Citizens of Earth for PC
An already colorful world is changing. An seemingly perfect society is being slowly corrupted by a coffee shop with almost out of this world flavors. From a small chain store, this Moonbucks store chain has spread to every nook and cranny of Earth (sound familiar?). Weird and wonderful creatures are popping up everywhere to hamper the daily lives of people the world over. It’s up to you, the Vice President of Earth, and the trusty Citizens of Earth to halt these strange goings on.
Right from the get go, Citizens of Earth makes no promises to be a serious tale of one mans struggle to save the world. You play as the Vice President of the World: an egotistical and often unintentionally stupid fellow who epitomizes every political caricature ever drawn. He symbolizes capitalism along with everything that’s perceived to be wrong in the political system, yet becomes a loveable character who simply doesn’t seem to know any better. His lack of capability in the world of politics actually forms the basis of a mesmerizing experience.
As the Vice President, you gather a party of increasingly strange companions and make your way through the world. At the beginning of proceedings your mother and brother (because of course, the VP lives at home) make up the group. During the runtime of this lengthy tale new friends can join the group. Bodybuilders and pilots can go into battle alongside a computer programmer or barista. The cast of weird characters never feels like it’s there just for comic relief however. Citizens of Earth creates a simply beautiful world in which anything can be a powerful adversary or ally within the narrative.
Gathering a diverse party is incredibly important when playing Citizens of Earth. Players of Earthbound-esque RPGs will be right at home with this game’s systems. You go into battle with three chosen colleagues, using their abilities against those of your opponents in turn-based combat. That isn’t three comrades and you; after all, you’re the Vice President. You don’t do any of the dirty work. You instead direct those who you select to battle on your behalf in the abilities they should be using. Sounds pretty simple right? Actually it isn’t. Far from it.
You see, beneath Citizens of Earth‘s friendly exterior is a surprisingly deep RPG. Battling enemies initially is a simple task where basic attacks are using to charge up on energy to then unleash slightly more powerful abilities. Within a matter of hours, you’re going up against basic enemies to save up this energy to dish out effective abilities on villains who are vulnerable to special attacks. The way these effective abilities work is different to that often seen in other RPGs.
Rather than just a slightly higher level of damage, effective abilities are refunded of the energy spent upon them. By the same notion, if an enemy is strong against a certain type of attack it will absorb a further energy point. It might seem rather simple but the amount of depth this brings when you’re heading into further areas is so that if scientists were to investigate, they’d need deep sea diving robots to truly appreciate it.
From here is where your party’s importance is paramount. If you use a group which specializes in verbal attacks, creatures which are strong against them will tear apart your offenses and leave you much weaker than usual after battle. The trick is to have a trio on your side which is able to deal a swathe of different types of damage. The School Mascot is a fine example of this variety of skill types. His attacks are fairly strong but almost completely verbal. This means that against most enemies he will be capable, but when coming up against some like the Fear-Crows of Greenlands he is almost useless.
