Citizens of Earth
Main game
2.51 average rating based on 63 ratings
- Developers
- Eden Industries
- Publishers
- Atlus, Sega
- Platforms
- Linux, Nintendo 3DS, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U
- Genres
- Role-playing (RPG)
- Themes
- Comedy
- Steam
- View on Steam
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is Citizens of Earth?
Related Content
jademonkey's review of Citizens of Earth
My brother got upset at me last week due to a misunderstanding and bought me Citizens of Earth as an apology. Totally and completely not necessary, but the gesture was absolutely appreciated - especially since I'd been having trouble committing to a game.
Citizens of Earth is a corny, quirky indie JRPG. There's a lot of clear Earthbound inspiration and homages, but it has more of a parody feel to it. You play as the Vice President of the Earth -- an absolute boob who got the position almost entirely because of his good hair. Strange things are happening on the Earth, and with some cajoling from your Mother and Brother, you set out to figure out what's happening.
It's a very goofy romp, which is honestly what I needed with all of the stress in my life right now. There's nothing really wowing here, but it made me smile fairly consistently. There's a huge roster of character to recruit, each feeling surprisingly unique within the games standard menu-based JRPG combat. All of the characters have at least some voice-acting, which is surprisingly well done for a budget title. The character interactions are very enjoyable as well.
The soundtrack was …
My brother got upset at me last week due to a misunderstanding and bought me Citizens of Earth as an apology. Totally and completely not necessary, but the gesture was absolutely appreciated - especially since I'd been having trouble committing to a game.
Citizens of Earth is a corny, quirky indie JRPG. There's a lot of clear Earthbound inspiration and homages, but it has more of a parody feel to it. You play as the Vice President of the Earth -- an absolute boob who got the position almost entirely because of his good hair. Strange things are happening on the Earth, and with some cajoling from your Mother and Brother, you set out to figure out what's happening.
It's a very goofy romp, which is honestly what I needed with all of the stress in my life right now. There's nothing really wowing here, but it made me smile fairly consistently. There's a huge roster of character to recruit, each feeling surprisingly unique within the games standard menu-based JRPG combat. All of the characters have at least some voice-acting, which is surprisingly well done for a budget title. The character interactions are very enjoyable as well.
The soundtrack was surprisingly good. One battle theme in particularly that hit some chilled-out synthwave vibes and really wormed its way into my brain:
Unfortunately, Citizens of Earth really suffered from having too many encounters with basic enemies. JRPG combat is simply not interesting or even engaging when you're just selecting the same ability every round. So many otherwise good games are absolutely ruined by this. I legitimately think the average JRPG would be improved by removing all combat except for boss fights, and citizens of Earth is no exception. It only hit the point of being maddening in the final couple of zones here, so I stuck it out, but it's frustrating to have an otherwise good experience tarnished.
Anyway, I'd recommend Citizens to people who want some dumb humor and don't mind a bit of repetitive JRPG combat alongside it.
Glitchfest
I was about 20 hours deep in the game and a hit a glitch that wouldn´t let me advance further. I really liked the "eartboundy" vibe but it was a real shame that I could not finish it. I had the DS version. I might give a try to the next installment but I really hope they fix the excessive amount of battles.
It's Like EarthBound But Not Fun
When Citizens of Earth first came out, I remember being hyped about it because I thought it would make EarthBound-styled games popular among a modern audience. Now I see why that didn't happen.
Citizens of Earth does do a good job of mimicking the humorous dialogue, quirky characters, and colorful art style of EarthBound, but beyond that, the game is extremely tedious to play. There are far too many enemies, the cumbersome map system makes it difficult to figure out where to go, side quests are boring, and it's difficult to distinguish important objects from the background.
I do have to give Citizens of Earth credit for the unique elements it attempts to add to the standard RPG formula. The concept of recruiting NPCs is brilliant; you can mix and match recruited NPCs to create a party that works for you (i.e. I had Baker for healing, Cop for strong normal attacks, and Conspiracy Guy for elemental attacks). The downside to this is that the game's world feels small as a result, since NPCs tend to pop up in multiple locations throughout the game.
The game's battle system is also really good. As opposed to a traditional PP system, Citizens …
When Citizens of Earth first came out, I remember being hyped about it because I thought it would make EarthBound-styled games popular among a modern audience. Now I see why that didn't happen.
Citizens of Earth does do a good job of mimicking the humorous dialogue, quirky characters, and colorful art style of EarthBound, but beyond that, the game is extremely tedious to play. There are far too many enemies, the cumbersome map system makes it difficult to figure out where to go, side quests are boring, and it's difficult to distinguish important objects from the background.
I do have to give Citizens of Earth credit for the unique elements it attempts to add to the standard RPG formula. The concept of recruiting NPCs is brilliant; you can mix and match recruited NPCs to create a party that works for you (i.e. I had Baker for healing, Cop for strong normal attacks, and Conspiracy Guy for elemental attacks). The downside to this is that the game's world feels small as a result, since NPCs tend to pop up in multiple locations throughout the game.
The game's battle system is also really good. As opposed to a traditional PP system, Citizens of Earth uses an energy system, where some moves replenish energy while others cost energy. This removed the need to worry about wasting PP, something that I tend to deal with in other RPGs. The battle system also employs the type-effectiveness from games like Pokemon, where certain enemies are strong or weak against specific moves. I'm sure I would've enjoyed the battle system far more if I actually had difficult enemies to fight, but I was overleveled most of the time because of the aforementioned abundant enemies.
Ultimately, if you're looking for a new EarthBound-inspired game like I was, you're better off not looking here. This game has good ideas, but when put into action they result in a boring mess of an RPG.
deepdoop's review of Citizens of Earth
5/10
For every good thing it does (40 characters to recruit, each with pretty unique abilities, great visual style, etc) it has something bad (tedious gameplay, too many fights, a fighting system that seems good in theory but just adds to the tedium, etc). The very definition of average and doesn't live up to the games that influence it. Disappointment.
Quirky and Fun but Annoyingly Glitchy
This review is for the PC (Microsoft Windows) version
Overall Thoughts: I very much enjoyed the story of this game. It is quirky and fun, and doesn't take itself too seriously. The combat is fun, the cast of characters are all very unique and interesting, and the world design is nice and diverse. However, there are a number of glaring issues for me with regards to glitches and some problematic areas. Starting with the good. The story revolves around you being the Vice President, and your goal is to go around and recruit citizens to aid your cause in tackling a mystery that has led to havoc in the world. The story in itself is wacky and fun, and definitely doesn't take itself too seriously. I found myself enjoying spending time going around completing recruitment quests in order to unlock each and every civilian. The tasks are never too complicated, although I decided to use a guide to speed up some of the searching missions.
On to the glitches. The biggest glitch I encountered, at least on the Steam Version, is that the game can be a bit buggy. There were two principal glitches that I found. One was that you can sometimes get stuck behind tight objects, near …
Overall Thoughts: I very much enjoyed the story of this game. It is quirky and fun, and doesn't take itself too seriously. The combat is fun, the cast of characters are all very unique and interesting, and the world design is nice and diverse. However, there are a number of glaring issues for me with regards to glitches and some problematic areas. Starting with the good. The story revolves around you being the Vice President, and your goal is to go around and recruit citizens to aid your cause in tackling a mystery that has led to havoc in the world. The story in itself is wacky and fun, and definitely doesn't take itself too seriously. I found myself enjoying spending time going around completing recruitment quests in order to unlock each and every civilian. The tasks are never too complicated, although I decided to use a guide to speed up some of the searching missions.
On to the glitches. The biggest glitch I encountered, at least on the Steam Version, is that the game can be a bit buggy. There were two principal glitches that I found. One was that you can sometimes get stuck behind tight objects, near the walls and more. The other annoying glitch was that if you loaded into new areas, it sometimes would automatically close the game. Luckily, with quick save on, I can just open the game up and load right back into the area, but it's still very cumbersome.
Another problematic thing I found with the game is that, the combat can become too repetitive, and annoying to have to go through. This wasn't really an issue until the late game areas like Wellspring Desert, where the amount of enemies in the zone was far too much, in my honest opinion.
Some additional thoughts: although I just started playing through Earthbound, I can very much see how Citizens of Earth takes inspiration from it, in gameplay and in the story. I think I can relate this more to Undertale, in its tone, as that too is influenced by Earthbound.
I finished the demo. It plays like a very... shiny? Earthbound. Even if the graphics are "good," it still looks like a browser game. Battles play out with colorful backgrounds, your team facing forward to fight. There's even a mention of a kid hitting spiteful crows with a bat. Music is forgettable. It's pretty mediocre all around and certainly doesn't live up to its inspiration. But let's be honest, I'll probably buy it. 😄
Overall Thoughts: I very much enjoyed the story of this game. It is quirky and fun, and doesn't take itself too seriously. The combat is fun, the cast of characters are all very unique and interesting, and the world design is nice and diverse. However, there are a number of glaring issues for me with regards to glitches and some problematic areas.
Starting with the good. The story revolves around you being the Vice President, and your goal is to go around and recruit citizens to aid your cause in tackling a mystery that has led to havoc in the world. The story in itself is wacky and fun, and definitely doesn't take itself too seriously. I found myself enjoying spending time going around completing recruitment quests in order to unlock each and every civilian. The tasks are never too complicated, although I decided to use a guide to speed up some of the searching missions.
On to the glitches. The biggest glitch I encountered, at least on the Steam Version, is that the game can be a bit buggy. There were two principal glitches that I found. One was that you can sometimes get stuck behind tight objects, near …
Overall Thoughts: I very much enjoyed the story of this game. It is quirky and fun, and doesn't take itself too seriously. The combat is fun, the cast of characters are all very unique and interesting, and the world design is nice and diverse. However, there are a number of glaring issues for me with regards to glitches and some problematic areas.
Starting with the good. The story revolves around you being the Vice President, and your goal is to go around and recruit citizens to aid your cause in tackling a mystery that has led to havoc in the world. The story in itself is wacky and fun, and definitely doesn't take itself too seriously. I found myself enjoying spending time going around completing recruitment quests in order to unlock each and every civilian. The tasks are never too complicated, although I decided to use a guide to speed up some of the searching missions.
On to the glitches. The biggest glitch I encountered, at least on the Steam Version, is that the game can be a bit buggy. There were two principal glitches that I found. One was that you can sometimes get stuck behind tight objects, near the walls and more. The other annoying glitch was that if you loaded into new areas, it sometimes would automatically close the game. Luckily, with quick save on, I can just open the game up and load right back into the area, but it's still very cumbersome.
Another problematic thing I found with the game is that, the combat can become too repetitive, and annoying to have to go through. This wasn't really an issue until the late game areas like Wellspring Desert, where the amount of enemies in the zone was far too much, in my honest opinion.
Some additional thoughts: although I just started playing through Earthbound, I can very much see how Citizens of Earth takes inspiration from it, in gameplay and in the story. I think I can relate this more to Undertale, in its tone, as that too is influenced by Earthbound.