Buy Citizens of Earth

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=378322471

As the newly elected Vice President of the World, it’s time to do whatever the President asks you to do. The opposition leader isn’t satisfied with the results of the election, he’s started a smear campaign on the V.P. that has everyone riled up. Despite these problems he goes out of his way to help out the citizens with their problems. He’s embroiled in a mystery that includes strange animals wandering the forests, and coffee makers that attack the patrons.

Liked

Earthbound Style – The creators of Citizens of Earth were clearly inspired by the great Mother/Earthbound series. It capitalizes on the visual presentation of minimalist first-person battles with text flowing above screen. It has its own sense of wacky characters from the over-the-top Vice President to the insane ramblings of the school mascot.

Gotta Catch Em’ All – Even with the resemblance to Earthbound, the game has a distinct similarity to the Pokemon series. As the V.P. you’re set to push citizens around with your powerful ways. Your job is to meander about town running into wacky personas and recruiting them to do your bidding. Each citizen has their own set of skills and strengths and weaknesses. They can easily be swapped in and out according to the situation, so there is plenty of fun to be had with each.

Great Voiceover – Every person in Citizens of Earth has a voice and they’re all great and capture the characters on screen wonderfully. Not every person has spoken dialogue in every situation, but the 75 percent that do sure are great to listen to.

Pricing – Citizens of Earth is a full-fledged RPG that captures the 16-bit era of games perfectly. It’s hard to argue with the price of $15 for hours of JRPG fun… even if the game has some drawbacks.

Could be better

JRPG Essence – I like Citizens of Earth… but that’s about as far as I can go with it. It doesn’t really break any walls down for the RPG genre. It takes a lot of pride in its comedy which is hit and miss, but the recruiting of Citizens breaks down to the monotony of fetch quests. Find this, kill that, it’s all rudimentary after a few battles. Within two or so hours of playing, I was already bored of what felt like a “grind” and that’s just not right.

Not only that, but the combat system is a little too basic for my tastes. It makes no attempts at differentiating itself from any other RPG that ever existed before it. I love Earthbound but somehow playing the same combat system in Citizens doesn’t have the same appeal. My only assumption to my feelings it that I remember Earthbound from 1994, and sadly it’s 2015 and I’d expect a staggering upgrade in the combat system by then.

Load Times Vita – Loading is buttery smooth on the PC but the Vita takes some time to move in and out of buildings. It’s a 5 to 6 seconds difference, but it’s noticeable since you move through different zones constantly. Other than the loading issue, the games are virtually the same.

Disliked

Soundtrack – It’s not that I hate the Soundtrack per se, it’s just that it isn’t that impressive for an RPG. Seeing as this game was inspired by the Mother series, you’d think it could do a little better with the musical choices. Sadly, there were times where the music began to grate or simply cutout completely after a combat sequence.

The world – Citizens of Earth has some great characters but the world is a bit too sanitary. The visuals are crisp enough to take a delicious bite out of, but the environments lack an artistic flair. At times I could confuse the design with that of a flash game. For a game that’s trying to capture the 16-bit essence, it lacks that artful variation that breathes life into different zones. The level design was clearly created for travel and not to stop to smell the roses.

Can’t skip messages – There is one thing I can’t stand in RPG’s, and that’s not being able to skip arbitrary messages. You can’t do that in Citizens of Earth, you’re forced to listen to the V.P. make snide comments during battle and enjoy lingering messages of enemies dropping items. It’s a small little thing, but man if it isn’t an annoyance when grinding.

Conclusion

Comedy has a place in video games and Citizen of Earth does tickle that fancy completely. As an RPG… it tries to mimic Earthbound and Pokemon, but falls short of the heights that those two titles reached. I recommend you wait for a sale before becoming the Vice President of the World. Citizens of Earth emulates the Mother series closely, but fails to show its own heart in the process. I’m not saying it’s a bad RPG, but nothing about the story or the combat had me playing it for more than a couple hours a day.

Rarely have I ever been graced with a Game I would consider Perfect.
With the recent failures and patches of games, its outstanding to see a game as amazingly perfect as Citizens of Earth.
But like many things my opinion can be taken worth a grain of salt, what matters to you is how much that salt is worth to you?

So if you enjoy RPG’s like Earthbound and Chrono Trigger, and games inspired by Pokémon, this game is a must have and a contender for Game of the Year of 2015.
If you didn’t know, Nintendo doesn’t show much love to the Mother and Earthbound series, only porting Earthbound to the Wii u due to the demands of fans.

Mother 1 and 3 have still not come to America, so when it comes to more Earthbound, fans are left wanting due to the launch failures of the 90’s.
However, you can trust me when I say Citizens of Earth is in every way shape and form a Spiritual Sucessor to Earthbound.

The plotline is simple, As the Vice President of the world; it is your job to unite the citizens of earth agaist the crazy evil that is occurring.

Now without giving away spoilers, this game continues to impress me.
From the graphics to the music that graces your ears, this game through and through emulates everything I loved about the Earthbound series while improving on it.

Namely allowing the player to recruit multiple citizens to fight in the party by solving their issues.
For example to acquire the baker it is required to get rid of protestors.

Normal everyday Citizens become the heroes of the game, with unique advantages and disadvantages, even your mother joins the fight by scolding and spanking enemies.
It may seem quite silly and quirky, but the charm is not lost.

The game is easy to pick up and start playing, and if you are having a difficult time with it there is the ability to lower difficulty early on, however if it is too easy, feel free to raise the difficulty for an XP bonus from every battle.
And the leveling up system is ingenious, players get bonuses to each citizen depending on who is in the party at the time.

Don’t like to grind your party up, don’t worry, there is a school where players can drop off Citizens for leveling up much like the daycare in Pokémon.

The battle mechanics are very similar to Earthbound with one addition; Citizens have energy, and build their energy up each turn with various attacks to unleash stronger attacks.

Controls are a breeze; there is no input lag or confusing button layouts and combos that must be memorized.
Item management along with party management is simple too, touch support is integrated if players desire for a faster menu interface.

Swapping Citizens is as easy as dragging and dropping at any time.
As far as the equipment goes, there is only 1-2 things for each citizen giving them bonus’s in certain situations, so there is significant less item management.

Graphics are crisp and the art style is very similar to Earthbound, the battle backrounds have been changed to not induce seizures, kudos for being able to actually watch the battles if you are prone to seizures.
As far as the sound and music go, it is light and upbeat in many situations and many individuals during my stream of the game really enjoyed the music selected.

The enemies are not recycled and all the citizens seem unique as well.
With side quests and the main story line, this game should provide plenty of fun and entertainment for those who are hardcore RPG or those that have a passing interest.

This game is littered with so many references to Earthbound, it is a joy to see them and just get that moment where you know it is definitely a reference.

Boss battles are epic and fun, and require a good amount of strategy to win as well.
So ladies and gentlemen, Citizens of Earth may possibly be one of my favorite games I have ever been permitted to play, it is like a late Christmas Present I was never expecting.

And if that was it for the review, it would be plenty for the game itself.
But the company Eden Industries, a group of 12 individuals, yes you heard me right, 12 people and only 2 full time produced this game in 3 years.

This company, allows the free use and promotion of this game, from its assets to music, they have no issues with full let’s plays, reviews, streams, and anything else you desire to do.
Citizens of Earth is published by Atlus and developed by Eden Industries, it will be available Janurary 20th 2015 on the 3DS, PS4, Wii U, PS Vita and Steam.

Unfortunately it is unavailable to the Xbox due to the lack of Dev. Kits at the time.
Please leave a like and let the gaming industry know, that we want more games like this. Quality, games that don’t have glitches destroying the game, no dlc patches, and no BS copy-right policies.
We want more Citizens of EARTH!

***This review was written using a Key provided by the Developer for review purposes***

Citizens of Earth is a comedic, top-down RPG where you play as the Vice-President of the world. As the World's VP it's your job to make the citizens of Earth happy folk and make sure they get what they want, after all that's what they elected you for. Over the course of your journey to make the citizens happy you'll come across many citizens willing to help you as well as plenty of people and monsters who want nothing more than to spoil your day.

+Nice and colourful cartoon style graphics
+Fantastic voice acting which fits perfectly with the game, in particular the voice actor who plays the VP himself
+An interesting, far-fetched plot which will see you doing all kinds of things from trying to get rid of protestors to trying to track down a flying cofffe shop
+A huge number of citizens to recruit, each with their own side-mission which must be completed for them to join you
+Great humour and hilarious dialogue lines throughout
+A wide variety of enemy types
+Quite a few different environments to explore
+Simple turn-based combat that often provides a good challenge, especially when fighting more than one enemy or when fighting a boss. Your party members also have energy requirements for certain moves (energy is built up by using your weaker attacks) which prevents you from using the same strong attack over and over again
+Each character has a number of different attacks, many of which are unlocked as they level up and no two characters have the same moves which means each character has their own, unique fighting style
+You are able to modify the difficulty during a playthrough by visiting a certain character or by talking to him when he is in your party, increasing the difficult rewards you with more money and more EXP while lowering the difficulty does the opposite
+You can name your party members whatever you want which can be rather amusing if you like that kind of thing

-The backgrounds when in combat are a bit strange and usually consist of moving colour patterns, I would have preferred the backgrounds from the environment to be used
-There were far too many random encounters for my liking and they are almost impossible to avoid and fleeing from fights is almost impossible as you always have very low chances of success
-Dialogue lines which repeat when triggered by doing something such as finding an item get repetitive and irritating very quickly such as "Capitalism at its finest" when picking up an item of food

Worth a Mention:
-Not really worthy of a negative but the menus all have Xbox controller prompts even when using KB&M which I thought was a little odd

Verdict:
8

A super fun comedic RPG, with a huge number of characters unlock, a funny plot and great turn-based combat, I highly recommend this game for fans of similar RPGs.

El K.

It's pretty much Earthbound/Mother meets politics. It's a great combo with a few flaws.

Pro:
- Charming hand-drawn graphics
- Gameplay is unique and varies with citizens combo
- Music is great and every recruitable citizen has their own voiceover.
- Recruiting the citizens is half the game. The other half, the story itself, which isn't that long.
- Light-hearted humor
- A lot of hommage to Earthbound/Mother
- Not very grindy (Unless you love it)

Con:
- Pretty ridiculous encounter rate (Like, a bunch of them all at once on screen)
- Short, but that's expected from a $15 title
- Some bugs that can crash your game without warning (switching out certain characters, teleporting, interacting with certain objects or even going to certain areas)
It happens rarely at least.
- Not very grindy (Unless you love it)

Get it if you love:
- Turn-based RPGs
- Political satires
- Earthbound/Mother and/or Suikoden
- Something casual
- Humor

Don't get it if:
- You wanted something more hardcore (Unless you adjust difficulty via a citizen)
- You want something serious
- You want a long game
- You hate everything politics related.
- You lack a sense of humor

YES it's an Earthbound / Mother clone.

YES it pays tribute and references Earthbound / Mother every chance it gets.

NO it doesn't live up to our high expectations and

NO it doesn't surpass the greatness that is Earthbound / Mother... like doesn't even come close.

BUT if you're craving some Earthbound / Mother without repeating those same games for the 100th time, it's a nice change of pace.

Citizens of Earth does pay huge tribute to the Earthbound / Mother series and for that I am greatful.

Earthbound was a sleeper hit game on the SNES back in the early to mid 90's that capitalized on doing something different, making fun of Western culture and using the same sterotypes we saw in JRPG games at the time...

Once the dawning of the internet occured and more information spread it obtained cult following status and at this point, legendary status as one of the best JRPG's of the Silver Age of gaming. This is exactly why Citizens of Earth tries so hard to emulate the feeling, it wants to be great. Does it reach it's lofty goal? Hell no... but it's still a fun game and a love letter to Earthbound fans across the globe.

Should you buy it at 15 dollars? I'd say, if you're incredibly desperate for a retro style RPG and a huge retro style world to explore, then yes, definitely YES. I can already tell this game is going to need an entire weekend to fully enjoy properly. To those of you not in touch with your inner child, you've lived a sad and depraved childhood and for that I pity you... but there's always time to change. :)

You can't really play this game in stints, you really need to sit down and make some time to be enthralled by it to fully enjoy it and that's exactly how Earthbound worked... You need to let yourself be absorbed by the world within, unfortunately Earthbound almost immediately draws you in where Citizens of Earth takes some time.

The plot is rather weak to begin with and it seems like the fun comes from recruiting characters from the 40 character roster... There's plenty to explore and a lot of questing to do so the content to price ratio is fair.

Where does the game fall short? The music is rather quirky, but not in the good kind of way like Earthbound was... It tries too hard to be weird and ends up kind of falling flat... Although some areas definitely have some pretty cool tunes, none of it is Earthbound worthy though.

The character recruitment can get a bit overwhelming, there's a lot of characters to try and you really don't know who's going to be good in the long run. I find comitting to a specific set of characters is fairly tough, especially when you have so many to choose from. The level up bonus' you receive from having specific characters in your group at the time of leveling up also really hurts the grind a bit. It's an OCD nightmare for hardcore gamers who love to min / max their characters... basically if you don't set up characters to synergize properly, it's wasted potential... over the course of 100 level ups, it could mean the difference of being able to conquer the 4X difficulty setting for the masocists.

This kind of makes the game suffer a bit in the lasting appeal department, you really can't get attached to any one character other than your brother, who seems to be one of the best all around characters to have. You'll be constantly switching out the other two characters to work around your brother's strengths.

I can tell a lot of work went in to the character creation so I can't knock it too hard but it seems like it could of been toned down a bit. I would of rather had 4 to 6 solid characters to choose from and left it at that but then it would of threw the entire theme of the game out the window so it's a bit hit and miss in my opinion.

Either way, it's a meaty game, probably around the same size / length as Earthbound, except this game seems to be a lot less linear from the start. It's best to just follow the main quest line until you can get some quick travel going because walking around in this game is just abysmally boring which was another gripe of mine... There's plenty of places to visit but if you hit a dead end, expect to want to just quit and take a break because the hike back in the other direction is enough to just turn you off completely.

All in all, recommended to those craving a taste of the good old days of gaming. Cheers.

This game is just great, if you love Earthbound, this game is pretty close to it.

Pros:

• The game is a good value with 20+ hours of game time
  
• Interesting story
  
• Great voice acting
  
• Fun, classic RPG gameplay
  
• Silly and Zany humor
  
• Tons of people to recruit
  
• Varied environments

Cons:

• Overuse of voices during battle
  
• Travelling through the world is a bit tedious
  
• Soundtrack can become repetitive

Citizens of Earth is a wide-open RPG with lots of exploration and options available. It is a classic turn-based style RPG with a huge cast of unique characters that keep things interesting and varied in and out of combat. The game encourages the use of all the characters due to the fact that many of their talents can be levelled-up, which opens many more possibilities.

Citizens of Earth can be looked at as a love letter and an inspiration to roleplaying games of the past. It’s unique enough in its core premise and gameplay additions that I can’t see many long time RPG fans not highly enjoying this. If you’re looking for a title with both style and substance and a hint of nostalgia, Citizens of Earth is your next RPG purchase. The world may never get Earthbound 2/Mother 4, but Citizens of Earth is damn close to it.

9/10

If there was a more neutral vote then yes/no I would have gone with that, but there are enough little things I can't ultimately recommend this game.

Pros: The humor is my humor
First half of the game has good pacing
Wide array of likable characters
The general look of the game
Liked the layout of the menu
No random battles, can avoid on screen enemies

Cons: Too much grinding
Some of the character unlocks and mini-games are pure luck.
The map could be better
Pacing suffers in second half

It's a game that starts strong but loses momentum as it goes on.

Hits some nostalgia chords but falls well short of the games that inspired it.

On two separate occasions I lost enough interest in Citizens of Earth that I took a couple months off from playing it. Today I've finally finished it, including recruiting all the citizens (I'm a completionist), and am ultimately left disappointed. Much like the character of the Vice President (VP) of the World that you play as, I found this game initially appealing but shallow once you dig in a little.

My biggest complaint has be the direction they chose to go in designing the recruitable characters. Most are caricatures based on common stereotypes and much of the comedy is too. Some examples: the Car Salesman is a slick sleazebag, somewhere along the way the Cop will mention donuts and the Artist will talk about happy trees. It's predictable and, as I mentioned before, shallow. With such a large cast of playable characters it's not unexpected that many of them don't get a chance to build depth, but that doesn't excuse that I never felt attached to any of them besides the VP. This isn't to say that there aren't any good moments, there are, there just aren't enough of them.

From a combat standpoint there is a lot of variation among the citizens, leaving you plenty of room to get creative with your party setup. Equipment is very limited but each has the potential to significantly change how you'll want to use that character and who to team them with. For example, an offensive character might be able to be equiped with something that doubles their attack but also halves their defense. You might accept this tradeoff if you pair them with a teammate that is able to protect them.

Similar to Earthbound, battles aren't the highlight of the game. They can be enjoyable at times or tedious and repetitive at others. With the large cast you're bound to have many under leveled members as well as some potentially over leveled favorites. Difficulty is largely left up to you, either by directly altering it with the special talent of the Mascot character or by choosing lower level members for your party. That can make it tough to consistently find a good balance between challenging and cakewalk.

Visually the game is pleasing to the eye. I'm particularly fond of the style of the citizens and enemies. The world has many areas to explore but loses some beauty points with its tendency toward vertical and horizontal lines. Also hurting the good looks was frequent screen tearing and no V-sync option available to remedy this. While on the topic of game performance issues, the game crashed on me numerous times throughout my time with it. The autosave feature made it so I rarely lost more than a few minutes of progress, but it's still distressing.

The soundtrack is another area of great disappointment. It tries to emulate the quirky style of Earthbound. Unfortunately its tunes aren't able to breathe the same life into the places they accompany. None of the music is grating, it's just very forgettable.

Despite some good aspects to this game and my appreciation for where the developers hearts were at in making this, I cannot recommend it. If you're dying to play a comedy heavy RPG that's not part of the Mother series then maybe give this a shot but keep your expectations low.

5/10

An RPG modelled after Earthbound in many ways, yet comepletely original in plenty of others. The recruitment system is unique and fantastic, and the dialogue is hysterical. The game looks and feels great. Having played Earthbound, I'd say this game is pretty dang close to it. Definitely would reccomend to anyone, even those who aren't RPG fans.

People say this is the Spiritual Successor to the old SNES cult classic EarthBound, and I can see why.

The plot is humorous instead of serious, you enter combat and fight in combat in very similar fashions, and the game captures the heart of old school RPGs with its gameplay.

This game is also not very linear. You can follow the storyline to a T and go through it that way, or you can run around and explore the world you are trying to save and make your round about way through the story.

I'm enjoying the crap out of this game, and if you enjoy old school RPGs I'm sure you'll love this game too.