Citizens of Earth Review (PC)

Old-school role-playing experiences reminiscent of classic 8-bit or 16-bit titles are rather common nowadays but few manage to evoke that great feeling you had when going through the likes of Earthbound and many other games that appeared at that time.

Citizens of Earth, coming from Eden Industries and Atlus, wants to change this, going old-school in terms of feel but adding quite a lot of new-school mechanics, not to mention some stylized visuals that, fortunately, don't attempt to go down the pixelated route employed by way too many games nowadays.

Does the ambitious title manage to deliver a great performance or should the citizens go back to their homes? Let's find out.

Story

Citizens of Earth gives players the role of Vice President of the World, as after you’ve just won the election, you go back to your home town in order to relax and celebrate the victory. Unfortunately, things are quickly going downhill, with many enemies popping up and plenty of weird events. Safe to say that things aren't going so well for the world and your job as Vice President forces you to act, which in this case means recruiting others to fight in your place.

The plot is quite interesting but what really makes it stand out is the huge number of characters that are fun, colorful, and can all be recruited to help you on your quest. The VP himself is a loveable bureaucrat who knows everything about politics but not much else.

As such, you'll have plenty of great dialog to listen to and read through, as while quite a few major statements are voiced, others are just text that's accompanied by some form of sound from the characters.

There are around 40 citizens to meet and recruit throughout the game's world, and while the story is quite entertaining, doing quests and trying to get them on your team is also a lot of fun, although a bit tedious.

Fight rioters

Gameplay

Citizens of Earth is an old-school RPG reminiscent of the Japanese ones that flooded consoles many years ago. This means that you lead your party throughout the environment, dodging or surprising enemies while trying to complete quests and objectives.

Moving around the world is pretty fluid but interacting with enemies is a bit hit and miss, as the game often judges that you were taken by surprise for being just a tiny bit off when colliding with the opponents. This in turn results in all your party members losing power that's then spent on attacks.

Speaking of combat, it's a JRPG-style turn-based experience in which you pick between different categories of attacks, with various options in each of them. There's a wide array of attack times, from the traditional physical, poison, electricity, and so on, to the wackier verbal ones. There are plenty of status effects to inflict upon enemies, and once you generate powers through simpler moves, you unleash more devastating ones.

Your companions can fulfill a variety of roles and it's crucial to rotate your party members in order to get them on similar levels. As such, while there is a fair bit of grinding in some cases, you also have the option to send them to the local high school, where they can learn and progress over a certain period of time.

Even the game's mechanics are handled by the myriad of NPCs, as you mother can provide advice, the weatherwoman can change the weather, or the school mascot can change the difficulty. Once they're in your party, you can still meet them in the environment, and each provides plenty of interesting dialog.

Enemies are extremely varied, ranging from rioters, to secret service agents, or an array of monsters with quirky designs. Defeating them requires a bit of strategy until you find winning combinations of powers and attacks, but the game doesn't shy away from scattering very powerful opponents in its environments that pose a serious threat. During battle, you have the option to retreat and regroup, in order to choose different party members or swap out injured ones.

“Battles feel pretty good and enemies can be avoided in quite a lot of situations in case you're just trying to reach quest goals.”

The difficulty curve at the regular setting is decent, and although you might find yourself against overwhelming odds, as you only have three party members and you might encounter even five enemies, patience, strategy, and good healers like your mother or the baker can help.

The environments are quite varied and it’s relatively fun to travel through them but you might get lost if your sense of direction isn't all that good. There is a small mini-map displayed in the corner of the screen but it doesn’t do that great of a job. Traveling to and from settlements is also a bit tricky, at least until you can recruit NPCs like the Pilot. It still gets a bit tedious and can certainly wear on your nerves.

Uncover conspiracies

Visuals and sound

Citizens of Earth boasts a great cartoonish visual style that feels refreshing and allows characters to have a lot of personality just through their designs. The framerate is good, the colors are vibrant, and the textures are sharp, but some environments do feel a bit cluttered and make spotting items or other objects a bit hard.

The soundtrack is quite varied but spending time in a single area for long makes the tune feel quite monotonous. The audio effects can also wear on your nerves due to the repetition but the general voice acting is very good, starting with the Vice President and continuing with each of the quirky citizens found in the environments.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion

Citizens of Earth is a great role-playing experience that manages to evoke the feel of Earthbound and other JRPGs while still doing its own thing. The gameplay is fun, the environments are varied, and the crazy citizens make the whole title feel refreshing. Sure, there are a few quirks here and there, but overall, you can't lose by playing this great title.

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