Citizens of Earth

Shiny, happy people laughing.

Citizens of Earth is a fun, if flawed, sojourn into the glory days of 16 bit JRPGs.

Citizens of Earth is a rare breed of sprawling RPG that doesn't take itself too seriously, and blends solid mechanics with parody and imagination very well indeed. The style is there, but when it comes to overall experience, a long list of glitches rains on this Vice President's parade somewhat. Consider electing the WIi U version over the 3DS port for superior visuals that do add a welcome extra vote, but if you're set on taking this adventure on the go it's still very much worth your attention.

Citizens of Earth is a quirky game with its heart in the right place and its head in the clouds. It charmed me with its blend of old-school RPG and contemporary satire, but nearly lost my vote with its sluggish pacing, irritatingly high enemy encounter rate, and crashes. As it is, it’s pretty A-OK, but it would have a tough race winning a run-off for my time against a well-paced RPG.

However, there’s still a somewhat decent game beneath the frustrating amalgam of boring, grinding gameplay and bizarre design decisions. There’s a lot of potential behind the scenes that could be reworked into a much more satisfying experience. As-is, Citizens of Earth is at best a semi-mediocre journey with lots of quests to complete. Alas, it seems that while it tried its best to do so, it just couldn’t quite grasp EarthBound’s true form.

All of this almost feels like a shame because visually Citizens of Earth looks fantastic. It captures the pseudo-retro SNES aesthetic it works ever so hard to achieve, ever so well. Given the lacklustreous nature of the characters, the voice acting is also surprisingly intuitive. But overall there is just too much going on. This is a game which clearly values quantity over quality and is worse off for it, leaving you with the lasting impression that this was a team over zealously trying to ma...

With trouble