HoYoverse’s Petit Planet is Like Animal Crossing in Space

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If you enjoy relaxing games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you’ll quickly feel at home in Petit Planet. I immediately started planting, collecting resources, and decorating – it’s a calming and satisfying experience. The creators at HoYoverse have built on the enjoyable life-simulation style of New Horizons, but expanded it to include multiple planets, offering a lot of variety and a grander scope without becoming complicated or confusing.

I recently had a chance to try out HoYoverse’s closed test of Petit Planet, and it’s very similar to life-sim games like Animal Crossing. While that’s nice for fans of the genre, it also means the game doesn’t offer many surprises.

Petit Planet’s Progression Is Surprisingly Addictive, Even If You’ve Played Animal Crossing

Creating your character at the beginning is straightforward – you choose some basic features like face shape, hair, and skin color to get started. This initial simplicity is intentional, as the game offers tons of cosmetic items you can unlock as you play. You’ll find everything from clothes to different facial features and hairstyles, allowing you to fully customize your character’s appearance and reflect your personal style as you progress.

Okay, so after making my character and watching a pretty cool intro cutscene, the game immediately felt familiar – if you’ve played Animal Crossing, you’ll get it. I started on this totally empty planet with hardly any tools. But honestly, everything I did – planting stuff, gathering materials, building – felt important because it directly made my planet better, and that’s how you progress. Finishing tasks unlocked new stuff, letting me build more, decorate, and add even more plants. It was a nice cycle – every little win opened up the next thing. Seeing my planet actually change kept me hooked, even though the beginning was a little slow with all the tutorials it made me do.

Everything in the game feels incredibly fluid and responsive. The controls are intuitive, and the animations are polished – they add to the experience without being distracting. I even found myself admiring the little details, like how plants sway as you pass or animals roam around your base. These subtle touches make the world feel alive and connected, like a place you can truly make your own at your own speed.

Although the game feels inviting and relaxed, it’s actually more guided than most open-ended life simulation games. You’ll have daily chores, quests, and some things that unlock over time, which gives your gameplay a nice flow. I did encounter one quest where I had to wait a whole day to continue, and that was a bit annoying. However, the mix of freedom and clear objectives is effective – it provides direction without feeling restrictive.

Voyages Make the Universe Feel More Connected Than You Would Expect

I’m really enjoying how each planet feels unique in this game! It definitely pushes you to explore – I quickly realized I needed to venture out to find certain resources and recipes that weren’t available on my starting planet. The way they let you travel to these smaller, neighboring planets – the ‘Starsea Voyages’ system – is super cool. It wasn’t just about getting stuff, either; I loved just wandering around one planet and stumbled upon a hidden chest with a new recipe! Plus, I occasionally ran into other players during my travels who gave my home planet some nice boosts. It’s a great system!

Similar to the way it works in Animal Crossing, you can invite characters to live on your planet. These neighbors usually offer helpful advantages, such as new recipes or assistance with collecting materials, which enhances the game without feeling intrusive. A standout feature was the ability to have real conversations with these characters. I could ask them questions and they’d respond using AI – it was surprisingly well-implemented, and I even managed to get one of my own questions answered. It was a really neat experience overall.

I didn’t actually see other players exploring during the test, but I could totally picture myself hopping over to my friends’ planets to trade cool decorations – that feels like it’s going to be a huge part of the fun. They have this place called the Grand Bazaar where you’re supposed to meet other players, chat, and play little games together. Sadly, every time I checked it out during the test, it was completely empty! Still, it’s obvious the developers want this to be a really social game, and knowing they plan to keep updating it makes me hopeful the community aspects will really come alive later on.

Let’s talk about how the game handles customization and earning things. Petit Planet offers a ton of different outfits and looks for your character. During the test version, you couldn’t directly buy random items with real money, but you could get them by spending coins you earned while playing. I tried my luck a few times and got a really cool spacesuit that was unique – it even left purple footprints! The color made it obvious it was a rare, top-tier item I’d gotten purely by chance. It’s not yet known if these kinds of items will eventually cost real money, but it wouldn’t be unexpected. Right now, though, everything I found was obtainable just by playing the game.

Decorating and Exploring Makes Petit Planet Cozy But It Is Not Too Strange

The game is easy on the eyes, filled with charming details that you’ll notice as you play, but it doesn’t feel cluttered. Each planet feels unique, with its own landscapes, little surprises, and visual style – you might even find a fun activity like fishing near a small waterfall. I enjoyed customizing my own planet by moving buildings and decorations around. It was a simple process – placing, rotating, and rearranging everything was easy until I created a space I loved. This customization makes the planet truly feel like your own.

However, I do have a couple of minor complaints. Initially, Petit Planet feels a bit dull because it’s very similar to Animal Crossing. While this familiarity is nice, it also makes the game feel predictable. In my first few hours, I didn’t encounter many genuine surprises, despite the space setting. Fortunately, as a game that will receive ongoing updates, future content could add more excitement and unexpected elements both now and in the future.

I was immediately frustrated by the time-gating. One mission made me wait almost a whole day to continue, which really broke up the game’s otherwise smooth pace. I hope this kind of artificial delay doesn’t happen often, as it’s incredibly annoying when a game intentionally stops you from playing. I also found the game a little lacking in truly alien things. Even though it’s a space game, nothing felt particularly unique or strange so far. Hopefully, that will change as I play more, but that’s my impression right now.

Okay, so even though it’s got a few little quirks right now, Petit Planet really nails that sweet spot between feeling familiar and totally new. It’s super cozy and has a nice structure, but it’s also got tons of room to grow. As someone who loves Animal Crossing, I instantly got those same relaxing vibes, but with the added bonus of exploring whole planets! There’s a lot of focus on social stuff too, and it feels like the developers are planning to keep adding to the game for a long time. Even just playing the preview, I found myself constantly making these little discoveries that felt really good, and I can already tell this space-themed take on a life sim could really hook me for hours.

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2025-11-11 16:13