Planet of Lana Review

Just a few months ago, on the 23rd of May, Planet of Lana was released. It is a puzzle platformer game in which you play as a young girl called Lana, whose sister, Ilo, was kidnapped by robots at the beginning of the game, along with the rest of her village. The game is viewed from a side-scrolling perspective. The characters speak in a non-existent language whose sound resembles East Asian ones, particularly Japanese.

The story of the game is a very emotional and interesting one: everyone from Lana’s village has been kidnapped by evil robots, including her sister. She embarks on a journey to find everyone and free them, having to avoid more robots that are trying to kidnap/kill her. On that journey, she meets a cat-like creature, which she calls Mui. After getting a new adorable best friend, she continues whilst getting help from her cute kitty with solving puzzles and evading enemies. The different puzzles and locations can sometimes feel repetitive but are mostly great and make you think about how to solve them. The pacing can feel a little slow at times, but not enough to be a problem, and the immense amount of effort put into crafting the world and making it so great definitely compensates for that.

Plana of Lana starts at our protagonist’s village, in which she is playing a game with Ilo. She runs throughout the village and Lana tries to follow her, passing by a grave that they both stop to look at; they eventually arrive at the end of a cliff, where they see a robot invasion being launched against their world. Just like everyone else, Ilo gets kidnapped by these robots and brought back to their mothership. Lana then embarks on a journey to the mothership in order to free her sister and everyone else. It is a very emotional story with a lot of twists which I will not spoil. It is very exciting and interesting and definitely capable of making more sensitive people cry, both from sadness and from happiness.

The gameplay is not the most interesting, and it can feel a tad wonky at times, but it’s not bad. You have some platforming to do and some puzzles to solve. The platforming is the easier part, although sometimes the movement feels a bit sluggish and weird, which can take away from the fun of it a little bit. Most of the puzzles aren’t too tough, although there are a few that are hard and lack logic. You gain more abilities throughout the game, which makes solving challenges harder, as you now have more possibilities and things to think about. As you advance in Planet of Lana, the theme of the puzzles changes to fit the current situation better: different ways to solve and application of your tools and abilities. The game only autosaves, although it does so frequently, so there is almost no risk of losing any progress you might have made and can close the game at basically any point.

The graphics look beautiful, especially for an indie game: the animations are smooth, and the models are really pretty. The environment and the background are absolutely stunning and definitely impress, being very unique and fitting the game and story beautifully. There aren’t any visual problems, and almost every moment of this game looks amazing.

The sound design of Planet of Lana is great, with astonishing voice acting that conveys perfect emotions in a language that doesn’t even exist. It feels super immersive and emotional and has honestly made me cry at a certain point near the end. The music is just as good, if not more — every scene has a unique soundtrack that makes it so much more impactful and helps connect the player to the world. It fits everything that is happening perfectly and captures exactly the emotions that Lana must be feeling.

Overall, the game is very interesting all throughout itself: with fun challenges and an emotional story, it does a very good job of captivating players. Most of the puzzles are very well designed, and the platforming is fun. It has some slight problems with gameplay and mechanics, but the emotional and captivating story, amazing voice acting and music, and absolutely stunning visuals more than compensate for these small problems.

So, Planet of Lana is amazing and definitely a great game to try if you are looking for a good story and an emotional connection with the characters. It’s a great experience and holds up to the expectations placed since it was announced. I can easily recommend it for the full price and to anyone who enjoys these sorts of games.