Bloomtown: A Different Story Review – Just Add Demons

Bloomtown: A Different Story Review 

With a touch of Gravity Falls and a cozy Stardew feel, Bloomtown: A Different Story is a Narrative JRPG with turn-based combat and elements of monster taming. This one is a marvel of pixel artistry with all the best parts of a cozy game and a mix of classic features to give a great blend of a good and mysterious time.

Best Summer Ever

You play as 12 year old Emily, steadfastly accompanied by her younger brother, Chester. Emily and Chester start out on a bus down to Bloomtown, a sleepy little 1960s Americana town. At Grandpa Cooper’s house and the old man does not waste time letting both of you know who’s in charge. After a bit of exploring and getting a hold of a conveniently available hotdog, the kids get their rooms. Just after a short clean up and exploration of the room, it’s time for bed. This is where Bloomtown: A Different Story starts hinting this is not going to be a normal, summer at Grandpa’s.

As Emily sleeps she meets Lucifer, lounging on his throne surrounded by his adorable little minions. Lucifer needs a favor, for reasons he conveniently cannot leave his dimension. Something about demons messing about town. Nothing had happened yet, so I told Lucifer to stick it. Lucifer let me leave without consequence. Though the game made sure to let me know I ‘might have made a mistake’. After old Lucifer let me go, there’s a quest for grandpa first thing in the morning. And so it begins.

Something Wicked

It doesn’t take long to realize that Bloomtown is not your average town. Starting right off with a case of missing kids. At least Chester, Hugo and Ramona are a constant addition to her party as Emily takes on the role of town savior. Each friend has their own abilities and unique traits in combat.

Emily is an hilariously charming protagonist, as evident in her dialogue choices. At times, she will just go against what you say because of course the story demands it. I do wish choices made more of an impact than they do in some instances of the game, where the player will mostly have to do what the game wanted you to anyway. Though the game gets a pass in doing it in a way that would not put the player out. However, some situations are also a trite shallow in development and feel a little rushed to introduce some new activity. Like everyone suddenly having weapons and dedicated guardians and being ready to just jump into a fight from the word ‘go’.

In Bloomtown it’s about more than demon hunting with your friends. During the day, you can do some of the available activities like gardening, cooking, taking a bit to gym or go to the cinema or a book club at the library. Along with the very serious and foreboding mystery are fun little side quests that Emily can take, like picking dandelions for Grandpa or raising enough money to buy a part for a record player. As well as working a shift at the grocery store to earn some much needed change.

Developing relationships with your friends and locals allows you to gain new abilities. The player can make dialogue choices depending on their skills, in charm, smarts, guts. These are accompanied by a dice roll, with a chance for success of failure depending on your stats. It’s an interesting addition to the dialogue. It adds a layer of excitement and keeps away the droll monotony of simple flavor text.

Gotta Catch em All

Bloomtown has turn based combat accompanied by a gorgeous soundtrack from an older generation of nostalgic games and plays off very well. The game allows you to tame a large variety of demons, each with unique skills you can upgrade and add to your posse of demon hunters. Plus some you can feed to other demons to get them stronger, because of course you can.

Combat is fun and easy to grasp and the visuals play a big part in making it one of my favorite parts of the game, with bright stylistic effects and heavy hitting melee. The pixel art style is a sight to behold with a rich construction and a detailed portrayal of that feeling of ‘small town with a mystery vibe’. The fantastical, inter-dimension art is a playground of marvel. The detail is sheer opulence.

Bloomtown: A Different Story is a fun time all around, the world comes together in a wondrous way with that small town feel. Both sides of its extremes from cozy to unethical monster taming. Along with the relaxing day by day activities on the side. Having one of the best soundtracks I have heard in a while does not hurt either.

**PC code provided by the publisher for review**