Petit Planet preview - "The Little Prince, but make it miHoYo"
What does the perfect day look like to you? Is it lounging around under the stars without having to worry about the daily grind? Or perhaps finding the right ingredients to brew the most divine cup of tea? If all you really have to stress about is how to complete your bug collection day in and day out, then it's a cosy life indeed - which is exactly what Petit Planet's welcoming you into.
HoYoverse's upcoming cross-platform project is soft and fluffy in all the right places, and since it's dubbed as a "cosy galactic life sim", I'd say it definitely is what it says on the tin.
"You’re responsible for your rose."
I was fortunate enough to get an early sneak peek at the media review version of this lovely little gem, and after ten days of fishing, beachcombing, and bug-collecting, I can honestly say that it really does let you "weave your dreams beneath the stars".
The thing is, while I went into this thinking Petit Planet is going to be another run-of-the-mill life sim (a genre I've never really gotten on board with myself), what made me change my mind throughout the playtest was the vibes - the full-on The Little Prince vibes.
It's because all the "Planettes" you're meant to nurture are incredibly reminiscent of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's titular protagonist's home, complete with the giant trees sticking out of each floating planet.
I suppose that alone already splashed a very appealing coat of paint for me when it comes to the aesthetics, and when you add HoYoverse's signature anime shenanigans into the mix, it's very, very hard to resist.
Sun, sand, and Starsea
Essentially, you'll be tasked with caring for your own little planet in hopes of making it a warm and welcoming place where both flora and fauna can thrive. The more TLC you give your planet, the more you'll earn Luca, and the more Neighbors will come floating by from the Starsea and make your planet their home.
It's a nice little tale that ties everything together, but even without the narrative, you can freely collect random trinkets from the beach, catch bugs with your net, and even jab unwitting shellfish with your tongs and have them for dinner (and I mean literally have them for dinner, not as dinner guests).
It's all very chill - props to Mobai, who's the chillest dog-person in the entire galaxy - and if you ever feel like you've run out of shellfish to torment, you can always hop into your Starsea-drifting car and head over to the Galactic Bazaar.
Here, you can fulfil requests, engage in cute mini-games, and interact with other adventurers however you want to. Then, at the end of the day, you can come home, prettify your own private haven with furniture and cosmetics, and just…stare into space.
Every so often, you might chance upon another Planette or two drifting overhead - you can even wave to the owner as you pass each other by, because no, there's no conflict and yes, life is good.
"Mo" means "no", not "more"
As Mobai always says, "Mo worries" - and you really won't have any worries with how totally laidback the world of Petit Planet is. You'll just wander around doing your thing during the day and walk back to your little plot of land when the sun goes down, the warm lights inside your house calling you home.Of course, with the early media build, what I've played doesn't reflect the sim's final quality (these also aren't my own screenshots, for disclosure's sake). There are a few hiccups here and there - like me opening a bunch of furniture packs that brought on an endless and merciless barrage of notifications on the right side of my menu.
I also felt like the beginning was a tad too slow for me, while in some cases, walking up to an interactive item wouldn't change the action button into what it's supposed to be. Watering the Luca Arbor also felt very redundant in my opinion.
The public Stardrift Test starts today, though, and the devs are actively taking player feedback to shape the sim into the best it can be. At the end of the day, all I can say is that for someone like me who's always steered clear of farming and crafting sims, Petit Planet might just make a fan out of me yet.
After all, how can I possibly resist those fluffy Archiboos?
