Planet of Lana is a beautiful, engrossing little 2.5D puzzle-platformer. Clearly inspired visually by the works of Studio Ghibli and mechanically by Playdead's Limbo and INSIDE, it comes pretty close to its inspirations, though falls a bit short on the gameplay side of things.
The premise, and really the rest of the story are simple - a young girl named Lana watches his tribe and family get swept away by a horde of otherworldly robotic drones and now must trek across the lands to get them back - all with the help of a newfound friend; a small, adorable creature named Mui. From here, there's a mix of worldbuilding, environmental storytelling and bonding between the two characters as they travel across the planet together.
It's not exactly groundbreaking and surely there are others that tell the same story better but the charming characters and gorgeous art direction really carries the whole thing.
As I mentioned, the gameplay is a bit of a lacklustre affair in Planet of Lana. It's not bad, in fact it's mostly decent since it largely provides the same puzzle-platforming thrills as found in Limbo and INSIDE. However, the puzzles in question aren't really engaging or varied enough, at least until the last few chapters of the game.
Besides that, there aren't really that many new mechanics or much variety introduced throughout. Most of what you do in the first hour or so continues for the next 2 and a half. For a game you can finish in an afternoon, you'd perhaps expect it to be all killer, no filler, but alas.
As it stands though, Planet of Lana is a game where you come for the gorgeous art direction, stay for the worldbuilding, environments and cute characters and just go through the motions with the puzzles and platforming. It's certainly a case where the strengths far outweigh the weaknesses, but they are indeed present.
8/10
The premise, and really the rest of the story are simple - a young girl named Lana watches his tribe and family get swept away by a horde of otherworldly robotic drones and now must trek across the lands to get them back - all with the help of a newfound friend; a small, adorable creature named Mui. From here, there's a mix of worldbuilding, environmental storytelling and bonding between the two characters as they travel across the planet together.
It's not exactly groundbreaking and surely there are others that tell the same story better but the charming characters and gorgeous art direction really carries the whole thing.
As I mentioned, the gameplay is a bit of a lacklustre affair in Planet of Lana. It's not bad, in fact it's mostly decent since it largely provides the same puzzle-platforming thrills as found in Limbo and INSIDE. However, the puzzles in question aren't really engaging or varied enough, at least until the last few chapters of the game.
Besides that, there aren't really that many new mechanics or much variety introduced throughout. Most of what you do in the first hour or so continues for the next 2 and a half. For a game you can finish in an afternoon, you'd perhaps expect it to be all killer, no filler, but alas.
As it stands though, Planet of Lana is a game where you come for the gorgeous art direction, stay for the worldbuilding, environments and cute characters and just go through the motions with the puzzles and platforming. It's certainly a case where the strengths far outweigh the weaknesses, but they are indeed present.
8/10