Plums lose to mangoes. I’m aware of that. I picked plums regardless.
That was the first genuine choice Petit Planet put in front of me, and it says most of what there is to say about the game. miHoYo’s new life sim, published by HoYoverse and slated for winter 2026, offers a pair of starter worlds: Hexia, a gently temperate spot where plums grow in abundance, or Taffeh, a savanna soaked in red sunset with forests of mango trees. Whichever fruit you pick anchors your cooking, trading, gifting and eating in the opening hours. The summer’s been hot. Hexia it was.
Yes, it’s Animal Crossing. No, that’s not a knock.
There’s no point denying the resemblance. Both are twee crafting sims built around running a small village. Both are populated by a broad cast of anthropomorphic animals. Both operate on a loop of meditative bliss.
Even so, Petit Planet impresses in spite of how faithfully it sticks to an established template. I spent an hour with it at Gamescom 2026 and the vibes got their hooks in quicker than I anticipated, though I kept returning to the question of how long any of it can last.
You’re the human in a world of talking animals
The first character Petit Planet introduces is you. The world teems with anthropomorphic animals, but your avatar is a person, employed by a company called Loomi Co. to bring uninhabited planets in a solar cluster known as the Starsea back to life.
During character creation you choose a title from a list that includes Hustling, Grass-Gathering, Stargazing, Laid-Back, Popular and Essay-Writing. You can probably guess my pick. Naming yourself is part of it too. I settled on Ari1, a decision I stand by and will not be defending.
The planet select wheel suggested the finished game will offer more than two worlds. The demo limited things to Hexia or Taffeh.
An hour of shaking trees and dodging bugs
My planet came across as about Mario Galaxy-sized — compact enough to loop around, roomy enough that discoveries keep coming. I shook plum trees. I collected plums. I ran into a bear named Mobai and picked up the recipe for his special tea, the crucial ingredient being, naturally, plums.
Mobai also showed me how to fish and net bugs, passing along a rod and a net for the job. More residents appeared after that, among them a pink-furred bunny called Elsasani.
None of the minigames are stressful. Aim your tool at whichever bug or fish you’re after, then click the icon that briefly flashes. Straightforward stuff, but it’s the mechanism behind early missions along the lines of “catch five different types of bugs,” and it adds a layer of interactivity on top of gathering and building.
I reeled in a Black Carp, Mosquitofish and Black Tilapia. Shallow water gave up a Pearl Oyster and a Moon Crab. I also caught plenty of bugs whose names I skipped past as quickly as the game allowed, since bugs frighten me. Yes, even the adorably rendered variety.
The actual goal, sort of
Turn your creatures over to Mobai and your planet’s ecology develops. That seems to be the central objective, although the game never nags you to focus on it.
The healthier the planet, the more animal neighbors it draws, every one of them with their own name and personality. An early kit lets you construct a house, and further kits let you build homes for your citizens. It doesn’t take long before a neighborhood has formed.
The animals talk. That’s the twist, and the complication.
In one significant departure from its inspiration, the animals of Petit Planet deliver fully voiced dialogue rather than the cutesy gibberish of Animal Crossing.
That detail carries extra weight because HoYoverse took criticism back in May over reports that it intended to put $14.6 billion into AI tools across the next three years, “AI-powered NPCs” in Petit Planet among them. An early 2025 beta of the game seemed to rely on AI-generated text in character speech bubbles.
When asked if AI voices featured in the Gamescom demo, a HoYoverse representative provided this statement: “All voice performances in the playable demo were delivered by real human voice actors. No AI-generated voices were used. We remain committed to working with talented voice acting professionals to bring our characters to life.”
The hub, and the thing lurking in it
My session ended with a visit to Galactic Bazaar, which serves as the hub area. It’s where I unlocked chat with other human players and picked up a signpost for naming my world. I went with Planet1. Consistency is a virtue.
The Bazaar additionally houses a rhythm minigame, item trading and social spaces to hang around in — cafes, fire pits, public squares.
A gacha component of some description is coming. It never surfaced during the demo, but I spent the second half of my hour running through all the ways premium currency could grate against the idyllic atmosphere the rest of the game labors to create.
That’s the existential question at play. Cozy games promise creativity without limits. Capitalism has very real edges. Something has to give.
Petit Planet arrives on Windows PC in winter 2026, preceded by a limited beta in late September. I’ll be on Hexia, eating plums I never wanted.