In time for the 10th anniversary since its original release in Japan, planetarian is an engaging and emotional visual novel from legendary game studio, Key. A sub-brand of VisualArts, Key are also famed for creating Kanon, AIR, CLANNAD, Little Busters!, Rewrite, and Angel Beats!
User reviews:
Recent:
Very Positive (27 reviews) - 100% of the 27 user reviews in the last 30 days are positive.
Overall:
Overwhelmingly Positive (1,005 reviews) - 98% of the 1,005 user reviews for this game are positive.
Release Date: Nov 29, 2004

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October 4

VisualArts/Key's latest game Harmonia is on Steam!

Just in case you don't know, but VisualArts/Key released a new game on Steam recently

http://store.steampowered.com/app/421660/

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July 7

planetarian Streaming on Funimation

If you're in US, Canada, UK and Ireland it is watchable on Funimation

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About This Game

Why don't you come to the planetarium?
The beautiful twinkling of eternity that will never fade, no matter what.
All the stars in the sky are waiting for you.


In time for the 10th anniversary since its original release in Japan, planetarian is an engaging and emotional visual novel from legendary game studio, Key. A sub-brand of VisualArt's, Key are also famed for creating Kanon, AIR, CLANNAD, Little Busters!, Rewrite, and Angel Beats!

Please do not divide Heaven in two...

It is thirty years after the failure of the Space Colonization Program.
Humanity is nearly extinct. A perpetual and deadly Rain falls on the Earth.
Men known as "Junkers" plunder goods and artifacts from the ruins of civilization.
One such Junker sneaks alone into the most dangerous of all ruins -- a "Sarcophagus City".
In the center of this dead city, he discovers a pre-War planetarium.
And as he enters he is greeted by Hoshino Yumemi, a companion robot.
Without a single shred of doubt, she assumes he is the first customer she's had in 30 years.
She attempts to show him the stars at once, but the planetarium projector is broken.
Unable to make heads or tails of her conversation, he ends up agreeing to try and repair the projector ...

For the first time, this heartwarming and memorable title is available on Steam!
It is fully voiced in Japanese, and can be experienced with both English and Japanese text.

Design, Scenario: Yuuichi Suzumoto
Music: Magome Togoshi
Voice Cast: Hoshino Yumemi - Keiko Suzuki
The Junker - Daisuke Ono

* This product is a localization of "planetarian ~chiisana hoshi no yume~ Memorial Edition", originally released for Windows on 30 April 2010.

What is Kinetic Novel?
A new form of entertainment for the sole purpose of storytelling -- not a novel, not an anime, not a game -- Kinetic Novel.
Made with the goal of providing the reader with an unprecedented sense of presence and empathy for the characters through the use of a high-quality scenario, graphics, music, and other production values.

System Requirements

    Minimum:
    • OS: Vista or higher
    • Processor: 1.2 GHz Pentium 4
    • Memory: 128 MB RAM
    • Graphics: 800x600
    • Storage: 500 MB available space
Customer reviews
Customer Review system updated Sept. 2016! Learn more
Recent:
Very Positive (27 reviews)
Overall:
Overwhelmingly Positive (1,005 reviews)
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685 reviews match the filters above ( Overwhelmingly Positive)
Most Helpful Reviews  In the past 30 days
7 of 7 people (100%) found this review helpful
Recommended
11.5 hrs on record
Posted: September 14
This is not a game.

Firstly, I watched the anime before playing this game, despite I purchased it before the anime was released.

This is a visual novel that is filled with emotion and I must say that key did a good job in this game.

I enjoyed the anime and this is the same but the feels could not be stopped even when I have watched the anime. I find that the tears was flowing like a lake when I was reading this VN and I enjoyed it deeply that I read every word that was in the text. Some of the words are bugged, unreadable but overall I must say this is a great experience to people who enjoy VN.

To anyone that really enjoy reading, this is suitable for you are be prepare to have a packet or even a roll of tissue as tears are really leaking right now even when i'm writting this review.

I would totally recommend this game to everyone that enjoys VN and reading. GL as now my shirt is totally wet with tears.
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1 of 1 people (100%) found this review helpful
Recommended
2.5 hrs on record
Posted: September 26
Every visual novel is like a book, either it's a good read or it's a boring read. This visual novel starts slow but becomes an extordinarly good read.

Planetarian revolves around the three themes of war, trust, and innocence from start to finish. It starts off feeling kind of hokey, but the story is self aware of that because the main protagonist intialy feels much the same way about the situation he finds himself in.

In summary the main protagonist stumbles upon an abandoned planetarium in a war torn ruin. What he finds there is a robot girl, a greeter for the planetarium, who appears to be blissfuly unaware that it has been thirty years since the world was destroyed in nuclear war. Her ignorance is exasperating yet her earnestness is oddly endearing and the main protagonist finds himself slowly warming up to her. And chances are you will too.

This visual novel can be a slow read at times, the spacing between letters is atrocious, and the whole story is dripping with setimentality. And yet if you can get past that you will find that this is a read that will draw you in with some of the best writing I have ever seen in a short story. The entire read will only take you about 2-3 hours, so I recommend reading it on a free afternoon or a chapter every now and again when you need a break from a hard day.
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1 of 1 people (100%) found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
Recommended
3.1 hrs on record
Posted: September 17
This absolutely crushed me. Much like with Clannad, planetarian has left a mark on my soul that will remain forever. What a masterful balance between hope and despair, eclipsed perhaps only by Clannad, which ultimately blesses the audience with what they yearn for. A masterpiece nonetheless.
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1 of 1 people (100%) found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
Recommended
4.4 hrs on record
Posted: September 24
You will never give birth to a beautiful robot daughteru
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Most Helpful Reviews  Overall
218 of 247 people (88%) found this review helpful
16 people found this review funny
Recommended
3,295.9 hrs on record
Posted: September 12, 2014
It's a nice & sweet short story I've read. Planetarian ~the reverie of a little planet~ is made by the legendary company "Key", well known for creating Angel Beats!, Clannad and Little Busters! anime series. This game will guaranteed to touch you with the feels and make you cry.

Good points
- Fantastic character development & interactions between the two unique characters - The junker guy & Yumemi the gentle robot.
- Very well presented that will easily set your mind into the wonderful world of Planetarian.
- Delightful soundtrack & story. I love the soundtrack especially Gentle Jena, one of my favorite songs. The melody is so touching and charming. Listen to this piece & you'll be blown away https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR4dw_B423E
- Beautiful illustrations. Yumemi looks pretty adorable & I like how it's suits her personally well.
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127 of 131 people (97%) found this review helpful
2 people found this review funny
Recommended
3.3 hrs on record
Posted: November 14, 2014
Deep inside the old sarcophagus city, while searching for food, weapons, or resellable scraps, you make an unlikely discovery: What you'd assumed to be an abandoned military facility is actually a pre-war planetarium. And as it turns out, the custodian robot is still welcoming customers after all these years.

Let's talk about planetarian ~the reverie of a little planet~.

It's a kinetic novel (a visual novel without any choices or other interactive game elements), so the only thing that the player/reader controls is the pace of the story. Do what you will with that information.

Originally developed by Key in 2004 and recently published on Steam by Sekai Project, this is widely considered a classic in the VN community, and a very worthwhile addition to the still meager selection of good visual novels on Steam. It's a short story about a world full of desolation, hopelessness, cynicism and resignation, and about a little robot girl who's immune to all of it. It's also about going stargazing in a world without stars.

The backgrounds and character sprites in planetarian are somewhat sparse in direct comparison to some of the more visually bombastic VNs out there. It is however very evocative, and with that it falls in line with the writing. The whole novel follows a slow pace -- never dragged out, but certainly deliberate. It leaves plenty of time for you and your own thoughts, and I urge you to take advantage of this invitation. I ended up with just over three hours of total playtime, which included some breathing room for the fantastic voice acting.

Any good visual novel swings in tune with its soundtrack, and planetarian is no exception. Opening with the music box lullaby "The World of the Stars" it immediately offers you a glimpse of its gentle mood. Tracks like "Song of Starflight" accentuate the day-to-day interactions of the main characters with a lax and childish air, while the perhaps most iconic song of the roster, "Gentle Jena", cushions some of the more tender scenes in an aura of warmth and belonging (and I would encourage you to keep that last one playing in the background while you read the rest of this review).

Visual novels as a medium don't lend themselves especially well to twitchy action stories, and despite the occasional surprise in that regard, the bulk of planetarian is about its characters and their interactions. Of the two main characters, only one actually appears on screen, and it would be a fair assessment to say that the story is about her, in several ways.

Yumemi (translated as "Reverie" in some localizations) is not the kind of quasi-human A.I. that we're used to from the likes of Cortana or EDI. She is a robot programmed for a very straightforward purpose. She oscillates between toddler-like naiveté at best, and robotic-algorithmic behavior at worst. So why do you entertain her thoughts of repairing the old projector? Why do you, a looter perpetually on the verge of starvation, end up tacking another night onto your stay at the old planetarium?

This story isn't about what Yumemi is, but about what she represents.

Spending valuable time and energy on a planetarium of all things should feel frivolous, yes, downright sacrilegious. But there is something peculiar inside you, easy to explain away as idle curiosity about the starry night sky that you only know from old people's stories. Something you probably didn't think you still had. They say there was a time before the war, before the planet was shrouded by a thick layer of acid clouds, when people were able to look at the stars whenever they wanted. When there was still a notion of mankind eventually travelling to, and settling on, foreign worlds.

Back when people still had hope for the future.

Yumemi was left behind at the beginning of the war, and despite not having had any sort of human contact in years, she diligently awaits the day's customers. There's only one thing she wants out of this existence, one thing she wants to do more than anything else in the world: to show you the stars.

The little robot girl, once built for the simple goal of caring for the planetarium's customers, ends up fulfilling a much grander purpose. Tucked away in her own little corner of a gray world inhabited by people who have forgotten what it means to be human, Yumemi is a shining beacon, a time capsule, a reminder that there is a star-filled sky right behind the acid clouds. Yumemi is the child, the lamb. She embodies innocence, childlike wonder, relentless optimism. Looking into her eyes, you cannot help but feel deeply ashamed for what the world has become.

What was it, then, that made you stay at the planetarium? Was it really just idle curiosity? Or is there more to this little thought in the back of your head after all? Do you feel in your stomach what the place emanates? Does Yumemi give you the strength to dare to form the words, that maybe, just maybe... there is some hope left in this world? That there is such a thing as "the future"?

You should read planetarian if you have any interest in visual novels, if you haven't experienced a good story in a while, if you like looking up at the stars and wondering what the future holds, or if that little spark deep inside you that is almost drowned by cynicism needs a little bit of nourishment. Wholeheartedly recommended.
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132 of 146 people (90%) found this review helpful
217 people found this review funny
Recommended
3.0 hrs on record
Posted: December 23, 2015
I only cried more when filling out my tax forms.
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113 of 123 people (92%) found this review helpful
Recommended
63.8 hrs on record
Posted: September 12, 2014
planetarian may be a short story, but it is one that sticks with you in the back of your mind for a very long time. I still remember when I first finished planetarian years ago. It is as soul-crushing as it is beautiful, and the impact still holds up against the best of Key's catalogue critically acclaimed visual novels. Thematically, it shares many ties to Key's most recent game Rewrite, which could be interpreted as an attempt at expanding upon the themes introduced in this game in a grander narrative. With that in mind, I would definitely recommend the two as complimentary to each other. If you're perhaps new to visual novels in general, then planetarian is definitely a good place to start. It demonstrates some of the very best of what visual novels have to offer in a tiny package; a small taste of what you can look forward to in the world of visual novels. It's also serves as a great appetiser to Key's brand, something to prepare your palate for the main course of Key's much larger games. I'd recommend this game to anybody who appreciates a good story that touches on some really powerful themes. It's not for the faint of heart, but once you've managed to overcome the pain it's bound to put you through, you might come out with something you didn't have before.

Paragraph taken from my full review:
http://kazamatsuri.org/planetarian-the-reverie-of-a-little-planet-review/
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214 of 263 people (81%) found this review helpful
26 people found this review funny
Recommended
3.5 hrs on record
Posted: September 12, 2014
A Kinetic Novel by Key? On Steam? And you're reading reviews instead of insta-purchasing?

For shame.
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141 of 176 people (80%) found this review helpful
20 people found this review funny
Recommended
6.9 hrs on record
Posted: October 13, 2014
i cried

Better than Fallout series
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Recently Posted
joshthetechie
6.5 hrs
Posted: October 9
Simply beautiful. Visual Arts/Key Studios and the Sekai Project did such an amazing job creating this VN and localizing it for English speakers. It only takes 3-4 hours to complete, and there's only one arc--no choices; simply put, this is a kinetic novel.

If you're familiar with Key Studio's games/anime, then you know what's in store--particularly in the feels department.

Voice acting was superb. I'm really glad they included the Japanese vocals, as the Japanese voice actors do a superb job at connecting the viewers with the characters. Soundtrack was amazing (I'm listening to it right now via the Music Mode available once you complete the game). Gentle Jena and Song of the Rotation of the Spheres are simply beautiful and set the mood for the story. All in all, I totally recommend Planetarian ~The Reverie of a Little Planet~ to anyone--especially if you're new the visual novel genre. It was definitely worth the $10.

TL;DR:

Just buy the game and play it through. The story may seem slow and boring at first; however, it really picks up a grows on you as you progress further. It's worthy of the title "Onion Cutting Simulator 2016".
Helpful? Yes No Funny
Sonwig
4.0 hrs
Posted: October 9
10/10 one of the best visual novels I have played
Helpful? Yes No Funny
Lpchaim
5.0 hrs
Posted: October 8
A very touching kinetic novel (meaning there are no choices to be made), with great art, some absolutely gorgeous and emotional music tracks and a powerful climax. Suffice to say I've considerably inflated my in-game hours just by listening to some of its poignant tunes on repeat (roughly 1/3 of my playtime was spent on them at the time of my writing this), and that's a first for me.
It's short lived, granted, lasting 3 hours or so depending on how fast you read, but that takes nothing away from the tale. In fact, I feel it went on for the perfect length for me to sucesfully connect to the characters yet leave the world cloaked in bleakness, solitude and mistery, which ultimately adds to the game's narrative and overall feel. Oh, and definitely expect tears to be shed or at the very least choked up at some point. More than worth it at normal price, a no brainer at a sale.
tl;dr: Short but sweet kinetic VN with a stellar soundtrack and some real feels to be had.
Helpful? Yes No Funny
£μ+н∂₪∂§ι∂
1.6 hrs
Posted: October 7
プラネタリウムはいかがでしょう?
どんな時も消して消えることのない
美しむきゅうのキラメキ。
満点の星々が皆様をお待ちています

Got this game on a bundle and it's been sitting on my library for a few months. Decided to download it just so I can read a VN.

The pacing of this game is really weird. It starts of really slow, without nothing really happening. It just plays out nicely so you can get attached to the only two characters of this game, the unnamed "Junker" and Hoshino Yumemi. Everything in this VN is just character development with nothing ground breaking happening. At times, you might get annoyed with your robot companion, at times the feels monster will attack you and just smash everything out.

I wouldn't go as far to say that this VN is beautiful, compared to the other kinetic ones I've seen, but it's paced just right to get the conclusion right.

As other reviewers say, prepare some tissues for the feels trip right at the end.
Helpful? Yes No Funny
Mwalls
20.0 hrs
Posted: October 5
A typical Japanese visual novel with excellent music and dubbing,unpretentious but straight to heart plot.
9/10
Helpful? Yes No Funny
Narsil-101
4.1 hrs
Posted: October 5
Come to the Planetarium!
Great VN. I cried some.
Helpful? Yes No Funny
GrundleCunt
0.6 hrs
Posted: October 4
.
Helpful? Yes No Funny
Glasses-Kun
3.9 hrs
Posted: October 2
Ever heard of a good Key Game without Jun Maeda? Here You go.
Pros
+Very good development of two main charactes
+Nice Nakige feel even without the lord of Nakige's involved
+Character interactions between Junker and Yumemi cute
Cons
-Open Ended (I Personally like it but...)
-Steam Achieves came after I played it(Don't want another emotional rollercoaster!)
8/10 If only my visit to a Planitarium was this memorable
Helpful? Yes No Funny
Pokemon da Laje
4.3 hrs
Posted: September 25
So.... do you want to feel the feels? Come with me and i'll show you.

Planetarium isnt just something to make you cry, or try so hard for you to feel something. If you know the works from Key you know more or less how the things go, the story it's short, it's a kinect novel, doesnt have choices or routes, it's a heart warming story, and a lesson about humanity and what makes us human, probably you will finish this novel with something more for your life. Give it a try, even if you are not in to VN, you'll probably like it.
Helpful? Yes No Funny