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

With the exception of the fact that it is now fully set on water, FAR: Changing Tides is essentially more of the first game. That would sound condescending, but given how great the original game is, it's actually not a terrible thing. Despite this, however, Changing Tides isn't nearly as daring as Lone Sails was.

In fairness, the necessary changes were made to the sequel in regards to the puzzle designs and overall, they feel much more intricate and rewarding than they did before. On the flipside, though, traversing the waters, which, again, is the bulk of what you'll be doing in this game, isn't nearly as exciting or intriguing as riding across dunes and marshes was in Lone Sails.

It's bizarre that this is the case, given that you've got a lot more to do moment-to-moment in order to keep your boat's engine running than with the vehicle in the previous game. Like last time, you have to feed the engine, make sure it doesn't overheat, make necessary repairs, and now you have to keep watch of the sails and prevailing winds.

However, this starts to feel like busywork in a way that Lone Sails didn't, and the reason for that is two-fold. For one, during the second half of the game, you'll be doing a lot of transitioning between above-water and underwater, depending on the obstacles in your path. This does make sense and in theory, it shouldn't cause any frustration, but it does become incredibly tedious when that becomes the majority of what you'll be doing, particularly for the last segment of the game's story.

Speaking of story and world-building, the environments you travel through aren't nearly as interesting as they were in Lone Sails and as a result, your investment in the mystery of the story and world takes a backseat.

There's one moment early in the game where the tide lowers out of nowhere, only for a gargantuan tidal wave to come hurtling towards you and throw you way off course. These are the kinds of set pieces, like the volcano eruption, that made me enjoy Lone Sails so much. Here, however, apart from this one moment, there aren't really many at all. There are some heavy storms, sure, but they don't really disrupt the usual gameplay routine other than having to make a few quick repairs.

Overall, Changing Tides isn't a bad sequel. However, it feels like an experience more befitting of an expansion to the first game to bridge the gap until a bigger, more ambitious follow-up. Of course, ambition doesn't always equal better, but here there could have been a little bit more of it employed in certain parts. As it stands, though, it's a decent entry to this series, but perhaps not one that would make you wildly prefer it over its predecessor.

6.5/10