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PS2
planetarian ~ The Reverie of a Little Planet
- New Import |
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Bonus book |
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Back cover |
NCS
Game Synopsis & Spoilers
«©NCSX»
Originally released for the Japanese PC as a ¥1050
download in Nov 2004,
planetarian is a digital novel set in a
dismal future. An updated version of
planetarian shipped
earlier this year with voice acting for the heroine,
Reverie. The PS2 conversion is based on the new PC
edition where voice actress Daisuke Ono provides the
spoken dialogue for Reverie.
As the story goes, a nuclear war has
destroyed much of humanity and a malaise covers the
planet with a dark clouds and endless rain. Combat
robots roam the cratered cities and eliminate any
remaining humans that they encounter. From this
desolate backdrop, a scavenger (aka a junker) emerges as the hero
of the novel. While exploring the ruins of a city,
he is attacked by bots but he escapes and stumbles
into a planetarium. Once inside, he meets a robot
named Reverie who has been waiting for a guest for
the past 30 years. Single minded and programmed to
serve visitors, Reverie tries to
show the scavenger a special presentation but the
projector is broken. With nothing else to do at the
moment, the hero resolves to repair the projection
hardware known as Miss Jena. The story soon unfolds
that an old generator provides meager power to the
planetarium and Reverie only operates one week each
year due to the scarce electricity available.
The hero eventually fixes Miss Jena and Reverie gets to present the
special show which features the wondrous vision of a star-filled sky. In
the middle of the presentation however, the power
goes out but Reverie continues her work without the
aid of the projector. Since Miss Jena used up the
remaining power from the generator, the show is
Reverie's final presentation as well as her final
days as a functioning robot.
Every order for PS2 Planetarian will include 244-page soft cover
book which contains four stories based on the events
leading up to the planetarian tale and happenings
afterwards. Please note the text in the book is in
Japanese. A 1-page color image of Reverie and a
2-page color image of Miss Jena are included inside.
A laminated dust jacket protects the book from the
rigors of wear and tear.
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NCS
Game Notes & Spoilers
» In the title screen of the game, the word
planetarian in lower-case appears on the upper left
corner with the japanese kana for "The reverie of a
little planet" below it. On the lower right corner are
the game options as follows:
START STORY
LOAD DATA
OPTION
» Start the storyline and a jingle plays (What a
Friend We Have in Jesus) and a voice
over and dialogue starts which recounts the end of
days.
The camera passes along a brightly lit street at
night time with the murmur of a crowd and cars in
the background. In the next scene, heavy rains fall
and the words "about ten thousand days later" appear
and the city is now stark and gray.
» The camera fades out and footsteps may be heard. A girl's voice
welcomes the visitor by exclaiming "Omedeto Gozaimasu" - press
the "O"
or "X" buttons to advance the text and overall story. Pushing down on
the d-pad or the L-analog pad will also advance the
story if you're after a little variety in control.
The progress of the story may be saved at any time
by pressing START and then highlighting the second
option at the top of the screen. Inexplicably, there
is no automatic forwarding of the text by toggling
an option especially since planetarian is a story that is meant to be viewed.
»
After the speech, a robotic girl named Reverie appears
in front of rows of seats. Reverie is reminiscent of
Galaxy Fraulein Yuna except her hair is silver-grey
and her eyes are a deep green color. Reverie's voice is for the
most part narrated by her voice actress in perfect
time to the dialogue. The junker's voice is also spoken by a voice actor.
» The projector shown in the game looks like
something that H.R. Giger would design and sort of
looks like Robby the Robot if Robby were a
projector. The junker resolves to help Reverie
continue her planetarium show by
fixing the damaged projector so that the stars and
planets may be shown indoors once more. A wondrous
sight that man has not seen since the clouds from the
nuclear war blocked the sky.
» To review the script of the story, press the
"SQUARE" button and scroll through the previous text
entries by moving the d-pad left and right.
» To remove the dialogue box temporarily from the
screen, press and hold the TRIANGLE button. Useful
if you want to view the entire graphic on screen
without the box blocking the art work.
» After Reverie's introduction, the scene shifts to
a recap of the aftermath of the war that destroyed
most of mankind and the rains that now fall
incessantly on the cities. Back inside, Reverie
continues her rant.
» The presentation of Planetarian is through static
backgrounds and a static anime actor. There are spot
animations in some scenes but the bulk of the game
uses a single backdrop for each scene along with an
image of Reverie. The speech and music add life to
the story but make no mistake that this is purely a
visual story with no user interaction other
than the button presses to advance the story.
» The Playstation 2 version of planetarian supports
progressive output with the use of a component video
cable or a d-terminal cable connected to the PS2.
The game also features anti-flicker function to
remove the assault on your eyes.
» The definition of the word "planetarian" is a
worker at a planetarium. It may also refer to a
denizen of a planet. For example, since we live on
planet Earth, we are all planetarians.
» planetarian tells a touching and tragic story. One of
our staffers who purchased the Japanese CD version a
few months ago related that she felt a tear roll
down her right cheek at the conclusion of the story.
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This document and photos are ©NCSX 2006. All rights reserved. No
reproduction in whole or in part of this document
may be made without express written consent of
National Console Support, Inc.
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