When you look at Citizens of Earth, the first thing many people will reminded of is Earthbound, the SNES classic RPG from Ape and HAL Laboratory. Unfortunately, there’s only so far nostalgic charm can carry Citizens of Earth before the repetition sets in and you begin smashing your head against the keyboard in frustration over the vague side quests, tedious enemy encounters, and the seemingly endless grind.
Citizens of Earth gets off to a promising start, brilliantly showcasing its humor as you take on the role of the newly-minted Vice President of Earth. Returning to his home town for some rest and relaxation after a hard one day in the office, he begins to find some very strange things happening around the city. There’s a story in here somewhere, but it’s quickly buried by the endless task of chores you’re given by the citizens of your town.
Citizens of Earth’s biggest problem, simply put, is it’s too busy. There’s just too much to do in it, and not in a good way. Normally, you’d think lots of content is good for a game; but, more content doesn’t necessarily mean good content. Citizens of Earth has a lot of fluff, and a lot of it is tedious busy work.
Side quests to recruit additional citizens for your party are designed to encourage you to explore the world. And I honestly would’ve loved to have done that since the world Eden Industries has constructed seems interesting enough. Bright, colorful, and inviting, it’s also filled with endless amounts of enemies that make exploration difficult. Literally, every couple of steps I took, I was met with an enemy encounter. Trying to fleed is practically pointless since the chance for success is so low it’s almost impossible to do in the first couple of turns. You’re basically forced to fight in each encounter which is kind of unfortunate since the combat system could’ve been fun if not for the repetitive grind.
Combat in Citizens of Earth is turned-based and works off an energy system in which certain skills build up energy while others use energy. With all the different characters available for your party, mixing and matching to find a team that fits your playstyle could’ve been really fun. Unfortunately, that fun turns into more of a grind because you’re forced to fight so freaking much. What’s more, experience you earn isn’t shared among all your characters so if you decide to sub a character in your party with one you just unlocked, they’ll be much weaker and practically useless at first.
Making matters worse, the game does very little to guide you. You have an agenda that lists all your main missions and side tasks, but it doesn’t provide information on what you need to do. Instructions are frustratingly vague and lead to hours of wandering around the map with no inkling of what you need to do. The map isn’t at all helpful either. And again, with the city swarming with enemies, getting to the place you need to go takes forever. Oh, and did I mention that enemies respawn every time you leave and re-enter an area? That’s fun, especially when you’re lost.
Of course, it’s hard to stay too angry at the game, and that’s because of the dialogue and characters. The dialogue is very tongue-in-cheek, clearly trying to mimic Earthbound’s naive, but humorous dialogue. For the most part, it succeeds in doing so. I chuckled a few times at the shots taken towards not just politics, but society as a whole and the culture in which we live in. None of the jokes had me in an uproar of laughter, but I did find myself smiling a few times at the witty banter between characters. Even with strong dialogue though, Citizens of Earth struggles against the grind.
