Bloomtown: A Different Story Review

Summertime is a beautiful period for kids in their prime to discover all that life has to offer without the responsibilities of an adult—hanging out with friends, playing baseball, and going to the pool. There are also moments when there is so much free time that it becomes frustrating what to do with it. Worry not; plenty of family-friendly activities are available in Bloomtown: A Different Story. Oh, and fighting against demons, too.

Published by Twin Sails Interactive and developed by Lazy Bear Games and Different Sense Games, Bloomtown: A Different Story tells the story of Emily being sent off with her brother to spend their summer holiday with their grandfather in a peaceful town. Not long after they settle down, things take a turn for the worse when a girl is kidnapped by evil demons lurking on the city's outskirts. This is where the fun begins.

Compared to its idyllic setting, the gameplay in Bloomtown: A Different Story is not for the faint of heart. As any great JRPG should be, its combat is deep and nothing to scuffle at. For example, there are combos to greatly increase your damage output against enemies. If you inflict an ice-fire combo and the enemy is weak towards any of those elements, your four party members working together to maximize damage feel great.

Bloomtown: A Different Story may deceive players into thinking its turn-based combat is easy with its cute pixel art style. This could not be further from the truth. Offering only Normal and Hard as difficulty settings, one would think a more accessible option is unnecessary as Normal could accommodate most users' playstyle. This notion is quickly dispelled as soon as you enter your first encounter.

Missed attacks, buffs, and status effects can all change the tide of battle. As the position of the enemies determines whether you can reach them with your physical attacks, you will need to use your gun or bazooka to reach them so that they do not perpetually heal their allies, leaving you in an unending fight. Frozen, burned, or woozy are also some of the effects you can be under or try to conjure on your enemies. That is, if you get lucky, you will not miss that crucial attack, which may happen often.

Emily and her three companions will need to use all the abilities in their repertoire to succeed, as grinding is not enough. Considering the ranged, magic, and elemental effects at your disposal, choosing only your physical attack will not take you far. The game is aware of your tactical options and throws fights at you accordingly. In no way, shape, or form are any of these battles a breeze, and you will soon realize you will need to stock up on items, grind, and sharpen your skills to the fullest to triumph.

Enemy variety in each dungeon is commendable. Comparable to the size of the dungeons themselves, there is always a fair amount of intricately designed monsters with unique attacks that will have you scrambling to use your most competent tactics to earn your stripes. Structured predictably, you have to beat a main boss before you can move on to the next area. It is a breath of fresh air to find a whole new slate of foes to adapt to in every new area.

Accessibility features like Auto-Battle, fast-forward combat, and fleeing are surprisingly absent from the game. To have the option to fast-forward in every scene of the main game, it is somewhat questionable that it was not implemented in each battle to move things along more smoothly. For a JRPG-inspired turn-based adventure in which you will do this copiously, it begins to drag on the longer you play. This is only partially alleviated by the great soundtrack at all times and the fluid animations.

A great way for the game to ease you into its daily mechanics is, for instance, when you have to move a big piece of lumber to progress in the first dungeon. As Emily does not have the strength to shove it aside, their companions tease her to hit the gym and do exercise for once in your life. Not long after, you find out that not only can you do that, but there's a plethora of activities available each day. Going to the movies, working to earn money, or simply going to the pawn shop to upgrade your equipment are among the things that will make your day fly by and make you ready for the next one.

A new useful combat ability is unlocked whenever you hang out with one of your friends. For instance, after going with Ramona to a rock concert, she has a percentage to not spend magic on a special attack, or Hugo the Corgi to gain HP when he guards in his phase. All of these little benefits incentivize both in and out of combat to keep progressing your characters' bonds and stats, as they will decidedly come in handy in your next boss encounter.

Lessons in morality will find you should you err on the wrong side of the law. As most children need a little scolding if they stray a bit from the path of righteousness, so does Bloomtown: A Different Story will be quick to act if Emily acts wrongly. When she first goes to a grocery store after being offered a part-time job there, many items lie on the floor. It is up to you to either steal it or put it back on the shelf, with an accompanying punishment depending on your choice.

Every single neighbor is as eccentric as they are peculiar. You have the pair of old ladies doing witchcraft, the extremely strict cop living with the rebellious daughter, and the shady local doctor ordering you to deliver mysterious packages and speaking in code words. In other words, there is no shortage of weird situations happening all around this quirky little town for you to discover.

Although they say the game develops throughout the summer, there is no calendar to speak of to keep track of your time or pressure you to do things before a certain date. This helps you play the game at your own pace and certainly indulge in everything it offers. If you want to spend your whole summer working to buy the best weapons and armor for your characters, you can do that, or you can try to catch all the types of fish. Or both.

A wide variety of side quests by most of the neighbors abound in Bloomtown. There will always be a person in distress as you wander the impossibly calm streets of this idyllic place. From having to deal with a haunted house and demonic possessions to middle-of-the-road fetch quests that have you hunt down specific items, as with many small cities, the more you get to know Bloomtown, the weirder you will find it actually is.

Bloomtown: A Different Story handles side missions very interestingly, depending on how you handle each situation and how different the outcome can be for each quest's conclusion. Although you will always be rewarded for your efforts, and the way things end in these activities does not affect the game's grand scheme of things, the simple fact that there are indeed different possible endings entices you to think twice before you choose what to do.

You can feel they took a cue from Persona's page in more ways than one, and I do not disrespectfully mean this. On the contrary, many great works of art were directly inspired by what came before it. And the influences are easy to see in Bloomtown: A Different Story. The social cues, the groovy music with vibrant vocals, and the real/shadow worlds, amongst many other similarities.

This is not to say Bloomtown: A Different Story is a ripoff of any of the games before it. Let me be crystal clear in saying it is its own game, true to a unique vision that just eerily reminds me of other games in the genre. The game's pixel art style, punchy dialogues, game progression, and 60s Americana setting all make Bloomtown: A Different Story stand out on its own. Plus, the cute Corgi sidekick that becomes a buff anthropomorphic beast in battle is something you will not certainly find anywhere else.

A few years ago, Bloomtown: A Different Story would have been a top-tier JRPG experience second to none. But with today's offerings, I can only say that it succeeds in delivering a better-than-average experience. It has some incredibly charming moments with each character and an appealing art style, but also classic tropes that wear down the narrative to the most patient of gamers. If you enjoy a pleasing game with bouts of brilliance, head to the next bus departing now.