Petit Planet is Hoyoverse’s latest endeavour, and this time it seeks to enter and dominate the cozy life simulation genre. I have been keeping a close eye on its progress, and Hoyoverse finally gave me a chance to try it out this past week. After playing Petit Planet for quite a while, I must say that I was left with mixed reactions.
The game offers a lot in the genre but is also held back in many ways, and some of those limitations can be catastrophic depending on the player base it targets. Here are my Petit Planet early impressions based on the game’s second closed beta.
A Painfully Slow Start Drowned in Endless Dialogue
The biggest problem I have with Petit Planet starts from the very get-go. Instead of following a more free-flowing nature, like most life sim games, Petit Planet restricts players to plenty of redundant dialogue sequences and cutscenes that just don’t go along with the game’s genre. Yes, when it comes to Honkai Star Rail, Honkai Impact 3rd, Genshin Impact, or Zenless Zone Zero, the story is the king, and that’s how it’s supposed to be.
However, the same cannot be said about Petit Planet, which is supposed to fall into the cozy life-sim territory. For the first 2-3 hours, maybe more if you don’t try to skip through the boring dialogues, the game completely restricts you in what you can do. Now, everyone likes a bit of a tutorial, but a tutorial that goes for this long while stuffing dialogue and cutscenes was definitely not a fun experience. If I had to summarize it in one word, I’d say cringe.
The same feeling resonates for the neighbours I have met thus far in the game. Neighbours are sentient animals that act as your friends and fellow caretakers in your world. Each may have a distinct personality, but almost all of them seem to suffer from a fit of blushing at every dialogue, which was also fairly annoying.
And seeing how Petit Planet is positioning itself for the younger audience, I cannot imagine a kid from this generation sitting through all that dialogue. This is the generation that spends most of their time on Roblox, where popular games tend to throw you into the deep end and let you explore. Games like Grow a Garden or Garden Horizons did exactly that, and I also prefer that type of playstyle when it comes to cozy life simulators.
The Simplicity That Makes Everything Feel Like Busywork
The next big gripe I have about Petit Planet is how simple all of its mechanics and mini-games are. The game features a huge number of mechanics, right from farming and fishing to catching bugs and so on. However, most of these mechanics feel too simple or generic. Now, this might be a personal issue I have with the game, and it may not be true for everyone.
Let’s take fishing as an example. Fishing in Petit Planet is simply about throwing the hook at a visible fish in the water and pressing the left mouse button when it catches the bait. That’s it. No additional minigame, like button mashing, or reeling in at the correct pace. This may make it easier to get the fish, but it takes away the sense of achievement I look forward to when fishing in such games. With the sense of achievement taken out, it only turns it into a chore, which is not my definition of fun.
Now, Animal Crossing also has a similar fishing system. So, I don’t think others who adore games like Animal Crossing would be truly affected by it. However, I personally prefer the Stardew Valley style of fishing or game mechanics, and a bit of challenge that can stir the sense of achievement, keeping you longer in a life sim.
The cooking system, however, is the one feature that’s really well done. It has a ‘figure it out’ mode, which lets you experiment with different ingredients to unlock recipes. This is something I truly enjoyed during my playthrough. Hopefully, Hoyoverse will add more distinct and challenging mini-games to bring that sense of achievement in the game before the official release.
Where Petit Planet Actually Shines
Even though the initial part of my early impression may have pointed out the game’s irks, Petit Planet actually has some strong fundamental aspects for a cozy life sim. The game looks absolutely adorable. I find Petit Planet to be the best-looking life-sim that’s out right now. The strongest point of the game is the incredible freedom when you’re customizing. And when I say customize, I don’t just mean your house or dress, but also the entire planet.
The game literally lets you customize the entire planet you are on, from its flora and fauna to other visual aspects. But if you get bored on your planet, you can always move to another and start rebuilding there. However, I only got to experience two planets thus far, so I won’t be able to comment on how much versatility we can expect in the game’s official release. Although it isn’t as good as Minecraft farms, the game does a decent job at it.
On the other hand, I felt the character customization at the start was a bit lacking, with limited hairstyles and other features. However, once the game starts to open up, you find these amazing costumes to put on that completely change your appearance.
The home customization is the real crown, and it will be where the majority of your time will go in this game. Not only your home, but also your neighbour’s home. Anyone who loves building and painstakingly enjoys interior designing their homes in life sims will have a field day with Petit Planet.
Other than the customization, Petit Planet features a ton of multiplayer features that can really become the highlight going forward. The game has a multiplayer hub where you can meet other players and participate together in fun events.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t test these out because each time I tried, I was stuck on a matchmaking screen during my early access period. Still, the concept seemed fun, and I can only imagine what else Hoyoverse can add to really light up the multiplayer aspect of the game.
A Promising Life Sim That Forgets What Makes the Genre Work
Overall, Petit Planet has a solid foundation that can make it a highly enjoyable game on release. Hoyoverse also has a knack for releasing subpar games and later updating them with good features and mechanics to dominate the genre. However, I would prefer that the devs focus less on storytelling and lore for Petit Planet and more on the in-game mechanics.
Even though Petit Planet may seem to have all the right ingredients it needs to be a good life-sim game, it fails where the genre is at its strongest. The core of a life sim is letting players decide what they want to do, celebrating their freedom, instead of constantly hand-holding and guiding them. Petit Planet so far has very little of that aspect, which is a bit concerning to me.
In a life sim, a basic set of early tasks is enough – anything more starts to feel redundant. Story has its place, but not when it overshadows the mechanics and freedom that define the genre.
Are you excited to play Petit Planet at launch? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Sanmay Chakrabarti
