I am a huge fan of HoYoverse games, and I play most of them frequently. I have spent hours, days, and months of my time in Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, Honkai Impact 3rd, and Zenless Zone Zero. So, naturally, I was curious about one of the company’s upcoming games, Petit Planet.
The problem was that whenever I tried looking it up, most of what I found just called it a cozy game without giving me many details beyond that. So when I got into one of the closed beta tests, I had two big questions going in. What exactly is Petit Planet, and how is HoYoverse handling monetization this time around?
Welcome To Petit Planet
Petit Planet starts by letting you create your character. The character creator is pretty bare bones at first, but that seems intentional since you unlock more hairstyles, hair colors, eye styles, eye colors, and outfits as you play. Once your character is ready, the game places you at a station where your main goal is to help nurture a planet.
During the beta, I was able to choose between two planets. One had more of a grassy look, while the other leaned into a desert theme. I picked the desert planet because it had mangoes as one of its fruit options, and sometimes that is all the convincing I need. From there, a big bear-like NPC named Mobai helps walk you through the early game with simple tasks like shaking trees and picking up fruit.
Once you finish those first few tasks, Mobai introduces you to Luca, the life force of your new planet. Luca comes from a jar that Mobai carries, and it is basically the energy that helps your planet grow. As you take care of the planet by fishing, farming, helping populate it, and completing other activities, you can apply Luca to the planet’s source. Once you do, the planet starts to expand and open up more.
Building Up Your Planet
Once the first residents start moving onto your planet, Petit Planet becomes a lot more interesting. You are not just following basic tutorial steps anymore. You start deciding where residents should live, how your planet should be laid out, and what kind of space you want to build.
You can place residents wherever there is enough room, and if the main area starts to feel crowded, you can build bridges to nearby islands and move people there instead. That gives the game a nice sense of freedom, especially once you realize you are not locked into one specific layout. It also makes your planet feel like something you are actively shaping instead of just decorating around preset spaces.
Farming also becomes a big part of the loop. You can build farms, water your crops, irrigate the land, and come back a few in-game days later to harvest what you planted. If something is in the way, like a tree sitting right where you want to build, you can dig it up and move it somewhere else. It is a small thing, but being able to quickly pick up and relocate objects makes building out your planet feel a lot smoother.
The residents also add some personality to the experience. You can talk to them, invite them to parties, and even help them get ready for events. Sometimes they will feel stressed or unsure about what to wear, and you can give them outfits to help them out. Eventually, you unlock a vending machine-like system that lets you spend in-game currency on outfits and special plants.
There Is More To Do Than I Expected
Once Petit Planet starts opening up, the daily loop becomes a lot more active. You can fish, catch insects, mine rocks, gather shellfish near the beach, and collect resources from different parts of your planet. It feels familiar if you have played games like Animal Crossing, but there is more structure and progression pushing you forward.
Eventually, you unlock a car that lets you fly to nearby planets, which adds a nice sense of discovery to the experience. During the beta, I was only able to visit around two or three planets, but being able to leave your own world and gather resources elsewhere makes the game feel bigger than it first appears. You can also travel with a friend if you know someone else who is playing, and while I did not get to explore that side of the game too deeply, the idea has a lot of potential for players who enjoy cozy games as a shared experience.
The larger social space that opens up later is the Galaxy Bazaar. This area works like a hub where you can take part in mini-games, including wheel guessing, campfire stories, music playing, and more. Winning these mini-games gives you another type of currency that can be used to unlock emotes and dances.
How Petit Planet Handles Monetization
Since this is a HoYoverse game, one of my biggest questions was how Petit Planet would make money. Most of the company’s major games are free-to-play titles built around gacha systems, so I expected something similar here. Surprisingly, that was not what I found in the beta.
At least during this test, Petit Planet did not appear to use a traditional gacha system. Instead, the game introduces the Curio Emporium, which gives you access to seasonal collections of outfits, hairstyles, building materials, and accessories. You can earn some of the currency for this shop by completing login tasks tied to normal activities, such as catching fish, harvesting plants, or completing events.
You can also buy this currency with real money, which seems like where HoYoverse may be aiming to make most of its money with Petit Planet. If that remains the focus, then the game may lean more toward cosmetic purchases rather than character or power-based gacha pulls. That would be an interesting direction for HoYoverse, especially with a game that feels more relaxed and lifestyle-focused than its other major releases.
That said, this was still a closed beta, so none of this should be taken as final. The monetization could be rebalanced, expanded, or changed before launch. It is also possible that HoYoverse is using this beta to test whether this kind of system works for a game like this.
The Closed Beta Experience
I really enjoyed the cozy vibe that Petit Planet has to offer. The first few hours are a little hand-holdy while the game introduces its systems, but once it gives you more freedom, there is a surprising amount to dig into. It starts off simple, but the more systems it layers in, the more it feels like a game that could easily become part of someone’s daily routine.
At the start of the beta, I did run into some control issues and moments where certain things did not work the way they should. However, those problems improved over the course of the test, and the game became much more playable as updates rolled out. I primarily played with a keyboard, and by the end of my time with the beta, the experience felt a lot better than it did at the beginning.
I was also surprised by how much of the game is voiced. A lot of the dialogue scenes include voice acting, and the characters sounded solid from what I played. That helped give the residents more personality and made the world feel a little more alive.
If you are looking for something with a cozy feel similar to Animal Crossing, Petit Planet makes a strong first impression. It borrows some familiar ideas from that style of game, but it also streamlines parts of the experience and adds more progression to its systems. I came away from the beta enjoying my time with it more than I expected.
Petit Planet still has room to grow, and I want to see how the final version handles content, multiplayer, and monetization. But based on what I played, I think I will be there when it launches. I will probably get my wife to play it too.
Petit Planet is currently in development for PC and mobile devices. You can pre-register for the game on its official website.
