Today is the start of the official Stardrift Test of Petit Planet, HoYoverse’s galaxy-themed cozy life sim game.
I got to experience the game during a media-only closed beta test over the past few weeks. To be frank, I am beyond excited, and I hope you will be, too.
Grow and Care for your Petit Planet
In Petit Planet, you are tasked with growing and caring for your own little planet. You’re introduced to Elsasani, Mobai, and Glenn – NPCs who help you with your adventures.
Mobai teaches you the ways of caring for the planet, Elsasani takes charge of intergalactic travel, and Glenn eventually opens a shop, similar to Nook’s Cranny in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Everything starts off simple. Your daily tasks include gathering fruits and mushrooms, catching insects, fishing, crafting, and cooking. Eventually, you’ll unlock other planet activities, such as mining, beachcombing and farming.
Caring for your planet mainly involves watering the Luca Plant in your Luca Arbor. Your daily activities and completing quests from your planet’s residents called “Neighbors” will fill up Luca Jars.
These Luca Jars are used to water the Luca Arbor, upgrading it and unlocking more activities, allowing you to have more Neighbors on your planet, and add areas (like mountains!) that affect your planet’s ecology.
So, everything you do in your little planet has some effect on your daily life and activities.
Venturing into the Starsea and its Islets
Your daily activities aren’t limited to just your little planet. Eventually you’ll be able to unlock the Starsea Voyage feature through Elsasani.
She gives you a vehicle to fix up and upgrade, allowing you to take longer, farther Starsea Voyages. Each voyage will cost you one Lumia Battery, and you can buy up to two Lumia Batteries per day via the Loomix Mart vending machine in the planet’s plaza.
When you venture into the Starsea, you’ll spot little Islets that have their own little ecologies – insects, crops, fish, and shoredwellers. Starsea Chests can also appear containing free materials or furniture. You can also encounter Self-Service Vending Carts where you can buy uncommon materials, seeds, plants, and more.
And sometimes, if your planet has the space for it, you might even meet a new Neighbor that you can invite to live on your planet!
Each of these Islets also have Islet Lucadrops, which are crucial to upgrading your vehicle’s battery and Lumia Booster. When you’ve collected enough Islet Lucadrops, you can open Star Gates in the Starsea. This gives you access to more Islets with unique ecologies (and Neighbors) to jump into.
The Secret is in the Neighbors
HoYoverse deeply emphasized the importance of Neighbors in Petit Planet. The official website has little character highlights showing who you can encounter and have live in your space.
There are other NPCs such as Mors, who tasks you to build the Omni Gallery which is similar to Blathers’ Museum in ACNH, and Trixie and Kookoo, who give daily reports about your planet’s progress just like Isabelle does.
But Neighbors are residents you can invite to live on your planet, offering you unique interactions and quests. You can track our relationship progress with each Neighbor through the Starcove, and here you can check the rewards you get by growing your bonds with them.
Growing your Neighbors’ bonds unlocks new “Inspo Cards” or crafting recipes, interactions (such as dressing them up!), and even asking them to take care of tasks on the planet.
Neighbors also have their own little Planette, which you can grow through the use of Archiboos. Archiboos are sprites that show up when you craft, cook, fish, catch insects, mine, chop trees, etc.
Leveling up a Neighbor’s Planette grants Inspo Card rewards, in-game money, and a Luca Fruit, which allows you to customize the look of your own planet.
What I like the most about these Neighbors is that they’re more than just a pretty face you can talk to. They can be invited to adventure out in a Starsea Voyage, help you collect materials, and can be tasked with planet activities!
Each interaction is cute and unique, and I’m excited to see the kinds of Neighbors HoYoverse will add to the Petit Planet roster over time.
Easy Customization in Petit Planet
I mentioned that Luca Fruits allow you to customize the overall look of your planet. This includes features like the beach sand’s color, types of trees scattered around, and even the rocks found on the intertidal areas.
But what I like about Petit Planet is how easy it is to customize the interior of your house and the actual planet that you’re on.
Decorating your home in the game is very similar to AC:NH because there’s also a decoration mode. This lets you easily switch out floors or wallpaper, add windows and furniture, and even install ceiling lights.
But the best part of customization in Petit Planet is the Planetmaker app in your in-game phone. This basically brings decoration mode outside of your character’s home, making it SO EASY to move trees, buildings, bushes, flowers, almost EVERYTHING, around!
You just have to watch out for the “Area Load” and make sure you’re not adding to much stuff in one section of your planet. 🙂
The Multiplayer Potential
What was missing in Animal Crossing: New Horizons was a robust multiplayer aspect. There wasn’t much you could do with other players beyond visiting each other’s islands.
You can also visit other players’ (or Starmigos) planets in Petit Planet but you can also hang out with them at the Galactic Bazaar. You can participate in mini-games, photo contests, and even just chill at the in-game cafe.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to experience the multiplayer feature that much since I was playing in a media-only accessible closed beta test.
But I can only imagine the type of fun you could have visiting friends’ planets, exchanging endemic goods like flowers, fruits, and mushrooms, and hanging out at the Galactic Bazaar.
Petit Planet Economy & Monetization
Of course, similar to AC:NH, Petit Planet also has its own economy, but with some additional monetization features. And you have to bear with me here, because I’m still also trying to wrap my head around all the currency in the game. LOL.
Dough is in-game money you can earn by selling whatever is in your inventory. You can also get Dough from Starcove rewards, StarDash (LOL) quests, Starsea Chests, and more. This is also the currency you can use to buy and sell items in your planet’s shop or through a Starmigo’s shop when visiting their planet.
And also like New Horizons, Petit Planet has a “Greenmarket,” where the price of the crops you grow fluctuates daily. Prices are also different on a different Starmigo’s planet so it encourages players to really grow produce and meet up with friends online!
Loomi is the currency you earn when you complete milestones in the Loomix Footprints app. Loomi is what you use to purchase items in the Loomix Mart vending machine.
This includes daily-rotating cosmetic items, a set amount of furniture, gacha (!!!) boxes, and, most importantly, the Lumia Battery for your Starsea Voyages.
Now the game also has “MiraLoomi”, and you earn this by completing Daily Tasks also in the Loomix Footprints app. However, you can only earn a limited number per day.
MiraLoomi is used to redeem seasonal “Curios” in the Curio Emporium located in the Galactic Bazaar. Curios are unlocked by batches according to seasonal stories, which I haven’t been able to access yet.
As you progress through the Curios available, you’ll also be able to redeem “Mirabell”. These are very limited currencies that you can use to redeem the ultimate Curio gift called “Mirabell Gift.”
Finally, we also have what is called the “Curiosity Pass,” which I assume is similar to a paid “monthly” or “battle pass.”
There’s a purple crystal currency that has yet to be named needed to redeem this Curiosity Pass, so I assume we’ll find more in the future. Whew, that was a lot.
First Impressions and Gaming Experience
In the weeks that I’ve played Petit Planet, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I couldn’t wait to go to bed and move the game forward to the next day so I could check my in-game progress.
Which Neighbor’s house construction just finished? What new quests will I get from Mobai? How many Islets can I visit in the Starsea this time?
There’s already a lot of available activities, and interacting with the Neighbors daily can give you random rewards like Inspo Cards, food recipes, materials, and more.
On the flipside, there are still several bugs in the game. Some assets don’t load properly, especially when visiting other Starmigo’s planets. I’ve also encountered a questline bug with a Neighbor that has basically stalled our relationship progress. LOL.
But I’m completely in love with everything about Petit Planet. I love the galactic-themed visuals, the super cute anthropomorphic character designs, the avatar and planet customization, and of course, the gameplay loop.
As it is right now, I think the game just needs some polish in the multiplayer and monetization aspects. Otherwise, it’s definitely something every cozy life sim enthusiast should eagerly watch out for. 🙂
I played on PC but Petit Planet is also available on iOS and Android devices. No news on release date yet but a closed beta period called the Stardrift Test has just started. You can find out more via the official website.
P.S. Thank you to the HoYoverse team for providing access to the game. Please note that this content is based on the media review version and may differ from the final closed beta version.
Read more OMGluie Game Reviews!
Connect with OMGluie via:
Instagram Twitch Facebook Twitter YouTube