Key's "Planetarian" Now Available on Steam

13 Sep 2014
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planetrian

Being Gamer Escape’s resident visual novel nut, I would be slacking if I wasn’t to mention this bit of news.

Japanese developer Key is probably one of the most well-known companies in the visual novel community, both in Japan and in the West. However, until relatively recently, Key had refused to publish any of their games outside of Japan.

However, back in January 2013, Key decided to test the waters by releasing an English version of Planetarian ~the reverie of a little planet~ in English for iOS. This was the first time a Key visual novel had ever been officially released in English, and it caught the community by surprise.

On September 12th, 2014, the English version of Planetarian received a PC release via Steam courtesy of translation group Sekai Project.

Planetarian takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, with the player taking the role of a junk collector hunting through an abandoned city. While searching the city, he comes across a robot named Yumemi, who runs a planetarium that used to exist in the middle of the city.

The trailer can be seen on the game’s Steam page. If you have never tried or have been interested in visual novels before, I highly recommend giving this one a shot. Planetarian is a relatively short read (only about one or two hours) and is a great example of the kinds of stories available in this oft-overlooked genre of gaming.