Revenge of the Savage Planetis a game that revels in its absurdity, and seems to want to keep you guessing with its unpredictability from beginning to end. While that makes it an enjoyable journey throughout its entire runtime it also leaves some gaps in its world-building.
As you journey from the tutorial to the credits, you’ll start to notice some inconsistencies in information, and details that just don’t seem to make sense. Even though these oversights won’t impact your enjoyment of the game too much, it’s still interesting to consider their implications.
9How Did Slappi Set It All Up?
Busy Little Robot
In the final act of Revenge of the Savage Planet, it’s revealed (even if it was kind of hiding in plain sight) that Slappi is the twist villain, and that he essentially set up every game-like puzzle in the solar system, just to entertain you.
This is kind of charming in how deranged it is, but it begs the question of how, and to what length? There are plenty of natural-seeming obstacles in the main characters' way, and the solar system you explore is massive. While Slappi is shown to have some pretty impressive mechanical abilities, it feels like he might be claiming a bit more credit than is possible.
8How Is Alta Trolling So Efficiently?
Premium Delivery?
At the start of Revenge of the Savage Planet, it’s made incredibly clear that your character has spent the last 100 years in cryo-sleep, waiting to arrive at Stellaris Prime, and they’ve been asleep so long that they’ve lost their job in the meantime.
That all makes sense, but what doesn’t is how Alta (their previous employer) starts to troll the player once they start rebelling. Clones and standees of the CEO are sent as an immediate response to try to antagonize the player, and it’s not particularly clear how they got there. While they could be using the same warp technology that’s used to transport captive creatures, why didn’t they use this same tech to get the protagonist to Stellaris Prime any quicker?
7Destined For A Life Of Solitude?
Feeling Awfully Lonely
As established, the main character of Revenge of the Savage Planet has been sent to colonize Stellaris Prime and prepare it for future settlers. That’s why there is a whole empty town built in Nu Florida. However, while it’s not addressed, this has some pretty tragic consequences for the protagonist if this actually went to plan.
It took the main character a century to reach Stellaris Prime, and if they had a standard human lifespan, they would be long gone by the time any future colonists arrived. Sure, Nu Florida feels lonely after they lose their job, but that would’ve been the case even if they still had it.
6Why Are The Creatures So Friendly In Captivity?
Squashed Beef
While there are a handful of passive creatures found on each planet in Revenge of the Savage Planet, for the most part, they are aggressive and will attack if you get too close within their range. Usually, even passive creatures will counterattack if you try to capture them.
However, once the creatures are taken to Nu Florida in captivity, and destined for a life in the Habitat, even the most hostile creature is suddenly willing to play with you. While this makes sense gameplay-wise, it would be good to know why every creature goes through such a drastic personality shift in such a short time.
5Terrifying Implications Of Re-Printing
Am I Me?
One gameplay mechanic that’s explicitly mentioned is how the main character respawns after dying on the field. The player-shaped machine is used to re-print the protagonist so they’re immediately back in action no matter how they died.
While this makes sense if you don’t think about it too much, it starts to fall apart once you start to ponder how this actually works. Is the protagonist actually re-printed, or is it just their conscience? We never get any explanation about how their corpse makes its way back to the Habitat, and while you could presume that the drone brought it back, this is never confirmed. While there’s plenty of wacky technology in Savage Planet, are they really capable of bringing the dead back to life?
4How Does Fall Damage Null Work Exactly
Exo-Skeletom Surgery When We Weren’t Looking?
Part of why progression is so satisfying in Revenge of the Savage Planet isthanks to the upgrade system. By gathering resources and unlocking crafting recipes, you’re able to 3D print upgrades for the main character to make them more powerful in platforming and combat.
While most of these are easily explained in-game thanks to the technology in the universe, one that’s a bit more inexplicable is the fall damage nullification. When the player character takes a nasty fall, they’re shown to have what would usually be a fatal injury, and then spring back from it like it was nothing. While nullifying fall damage makes sense as a buff to unlock, the unique animations suggest that there might be more to it than first expected. Is it really a human under that suit, or did they get some kind of exo-skeleton upgrade alongside the buff when we weren’t looking?
3Kiwi Slug Survival Instinct
How Are You Alive?
One of the first typesof puzzles you’ll run into in Savage Planet is feeding the hungry trees to get them to move their roots. There are multiple variations of these trees around the various planets you may explore, but for the most part, they all eat Kiwi Slugs.
Kiwi Slugs are adorable, but they don’t really seem to have any interest in keeping themselves alive. They’re completely static, and they’re only found near the very creatures that want to eat them. While that’s convenient when it comes to completing the game, it begs the question of how Kiwi Slugs manage to survive as a species in the first place.
2What’s The Plan After Escaping?
Dire Scenario
While the main plotlineof Revenge of the Savage Planet will see you gathering incriminating evidence against your former employers at Alta, there is also the extended side objective of rebuilding the Javelin ship so you can escape and head back home.
Even though this is nice enough in concept, what does the protagonist have to go back to? Everyone they ever knew on Earth will likely have died by the time they reach Stellaris Prime, and they definitely will be by the time they get back. On top of this, if the protagonist was the type of person to drop everything and be the sole colonist on a mysterious planet 100 years away, do they really have much of a life to return to?
1Slappi’s Motivations
Can’t We Just Be Friends?
If you’re paying attention to the adverts that constantly play at the Habitat, then there’s a good chance that you recognized Slappi as the twist antagonist that’s been pulling the strings behind the scenes throughout the game.
This has the potential for a great plot twist, but once Slappi explains it all to you in his Den of Fun, his motivations seem a bit strange. He sets up every obstacle in the game to entertain you, since he had 100 years to prepare for your arrival, and once you finally work it out… he wants to kill you? The jump from entertaining to killing is glossed over, and even if it’s implied that Slappi’s AI had turned evil, we aren’t really given an explanation as to how or why.
