Citizens of Earth (Nintendo 3DS) Review

Most people love the idea of being in power, and now it is possible to become the Vice President of Earth in Atlus and Eden Industries' Citizens of Earth. The question is, though, just what benefits are there to such a role? Well, in all honesty, it is more of a delegation position, with the VP not even taking part in the game's battles, or doing much of anything other than complaining about things, instead relying on his mother, brother, and various other citizens that he comes across and manages to recruit. There is something funky going on, with the word 'alien' thrown into the mix, and the VP and his motley crew must put an end to the mysterious shenanigans.

The ins-and-outs of the adventure have been laid bare in previous reviews for this on other systems, since it is indeed a direct port. In terms of voice work packed in for this 3DS eShop release, it is mightily impressive, yet there is a major cost for not fully optimising the downscaled port correctly - fatal crashes. No matter how many sarcastic quips fly around or quirky non-playable characters are met along the way, getting caught on scenery, breaking through into areas of the surroundings that should not be accessible, or even being faced with complete game failures, being dumped unceremoniously to the 3DS menu screen, all help to raise the frustration levels and ultimately lead to a strong desire to merely give up and not bothering slogging through to the credits in the hope of a few extra shreds of humour…especially when the script is not always as funny as it thinks it is.

There is so much to do between the opening stages and final battle that the majority of time spent during the adventure will likely be fulfilling side-quests and recruiting new members to the team without even needing to trigger story continuation markers. This must truly be a strong point - something to be proud of, especially for a low-priced RPG experience, right? In many cases that would indeed be correct. However, the problem here is that after more than 10-15 hours of wandering around, gathering the vast array of characters and taking on the weird and wacky objectives available, reality will dawn upon dedicated gamers that their efforts have basically been for nothing. Other than for completion's sake, there is no particular benefit for having the majority of the extras in tow. Everything is just as enjoyable sticking with the VP's mother and brother - the first two to join - and another of those enlisted early on.

Oddball characters, intriguing objectives, a lengthy overall campaign - all fantastic, if tied to together in an engaging manner, yet Citizens of Earth is simply trying too hard to be something it is not. Suikoden and Earthbound fans will both be left feeling empty, and anyone else looking for a decent adventure should steer well clear of this 3DS edition. Underneath the bugs, there is something that will keep attention levels moderately high, but the shocking state of this broken portable rendition of Eden Industries' opus is simply a major test of patience.