
Comedy in video games is an extremely difficult prospect. As everyone well knows, the truest comedy in the medium comes from the stupid jokes and antics of you playing with your friends; scripted yuks are generally hamstrung by the inherent repetition and player-controlled pacing of any given game. Naturally, there are exceptions that use the form itself to make their jokes, which resonate with a community that's very used to the foibles of their hobby. Undertale springs to mind as an example of a genuinely hilarious game, while the likes of The Bard's Tale: Remastered and Resnarkled is the kind of thing that's content to go "look at how stupid and crap RPGs are! Anyway, here's a stupid, crap RPG."
We're grateful that Citizens Unite!: Earth x Space manages to avoid being cringeworthy, instead presenting an entertaining duology that prioritises player engagement over comedy. Essentially, you've got a couple of fairly similar RPGs here – in Earth you're the Vice President, and in Space you're Ambassador of Earth, but your goals are generally the same in both titles – recruit people to your squad and order them around without throwing a single punch yourself. Manipulate the public like a real politician!

The original Citizens of Earth – originally released on 3DS and Wii U – takes inspiration from the legendary Earthbound/Mother series, though not so much in terms of its tone and atmosphere, more in presentation and the execution of its combat. As the aforementioned VP, you'll spend most of your time walking the world and completing missions assigned by your, erm, constituents, which on delivery will allow you to recruit them onto your side and use their unique skills in battle. The turn-based battles reminded us of the systems employed by several Zeboyd RPGs (specifically their Penny Arcade titles) where each turn you'll gain an extra "point" that can be spent on more powerful attacks if you can hold out against your opponents.
It's a fun system that leads to a fair amount of variety, but we found the pugilism was rather on the easy side, negating much of the tactical use you might get out of the different characters. It's quite easy to grind levels simply by mashing the A button through combat, and we wondered if an auto-battle system ala the PSP's Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection re-release may have benefited the proceedings. Still, it's breezy enough not to be frustrating – there is an alternative way to level up characters ala Pokémon's daycare – and the spirited dialogue and superbly silly storyline will see you through.

Its sequel, Citizens of Space, is a pretty big overhaul. Moving the action from earth to – you guessed it – space, you take control of Earth's fairly incompetent Ambassador who suffers something of an acute embarrassment when "Erf" itself seems to have completely vanished in the middle of his speech to the Galactic Federation. This amounts to a mission featuring similar recruiting gameplay to the original Citizens of Earth, but the battle system has been entirely overhauled to more closely resemble the likes of Paper Mario (or delightful imitation Bug Fables) with timing-based attack buffs and QTE defence. As a consequence, the grindier aspects of Earth feel altogether less arduous; this type of combat feels like it fits the game much more than the somewhat busy Earthbound style found in the first game. The fighting here is something to be enjoyed rather than a necessary obstacle between you and the next part of the story.
It isn't perfect, of course. While Citizens of Earth runs flawlessly (as well it should!), Citizens of Space suffers a little from performance issues in handheld mode. It's a bit of a shame, because the artwork here is very impressive and enjoyable, but on the Switch, it looks a little crushed down, with visual glitches like characters flickering and a framerate that, while ostensibly smooth, doesn't quite feel right – frame pacing seems to be a consistent issue in larger areas, to the point that looking at the game for a prolonged period actively made our eyes start to rebel. It's exacerbated by the fact that the maps are pretty big and somewhat confusing, so you'll be spending a lot of time in them. Your mileage may vary on that issue, but for us, it's a bit of a problem when both Earth and Space are presented as a package like this – they're not on an even keel technically, which distorts the illusion of coherence.

Speaking of which, the games have been updated to reflect their packaged status. And they're very much joined at the hip, with a simple press of the minus button letting you save your progress and jump over to the opposite "era". We won't spoil the new additions to the story, but while there's more narrative thread between the two games than there was in their separate releases they're still very distinct experiences.
It's cool to be able to switch games so effortlessly and there's satisfaction in clearing both on a single save file, but you're still best served sticking with one until it's beaten before moving onto the other. These aren't short games, either – it'll take you the best part of 30 hours to clear them both, and that's without completing all the side missions or digging up every last bit of content. There's plenty here if you get hooked, and that's not particularly difficult to do considering how fun the characters and writing are.
Conclusion
While it's a compelling package, Citizens Unite!: Earth x Space doesn't excel as an RPG in either of its halves. There's fun to be had, but it's obfuscated to some extent by technical issues and a lack of balance to its gameplay. That said, a lot of love has obviously been poured into this title and if you like your games with a bit of a unique personality, that's very much in evidence here. If you've already played these RPGs before, there's not enough here to draw you back for a repeat play, but new players might find this worthy of their hard-earned cash – if they're willing to put up with some rough edges.
Comments 32
Favourite tidbit about the first game is that freaking Atlus of all people stepped in to secure its funding - Atlus USA seemed to have a very brief indie game stint, which I actually kinda missed.
So when either game is separate, it's an 8/10, but put together with good amount of extra content, it's a 6/10?
Makes sense to me!
@mrmememan it's because it's not a first party wii u port with no added content
Great concept. Maybe it's a better experience on Switch but Citizens of Earth was a bit of a mess on 3DS.
How many Gs this take up?
@mrmememan Different reviewers, different opinions. If you want to just read what you already think just talk to yrself
I've always been interested in these games but never quite made a move on them. May grab this if I see it on sale.
You see poor performance issues appearing more and more now. More reason for a Pro.
For me, Citizens of Earth was the "footsteps game", because the footstep sound effects were really distracting when your characters were walking together on the map (especially when you have a full party).
Played Citizens of Earth demo on the 3DS and for most part I enjoyed very much the humor. Have been postponing the chance of actually playing it. This double package might be that
@stuartgipp
Such a great tagline! Although now I fancy a choccy. 😊
Aww, I liked The Bard's Tale. Cary Elwes and the late great Tony Jay are always great to hear, and the game itself is similar to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, which means it's a good time.
@boatie why would anyone want consistency? That's dumb to let the same reviewer handle this one, or someone who felt similarly, huh?
@Judgedean no, it's more reason for decent developers. This game by no means pushes the boundaries of what the switch can handle & a pro wouldn't help bad programming. A lro would split the user base & i believe nintendo when they have said there won't be such a device, because it's not needed (& they learned their lesson with the unsupported new 3ds model).
I was a bit reticent on picking up Citizens of Earth back in the day, but I did end up enjoying it quite a bit. I've been holding out on the sequel due to some of the issues raised here, but I may take the plunge soon due to this being a combo of the two games and not having the first game on the Switch yet.
Yet to play it, but got the Japanese physical release. Have heard it has English text too. Loved Citizens of Earth on the Wii U.
PSA: The Japanese/Asian physical releases include English support.
I can't see this getting a wide retail release in the West, although it wouldn't surprise me if LRG stepped in with their own release (as they did for River City Girls, which saw a proper retail release in Japan with English on the cart).
I was super excited for Citizens of Earth when it came out on Wii U - it was such a gitchy mess though, and I never finished it. I don't think I made it even halfway. Also, I felt like it was unfortunately just kind of a bad game - one of those "concept>execution" types.
@twztid13 this game the blame can be put mostly on the developers but there's only so much you can do with old Tegra X1 tech and you are seeing it more with ports (even good ports by excellent developers) the limitations - even with Nintendo 1st party games. The PS4 Pro and X1X didn't damage the user base, it gave consumers more choice. Nintendo will want to keep the momentum moving.
Bought the first one on 3DS for basically nothing, but never really got around to playing it. I should rectify that at some point.
I had a lot of fun with Citizens of Earth on 3DS.
Also, good use of the word "pugilism". I had to look it up. NL taught me something today!
I would like to point out that the game uses a custom engine instead of off the shelf one. Actually, it uses three different versions of the same engine! Kind of annoyed that the reviewer didn't go into detail about how these games changed from their base versions and what was added. Short version: 4 new Citizens in each game are added, making the total 88 (Actually, it's 86, but still.), a unique ability that is very similar to the scrapped Stop N Swap mechanic of the Banjo games, a new ending trying both games together, and a whole lot new jokes, just to name a few.
I do agree with the reviewer that if you played both games to completion, this isn't one to pick up ASAP. But if you haven't finished either game, nor only finished one, then pick this up!
Fun fact: Ulala (Yes, that one from Space Channel 5) was planned to be in Citizens of Space, but was shut down by Sega of Japan. (Go figure) There is a proxy version of her in game, if that helps any.
I'd recommend either game on just some of the hilarious dialogue by itself. Thankfully they're also rather fun RPGs, if a little buggy sometimes.
@boatie My problem isn't the fact that a different person has a different opinion, but the fact that their opinion is kinda contrasting with the reviews of the other two games. It's like if you watched a review on a Nintendo game that came out many years back and got a good review across the board and was liked by the same reviewer on the site, but when a new version with tons of new content comes and it gets a lower score not because it's a version that's bad and broken, but because the reviewer didn't like it. It doesn't really make any sense, unless the person who did at least the review for Citizens of Space doesn't work for the site anymore
@NatiaAdamo This is the same Sega that shot down a Jet Set Radio revival funded by Sony, so that's not surprising at all.
I really enjoyed citizens of Earth, but it was horribly buggy after a while. The game crashed, and may have even killed my save game. Pity, as I really enjoyed what I played.
I followed since the creation of the first one: There was some connection between these games and the Mother series, can not recall what though, similar crazy style at least, gg on the 3ds, I really enjoyed the battle style...interested in buying another myself...
Got both games earth on my U, space I have on the switch.
Earth Is the game I really Adore kind of a love letter to the earthbound games.
Space is a good game but a Little to over the top.
@NatiaAdamo I agree that the review should've focused on the new content, but I don't see that new content being worth me spending an extra $15 (over "Citizens in Space" by itself) when I already have the first game on Wii U.
@BulbasaurusRex Less bugs and glitches for one
@NatiaAdamo I don't know about "Space," but "Earth" is perfectly fine in that regard.
@samuraicop The key part is that it's a different reviewer. This one doesn't like the games as much as the other two.
@mrmememan You can go back and read the old reviews if you want the familiarity?
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