Petit Planet takes Animal Crossing to space (with a little too much baggage)

The first time I got introduced to Petit Planet, a new life sim from Hoyoverse, it included only one descriptor: “Animal Crossing-like”. That certainly pricked up my ears, as some of my favorite videogame memories stem from an unhealthy amount of time spent in AC games over the years. Still, comparisons can sometimes be unflattering. The question is, of those compared, which side is it unflattering to?

Hoyoverse is a gargantuan in the mobile space, with Genshin Impact cribbing on Breath of the Wild then taking it in spectacular new directions, Honkai Star Rail taking on the monolithic genre of turn-based JRPGs and holding its own, and Zenless Zone Zero arriving with blistering action reminiscent of Devil May Cry. All three games are stellar offerings on mobile, have clear analogs in other areas of the videogame world, and feature gacha mechanics.

So, here comes Petit Planet, with, yes, a clear analog in Animal Crossing. However, it marks a step in a different direction for modern Hoyoverse, as both gacha and combat take a backseat. It seems chill, full of colorful animal-people and whimsical dialogue. Could this new direction be another great offering to Hoyoverse’s stable, and could it be considered on par with Animal Crossing, or, lord forgive me, better?

Let’s start by saying that all my playtime was in an early beta. Any screenshots you see are not final, and many things are likely to change before release, so my impressions may not be consistent with what you see at launch.

Now let’s get to the actual start of the game. Wonderfully animated cutscenes offer an introduction to the uh-oh-too-many-proper-nouns-again lore of this world, which boils down to one thing: there are lots of planets yet to be explored. So many, in fact, you can have one all to yourself. There’s a big cuddly bear called Mobai ready to help you settle down, and you’re off.

Once on your planet, Mobai gives you various tips on how to get started. There’s a big tree in the center of town, and it needs special water to grow. Growing it leads to changes on the planet, though you need to do certain things to receive this special water. So, Mobai asks you to go and collect some flowers and grass and bam! Water’s ready.

This leads to other jobs from Mobai, which in turn lead to more water for your planet’s tree – go shake a tree and get fruit, fish in the river, and catch bugs with a big net (each time it’s a new creature you get a quip from your character about said catch). Oh, and while you’re at it, here’s a big duffel bag full of schematics to build your very own house.

You start with a small house that you can expand with money and time, and you can fill it up with furniture and decorate the walls. Mobai also gives you a phone and loads up apps as and when you need, like a camera, a catalog of found creatures and items, and crafting cards.

You can give your neighbors gifts, and they react with little animations that they can then teach you, or they might give you crafting cards which you read to learn a new recipe. There’s a museum for all the creatures and an inquisitive curator to boot.

There’s also an achievement system, rewarding you with a unique currency as you complete various gameplay milestones; you even spend this currency at a vending machine to get unique items. Are you hearing that yet? It’s the unbelievably familiar echoes of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

This is, by no means, an unfair statement: Petit Planet is, foundationally, a copy of ACNH, and Hoyoverse knows it. At one point, when the conversation turns to building a house, your character asks if they’ll need to take out a loan. Mobai replies: “…..By the stars – what’ve you been through in the past? Mo (sic) worries, there won’t ever be any loans.”

So, the question is, how does it set itself apart from Animal Crossing? Well, the first place is the way it looks. The animal creatures, rather than simplified, are detailed, while the language and lore of this world are not in any way based on ours. Sometimes, this worldbuilding leads to undecipherable sentences such as the one below. This is not, to my mind, a pleasant way to chat, but your opinions may differ.

Once you raise your planet to level one, you get the keys to the rest of the full-on game and find even more to do. Another pretty animated cutscene, you see you have a beach, with sea creatures to grab from the shore. Later, you learn you can start farming, crafting, and cooking. You can drive your car to see others’ planets, go to a meetup hub and, weirdly, hang out with an AI-powered NPC that functions like a chatbot. That’s when you realize this is Animal Crossing plus the kitchen sink.

There’s also an unbelievably excellent amount of customization on offer. You can customize the earth, the sky, your house, your friends, and even your car. Meanwhile, the multiplayer mechanics seem deep. For example, other players’ planets can just pass by yours, letting you see a stranger’s home if they let you come over. In my playtime, only one came by, but visiting it made me realize how much more there is to achieve – there’s so much more to grow and customize on my planet.

Add to this the multiplayer hub, with its chat areas and minigames, and there’s a heck of a lot of digital socializing to do. Sadly, in my time in the beta, it was empty, but I imagine it’ll be pretty ace when it’s live.

These additions help push Petit Planet into more obvious mobile-game territory, as do many other additions. For example, your character has a limited amount of energy and needs to eat to recharge, and your neighbors have their own growth mechanics with a level tree. There’s even a quest log, helping you keep track of everything you need to do.

What these additional elements do is help the game become something different to Animal Crossing, though whether that’s a good thing will depend on you. These small changes result in a main HUD that’s cluttered with icons, a to-do list, and notifications of new discoveries, while character dialogue is too stuffed with words like Archiboos for me to connect with them on any level (though kids will probably love it). The overall shift is that it feels less peaceful, more checklist-y.

And from that stems a fear. Maybe Petit Planet ruins the main draw of an Animal Crossing, namely that it’s a place to hang out and take it easy. Petit Planet doesn’t feel like a relaxing game where you simply hang out – it feels like a job.

With all that said, I’ve had worse jobs. And don’t forget that this is an early beta. There are so many things that are undoubtedly going to improve so you can adjust the game to your liking. Hoyoverse’s track record almost guarantees that this game will be completely different and better for it a year from release.

But if you want my first impression, it’s overstuffed and weighty in this early form. Its foundation is an excellent copy, though the tower of other stuff atop that could get in the way of what should be a welcome reskin on the Animal Crossing formula. If it’s this game versus ACNH’s DLC next year, I know which I’d pick.