There is no time limit, no size requirement, just the ability to make the katamari as big as possible and seeing the sights. The "Eternal" levels are stages in which the Prince may roam around specific stages. He may have to collect crabs to recreate the constellation of Cancer, or to find and roll up the largest bear possible to make Ursa Major, among many others. There are also "Constellation" levels, where the Prince has to do other activities rather than creating the biggest possible katamari. The earlier stages will have the Prince rolling a katamari around houses, and then gradually he will move out into the open world by completing more stages, culminating in a stage where he has to create the Moon. In the story stages, the King will task the Prince to create a katamari of a specific size or higher in a certain time limit. He can then float down to earth and start playing stages. The Prince rolling a collection of items. The hub world, known as the Home Planet, serves as a way of checking what items the katamari has rolled up, what constellations the Prince has created (from completing certain stages which focus on a different task than usual) and allows the player to save the game and change various settings. The tiny Prince ends up getting tasked to rebuild the moon with help from the Hoshino family, whom the Prince will come to know through the various cutscenes. The game doesn't have a specific plot line, but the Prince must create stars to the King's specifications and doing so shall unlock new stages. The King is larger than the Earth, and his sculpted body is clad in a tight black suit. He refers to himself in third-person with liberal use of the royal "We," and happens to have a voice that sounds like a record player being scratched.
The King appears often in game, and usually with humorous comments about life on earth. As the Prince, the player attempts to roll up as many items as they can so the resulting katamaris can be used to create new stars. He has tasked his son, the Prince, to create new stars by using balls known as katamari. The King of all Cosmos has destroyed every star in the night sky by means of an inebriated rampage through space.
The original game went on to spawn a long-running franchise however, Takahashi would only continue as the series' director for one sequel, We Love Katamari. After Katamari's initial release, it received acclaim for its unique gameplay and became a cult hit. The core concept for Katamari Damacy originated from its director Keita Takahashi, who began developing the game as a student project. Katamari Damacy is notable for its bright, simple aesthetic and the quirkiness of its gameplay mechanics, as well as its whimsical story and eccentric characters. The basic gameplay centers on rolling a round object called a katamari (literally translated as "clump") with the ability to pick up other objects smaller than itself in order to grow bigger once the katamari is large enough, it is launched into space and becomes a star or other celestial object. Katamari Damacy is an action puzzle game developed and originally published by Namco (now Bandai Namco) in 2004.