Traveling through space to save Earth and its citizens is no easy task, especially when you need to recruit the right allies to assist you along the way. Welcome to the sequel to the exciting title Citizens of Earth, where your mission is to ensure the safety of your people and rid the world of disaster before it’s too late. Citizens of Space takes your conventional turn-based style RPG and adds on its own twist with unique mechanics that make battles feel more intuitive, and put your quick reactions to the test. There’s a lot more on the line this time in Citizens of Space as it’s no longer only Earth that you need to rescue, but a myriad of strange new worlds that all come with their own unique attributes you’ll discover.

Citizens of Space gives you the option to really grow your squadron, with more than 40 Citizens to recruit along your journey, with each of them possessing a unique strength that can help you in battles. Compared to Citizens of Earth, where a lot of your time was invested in the long grind, everything within Citizens of Space is more streamlined, which gives you the opportunity to focus more on leveling up your Citizens. As mentioned earlier, this game introduces new battle mechanics that help to add more variety to each battle you encounter, such as timed attacks and reflex-based maneuvers that you’ll need to get accustomed to overtime.

In Citizens of Space, you star as the former ambassador of Earth —which sadly has disappeared— and now you travel the galaxy to uncover more answers. Along your wild galactic journey, you come across a diverse array of characters who will assist you, closing the gap between you and the truth. Your job as an ambassador is on the line and now’s the time to get down to business, before it’s too late.

Citizens of Space takes on a more western-style cartoon aesthetic which is quite fitting since a lot of the satire in the game compliments it entirely. You view the world from an isometric top-down perspective which provides a somewhat nostalgic feel to the older RPGs of the past era. Characters feel very much alive with their very clean and fluid animations, which adds more appeal to the gameplay. Every character within the game feels very unique in their own right and none feel contrived, which really adds more dynamic during battles with multiple enemies on screen. Speaking of enemies and their design, their goofy and comical style give Citizens of Space that Saturday morning cartoon vibe so it looks seamless.

To be honest, Citizens of Space didn’t really land top points largely due to its lackluster soundtrack and unappealing voice actors, who really didn’t help to bring everything together nicely. They weren’t terrible by any means, but you could clearly tell at times when a voice actor was over-reacting on some lines or their accents somehow didn’t sound the way they should. It’s understandable that this game is meant to be quirky and not be taken too seriously, but we think the voicing could’ve done a better job to really provide more substance. This game is definitely catered to a more western audience so if this game were to say make its way to Asia for example, we personally think it’s overall aesthetic wouldn’t jump out as satisfying.

The game does shine in its gameplay, with the introduction of new battle mechanics that add a lot more depth to the experience. Unlike your traditional turn-based RPGs, where you simply press a button and activate your attacks or magic abilities, Citizens of Space adds the new element of timing and reactive-based attacks. Every recruit on your team will have their own unique attack attributes as explained earlier, with many incorporating the new mechanics, which add towards increasing damage over time. Not only that but depending on the speed at which you press a button, you’ll either deal more damage if you’re on the offensive or take less damage if you’re on the defensive, which may put you at a disadvantage... especially if you’re dealing with multiple enemies and their distinctive battle styles.

Surprisingly enough, we were expecting this feature to grow dull as we progressed further into the campaign, but this new mechanic actually provided a breath of fresh air since we always needed to be prepared each time we recruited a new character. Plus, you’ll need to keep track of each character and their traits during the actual battle, which means the game in a way teaches you to stay aware of your decisions since one slip up could cost your team in the form of damage.

Citizens of Space adds an extra layer of depth that you typically wouldn’t find in your usual RPG experience and that’s always a nice feeling, especially since RPGs are time-consuming. These mechanics put you in the driver’s seat and not allow the game to basically do everything for you, which helps to speed things up but really put the responsibility on you to win. While it’s visual recipe may not suit everyone’s palette, its gameplay is satisfying enough that you’re willing to stay invested long enough to see how everything pans out. The game itself isn’t long either, so expect to get through things a bit faster than usual. Just don’t discredit the fact that these battle mechanics will take time to get used to!

We hope you found our review of Citizens of Space to be an insightful one, and that it makes your purchase decision a little bit easier. Do you have to play through Citizens of Earth to enjoy its sequel? Not at all! In fact, this was our first time with the series and we actually enjoyed the game thoroughly. It will really depend on your overall personal preference and what suits you, but if you want an RPG to just blast through, then Citizens of Space is the one.

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