Bloomtown: A Different Story

This game is really fun. It is very earthbound-esqe and as an earthbound fan I had a lot of fun. ...buuuut I feel inclined to leave a negative review since I don't exactly think I should recommend it. The game has a lot of bugs, and annoying puzzles. I don't usually like to look up solutions to stuff, but for this game I had to google answers to a few things. And at the end of the game I got an apparently common bug that rendered me unable to complete a certain sidequest. it also doesn't do too good of a job explaining some mechanics such as the "all-out attack" mechanic. Summary of review: Love the story and the mechanics, but it is too buggy and too frustrating with puzzles for me to reccommend this game to others

I personally enjoyed the game, its inspired by persona obviously. Decisions you make are influenced by stats that can be improved by working out, doing crosswords, etc and a little bit of rng with dice rolls. The combat isn't bad either. The soundtrack is pretty nice but not many songs.

Juego pequeñito, pal verano y si te mola 'Persona' y Stephen King te gustará

Bloomtown is a very neat game that could've been better if so many bad choices had not been made during its development. I'll start with some of the good. The art style is absolutely gorgeous. I've seen hundreds of gorgeous pixel art still frames over the years that could have been turned into incredible games - that's Bloomtown. That's how pretty and jam-packed with details that every scene in the game is. The game's soundtrack is solid, including the most insane and unexpected detail of having vocalized tracks for the combat themes. Super catchy tracks that fit the overall theme of the game. And now for the rest. While the art style is gorgeous, the animations and transitions are [i]glacially[/i] slow. Every single interaction takes more than twice as long as it needs to. If the option to speed up combat didn't exist, I probably would have quit the game entirely. At standard speed, each battle is a frustrating chore. The game takes place in small-town America in the 1960s. Except there's almost no way to know that other than the few times that the game explicitly tells you. Meanwhile, most interactions include modern slang (like FLEEK), sensibilities and turns of phrase. This matters because explicitly undermining your game's setting erodes the sense of place and immersion. Anachronisms immediately pull the player out of the world that you're trying to create for them. This is bad. The writing is weak. This is one of the hardest parts of a game developed by non-native English speakers. The game is riddled with syntax issues. For example, using "the" in front of certain locations. We'll "go to the hospital" but we won't "go to [i]the[/i] town hall." Again, details in writing are a big part of immersion and selling the story to the player. The game is chock full of philosophizing - except that the cast of characters are all young teens, so the discourse sounds more like the devs lecturing than the characters growing. The game is short for a JRPG style game. This is fine because the game takes place in a very specific timeframe (Summer break), and it's possible for a game to run too long and wear out its welcome. The problem is that the game is short and yet the main source of character power development explicitly requires grinding. Gear progression makes zero sense. You'll get routinely get weapons with less damage and armor with less protection, but with some very minor alt-stat bonus that is never worth the raw stat decrease. Leveling up your demons means sacrificing other captured demons. The point of leveling up your demons is to get new spells. Except that each level up has a [i]percentage chance[/i] of giving you a new spell. The game doesn't even let you see what spells a demon can potentially learn. So it's all guesswork and grinding, in a game that is short. [b]How do you possibly create an intentionally short game but then include mechanics explicitly designed to disrespect the player's time?[/b] Your characters occasionally learn new spells, but only 1 of 4 party members learns direct-damage spells naturally. These are required for the Rock Paper Scissor minigame of capturing demons. See above. Disrespecting player time. The story has zero emotional weight behind it. There is exactly one scene with any sense of urgency. The big romance story arc that builds up throughout the entire game never goes anywhere and then the game ends. After playing a game like Crossing Souls I was hoping that there would be [i]something[/i]. But given the setting of a demon invasion in a small-town, the game only occasionally dips into common tropes and otherwise remains cute and cozy from start to finish. Other than centering the setting (Summer vacation) the day/night cycle is just a hassle that gets in the way of playing the game. Crafting is borderline a complete waste of time. So is planting/harvesting crops. tl;dr - It's not a [i]bad[/i] game and I'm glad I played it, but a lot of what's underneath the hood is either frustrating or intentionally incompetent.

é um persona de pobre. em promoção vale apena.

атмосферная игра, заставившая плакать в конце, как-будто я действительно уезжаю от своих летних друзей в чикаго, а не сижу за компом в своем вонючем саратове

100% Goty, já zerei vários jogos esse ano e nenhum deles foi como Bloomtown, tentei prolongar de todas as formas para não terminar o jogo de tão feliz que estava jogando isso, muito divertido, bonito e diversificado, pois há muitas coisas para fazer, muita história boa, gostei muito da personalidade da Emilia, da vibe Gravity Falls, das escolhas que pode fazer, de como o rumo toma baseado nisso, você sente que até personagens secundários tem importancia e personalidade, nem sempre algo fica na sua cara, então você vai ter q abrir seu diário, ir explorar e pensar, testei na demo e só fui jogar agora, que jogasso, infelizmente na minha opinião tem só um pequeno defeito na história: ** spoiler de uma coisa especifica da lore e do momento final (que é meio obvio) ** [spoiler] Por mais que tenha uma nitida atração entre a Emilia e a Ramona e se cria uma vibe muito Life is Strange, que uma vai proteger a outra, que ficam meio coradas quando se encontram, fica tudo só por aí, você chama a ramona para sair, ficam proximas, mas mais tarde quando encontra a ramona no restaurante dizendo que queria fazer uma reserva para dois (pois iria chamar a emilia para um jantar) acaba aí, ela sai correndo com vergonha e nada mais é citado sobre a relação delas pelo resto do jogo, você termina o jogo, a emilia vai embora e você nem consegue dar a ela a possibilidade de se despedir da garota que gosta(que aparece lá correndo para se despedir da emilia *ufa*) fica faltando pelo menos uma finalização sobre isso, não custava nada pelo menos terminar com esse jantar de ultimo dia, para finalizar o jogo com aquela vibe de "final feliz" já q a primeira vibe de final feliz era obviamente fake [/spoiler]