Being the Vice President of the World must be an exhausting job that takes skill, determination and the admiration of the people. Which makes me wonder how the Veep in Eden Industries’ Citizens of Earth got his job in the first place unless the requirements were to dress sharp and smile a lot. That being said Citizens of Earth for the PlayStation 4 and Vita is a modern RPG with a retro vibe and bizarre story inspired by Earthbound, one of the greatest RPGs ever made.
Players step into the role of the well-dressed politician as he returns home after winning his election to get back to his roots…er I mean drop off his laundry. It’s not soon after that a riot breaks out and you are introduced to Citizens of Earth’s combat system. You see the Vice President doesn’t fight his own battles but rather uses his followers to do it for him in classic RPG turn based combat. At first you team up with your own mother and brother to dispatch rioters as you explore the blocked off city blocks. Half of the fun of Citizens and something I always do is exploring every nook and cranny of the map and it interesting locations for items. More interesting is the city’s 40 inhabitants that will eventually join your team to root out the weird happenings like what’s up with the addictive Special Blend coffee at Moonbucks.
Your current party members not only follow you around everywhere, but all have secondary abilities that can aid you in your journey. For instance, your mother can give you advice and your brother can order recovery items that are delivered over time directly to you. The cast of party members are diverse and mirror real life archetypes like a Jamaican musician or a German baker, but they serve their purposes none the less. Some of the more interesting ones can actually alter the game such as the Mascot who can make the game harder for greater reward or the weatherwoman who can alter the weather.
Gaining each of these potential party members however isn’t an easy task as all of them require you to do something in exchange for them to join like finding all of your superfan’s kittens and recruit more people before she will join. Once you have certain people on your team like the bodybuilder, botanist or pilot you can move for effectively around the world which is necessary to progress or get out of the way items. One nice feature is that no matter where you are you can save anywhere via the Vice President’s tablet as well as utilize the skills of your recruits as well as alter your current party roster. Being able to save anywhere is also usefully as I had the game crash a few times during my play session.
Combat itself is pretty standard fare for an RPG though it’s fast paced nature and the characters make it enjoyable. Things like the conspiracy guy using his paranoia to uncover stats and skills or the over caffeinated coffee server replenishing energy for herself and your party with coffee or the computer programmer who uses binary code to attack his enemies. Old school RPGs usually fell into two types of encounters, those that are random and those that you can see and avoid. Citizens of Earth uses the enemies on the game map style of play allowing you to avoid fights when necessary, like when half your party members are dead three levels into a dungeon. Though if you do get stuck in battle like being between a rock and a hard place you can attempt to escape battles. This is easier said than done as it’s based on a percent system that doesn’t always play in your favor when it really matters as you try and escape any of the colorful locations.
Citizens of Earth features a cartoon visual style that tailors to the old school days of RPG while giving it a more polished look than the games that I grew up playing. This fits right in with the unique cast of characters who bring the game to life. When you are not out in the world you’re treated to often trippy backdrops while in combat against some creative enemies like the Telefawn (deer with a phone attached to his butt in his antlers) or Tankenstien (yeah pretty much what it sounds like) or the hopped up on sugar children that gives a whole other meaning to the phrase Unhappy Camper. There are some little visual touches that I enjoyed like your entire party reflecting in every window in real time when you walk by them and the weather effects. The audio particularly the music is spot on with the era that Citizens of Earth is designed to capture though nothing about it really stands out but still manages to be enjoyable none the less.
Citizens of Earth is an interesting adventure that gets bizarre from one moment to the next but somehow manages to capture some of the magic that Earthbound did only with a main character that was far less interesting than Ness. Both the PlayStation 4 and Vita version which are sold individually can be picked up and played in short sessions though for the gamer on the go the Vita is definitely the better choice as both games are identical with the exception of the touchscreen interaction in the menus. One notable thing is that there is no cross-save functionality, so that should be factored into which version you go with.
Citizens of Earth is a game that does a good job at bringing back the old style of RPGs while making it fresh for a new generation of gamers. If you love old school RPGs check out Citizens of Earth for the PS4 or Vita today.
