Planet of Lana is a vibrant and vivid dreamscape. From luscious greens to bright blues, it’s very clear how important art is in a game like this. Some issues hold the title back, such as a lack of checkpoints leading to frustration in puzzles. Though the environmental storytelling is strong, the puzzle elements largely work with the use of “companion-based gameplay”, and the stealth sections, while basic, make for a fun time. All in all, Planet of Lana is an engaging and unique game, and a world worth experiencing.
Planet of Lana is a short puzzle platformer in which we help little Lana, followed by her new friend Mui, to rescue her sister from the clutches of mechanical invaders. It's a game that's very easy to get to grips with and plays a lot on its atmosphere, but does it stand out in other aspects?
❤ Clearly, the artistic direction is aiming to blow our minds, and it succeeds! The sets are magnificent, the animations are simple but deliver the emotion we need, and there is no shortage of staging ideas to make certain scenes almost magical.
❤ I liked the "bestiary" chara-design and its diversity, whether it's robots or living creatures, and the work on their movements and sounds - they can often stress you out a bit x)
❤ For the few characters that exist, they are all endearing and the chemistry between them works very well; we feel the sisterly love between Lana and Ilo, even if it lasts for a few moments, and the budding friendship with Miu is convincing and adorable. And although they all speak in a made-up language, the intonations of their voices are more than enough to understand and interpret the exchanges between them, and it's very well done in that respect.
+/- The puzzles are well thought-out on the whole, without being really hard, and I really liked the 'combos' you had to do with little Miu to solve some of them…on the other hand, they don't evolve much and are fairly repetitive in the way they work.
+/- The game also relies on its magnificent OST to further enhance the emotional power of certain scenes…but despite this, I found that there were far too many empty moments, and the musical episodes were too rare, which is a shame.
+/- The story is simple and leaves the door open to the interpretation of its lore and events, giving only visual clues in the game to give theorists free rein…but the unfolding of Lana's adventures remains very basic and predictable, and I was left a little unmoved despite myself.
✖ The control of the flying robots was terrible, and yet I took several minutes to practice.
✖ Some of the QTEs are a little too long.
If you've already played games like Limbo or Inside, then Planet of Lana won't offer you anything new, as it clearly doesn't seek to innovate the genre and instead remains very classic in its storyline and gameplay. However, its high visual and musical quality is enough to make for an immersive and delectable journey that will undoubtedly charm you.