Suits: A Business RPG – What We Think:

Suits: A Business RPG is a deliberately weird take on the JPRG. Like the deliberately grotesque Lisa or last year’s controversial but innovative cult favorite Undertale, it’s heavily inspired by the Earthbound series and its juxtaposition of realistic elements and surreal humor.

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This particular kind of game is like Wes Anderson movies or The Grateful Dead: quirky, and not everyone’s into them, but the people that are into them are really, really into them. If you’ve liked Lisa or the Earthbound games, you’ll probably appreciate what Suits has to offer. If you hated them, chances are you won’t enjoy this, either.

With primitive, pencil-scratched artwork and a setting based on corporate dystopia, Suits at first suggests a satirical take on capitalism, but ends up being a lot more random than that. While there’s some loose semblance of a story about a salesman graduating from business school and going on adventures, the narrative serves mainly as an excuse to lob jokes at the player and see if they stick.

In its defense, the sheer randomness of the game’s humor might be an asset, rather than a liability. Instead of going for a straight office job parody a la Dilbert, the world of Suits is full of surreal puns (legal courts and basketball courts sharing the same location and function), black comedy (incinerating a “business preschool” full of toddlers) and toilet humor. There’s enough variety in the jokes that there are bound to be a few that amuse you, regardless of your particular comedic taste – and also a few that annoy you, for the exact same reasons.

If you’re expecting more pointed social commentary, however, you’ll probably be disappointed. Other than a few obvious comments, like characters in a courthouse area commenting on the price of justice, the potential for brutal satire is squandered in favor of random insider humor and silly wordplay.

Suit Up

The game design itself is fairly typical for a JRPG, with turn-based party combat, special abilities, and a plot that’s more narrative-driven – insofar as it has a coherent narrative – than open world.

The divergences from the usual formula are fairly obvious: suits and ties instead of chain mail and shields, briefcases and staplers instead of swords and spells.

These are cosmetic changes, not mechanical ones, but they’re interesting, at least. Enemies, in particular, are carefully designed and carelessly depicted, drawn in slapdash pencil sketches that would look more at home on a high school kid’s binder than a video game.

But the enemy concepts are some of the game’s most clever jokes. Police are anthropomorphic German shepherds with humans on leashes, an amusing inversion that’s all the more funny for never being addressed other than visually. And loan sharks are actual sharks – a hackneyed gag until you realize that a poorly disguised dolphin is also part of their organization.

Hired, Fired or Just Showing Up to Collect a Paycheck

Admittedly, Suits isn’t as ambitious and innovative as Undertale, nor does it offer Lisa’s unexpected mixture of poignancy and repulsion. But it is a pretty funny diversion, and what did you expect for a one-dollar RPG Maker offering? Quit complaining and get back to work.

Suits: A Business RPG is available via Steam.

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Watch the trailer for Suits: A Business RPG below: