Citizens of Earth (PS Vita) Review

Citizens of Earth is a turn-based RPG comedy game that puts you in the shoes of the newly elected Vice-President of the World. Yes, you read that right. It’s a wacky game experience that mixes fun, satire and the good ‘ol RPG elements that we all know and love.

Graphically speaking, the game looks okay. It might seem a little boring at first glance, but the colors and wacky visuals will definitely keep you interested in the campaign. Most of the art in Citizens of Earth seems to pay tribute to a retro style and that’s something that I personally appreciate. The characters are designed in a way to fit their ‘job’ class such as ‘Mother’, ‘Brother’, and ‘Conspiracy Guy’, and each of their attacks and animations give tribute to that fact. The monsters and boss characters were all unexpected in their own way too- never have I ever thought of fighting a mutant Coffee Bean in an RPG game, but that’s charming in its own right. The locales are all very American, but are unremarkable aside from that.

The music in Citizens of Earth though, well, it’s pretty horrible… as much as it’s practically non-existent. There are a few tracks here and there, but none too memorable and I found that most of them were pretty annoying from the menu theme to the battle theme. If not for the stellar voice acting, I would have probably muted the game out of sheer spite. Speaking of the voice acting, everyone did a great job. The lines were all brilliantly executed and hearing a familiar voice here and there certainly did make the experience more enjoyable and BEARable. Okay, no more Teddie puns. Please BEAR with me.

Citizens of Earth’s controls are okay, and on the Vita were responsive and convenient. I have always been a controller kind of person ver keyboard and mouse (the game is also available on the PC) and playing the game on the Vita definitely made the experience better. The controls were designed in a way to be comfortable and accessible and that’s a big plus for someone like me. What makes this even better is the great tutorial that the players will go through in the beginning of the game.

The gameplay in Citizens of Earth is straight-up, old school RPG style. You travel through various buildings and towns as you try to evade or do battle with enemies on the map, as you recruit brave (and oftentimes, reluctant) heroes to fight by your side… err, fight your fights for you. That’s just how Vice President of the world rolls, I guess. Most of these recruits are just everyday people caught up in the wake of the various true-to-life conspiracies (See Killer Coffee Beans). The battle system is deceptively simple really. All in all, I guess the battle system can be compared to something like Pokemon, maybe even Etrian Odyssey or Shin Megami Tensei IV in that you can’t see your people, but you can give them orders as you whittle your enemy’s life 1 hp at a time.

Wittiness pervades the story as well, in the form of the various character attacks that really fit their characterizations. For example, ‘Mother’ has a ‘Hug’ buff that heals her target while ‘Conspiracy Guy’ rattles the protester with ‘Irrefutable Facts’ or something along those lines. I like how the various side quests are all centered around urban legends and conspiracies, and those things definitely kept me interested.

The story is honestly all over the place though, and the game is NOT going to hold your hand as you go through this RPG. It’s not a grind fest, but there are quite a bit of quests to do and they should prove to be more than a sufficient challenge for anyone. But none of this will warrant a second playthrough, at least not from me. Anyway, the story is basically one big satirical piece on the modern man as the game pokes fun at consumerism, our government and, of course, the way we react to these changes. The Vice-President character, is no exception to that as he seems to be the embodiment of the selfishness within all of us. While we all have human mistakes, he too has human qualities that redeems him. No worries, I shall spare you a lengthy psychological analyzation of the game, but I do recommend for you to check it out.

Final Thoughts

Citizens of Earth is a fun game to play, excepting that the music really annoyed me, as it made battles and going around town really Teddie-ious. The controls are easy, the battles are simple to fight, and the characters are all wacky- and the voice acting is seriously amazing. If you’re an RPG fan, get it if you have money to spare, more so if you own a Vita.