Bloomtown: A Different Story (Nintendo Switch) Review

At the very top of the adventure ladder, there are epic tales where heroes slay evil cosmic beings. A few steps down and you get those riveting dungeon-crawling quests where a party of rogues, warriors, and spellcasters goes treasure hunting. Bloomtown goes down a couple steps more and enters that special magic place of child adventure. It nails it, as it has all the necessary elements. Rural, colourful, small-town setting away from the boring greys of the city? Check. A cool-looking treehouse that leads to another dimension? Check. Spooky houses with bizarre old ladies? Check. Mysteries to solve and evil monsters to fight? Check and check. It all begins with the disappearance of a young girl, and as it usually happens in these stories, the adults are worthless and everything must be done by a bunch of kiddos - in this case, the two newcomers to Bloomtown, Emily and her bratty brother Chester, and the friends they will make very soon - amongst them a speaking dog.

There's lots of Stranger Things' DNA in this, but the general feel is closer to The Goonies, rather than Stephen King's It. Despite a couple of dark and morbid things here and there, this generally feels like a relaxing summer vacation when on the town, and a cute, Halloween-inspired playground when dungeon crawling in the demon-infested Underside. When outside this dimension the clock is constantly ticking. One must plan what to do and when, leaving the actual adventuring for the evening, as a trip to the "other" side eats the whole day. The tasks available include things that raise stats, like going to the gym or reading a book, to things that award with money or resources, like working at a shop, fishing, or gardening.

The whole process is very relaxing, and it's a joy exploring the marvellously detailed town and getting engrossed to it all. It soon becomes obvious that there's not much to do here besides the same tedious chores. There's a fast-forward button here, and this is the reason. The same goes for the fast travel at hand. Walking from A to B is initially exciting. After visiting the same neighbourhood for the 20th time though? Not anymore. Apart from all that, Emily will experience the occasional dialogue sequence with the many one-dimensional NPCs, whose only purpose is to push the story forward and maybe offer a laugh or two or three. It's not like the story is of any particular significance either, with tons of text that can be safely - and sadly - skipped.

Once in the Underside Emily is free to explore, fight baddies, and, surprisingly, get to solve a bunch of easy yet fun puzzles - a bit of a rarity in the genre, although Adventures and RPGs mix together pretty nicely. The heroes have their own melee and ranged attacks, but they'll mostly use the elemental powers bestowed upon them by their Demon Guardians. Battles become much easier, and, most importantly, end faster when one uses spells that take advantage of the weaknesses of enemies. There's little depth besides that, so repetition will soon kick in, as pretty much every battle forces you into this loop of using magic to weaken foes. Emily doesn't have to kill every single Broccoli warrior, Bee with a walker, or suit-wearing Shark, as she can capture the critters ala Pokémon. Unlike Pokémon these can only be used in two ways. A: They can be "equipped" by a party member in order to get more spells to use, or B: be fused with another captured demon to strengthen it. The more captured foes one sacrifices while fusing, the higher the chances to get an additional spell.

Now, there are a lot to love here. Bloomtown is too cheerful for yours truly, but it's hard to deny its charm. Besides capturing the whole young adult adventure atmosphere and looking great while at it, even when fighting demons you get to listen to an OST filled with catchy, pop-rock tunes that freaking include freaking vocals! Besides that, though, this doesn't have much meat on its bones to justify its 10-20 hour-long length, and the main reason for that is the main problem with this otherwise nice piece of software: it wants to be too many things. That's an already tough task for productions that are backed by much larger pockets - it's almost impossible in the world of indie development.

In other words, this is a jack of all trades, and master of none, thus nothing, whether that's the dungeon-crawling, the combat, or the town exploration, is as good as it should be. None of it is ever bad, but it's far from very good either. As a final comment, throughout this review some bugs have made an appearance, many of them pretty "dangerous," like freezes, moments where the game just shut down, and more. Add to that the very frequent loading screens (usually when going from area to area), and the relaxation this promises can quickly turn into aggravation.