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At first glance, Bloomtown: A Different Story looks like a charming addition to the world of slice-of-life RPGs, with its cosy pixel art style and comforting soundtrack.
It kicks off with two siblings, Emily and Chester, being sent to their grandad’s house for summer break in the 1960s. They’re frustrated about going, complaining that there’ll be nothing to do in sleepy Bloomtown and that they’d rather stay in Chicago. As soon as they start settling in, though, it becomes apparent that Bloomtown has a lot more to it than initially meets the eye.
Emily gets a demonic visitor who gives her access to a realm called the Underside, a girl goes missing, and they end up taking on a dangerous quest to tangle with life-threatening forces across the town. Just an average summer, really.
This is an RPG with turn-based combat, creature-catching mechanics, and a mountain of side quests to get stuck into. You can grow crops and cook with your harvest to make healing items, collect rare vinyl records, and catch demons to enhance your team’s abilities, all while exploring the main storyline and roster of side quests. Persona lovers will no doubt be attracted to its various demonic qualities; it’s not identical, but there are some elements — namely the stark contrasts in the story and the demon-centric mechanics — which plough a familiar furrow.
The protagonists being a group of children make a lot of sense for Different Sense Games’ theming. It plays exactly as an imaginary game among school friends might: the healing item of choice is candy; Emily starts off with a wooden sword; the first mission is to save a girl before she “went to sleep for good.” Bloomtown captures that EarthBound-style, coming-of-age feeling very well. It’s rich and vibrant, and it’s a delight to step into its well-crafted world.
The art is one of the most impressive things about the game, in fact, with a vast map to explore, intricate sprites, and beautiful backgrounds that bring the demonic battles to life. On top of that, the music is spectacular and adds to the cinematic atmosphere. The variety of locations helps keep things interesting consistently, hopping from cosy, small-town stores to otherworldly forests with sentient plants, and for the most part, the worldbuilding is flawless.
Combat feels punchy, with a turn-based party system enhanced with the addition of otherworldly abilities. Characters can buff and debuff, chuck around lightning bolts and fireballs, or even pit enemies against each other. There’s a fairly standard elemental system in place, where some enemies are weak to ice or lightning, for example.
Each party member has an inner demon – essentially, a manifestation of themselves that provides them with unique powers. Alongside these inner demons, you can also catch minor demons which can be swapped out or fused together to customise your ability list even further. There’s plenty of freedom to team-build and adapt as you tangle with trickier foes, and both the party and their demons gain XP and level up as the game goes on. There’s also a demon fusion mechanic which gets unlocked down the line, allowing for even more creative, stronger party builds.
Throughout the game, you’re also tested with a number of skill checks. If you’ve not worked on your Guts stat for example (by getting Emily to read relevant books, levelling up the skill bar), you will have a roughly 40% chance of catching a demon, which can impact your party-building. Conversely, having a high Charm score means you can talk your way out of difficult situations easily. It’s important to level up Guts, Charm, Smarts, and Proficiency (which affects crafting and similar tasks, most importantly lockpicking) as equally as possible, which you can do by interacting with minigames and side tasks around the world, including reading, working out, and speaking to NPCs. It’s all familiar stuff, but very effectively presented.
In terms of performance, Bloomtown felt at home on the Switch. It ran well for the most part, in docked and handheld mode, but we did notice the occasional frame drops when sprinting. Additionally, movement felt a little clunky in places, which was frustrating when getting chased by an enemy or trying to navigate a maze.
Something else that may be a sore point for some is the high frequency of quest notifications and auto-saves. There’s a pop-up at the top of the screen every time you pick up quest items, make progress in a quest, finish one, or start a new one, and auto-saves happen after every significant action. Which is good, though it can get distracting.
The only other issue that we spotted with Bloomtown is a small number of typos, alongside one item that seemingly had no proper name. The “FountainTokenxName – FountainTokenxDescription” was in our inventory at the end of the run, which was a little odd. These issues weren’t game-breaking by any means, though, and our playthrough felt great regardless of these quirks.
One thing that really stands out as a highlight for Bloomtown is how meaningful everything feels. The party starts off feeling relatively squishy and underpowered at the beginning of Bloomtown, but by the end of it, they can cause mass hysteria, summon thunderstorms, and chuck fireballs that incinerate demons on impact. Spending time levelling skills and enhancing your party is infinitely rewarding, with a real sense of progression as you and your friends get stronger and the stakes get higher, and the final segment had a real, “Oh man, this is it!” feel to it.
The story’s pacing is perfect, made even better by useful quality-of-life features like a smooth fast travel system and the ability to fast-forward where needed. The menu and inventory system is well organised, and tasks like reassigning demons or changing gear are intuitive and easy to pick up. Our playthrough took us roughly 17 hours overall as we were focused purely on the main storyline, but you could easily get 30-40 hours out of a run if you explored all the side quests, crafting, and collection-based content.
Conclusion
Despite a few minor issues, Bloomtown: A Different Story is a game that’ll stick with you long after you put it down. The blend of comforting and creepy is masterful, and the game presents a surprising amount of challenge in places. With everything from boss fights and puzzles to intricate crafting and skill-building, there’s a lot to get excited about here. Bloomtown was clearly made with a lot of love and attention to detail, and it’s the perfect pick for anyone who enjoys rich stories paired with riddles and tricky, turn-based combat.