A game will always get a plus if it manages to convince me a genre I would so often detest or at least hold the least favor over has been applied well. Adapting it to work in synergy with everything else going on, or better yet make it the driving force that keeps you invested for countless hours thereafter. Predominantly a role-playing game it may be, what might well end up be the biggest personal highlight for a game likeBloomtown: A Different Storyis how well it’s convinced me to engage with its life-simulation aspect.
The kind of framework I so often refuse to properly dig into, outside of the most obligatory and critical of moments. The idea that one should be spending time doing anything but the main plot and/or reason governing the general progression. Sure, the concept of side-quests and relationships between characters/party members is neither new nor all that detrimental a distraction, but it takes some effort to convince someone as stubborn as yours truly, to engage with the notion of clock-watching, keeping to a schedule and most importantly of all, taking time tonotpartake in dungeon-crawling and the accompanying party battles housed within.
Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There
Lo and behold, developers Lazy Bear Games and Different Sense Games have somehow performed a miracle and turned it into something you can’t help but return to and keep up like some necessary routine. Waking up every in-game morning, making sure to water the plants you’re attempting to grow out back – unless it’s raining that day, in which case a neat little ounce of internal logic dictates the plants have, obviously, already been seen to. To then dedicate the remainder of your available time debating whether to spend such precious time…wait for it…read, exercise at the gym or better yet, take up an offer of a part-time job for a few extra dollars to spend.
It’s a crucial element forBloomtown, both the game and the titular, rural, small-town setting where events take place to get right. It’s a place you will be repeatedly traipsing around, as the game – in typical Persona-like fashion – has you hopping back and forth between real-world Bloomtown and the Underside – the equivalent of a parallel realm where demons and ghostly specters exist and more specifically, where the main dungeons of the game are located. And it works surprisingly well; aided by a pleasant, acoustic-plucked musical backdrop and a general rural aesthetic that’s easy on the eye, it’s a fitting locale to return to, revisit, and at the best of times, rummage through in hopes of discovering a conversation that can lead to better opportunities to grow one’s stats.
Bloomtown’s Flair for the Charismatic Make it a Contender for One of the Year’s Best RPGs
Earthbound, Persona and a sprinkling of the Bethesda of old look to be shining through on a game of early, but immediate promise.
Major Minus
As far as the small visual and presentation is concerned,Bloomtownchecks all the right boxes and as an introduction – as noted during one’s time with its public demo – is ample reason to believe, just maybe, the game is brewing something worthwhile here. A pleasant mix of western and eastern-oriented role-playing ideas, all wrapped around a pastoral, laid back aesthetic and simulation-like gameplay loop of keeping to a timetable. Not because you have to, but because you want to.Bloomtown’s optional endeavors – its activities to invest time into, its dialog choices to choose from – are, in fact, worth your while.
And then you get to combat, and it pains me to say, the game starts to come apart at the seams. It’s a shame, because as unapologetic the game is about its love for Atlus' popular demon-collecting, demon-using series of JRPGs in particular – your main character quite literally enters into a contract with the devil to use a demonic power of similar nature to that of a Persona – the execution is still likable enough that any suggestion of imitation is not meant in a negative light.Bloomtowndoesn’t shy away from its clear inspirations and it’s that honesty that offers the initial set-up plenty of favor. A combination of sprite work, a soundtrack similarly unashamed of its bombast, character animations all lending to a warranted flash of style. And even as the game progresses, most importantly of all: dungeon design that hits that sweet spot of feeling like a sufficient-enough trek into the unknown, without overstaying its welcome.
A Swing & A Miss
To have one’s time grappling with the combat – and ultimately, a hefty chunk of general sentiment – defined more so by the amount of times one’s move incurred a “Miss” state is telling. Not the ramping up of threats, the inevitable capture/usage/infusing of collected demons out in the field. Not even the novel boss fights, with their multi-phase unraveling of worrisome attacks and gimmicks to handle. No, it’s the factBloomtowncan not help but get in its own way. Forcing players to constantly suffer at the hands of probability. When all signs point (or at least should point) to a much greater ratio of success to failure on landing one’s hits. Particularly when deciding which weapons to equip and gear to assign to your party, you go out of your way to sacrifice base power for greater/perfect accuracy. Weapons indicated as having an accuracy of 100 should be guaranteed to work.
Why then the continued over-abundance of “MISS” indications? The concept of occasionally missing your shots/strikes is nothing new in any game involving combat, but it becomes such a fundamental issue inBloomtown, it nearly obliterates what good will and enjoyment one has built up to that point. Rare it is even for someone like myself to go into a game with heightened interest, to quickly-but-eventually come to that saddest of conclusions: “this is not fun!”
The argument, presumably from the developers' side, is that leaning more into the use of elemental attacks is the key to success.Bloomtown, alongside providing breakdowns of which elemental types certain enemies are weak/resistant/immune to, also advises on making use of ailment-like moves which, while don’t incur damage, can be applied as a sort of buff for follow-up attacks. Apply burn to an enemy for example and a wind-based attack will likely incur more damage. Find the correct puzzle-like sequencing of combining two elemental types, exploiting weaknesses and such and you may even get the opportunity to recruit an enemy to use in future battles.
Again nothing inherently original, but a set-up that should encourage players to plan out and co-ordinate which party members are responsible for dishing out which class of elemental move. On paper, the pitch is fine, but again, the over-reliance on having your characters miss frustratingly more actions than their character/equipment stats should likely dictate is a problem. A problem, that despite sincerest efforts to prioritize stats like accuracy, is never remedied.
To have one’s time grappling with the game’s combat – and ultimately, a hefty chunk of general sentiment – defined more so by the amount of times one’s move incurred a “Miss” state, is telling.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
That unsatisfying skewing of probability even bleeds into the other form of role-playing, namely its dialogue choices. At certain points, the game provides you the chance to obtain further details or even helpful items from a character you’re conversing with, by way of alternate dialogue. Said dialogue’s success governed by how high traits like Guts or Intelligence are at the time. Traits an area of one’s character you’re able to improve and level up through partaking in additional quests and side activities. The key is whether you feel a 55% chance of success, for example, is sufficient – at the risk of permanently locking you out of that dialogue branch should you fail – or waiting until it’s close to the 90% mark to be all-but-guaranteed.
And once more,Bloomtown’s peculiar defining of probability reveals itself, with one too many instances of a 90%, even 95% success rate on dialog, ending in failure. Such are the many grievances with the dictating of success in and out of combat that eventuallyBloomtown’s less-visible albeit equally prominent nitpicks begin to snowball. For one, grammatical errors in any game are an area you’re able to easily wave away as a non-issue if its presence is limited to the odd word or two. Sadly,Bloomtownshows one too many mistakes in the spelling of words for it to be easily ignored.
Likewise, the erasing of key information whilst trying to equip gear in the main menu, is a bizarre bug that appears then disappears at a frequent, yet unpredictable rate throughout. Not quite death by a thousand cuts, but add up all these minor irks and questionable design choices and it can quickly feel that this is an adventure, curious it might be, that is weighed down by a hefty amount of baggage. Baggage which the game has brought of its own accord.
Closing Comments:
Bloomtown: A Different Storyis a textbook case of a promising start brimming with such wow factor, inevitably undone as soon as you get past the introductory phase. An introductory phase that does a great job at not just setting up the world and its stakes, but making you voluntarily want to remain in said world for more than its obligatory main quest demands. Indeed, the life-sim leanings and simple pleasures of moving out and around the titular setting – scheduling allotted time to certain activities – may just be its stand-out element. A fitting accompaniment to the otherwise supernatural, abnormal dungeon vibes, complimented by enemy/sprite work and a soundtrack unashamedly upbeat and confident in its stride. But it’s the lackluster, often tedious, execution of combat that lets it down – faltering at the most critical of moments. Not bad, but not as great as its intro so effortlessly implied,Bloomtown: A Different Storyis a flawed, at times frustrating but fascinating-enough blend of role-playing staples, old and new.
Version Reviewed: PC
Combining turn-based combat, dialog choices, demon-taming and life-sim aspects governed by an in-game day/night schedule, Bloomtown: A Different Story takes things to rural, small-town America in this West-meets-East take on role-playing.
