This game has been eating up a lot of my time recently. With the extent of my RPG exposure being Pokémon and Kingdom Hearts, I've never really experienced a more "classic" RPG before, and since Citizens of Earth was heavily marketed as an Earthbound-inspired game, I decided to try it out (also to get myself above 600 coins on club nintendo - now to decide what to get).
One of the biggest "draws" you could say for this game was that you can recruit normal, everyday citizens (from your mother and brother to an architect and teacher) and have them band together to save the world. From using your mother to lower your enemy's defenses with a stern lecture or having a cop spraying pepper spray to blind enemies, every character in the 40-citizen roster is completely unique and all play differently, allowing for a good amount of customization if you're willing to hunt them all down.
Most of the citizens are actually out of your way of the main storyline - if you plow through the story and not worry about any of the sidequests or exploration, you're really missing out on a big part of the game as you'll probably only run into at maximum 10 different citizens that you can actually recruit on your way without doing a specific job for them that takes a decent chunk of time.
Luckily, I've found exploring to be very enjoyable. Every area is unique and its exciting to see what's coming up next. It does disappoint me that I looked up let's plays of the game before I actually played it, since I know I would've enjoyed it more if I didn't know how to get certain citizens or where to go specifically.
Another plus about the game is its writing and dialogue. The game itself is very humorous and I've found myself chuckling numerous times, this game is definitely one of the funniest games I've ever played (that's trying to be funny, anyway). The funny dialogue is only boosted by the amount of voice acting that is present. While it can be a bit odd for some of the dialogue to be voice acted and some of it left barren, I was surprised for there to be voice acting at all, which is a huge plus for me.
Unfortunately, the game isn't without its faults. Citizens of Earth is ridden with bugs, the most notable being random crashes of the game that forced me to reset my Wii U. While a patch is indeed coming (confirmed by developer Eden Industries), the amount of times I've needed to reset due to crashes is definitely a hinderance. Luckily, the game does autosave everytime it hits a loading screen.
Which is another downside - the loading screens. Due to the game being on handhelds as well as consoles, they needed to shrink down areas into multiple maps, and everytime you enter a building or ascent to a 2nd floor you'll be greeted with a loading screen. While the loading times aren't unbearable, they do get annoying and I've found myself somewhat annoyed to wait through a loading screen and find nothing in an area. In a game that rewards you for looking around and exploring, having loading screens take away from the exploration is definitely a hinderance.
Overall, I've really enjoyed Citizens of Earth. I wouldn't say its a game for everyone, but if you enjoy exploring, collecting things (Citizens can be seen as "pokemon", really), and doing sidequests for more loot, I would recommend citizens of earth. Overall I'd give it a solid 6.5/10, though I would probably bump it to a 7 or 7.5 once a patch comes that fixes the crashing.