Bloomtown: A Different Story Review — Baby Exorcist

This game has a pretty telling title. Bloomtown: A Different Story is certainly different, serving as one of the more unique games I have played in a while. Everything about the game—its premise, story, setting, art, and character designs—makes it feel different, unique, and utterly enjoyable. Like other titles developed by Lazy Bear Games, Bloomtown: A Different Story is sure to become a new cult classic.

I see and feel a few inspirations in Bloomtown: A Different Story, such as Gravity Falls and Stranger Things—basically, every child’s most adventurous summer vacation.

Bloomtown: A Different Story opens with our protagonist, Emily, and her younger brother traveling to the titular town to stay with their grandpa for summer vacation. The two come from the big city of Chicago and aren’t exactly thrilled to be staying with their never-before-met Grandfather in the middle of nowhere, especially with family trouble going on back home.

Things then take an immediate, harsh right turn when Emily is visited in her dream by Lucifer, who offers her the power to control demons, warns her that Bloomtown is a cursed place that is in mortal peril, and inadvertently sends her on the trail of a missing, seemingly dead girl trapped in the demon world.

That’s my one big complaint with Bloomtown: A Different Story: It doesn’t have the strongest writing. I mean that in the sense that the story unfolds at a somewhat breakneck pace, introducing extraordinary concepts and mortal peril—the things no child should ever dream of encountering. These elements enter the lives of the cast of children with little to no time or explanation to help us comprehend them, and the children show practically no surprise.

The story just moves so fast and with so little chance for characters to build themselves up that it practically gave me whiplash. The children meet and become great friends after hardly any explanation or interaction (which, to be fair, is pretty realistic for children,) have big changes to their life presented, and then immediately processed as “Ok, I guess I’m doing that now” and then also face other wordly, impossible and incredibly dangerous concepts, like the whole DEMON WORLD thing, with hardly a gasp or question. They simply jump into the role of ass-kicking demon exorcists with hardly any time to process what’s going on.

Not only is that jarring from a character’s perspective, but it feels bizarre as a player trying to absorb the narrative. Things happen, and you’d better accept it because you’re not going to get a second explanation. There are actually points in the game where if you accidentally skip one or two sentences of dialogue without reading, you’ll find yourself utterly lost.

It’s unfortunate that writing is not Bloomtown: A Different Story’s strength. The game has the foundations for some really fascinating characters, is placed in an incredibly interesting setting and story, and has the potential for some great drama. Unfortunately, the game just doesn’t capitalize on these elements where it could have, leaving you wanting more in the character and plot departments.

What is Bloomtown: A Different Story’s strength, however, is everything else.

Bloomtown: A Different Story is a sort of homage to JRPG titles. You slip between the real world and the demon realm to conquer dungeons full of enemies, using a combination of creature-capture mechanics and JRPG-style turn-based battles.

Your party of heroes (mostly children with the aid of a talking dog) each have access to a demon guardian and an additional demon you capture from the hordes of demons you fight across your journey to save Bloomtown from its horrible demise. These demons give you access to abilities that work as buffs, debuffs, or attacks with special effects.

I really like that the game allows for your second set of abilities to basically be swapped at will based on which demon you capture. The strength of said abilities, of course, increases with the level of the demon, which you can improve by fusing it with other captured demons, incentivizing you to keep capturing enemies you come across.

The game features phenomenal pixel art that stands out in its otherworld setting and in its demons, all of which have really cool designs that have one foot in the silly and one foot in the terrifying. The fights easily became my favorite aspect of the game, watching these awesome sprites with their glorious animations play out to an exceptional soundtrack.

My god, the soundtrack, Bloomtown: A Different Story, features some of the most exciting combat music I’ve seen in a game in a while, rivaled only by the Final Fantasy franchise itself. When in combat, the game will cycle through a number of killer songs with exceptional vocal tracks that make you feel the hype of victory. It almost becomes a bummer to end the fight, as it abruptly cuts the song off and leaves you wanting more.

Try Hard Guides received a PC review code for this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Bloomtown: A Different Story is available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation.