Petit Planet first impressions: Cute, cozy, and charming

The cozy gaming niche is overflowing with cute and charming games, ranging from intricate life simulation titles to heart-warming puzzlers. If you’re a fan of all things comforting and pastel, you’ll be spoilt for choice when looking for a game to play.

An upcoming title that’s looking to make a splash in the cozy gaming world is Petit Planet, offering players the chance to build their dream home in the cosmos. I had the opportunity to check out the game in its beta format ahead of the official launch, and found the game to be positively delightful.

A potential cozy gaming staple

Petit Planet is an upcoming cosmic cozy life sim game from miHoYo, and based on my time with its beta iteration, I can say with confidence that it’s a title that diehard cozy gaming lovers are going to have a blast with.

It’s far from miHoYo’s usual action-packed gacha games, and as a fan of titles like Genshin Impact, I was excited to see where the upcoming free-to-play title went creatively. 

In Petit Planet, you get to carve out your own slice of the universe and make it feel like home, tasked with cultivating a tiny planet on behalf of the celestial company Loomi Co and encouraging galaxy-faring visitors to set up camp. 

I’m a big character creator geek – I find it easy to spend hours building a character before even getting into a new game – so I was keen to see what Petit Planet had to offer in this department. 

The character creator screen in the Petit Planet beta was fairly pared back, with a handful of items and customizations on offer, but the visual style was just as adorable as I’d hoped. I’m eager to see even more hairstyles, complexion options, and clothing choices in the full game, though.

After building your character, you get to pick out which biome you want your planet to have, changing the planet’s visuals and roots. There were two options to pick from in the beta.

Once you’ve picked out a planet type, you get dropped into your new idyllic life as a planet tender for Loomi Co and get a detailed walkthrough of the core mechanics, ranging from fishing to cooking.

You’ll also get to meet the game’s cast of friendly, anthropomorphic animal characters, ranging from the uber-friendly Glenn to the super relaxed Mobai. There are simple character profiles on the official site, too, meaning you can get a glimpse of who you’ll meet with the game’s full release. 

I didn’t connect deeply with any of the characters during my time with Petit Planet – the dialogue left a little to be desired for my personal tastes, although I did like their designs – but I can see some players finding them to be charming from the get-go. I’m already picturing a crocheted Mobai plushie. 

Fluffy and vibrant

As is the case with most cozy life sims, you’ll be able to explore your planet, collect and gather items, and take part in relaxing pastimes like fishing and cooking. 

While I do try to avoid direct comparisons to existing games in reviews and impressions pieces, I had initially been worried that Petit Planet might just feel like Animal Crossing: New Horizons or Pokémon Pokopia in space.

These two games are fantastic, of course – I’ve lost more hours than I can count playing both of them – but they’re very much cozy gaming staples, and as a big fan of the niche, I was keen to see something new from Petit Planet. 

Thankfully, the core progression system in Petit Planet does manage to feel decently unique. There’s a magical tree on every planet, and you’ll need to keep yours fed and happy by watering it with a special resource called Luca. 

As the tree grows and you pick up more Luca while exploring the planet and completing everyday tasks, you’ll be able to expand your planet and access new areas of the game. It’s a neat idea, and helps to differentiate Petit Planet from other games in the admittedly jam-packed cozy gaming genre. 

Petit Planet is a title that I imagine will be best enjoyed with friends, particularly with the more social aspects of the game.

I played through the beta version solo, but being able to explore the celestial roads of the Starsea and customize my planet made me picture how fun it would be to hang out with my friends on a call and potter about together.

The visuals of Petit Planet were a huge selling point for me. The game is ridiculously cute, with a soft, stylized art style and adorable character designs, and exploring each new area felt like a treat. 

It’s always a little strange commenting on the performance of a game’s beta as it’s a work-in-progress version of a game, but I found Petit Planet to be a smooth and enjoyable experience overall.

I have a fairly low-range PC, but I found that the game ran nicely – although I’ll likely be playing it on my mobile when the game launches in full, as the idea of being able to take the game around with me is delightful.

Monetization will likely be a sticking point for some fans when Petit Planet launches, as the game is free-to-play and monetization information is scarce. The beta didn’t provide much of a hint on how the game will be monetized, but I’m theorizing that it’ll be partially cosmetic-based and partially resource-based.

Personally, I’m never too fussed about a F2P game being monetized like this, provided that actual gameplay and content are not paywalled, but I know this isn’t always the case for some players. It’ll be interesting to see how it looks when the community can dig in. 

Based on my time with the Petit Planet beta, the game is looking exquisitely fun so far. While it may not be reinventing the wheel with its story, it’s a fresh and exciting addition to the cozy gaming world, and it’ll go down nicely for fans of games like Animal Crossing and Pokopia.

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