Turnip Boy is a devilishly cute Eldritch horror who made his debut in Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion. The original game ended, spoiler alert, with the main-quest-giving NPC, Mayor Onion, revealing that he is the villain of the story. By unlocking a secret ending, Mayor Onion becomes God Onion, and defeating him results in the true ending of the game.
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank follows the original game’s story, mainly in how it references the world and other characters. But whereas the first game was more fetch-quest based and relied on heavy referential humor, Turnip Boy Robs a Bank borrows heavily from the roguelike genre.
As the name implies, Turnip Boy Robs a Bank involves our favorite turnip getting conscripted by a gang to help them rob a bank. You can shake down the fools that decided today was the day to visit their local bank, steal their wallets, pinch priceless items, and kill the various food based enemies.
The run ends when you die or make your way back to the getaway car. Once that happens, you are back at the base. Here you can equip weapons, buy new items, and upgrade Turnip Boy’s abilities using the money you got away with. The special items you pick up will be sold once you get back to base, and they are the best way to get tons of money. However, get too greedy and die during a run, and you lose all the special items you picked up. It’s not unforgiving though, you do keep half of your money upon dying, so it’s never a total loss.
The way each run works is that the basic layout of the bank remains the same from run to run. However, there are locations where elevators spawn a random room, each of which has its own loot, NPCs, and side missions. This describes the basic premise of the game, and it is a huge improvement over the first Turnip Boy game. Not only is the gameplay loop just more satisfying, but the combat system is leaps and bounds better. There are ranged and melee combat options, and the gameplay feels like a lite version of Enter the Gungeon; a game I sunk many hours into.
One of the cool, unique features of Turnip Boy Robs a Bank though is the level progression for its weapons. When you are fighting your way through the bank, enemies will drop weapons. When you successfully finish a run, i.e. you don’t die or run out of time, you spawn back at the main base with the weapons you picked up. You then have the option to use them in your next run, or recycle them for experience to unlock new starter weapons.
There are strong weapons that can be found during each run, especially the sniper rifle that you get from the first boss, which can be picked up. Compared to the starting weapons you have, it’s a major boost in power, but as you level up the arms dealer the weapons become exponentially stronger. Recycling enough weapons eventually grants you such strong weapons that you can definitely make it through the end game without needing to pick up anything else.
That being said there are definitely stronger weapons to be found during the end game.
The main fault with Turnip Boy Robs a Bank is the predictability in how the story progression works. You essentially play through the map until you reach the next blockade, at which point you go back to the base and have to buy a specific item to move forward. Having certain missions or objectives to progress the story would’ve been an improvement. In spite of that though, the gameplay loop of getting more money, finding items, and nabbing a big payout at the end of the run is so satisfying that it almost overcomes that downfall entirely.
There are missions scattered throughout the bank, but these often have minimal to no payout. Almost all are fetch quests that you’ll find the required items for as you continue playing the main story. There is some wacky humor that does justify taking the time to do these missions, and overall most of them aren’t too challenging, so it’s not a problem to take the time to do them.
This is another area in which Turnip Boy has made improvements over the first entry in the series. While the first game’s humor was almost entirely referential, the second entry has developed a sense of humor that is much more self-standing. You don’t need an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture to get the jokes, which was something that was a little off-putting for some players of the first game. That, coupled with the combat improvements makes the entire experience of Turnip Boy Robs a Bank much cleaner than the first entry.
During my time with Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion I found the story and world building genuinely fun and engaging, so I am extremely happy that they decided to shake things up with Turnip Boy Robs a Bank. The gameplay loop is fun and gratifying, and when I hit a tough section, I couldn’t help but want to try again and again. Most of the game isn’t too challenging, but there are difficulty options for people who want more of a challenge. The last run of the game has you take on everything the bank has to offer and then some, and it’s a fitting end to Turnip Boy’s adventure. The last sequence does go on a little long, and having to redo all of the steps after failing feels more like a chore than a challenge. But in spite of that it still drove me to want to finish the game and see the credits roll.
It certainly helps that the soundtrack is consistently good across the board, especially so with the final song that plays as things ramp up during the final boss. Good music makes any game better, while a sour soundtrack can make a game feel rotten. Thankfully, Turnip Boy is farm fresh with his funky beats.
You’ll enjoy your time with Turnip Boy a lot more on the second go around in Turnip Boy Robs a Bank. If you’re looking for a couple hours of fun then it’s definitely a game worth checking out.
