Planetarian is a Kinect Novel written and created by Key. Anyone remotely familiar with the visual novel world will know Key. If you know anime, you know Key. They are responsible for
Air ,
Kanon ,
Little Busters, and—of course—
Clannad.
If you know their previous works, you’ll come into
Planetarian expecting just about what you’ll get. However, there are a few small things anyone considering this title should know before you play it. It’s hard to say whether these small things are pros or cons. That will depend on the person.
Let’s start by talking story. It’s beautiful, and incredibly moving, which is very typical of Key. We open and follow a lad simply known as ‘Junker’, in a post-apocalyptic setting. He’s avoiding dangerous automatons in a rubbled city and ends up taking cover in a large building that happens to have a planetarium at the top. There, he meets an android that is styled like a young girl, who helps run the planetarium, although it’s been practically destroyed for years now. The story progresses from there.
I would say more, but this Kinect novel is short. Very,
very short. The run time, if you set it on auto-read, is under 5 hours. I finished it in less than 4. It is very simple. It is not a
masterpiece like many other Key projects that offer tons of routes and replay value. However, that’s not to say that
Planetarian isn’t
good.
The story, while short and can basically be summarized in full in 3 paragraphs, is absolutely touching and masterfully written. You never even know the protagonist’s name, but it doesn’t matter.
Planetarian has the power to leave a player in a sobbing mess at the end.
I also must warn you that this story is not particularly happy and It will probably leave you moping the rest of the day. I’m not saying that’s bad, or to be avoided, but it’s something you should know going into it.
