Thank you Visual Arts for sending us this visual novel to review!

planetarian: ~the reverie of a little planet~ was Visual Arts/Key's very first kinetic visual novel. I reviewed planetarian HD rather than the now-delisted original, but the story and content is the same. It was a short but touching story about a robot girl, Yumemi Hoshino, who survives an apocalypse and what happens when she finally sees another person again thirty years later. This story, planetarian: Snow Globe, is a short prequel that explores what life was like for them before the world changed.

For those not familiar, a visual novel is a written story with graphics. Key's VNs are usually also accompanied by music and excellent Japanese voice acting, as is the case here. Words are shown on the screen describing what is happening in more detail than the accompanying still images can show. Being a kinetic visual novel, there are no choices or gameplay of any kind; you just watch, read, and enjoy the story.

Having just played (and reviewed) planetarian HD recently, it was a welcome change to see Snow Globe use a much more modern game engine, with proper widescreen aspect ratios, higher resolution art, and gamepad support. All of the trappings you hope for in a modern visual novel are here, like full voice acting and the ability to skip read text. As short as it is, it's not difficult to complete in one sitting.

Being a prequel to the much darker and more emotional planetarian: ~the reverie of a little planet~, this is a nice, slice-of-life look into what the planetarium was up to before the world turned. You see most of the story through the perspective of Satomi Kurahashi, the most senior non-manager at the planetarium. It starts with the activation of Yumemi, and after a time skip, continues showing you what kind of challenges they dealt with at that time.

The story itself is well written. I have generally been pretty happy with Key's localizations, and this didn't disappoint. The music is also really good, though one of the songs has the same tune as 'What a friend we have in Jesus'; I don't know if that was intentional or not. The Japanese voice acting is well done, and it was neat to hear Yumemi's voice actress return, even if you could somewhat tell that she aged since the original; she had a hard time hitting some of the highest pitches that was easy for her younger self. All spoken lines are voiced, though it did sound like a few lines from some non-Yumemi characters were recorded perhaps in a small room, as they sounded a bit closed up.

Morally, planetarian: Snow Globe is quite clean. There is some minor violence, as a character is hit (and robots are discriminated against in one scene). You should probably consider the moral content of this and planetarian HD before buying both, since they really should be enjoyed together.

From a technical perspective, this game will work on nearly any Windows PC, and also works flawlessly on desktop Linux. There is full controller support, and the developer supports Steam Deck in their system requirements, though it is not yet Deck Verified. It of course works perfectly with a keyboard and mouse. I experienced no glitches or crashes in my playthrough.

I completed planetarian: Snow Globe in around 90 minutes. Thankfully, the price is very reasonable, and it can only go lower if they offer it on sale, making it an entirely fair value. Given the relatively short runtime and low price, it's a nice companion for fans of planetarian HD. I'm also pleased to say that the moral concerns are fairly light as well. If you enjoyed planetarian, then I'd say that planetarian: Snow Globe is worth your time. While you could probably play this one first if you must, I would probably recommend reading planetarian HD before this title.