Petal Runner: SGF Play Days Impression

Petal Runner delights and captivates with its bright, pastel visuals, cute themes, cozy aesthetic, and solid, fun gameplay loop.

At this year’s Summer Game Fest Play Days, Nano Park Studios was present at a booth in the Play Days HQ to show off a late-game zone in slice-of-life RPG Petal Runner. RPGamer sat down to explore the fourth zone of the bustling solarpunk metropolis of Sapphire City, getting a look at some of the game’s story, characters, and gameplay elements.

Right from the get-go, Petal Runner‘s most striking element is its pixel art and visual design: it has a bold, pastel-colored palette throughout, giving the game a warm, bright, and generally cheery atmosphere that makes it quite pleasing to look at. It’s obviously meant to evoke Game Boy Color-era graphics and nostalgia, and it does so to brilliant effect, not just through its colors and design but also its style. The characters, portraits, and environmental design have a lovely retro feel, and every corner of Sapphire City is teeming with impressive detail and animation, with so much life and motion packed into the spritework. It creates an incredibly relaxing, cozy vibe, and despite how bright the game is, it doesn’t strain the eyes at all.

Centering around protagonist Cali and her digital HanaPet, Kira, Petal Runner follows the motorcycle-riding duo as they traverse Sapphire City as titular Petal Runners, who are responsible for delivering solar-powered Leap Cells to pet owners. Cali and Kira have a really enjoyable, loving dynamic, with Kira being a bit more bubbly and Cali generally being a bit more reserved. What really stood out was how genuine and loving their relationship is, with very authentically written exchanges of appreciation and collaboration. The demo took place later in the game, but the lore and story also stood out as quite interesting even without prior context. Essentially, earlier-generation HanaPets (like Kira) are becoming more difficult to service and maintain, and at one point, Kira exhibited some interesting behavior that suggested as much.

Hangin’ out at the beach.

Outside of Cali and Kira, Petal Runner‘s characters and writing stood out as quite compelling, with characters showing believable, authentic care for their pets and vice versa. The reciprocal nature of relationships seemed to be a prominent, well-executed theme. In addition, Petal Runner has a really good sense of humor, and during the demo, I found myself frequently smiling at the various twists, turns, and eccentricities of the characters across the handful of missions.

Speaking of the missions, Petal Runner also features tight controls, a great, helpful map, and a series of well-designed, fun mini-games that form the core of the gameplay loop as Cali and Kira deliver Leap Cells and help service HanaPets. Cali and Kira traverse the city on a motorcycle, and it’s genuinely impressive how smooth the controls are, how detailed the spritework is for its multi-directional motion, and how audibly pleasing the sound effects are. Getting around Sapphire City feels fluid, even in the complex zone included in the SGF demo, thanks to the simple yet effective map.

Aww… he’s so cute!!

When HanaPets are serviced with the Leap Cells, Cali and Kira must clear a sequence of mini-games, which can vary wildly in design but are generally fairly entertaining, quirky, and well-animated to boot. They evoke the WarioWare series and make for a really fun, easygoing adventure. As HanaPets are helped and serviced, there’s an in-game compendium called the HanaBook that fills out with information about each. The pets are reminiscent of Pokémon or Neopets, with absolutely adorable sprites and personalities that practically beg “Hug me!” through the screen.

On the whole, Petal Runner delights and captivates with its bright, pastel visuals, cute themes, cozy aesthetic, and solid, fun gameplay loop. Traversing the solarpunk metropolis is a great time, and I’m excited to learn more about the society and lore of Sapphire City, HanaPets, and their owners, as well as the various characters and inhabitants of the world when the game releases later this year.