Almost two years and no comments? The review you wrote here is pretty good. And yes, Planetarian rocks!
Planetarian game Review
Story & Playability
What do you think about the planetarium?
The beautiful twinkling of eternity that will never fade, no matter when.
All the stars in the sky are waiting for you.
10,000 days later. You are a Junker, a trash collector, who comes upon a small city. The city has been destroyed by a chemical attack that happened years ago. In this abandoned city, you find a broken robot. You develop a bond with her, and soon, you get a little attached to her.
Planetarian is a sweet little "kinetic novel" (or visual novel, but with no choices) by Key. Unlike Key's other games (with the exception of Clannad), this game contains no adult content (or even any ecchi content for that matter). The game focus around you and Yumemi Hoshino (Reverie Planetarian by insani's translation), the broken robot. There are no other characters, besides a big projector named Jena. Reverie is obviously not human. Her character is very well defined. She is a naive and cute little robot who is just a little broken. She is operational for about a week only, and you happen to be there the week that she is operational. After that, she will not be able to work for another 30 years (I think that's what it was). Because she is a robot, she runs by a command, so throughout the story, it seems like she's talking to a lot of people when you're the only one there. You can't help but feel sorry for little Reverie.
Of course, at first, you (or rather, your character) doesn't feel sorry for the little robot. Your character is defined as well as Reverie's. You are a junker who came to the city to scavenge what you can, and are focused on your mission and your mission only. You do not care for a beautiful bouquet that Reverie specially prepared for the 2,500,000th customer to come to the Planetarium. But in a few days, you soften up, and give her help with repairing the Planetarium. You get used to talking to her, even though you well know she is a robot. You give her your friendship, for it is the only thing you can give her after what she has done for you. And you wonder what will happen to her at the and of her seven days.
Without any static characters, the story can really focus on the developing relationship between "Mr. Customer" and Reverie Planetarian. And because you never learn your own name, and Reverie keeps calling you Mr. Customer, it really feels like she is talking to you. The story is written very well, I'd say it is one of Key's best works (regardless on whether I've played and of their other games or not).
Rating:
Graphics
Unlike Key's other games, the artist for this game was Eeji Komatsu. Now, only one character needed to be drawn, but she was drawn with amazing detail. Every fold in her skirt, the glowing of her ribbon, all was done very well! Kudos to Komatsu-sama! Reverie is depicted as a very cute female robot. If you didn't know her personality, you would have been attracted by her cute ribbon and long ponytails. By making her like this, you really can fall in love with Reverie. That is probably one of the main points of the story, trying to get you to like Reverie.
Now, backgrounds are done just as well. When the mood is dark and gloomy, the background certainly tells you so with its darkness and falling rain. When the mood is a little lighter, the warm orange glow can be seen all around the screen. When the mood is mysterious, everything is black except for a few shining stars. You get it by now. The backgrounds are done as well as Reverie was. It's like there were different emotions in each background, just like there are different emotions displayed in each different sprite for a character.
The artwork is really really pretty, no matter what you're looking at. When the game needs you to cry at a certain part, you will cry. When it calls for laughter, Reverie will say something funny for you ("Was that recently added to the Pantheon?"). Some of the best art I've seen anywhere, and I've seen a lot of art.
Rating:
Sound
A lot of the music is done by Kenji Miyazaya and other famous music composers like Shinji Orito and Magome Togoshi. Now, I wouldn't say it is the best just because it was done by some good people. The music gets repetitive at parts. The music is good nonetheless, but it's not enough to make me go out and buy the sound track.
Voices are another story though. I got the privilege to play through the voiced version. Let me tell you that the voices are amazing. Reverie's voice is the only voice heard, but nonetheless, Kudos to Keiko Suzuki for doing so well. The voice is another thing that defines Reverie so well. Her sweet gentle young sounding voice is just too cute to resist. I don't know how it was done. Reverie is a robot, so she speaks in a certain tone of voice no matter what. When her programming says "sad", her voice is a little low. When she is apologetic, she is talking quickly and apologetically. When she is greeting customers, she is happy. But at a sad time, when she is standing alone, greeting customers that aren't there, as per protocol, it's so sad. Yet, she speaking happily. It truly is amazing how well done the voices were recorded and mixed. The voice actor didn't talk too fast or two slow, it was all pretty much perfect.
Now, Sound effects. Last (but not least?), are okay. A gun shot is loud and sudden, and it will make you jump, but it doesn't sound very real. It's understandable, sound effects like that are hard to simulate. There were not many sound effects, but the ones that were there were definitely not the best. The sound of rain hitting concrete, the firing of a gun, the creaking of robot parts, all of those sound effects were present, but not of the highest quality. Now, they were timed correctly. That's an up. As aforementioned, the sound effect of a gun for example, is timed so that it is sudden and unexpected. Another example is the moving robot parts. Now, in a visual novel, the pictures don't move that much, and this one is no exception, but nonetheless, the sound effect really gets you to "see" that moving.
Voices, amazing. Music, good. Sound effects, could be better. Sound still gets a good score though, just because I can't resist Reverie's cute little voice.
Rating:
Fun
It's a visual novel. It's a picture, and words that narrate the story appearing at the bottom of the screen. What is there not love about that?
Now, it leads in good, introducing the story, and then the characters. The concept is clearly put: There is a broken robot in a planetarium, and you do stuff with her. The way the story goes on is good too. Reverie is so naive that it is funny sometimes, which is good comic relief, since the story gets quite emotional at points.
Now, there are no choices, so it gets a down for that. You kinda just watch it. You can put it on auto mode too (it was available in Key's other games as a "hands-free" mode if you get what I mean) which is good if you are a fast reader and don't want to keep clicking to move on (believe me, the clicking sound really ruins the mood).
Still one of Key's better stories, and I can't think of any other way that it could have ended, so choices wouldn't have worked very well, I still think just sitting there and watching it wasn't the best thing. So for that, this section gets a fairly low score (fairly low, so what I think is fair).
Replaying it gets boring quickly, since you already know what's going to happen. With no choices to alter the story, there's not much replay value in this. All you can really do is let a friend borrow it or something.
It has a pretty box though. And I really recommend playing it, even if it's just once. It's totally worth it, one of the best time's you'll have staring at a computer screen.
Rating:
Final Verdict
8.5000 (very good)
Reviewed by JetKrazy, May 27, 2007
Comments
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Chuckstar Apr 13, 2009
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rayyeow Dec 23, 2009
Well after reading you review, I get a clear idea about how good is the game. Will give it a try very soon! Thanks a lot ^^
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SchRita Jan 15, 2010
Thanks for the review!
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