When was Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet first published?
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"Planetarian" was released on November 29, 2004 via download over the Internet playable on Windows PCs, and was first made available only to Yahoo! Japan Broadband users. The game was opened up for general sale on December 6, 2004. Key released a CD-ROM version for Windows PCs on April 28, 2006 in limited and regular editions. An updated version of "Planetarian" compatible for Windows Vista PCs was released by Key on July 31, 2009 in a box set containing five other Key visual novels called Key 10th Memorial Box. Another updated version compatible for Windows 7 PCs called "Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet Memorial Edition" was released on April 30, 2010. The "Memorial Edition" also came bundled with the three previously released "Planetarian" drama CDs. An HD edition for Windows was released on July 29, 2016. "Planetarian" was released on Steam by Sekai Project in English for Windows on September 12, 2014, with later support planned for macOS and Linux devices. The Steam release was updated on September 17, 2014 to allow the user to switch to the original Japanese version of the game.
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
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A light novel featuring a collection of four illustrated short stories, including a prologue and an epilogue, and based on "Planetarians story were written by Yūichi Suzumoto and illustrated by Eeji Komatsu. The 243-page novel was originally bundled with the limited edition of the CD version of "Planetarian", and was also included in the limited edition of the PlayStation 2 version. The book was re-published as a commercial release by VisualArt's under their VA Bunko light novel imprint on October 31, 2008, and was the second title on the imprint. A downloadable version of the novel titled "Hoshi no Hito: Planetarian Side Story" on Android devices was released on November 30, 2011, followed by a version on iOS devices on December 14, 2011. The first two stories presented occur before the events of the kinetic novel, and the latter two occur during its aftermath. The front matter of the book reads, "Starry sky, words, God, robots. A collection of short stories in the key of these four themes." A short preview of the book is available online.
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
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In the original version, Yumemi is only voiced during the beginning and ending scenes, while other characters are not voiced. When "Planetarian" was released for Windows PCs on CD-ROM, Yumemi had full voice acting. The PlayStation 2 (PS2) port offers full voice acting for the entire cast. Other changes to the PS2 version include a higher resolution for the computer graphics and an extended soundtrack. All other later versions contained full voice acting.
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
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Key defines "Planetarian" as a "kinetic novel", since its gameplay offers no choices or alternate endings. Instead, the player proceeds through the story solely by reading. The story is written by Yūichi Suzumoto and character design is produced by Eeji Komatsu. The game's soundtrack was composed and arranged by Key's signature composers Magome Togoshi and Shinji Orito. A light novel of short stories set in the world of "Planetarian" was released in April 2006, and three audio dramas have also been produced. David Production produced a five-episode original net animation series and an anime film in 2016. "Planetarian" story, artwork and music have been praised, and the PS2 version ranked first for console games in terms of satisfaction in 2007.
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
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"Planetarian" is Key's fourth visual novel, and had a small staff of three main people that did the majority of the work for the game's first release. Unlike previous Key titles, "Planetarian"s art director position was given to Eeji Komatsu instead of Itaru Hinoue who had held the position for the three previous games. Komatsu was chosen not only because of his specialty in depicting mechanics and robots, but also because he could represent short scenes which touch on a robot's existence to reproduce a person's ideals. Furthermore, Key was not short on staff at the time, and was not forced to outsource the artwork of "Planetarian". Jun Maeda, Key's main scenario writer and project planner, was left out of the project, and Yūichi Suzumoto was given the position of planning and scenario. The music, excluding a single piece composed by Shinji Orito, was arranged or composed entirely by Magome Togoshi, one of Key's signature composers. "Planetarian" was the first game under the brand name KineticNovel to be described by the term "kinetic novel".
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
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In a review by Marcus Estrada of "Hardcore Gamer", he praised "Planetarian" for having a "beautiful story," gorgeous CGs and a soundtrack that "sets a melancholic, but hopeful mood fitting with the story." He also noted that "even as an aging property "Planetarian" still looks and sounds good." "Planetarian" is one of several kinetic novels featured in the "Lycèe Trading Card Game"; Yumemi and the planetarium are playable cards in the second VisualArt's card set. In the February 2007 issue of SoftBank Creative's "Gemaga" magazine, the PS2 version ranked first for console games in terms of satisfaction; the game had ranked fourth in the previous issue. In the Japanese video game magazine "Famitsu" released on September 8, 2006, it was reported that the PS2 version of "Planetarian" sold 8,170 units the week of August 21 to August 27, 2006 (the PS2 version was originally sold on August 24, 2006). When the PSP version was re-released as a fundraising event for the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, 16,663 units were pre-ordered by the day of its release on May 12, 2011. From these sales, Prototype and VisualArt's donated 22,415,069 yen.
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
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By length of story, "Planetarian" is the shortest of Key's games. Excluding the opening and ending sequences, there are 16 parts to the story; the first half is set within the planetarium while the latter half is set outside in the ruined city where the planetarium resides. The novel takes four hours and forty minutes to complete on auto play. After the game has been completed at least once, two new options appear on the title screen. The first is a feature that allows the player to view twenty images of CG artwork observed in the game. The second option allows the player to listen to eight of the nine music tracks featured in the game.
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
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"Planetarian" is a post-apocalyptic visual novel in which the player assumes the role of the junker. Unlike traditional visual novels, no choices are given to the player in "Planetarian" to advance the story, and there is only one possible ending; this is what Key referred to as a kinetic novel. The player can choose when to advance to the next dialogue screen or put the game on auto play. In this respect, the player does not play the game as if it were a video game, but plays it rather more like one would play a music track on a CD or play a DVD film. During gameplay, the player can choose to hide the text from view and go back to any previous lines. The game can be saved at any point in any of the five save slots available, and a load option is available where the player can load any of the automatically saved chapter markers, or choose to load any of the manually saved games.
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
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The main location where most of the story takes place is the fictional Flowercrest Department Store in a derelict city. It is based on the real Matsubishi Department Store of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka in Japan, although the planetarium on the rooftop is fictitious. The onset of the story takes place within the planetarium which is where the protagonist first meets Yumemi. The most prominent feature in the room when a show is not taking place is the large black planetarium projector called "Miss Jena", which is placed on a stage in front of the seats. The planetarium has electricity when the protagonist arrives, but only for a short time. Once a year, for 168 hours, electricity in the planetarium is operational, but the projector is broken. The rest of the floors in the department store are in ruins; mold and rats run rampant.
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
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The "Planetarian Original Soundtrack", from the visual novel "Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet", was released on August 11, 2006 at Comiket 70 by Key Sounds Label bearing the catalog number "KSLA-0025"; it was later re-released on December 28, 2006. The soundtrack contains one disc totaling twelve songs composed, arranged, and produced by Magome Togoshi, and Shinji Orito; themes originally composed by Charles Crozat Converse and Kenji Miyazawa were remixed on the soundtrack. Aside from the songs in the game like "Gentle Jena" and "Hoshi no Sekai (Opening)", the soundtrack includes new songs such as an arranged vocal version of "Hoshi Meguri no Uta", sung by Mell. The musical tracks played at the beginning and the end of the game (tracks one and eight in the original soundtrack) are rearrangements of the hymn "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" by Charles Crozat Converse, and their titles reflect this as well: "Hoshi no Sekai (Opening)" refers to the Japanese version of the hymn, named "Hoshi no Yo", and "Itsukushimi Fukaki" is the Japanese translation of the hymn's original title.
Music of Planetarian