The nature of experience and “reality” is, for me, an endlessly fascinating topic. What can be known? In truth, nothing can be declared definitively/ultimately true other than direct immediate experience despite the mind's insistence and ceaseless striving to create some sort of meaning and order out of the chaos, and that is both wondrous and terrifying. There's always another potential explanation for anything that occurs - there's never any real solidity that exists without room for yet another “what if?” to explore. Descartes famously said, “I think, therefore I am.” But who is this thinker? Are you the thoughts or the observer thereof? And if you're the witness to the mind - an outsider looking in - what is that witness exactly? Is that which is commonly called “reality” the fundamental basis of existence, or are we a space slug, or some other unknown being in another dimension dreaming this dream of life or tripping balls in some sort of sacred ceremony? (etc., etc.) What can be KNOWN, indeed? If you've ever had any weird or inexplicable experiences that defied common rationality, you might resonate with things that may destabilize the “ground beneath your feet", things that erode the idea of the familiar as having any firm or fixed structure. All is possible; the explanations are infinite. I played a game in 2024 that has this flavor in spades, a game I had no expectation of playing or even was aware of prior to a random discovery online. The game is called Planet Laika, and it was released for the PS1 in 1999 only in Japan.
Developed by Quintet and published by Enix, we start off by embarking on a journey, a space mission. The introductory cutscene, which shows a toy spaceship under a Christmas tree in a “real world” familiar setting, suggests that this is going to be a dream-like experience that is linked from one realm or life to another. And after that introduction, we find ourselves on a “real" ship where we are informed of our mission, a mission to find out what the trouble is on Mars. Mars has apparently reached a crisis of some sort, and it is believed that the troubles could have originated with an earlier mission that was commandeered 10 years prior by a Colonel Galil. Oh...and we're a team of dog people. And believe me, that's about the most normal aspect of this game. From beginning to end, the experience challenges any ideas of normalcy, continuity, and often sanity. We meet a cast of characters with their own motivations and interesting personalities, residents of Mars that are going about their own lives as we interact with them and their influences as we try to complete our mission. And let me tell you, there are some dark, twisted, and creepy things going on. Many bits of the narrative remain obtuse and unclear, despite offering incredibly vivid and tantalizing bread crumbs that beg the player to ponder, while there are other bits that seem more direct and flesh out a story of apparent tragedy that is quite disturbing on multiple levels, a story that touches on the innocence and hopes of childhood and how that beautiful and fragile state can be, and often is, disrupted and torn apart by circumstances completely beyond the control of a bright-eyed and naive little one. This contrast of light and dark, of joy and suffering, is reinforced by the otherwise joyful Christmas theming in the background of this dark tale, a motif that is also emphasized musically with the sound of reindeer bells playing at times throughout. To be brief, the whole narrative aspect was absolutely spellbinding, both due to its strangeness of delivery and because there was just enough connection to relatable experience to grasp onto within this hazy, twisted, and dreamlike mystery. I don't want to go into any spoiler territory, so I'll just say if you have an affinity for the abstract and interpretive, if you can appreciate tales that don't grant ultimate clarity as they tantalize your curiosity, there is so much to bite into here. And either way, it's an experience that you won't soon forget. And all of this crazy circus is beautifully enhanced by sound work that is full of bizarre and excellently crafted music, an often dissonant soundscape that adds to this feeling of not really knowing what's going on, music and sound design that amplifies this existential sort of unfolding crisis. It's got that mixture of odd and off-beat tonal shifts and rhythms that tell their own story of confusion, uncertainty, and maybe sometimes paranoia and dread. From a presentation standpoint, Planet Laika is absolutely riveting!
In terms of its practical structure, Planet Laika is easier to quantify, if still a bit strange. The basic essence of the experience is making progress through the main character Laika's various personalities. He has three other entities that dwell within, beings that presumably arose due to a fractured identity born of trauma. Each of these personas resonates with a certain color or aura, and when you converse with other characters that possess the same energy or colored aura, it will enhance that frequency within Laika, which grants him the ability to shift into that persona when viewing and touching a mirror. These shifts come with a visual shift into another character, and these identities have their own strengths and uses and are necessary shifts that must be made at times for progression. There is also a type of combat that these internal fractals have to engage in from time to time. The battles are in real-time, and it's a bit of a pat-your-head-while-rubbing-your-belly sort of experience as you must move an energy ball to deflect horizontally incoming projectiles from enemies. Your ball is already and continuously moving in an up-and-down vertical rhythm on its own, but you can accelerate this movement, which also moves it forward towards your opponent and their oncoming projectiles, with the “circle" button. If you manage to move your orb all the way to your opponent and hit them directly, you will do extra damage beyond the redirecting of their projectiles back at them. If some projectiles get past you, you can move your ball back towards you on a horizontal plane with the “X” button in an attempt to destroy them before they hit you, and this also resets your defensive/attacking orb's position back directly in front of you. It's a little hard to explain properly, and there are more subtleties to things than what I've outlined, but it wasn't too difficult after some experience, thankfully. But it was, as was par for the course here, both unique and strange, and I enjoyed it well enough, even if it wasn't particularly deep. It's kind of like a version of Breakout with moving orbs instead of paddles and stationary blocks, I guess you could say. The battles weren't overly frequent, and Laika himself cannot actually fight. This is only for his various personalities, and that seemed appropriate, as these fragments or internal demons he carried within would be battling in an internal struggle. But generally, the primary means of interaction is simply discovering what or who you need to interact with next and furthering the narrative. It's certainly not a visual novel in terms of player input, but it leaned much more heavily on narrative than pure or frequent mechanical gameplay. But the narrative, as mentioned, was so gripping that things were consistently engaging, even if not necessarily from a purely physical interactive standpoint.
As excellent as most of this journey was, there were some missteps for me that slightly tarnished things. In the first place, while I was able to play and enjoy Planet Laika due to this getting an (excellent) translation, I had no manual or guide to refer to. I wasn't interested in watching a video walkthrough and spoiling the experience, so I was left to my own devices to figure everything out. Having no English manual magnified the already wildly strange experience, as I had to piece the practical structure together myself. I eventually figured out the general gist of things, but the fact that I was not only lost in the context of the strange game world itself but also lost in my external approach to it really served to enhance the flavor of mystery and disorientation. I was able to figure things out via experimentation, but having no basic instructions or context for player input and progression did make things even more peculiar than they already were. And the inventory you accumulate was also very unconventional. There are items that, when used, “do nothing,” yet they disappear from your inventory, as well as items that also “do nothing” but remain. And there are a good number of items that I found no real use for by game's end, which oddly makes me only more curious about potential hidden depths and secrets here. But having a collection of objects that ought to have importance but seemed to have none was a little frustrating, even if it fit the overall tone of confusion. Visually I thought some of the pre-rendered backdrops were less interesting than others. And while I generally liked the art style, it wasn't always of the highest quality. And in terms of the backdrops, some pathways in the pre-rendered backgrounds weren't intuitive or easily readable. I spent some time wandering in one instance only because I didn't recognize that an area in one background was a potential pathway, and it was a little annoying to have wasted a fair bit of time simply because a path wasn't easily recognizable. And the general pacing and progress could be a little more inconsistent than I would have liked. And even though this is surely completable without a manual or guide, there was a fair amount of trial and error as I awkwardly stumbled around in the dark, especially towards the conclusion, where I spent a couple of hours unable to progress as I patiently tried to figure out what to do next before landing upon the right path. I'm sure not having a manual or any guide and playing COMPLETELY blind didn't help, but I also feel that even if I did, this was a game that was always going to be unconventional and a bit cumbersome in terms of how things unfolded. It was also disappointing playing something so unique that was released by a big publisher, knowing that you'd never see something like this greenlit by a larger industry player nowadays. I really miss this time when there was greater experimentation within the bigger budget space. This was refreshing in this way but also served to emphasize how safe and predictable the mainstream gaming industry has become, which saddened me a little outside the context of the game-proper. (Thank heavens for indies!)
But on the whole, wow, what an experience! Throughout the bulk of the journey, you never get a sense of stability or orientation, and even through to the conclusion, there remains much that dwells in the shadows, despite SOME significant clarity being generously granted to this delicious soup of contrasting, confusing, and titillating flavors. But this unhinged ride never stopped being utterly engaging. I couldn't look away, and I kept wanting to know more. In some ways it had a flavor akin to Silent Hill. It's similarly dark and twisted, but maybe in a more funhouse hall of mirrors way than that series. So many questions arise as you play. Are you a human or a dog? Are you an abused child dealing with their trauma through invention/coping? And for that matter, are you an Earthling or Martian? Are you living or dead and experiencing some sort of afterlife or transition? Are you actually on Mars on a space mission, or are you on some drug-induced hallucination or maybe just suffering from the “evil mind” influence of Mars that is referenced throughout and just unable to process normally? Just what the hell is going on?!? (Again, we are eventually granted some satisfying, if incomplete, clarity for those who must have something to hold onto. And as I digested this experience after completion, I certainly formed some of my own interpretations, which I feel are valid, and quite sad.) The game is just wonderfully bizarre, and it consistently doles out just enough bits of information to keep you hooked and in the mindset of wanting to piece things together. It walks that fine line of being both largely inscrutable and seductively tantalizing, holding your curiosity and demanding your investment. Fascinating stuff. I'm sure this wouldn't have been a big seller, but it's a real shame it wasn't allowed to find its audience with a Western release. I KNOW that those who resonated with it would have really enjoyed it like I did! No doubt it would have been a cult hit among the PS1's deep cuts. Planet Laika was a real fever dream or psychonautical experience - just SO trippy! Crazy, but in an intoxicating way. The creators of this must have been high on ayahuasca or tripping out of their gourds on something, oh my! GLORIOUS MADNESS! I can't believe my serendipitous fortune of having randomly bumped into this and having had the opportunity to experience it. It's maybe just short of an all-time classic due to the few issues mentioned, but man oh man, will I never forget it. A strong 4/5 and easily recommended for those who are drawn to both the fringes of gaming as well as the more obscure, dusty, and unattended corners of human (or other) experience. For better or worse, I can assure you there's nothing else like it. A TRUE one-of-a-kind!
