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Citizens of Earth Review for PlayStation 4 (PS4)

Citizens of Earth Review for PlayStation 4 (PS4)

Greetings Citizen

One could argue that the JRPG formula really hasn’t changed since the days of the Super Nintendo. You get together a party of rag tag adventurers, fight a bunch of random battles to level up, and head off on an adventure to save the world. It could also be argued that this is the reason the JRPG is much less prevalent in today’s video game market than it was say ten or fifteen years ago. However, Atlus’s new JRPG in spirit, Citizens of Earth , is attempting to make us look at this aging genre once again. Built in the tradition of some of the best JRPGs of all time, such as Chrono Trigger and Suikoden , Citizens of Earth combines traditional JRPG mechanics with modern day design sensibilities. The result is a game that shows you what potential the JRPG formula has.

Citizens of Earth Screenshot

The story of Citizens of Earth is a quirky tale of aliens and politics. You play the recently elected vice president… of Earth. You wake up the day after your acceptance speech to find a group of angry protesters rallying outside your door, led by the leader of your opposing political party. You, of course, do the only sensible thing to do in such a situation… personally beat the crap out of each and every one until they leave your town. You then realize that people are getting strangely addicted to a new type of coffee at the local “Moonbucks” and make your way to a nearby mountain, where the story explodes and unfolds into a tale involving an alien invasion and the fate of Earth as you know it.

The story, sadly, is probably one of the weaker point of Citizens of Earth . It wants desperately to mimic the weird yet lovable nature of Earthbound and the rest of the Mother Series . However, it never quite gets there. While the bizarre nature of things in Earthbound was used as a contrast to the otherwise kind of dark plot, Citizen of Earth never gets to a point where you take it seriously. It kind of feels like goofy things are happening for the sake of being goofy, which is OK, but doesn’t push you toward seeing the next chapter of the plot.

Citizens of Earth Screenshot

The mechanics, however, easily make up for whatever shortcomings Citizens of Earth has in its plot. As we said before, the game is built following the traditions of some classic JRPGs of the past. For example, the encounter system is exactly like Earthbound . Enemies wander the world map waiting to fight you, and if you run into them you go into a first person Dragon Quest style battle. If they run into your back, you start the game with a penalty (less SP in this case) and if you run into their back or send your party out to “charge” them on the map, you will start the battle with a bonus (more SP). Also, if you are vastly over-leveled and your opponent does not stand a chance, the game will simply award you an auto victory before the battle even starts, just like Earthbound did.

The battles themselves, however, are a little bit more unique. The two meters you need to keep track of are HP and SP. HP is your health, which operates as you would expect. SP is your “magic” but the way it works is pretty unique. Every action you can take is labeled as an SP Up or SP Down action. SP Up actions are simple actions you probably want to take each turn. These actions include things like your basic attack, simple healing, weak buffs and debuffs, and so on. Using these actions increase your SP slightly.

Citizens of Earth Screenshot

SP Down skills use the SP you earn by using your other skills. These are more powerful attacks, multiple buffs, whole party healing, powerful debuffs, even things like increasing the XP you get at the end of the battle. There are also certain skills that you can use that make OTHER party members spend their XP. For example, there are heals that cost you no SP, but cost the characters you are healing XP depending on how much they heal. This tug of war between SP up skills and SP down skills set the pace of battles, and managing your SP well usually determines whether you win or lose in battle.

Citizens of Earth makes you think very, very hard about party composition by making party members interact with each other in interesting ways. For example, your Mother’s debuff scolding skills aid your Brother’s multi hit attack skills. In addition, each party member gives a stat boost at level up to all other members of your party. So, for example, putting Brother in the party buffs everyone HP. You’ll be very tempted to just put your strongest party members into the party at all times, but you’ll soon realize that they are raising a random assortment of stats that doesn’t really help you, and you’ll find yourself doing too little and taking too much damage because you didn’t use a variety of different party members.

The final interesting quirk about the combat system, is how XP works. Each enemy gives you a bit of XP, and you gain this XP as soon as the enemy dies. This means that you can gain levels (and thus heal yourself completely) in the middle of a battle. This actually factors into the strategy of large group battles quite a bit. You also gain extra bonus XP at the end of battle as well, based on how many enemies you have beaten. So if you run in the middle of battle, the battle isn’t always for nothing.

There are tons of characters to recruit, a lot like the Suikoden series, or Chrono Cross . Each character has their own recruitment quest to go on, some as simple as finding an item or beating an enemy, others as complicated as solving complicated puzzles and quizzes.

While each of these characters are different in battle, the real reason to recruit everyone you can is for character talents. Talents are out of battle abilities that aid you in some way, and they level up as each character does. For example, your Brother can order items via FedUPS. The baker can bake restorative items. The conspiracy theorist keeps records on enemies. Your mother gives you hints and tips. So on so forth.

Citizens of Earth Screenshot

The real gem of this game is using talents together to pretty much break the game. For example, the teacher can keep a party member out of battle for a certain amount of time in order to level them up outside of battle. The scientist, has a time machine which alters time immediately. Thus, if you use both of their talents together, you can insta-level up a party member!

Children of Earth loves to play around with JRPG conventions. You can’t search through the garbage for items, as much as you are tempted to do so, that is, unless you recruit the homeless man. You also gain XP for doing, just about anything. If you read a sign, you’ll get XP. If you talk to someone important, you’ll get XP. This brings the battle and exploration portions of the game a bit closer together.

If I were to think hard and long about the bad parts of Citizens of Earth , I’d probably cite the game’s stability. The game crashed several times, many times while saving. Maybe the game is more stable on mobile platforms, but the PC version has a lot of backend programming problems. Heck, sometimes quests would just complete without me actually taking the steps to complete them which… was nice… but was still weird. That being said you can save anywhere so as long as you are vigilant, this won’t affect you much.

I have to say, I really enjoyed Citizens of Earth . While I wouldn’t call it a must own title, I would say it’s a game worth playing, if only to see what can be done to revive this old and beloved genre. I’d say it’s probably even a bit better on mobile platforms, as it’s the type of game where you can have a million quests to do which you slowly wrap up over the course of a bus ride. If you liked old JRPGs and want to see what might be in store for the genre’s future, give Citizens of Earth a try.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 2.5 Graphics
To be honest the graphics of the game are mediocre at best and kind of feel like they were cobbled together in flash. 3.9 Control
The controls work really well, whether touch based, mouse based, or controller based. The only problem is that you can mis-click if you rush through battle too quick. 3.0 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The music can get kind of repetitive, especially when you spend a lot of time in one place. But otherwise it’s decently composed and feels like it comes from a Mother title. 5.0 Play Value
The best thing this game has going for it is its fun factor. It his all the JRPG notes that a good JRPG should, and if you ignore the rest of its downfalls, you will really enjoy it. 3.8 Overall Rating – Good
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 – 1.9 = Avoid 2.5 – 2.9 = Average 3.5 – 3.9 = Good 4.5 – 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 – 2.4 = Poor 3.0 – 3.4 = Fair 4.0 – 4.4 = Great 5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

  • Innovative battle and party management system.
  • Tons of characters to recruit, each with their own special talent.
  • Quirky plot involving aliens, dreams, and coffee.

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