I didn't realise how much I wanted a Pokémon meets Stranger Things game until I saw this monster taming JRPG

Party combat in the Underside in Bloomtown: A Different Story
(Image credit: Twin Sails Interactive)

What do you get when൩ you mix Stranger Things, Pokémon, Stardew Valley, and a hint of Persona together? Apparently, the answer is Bloomtown: A Different Story.

Bloomtown is an upcoming game from developers Lazy Bear Games and Different Sense Games and will be pub💧lished by Twin Sails Interactive. They describe the game as "a narrative JRPG mixing turn-based combat, monster taming and social RPG" set in the backdrop of 1960s Americana.

You play as Emily, a 12 year old girlꦚ who's sent with her younger brother Chester to their grandpa's over the summer holiday. He lives in the seemingly quaint town of Bloomtown and it all looks super cosy, like it's come straight out of Stardew Valley. 

And then you start to notice that things seem a little bit off. People are glitching out into shadow versions of themselves, and a number of c🐽hildren are going missing from the town. As Emily, you set out on a journey to find out what's going on with the help of friends and tamed creatures.

Bloomtown has a dark, demon world called the Underside, where people's fe♓ars become real. Emily will have to travel to the Underside to battle demons and dungeon bosses, and she can summon her own inner demons alongside the ones she's tamed. There's a "deep fuse system", according to Lazy Bear Gam𒐪es and Different Sense Games, hopefully meaning there's huge scope for different combinations of creatures.

The game runs in real-time, and you can spend your time doing a variety of activities, including gardening, working at the local grocery store to earn some pocket money, or just exploring Bloomtown and 🅘making friends.

The art looks amazing, especially when you go down to the Underside, and the music sounds banging from the trailer. The various demons and creatures also look amazing, although I'd be lying if I said my favourite wasn't the super buff corgi on Emily's team. That's peak monster design, right there. If the game can pull together all of its i✅nfluences into a coherent experience, it could well be one to watch out for.

Bloomtown: A Different S🌜tory is available to wishlist on now, and is coming soon to PC and console.

There's plenty of澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: upcoming indie games for 2023 and beyond you should be keeping an eye out for. 

Freelance contributor

I'm a freelance writer and started my career in summer 2022. After studying Physics and Music at university and a short stint in ꦓsoftware development, I made the jump to games journalism on Eurogamer's work experience programme. Since then, I've also written for Rock Paper Shotgun and Esports Illustrated. I'll give any game a go so long as it's not online, and you'll find me playing a range of things, from Elden Ring to Butterfly Soup. I have a soft spot for indies aiming to diversify representation in the industry.