With countless games released on Steam every single day, Japanese games from smaller independent devs tend to get lost in the shuffle, but there’s no shortage of unique titles featuring original ideas with their own distinct identity. So, AUTOMATON has recently decided to start “Steam gems from Japan you might be missing out on”, a new series which aims to shine a spotlight on these overlooked indie gems by highlighting one game per article and sharing its appeal.
Cross-Cultural Sci-fi-Meets-Suspense Adventure
To kick off this new series, allow me to introduce My Planet MOON CHILD, a visual novel developed by the doujin circle D.U.F.F. Originally launched on DLsite and Booth in September of 2025, the game got a Steam release on July 1st, 2026. Although the game is age restricted, this is solely due to depictions of violence and this title does not feature any sexual content, so users concerned about NSFW material can rest assured.
Humanity has migrated to the moon’s surface following the destruction of the Earth’s environment and launched a national project known as “The Ark” in search of a new place to call home. The main character Jinan, who attends the moon base’s Academy, is strung along a series of twists and turns that lead him to crash land on an unknown planet with Hitoriko, his expedition comrade hailing from the moon’s slums. Awaiting them were aliens who closely resemble humans, alongside mysterious monsters.
At first glance, My Planet MOON CHILD appears to be a classic first-contact sci-fi tale, but the central theme isn’t so much on encountering alien life. Rather, the game uses interactions with aliens as a platform to re-examine our own existence and give us a deeper look into our inability to understand one another.
The story alternates between present-day scenes that depict planetary exploration and interactions with the aliens, and flashbacks that focus on the protagonists’ daily life in the lunar base. The present-day portions of the story focus on exploring the unknown land and experiencing encounters with a foreign culture, while the scenes in the past gradually reveal the nature of Jinan and Hitoriko’s relationship alongside the state of the lunar society. The two timelines seem distinct at first, but as you read on, they steadily begin tying into each other.
What I found most engaging about this game was the particular sense of distance I got from these beings; the feeling that you could almost understand them, but not quite. Just like humans, the aliens communicate with each other and live together as a society. However, there are fundamental differences in their value systems, and this discrepancy is what gives this Sci-fi-meets-Suspense Adventure story a quiet sense of unease. Just when the two species think they’ve understood each other, unexpected misunderstandings pile up, giving the story not only the excitement of exploring an alien planet, but also having it tackle topics like encounters among different cultures.
The characters are another one of the story’s major draws, and the lighthearted banter between Jinan and Hitoriko is exceptionally charming, providing a much-needed reprieve from the more serious plot beats. Nora, one of the aliens, rarely shows any changes in her expression, giving her subtle reactions a particularly strong impression. Hirata, D.U.F.F.’s artist who also works in manga, provides character portraits and CG scenes which delicately portray the characters’ nuanced emotions, heightening the drama. Clocking in at 7-10 hours of total play time for just $4, I recommend burning through this one over a lazy weekend.
My Planet MOON CHILD is available now on PC via Steam. Please note that, at the time of this writing, My Planet MOON CHILD only supports Japanese language options.
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