 3, Day 7: Part One (NEO): to prevent the destruction of Shibuya.
• Week 3, Day 7: Part Three (NEO): to prevent the destruction of Shibuya and weaken the cognitive energy to ensure that no one gets erased.

Story

Tanzo Kubo bestowed the power of time travel onto Rindo with a modified Reaper Pin, as part of his game with Shibuya Composer Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu to use the Soul Pulvis produced by temporal displacement to invert Shibuya. Rindo first time travels in the prologue's opening cinematic after Fret is crushed by a flipped truck: in the new timeline he convinces Fret to run another way to avoid the truck. Later in TheREAPERS'game (Week 1, Day 1), Fret seems to have no memory of being crushed by the truck when he wonders if they can die in the Game.

Rindo first properly becomes conscious of his power in DeeP DivE (Week 1, Day 3), after getting his mind dived into and attacked by Nagi. In a panic, he realizes he can turn back time and get Nagi the Elegant Strategy pin she wants. He struggles at first keeping track of his time travel, such as trying to ask Fret to visit a café with him to get a voucher for the pin - at a time before Kanon Tachibana would tell them Nagi had a "monstrous pin collection". Sanae Hanekoma writes about the many latent abilities among the Wicked Twisters in his Secret Reports, where he calls Rindo's time travel "far too dangerous" and saying if he was able to play a role in the Game he'd ensure it'd remain dormant due to having the power to "not only warp, but demolish" the lower planes' code.

Sho Minamimoto reveals Rindo's power to the rest of the Wicked Twisters on In2 the ✖ing (Week 1, Day 6). Hanekoma speculates in the Secret Reports that a refinery sigil made by Minamimoto was heightening his Imagination, making him more aware to his power and the influence it had on seemingly unconnected events. Minamimoto points out that Rindo needs his Reaper Pin to perform it - when Rindo, Fret, and Nagi look at each other's Reaper Pins they find Rindo's Reaper Pin has become more deformed as it absorbs Soul Pulvis and distortions from his time travel. After this, Fret names it "Replay". The visual when Rindo is travelling to a point of time now will have "Replay!" added to it rather than having no text in Day 3 and 5, and "Replayer" will be added to Rindo's Social Network.

By Dearly❤beloveD (Week 3, Day 2), Hanekoma starts believing that Replay is not a latent ability of Rindo at all, but a gift bestowed on him by Kubo since Angels are capable of creating special pins. In Come🡒🡐back (Week 3, Day 4) Minamimoto uses Soul Pulvis to empower his Noise form into Leo Cantus Armo, revealing to Rindo that the multiplying Soul Pulvis birds are produced by time-reversal and are attracted to differences in time. Before he can say their interdimensional origin is, the Soul Pulvis takes him over and transforms him into Leo Cantus Armo. After being defeated by the Twisters and a suddenly-appearing Neku Sakuraba, Minamimoto warns Rindo that the power of Replay shouldn't be wielded by a mere Player like him and leaves. Sanae Hanekoma suspects that Minamimoto can sense the distortions in himself and between planes, which should be undetectable from the UG, but cannot clearly measure them. Neku grows wary of Replay and asks Rindo in 🡐stabbed (Week 3, Day 6) to avoid using Replay - however Rindo is forced to use it to prevent the Twisters being trapped in the Shibuya River.

Kubo reveals how he planned Replay to help purify Shibuya in full to Rindo in S • B • Y (Week 3, Day 7) after the Soul Pulvis his pin stores bursts out and starts devouring the city. He explains that he gave Rindo Replay to produce Soul Pulvis from distorted souls of timelines that had been cut off from history by Replay, multiplying distortions and being transformed into Noise with what Hanekoma suspects is a latent power of Kubo. Despite being warned by Kubo that any further Replaying would multiply the Soul Pulvis further, Rindo travels back to the start of the day. The empowered Soul Pulvis further destroys Shibuya and almost everyone but Rindo in SHI • BU • YA (Week 3, Day 7') - Kubo breaks Rindo's Reaper Pin to disable him from Replaying before being exorcised by Hazuki Mikagi.

A month later, Rindo in a RG without the Wicked Twisters tours Shibuya with Hazuki Mikagi. Haz apologizes for Kubo at the end and offers Rindo a Reaper Pin to travel back one final time to the Final Day. Rindo wonders if he should go back when Soul Pulvis will emerge stronger than before endangering Shibuya and wanting to go back in time to prevent his friends from being erased. Haz almost throws the pin away, but Rindo asks him to give it back so he can Replay one last time, creating a second loop with SHIBUYA (Week 3, Day 7''). Minamimoto suggests that Rindo can overwrite corrupted Souls by replacing them with living souls of Shibuya's awakened consciousness. The Wicked Twisters plan with Rhyme to create "Operation: Awakening" and do this, resulting in the Soul Pulvis coalescing into Phoenix Cantus with 13 tails representing the 13 times Rindo used Replay in-game. They defeat Phoenix Cantus, destroying Soul Pulvis and saving Shibuya.

See also

• Remind - Fret's power
• Dive - Nagi's power
• Soundsurf - Beat's psych power
• Telewarp - Shoka's psych power

References

Spoiler warning: Spoilers end here.