Planet of Lana 2 Review - Come for the Art, Stay for the Cat
Saving the world from a hostile corporate mining operation has never looked this relaxing, right up until the screen abruptly cuts to black.
I have a massive weakness for games that look like playable Studio Ghibli films. The original Planet of Lana hooked me entirely with its lush environments and the adorable dynamic between a young girl and her weird cat monkey hybrid companion. Wishfully Studios is back with Planet of Lana 2: Children of the Leaf, and they cranked the visual and auditory dials up to eleven.
The idyllic planet of Novo is under siege again, but this time you are not just fighting soulless machines. A rival human tribe called the Dijinghala is aggressively mining crystals using hacked robots and poisoning the environment in the process. When Lana's little sister inhales toxic gas and falls deathly ill, you are forced to drag your fluffy companion Mui across the globe to find a cure.
The premise is incredibly simple, but the execution is breathtaking. You do not get a single line of intelligible dialogue. The narrative is conveyed entirely through expressive gibberish, frantic pointing, and a stunning orchestral score. It is an interactive painting, and I savored every single second of it.
A Symphony of Sprints and Squids
If you played the first game, you know exactly what to expect from the core loop. You run left to right, climb ropes, drag crates, and hide from terrifying spider mechs in tall grass. Lana is completely defenseless. If a robot spots you, you get fried instantly. You rely entirely on your environment and your pet to survive.
Mui Gets a Psychic Upgrade
Mui is the actual star of this franchise. In the first game, you mostly used the little furball to chew through cables or trigger pressure plates. Now, Mui is a full blown psychic hacker. You can command your companion to emit EMP blasts that temporarily disable laser grids and security cameras. It turns standard stealth sections into frantic timing puzzles where you have a three second window to sprint across a kill zone before the power boots back up.
The coolest addition to the sequel is animal mind control. You will encounter various local fauna that Mui can temporarily hijack. My personal favorite is a tiny squid you find during the new underwater segments. You swim Lana through submerged ruins while steering the squid alongside her, triggering ink clouds to blind patrolling robot sharks. It is a fantastic evolution of the original mechanics that forces you to manage two characters simultaneously in hostile environments.
The Water Problem
Speaking of underwater segments, Mui still absolutely despises getting wet. A huge chunk of the environmental puzzle solving revolves around ferrying your cat monkey across deep lakes. You will find yourself constantly dragging floating logs, manipulating water levels, and using giant lily pads as makeshift rafts. It adds a great layer of environmental logic to the exploration, forcing you to look at every new room as a logistical transport problem.
Forgiving the Quirks
I want to blindly praise this game as flawless, but the platforming engine does occasionally fight against you in moments when precision actually matters.
Lana feels just a bit too floaty, and her momentum is incredibly stubborn. If you are sprinting to the right and suddenly need to reverse direction to avoid a falling hazard, she takes a fraction of a second too long to stop, turn, and accelerate again. In a game where failing a stealth sequence results in instant death, having your character refuse to grab a ledge because you were two pixels off center can be mildly annoying.
Thankfully, the developer generously placed respawn checkpoints right before every major puzzle. This softens the blow significantly. I rarely lost more than ten seconds of progress after a cheap death. It is a minor hiccup in an otherwise incredibly smooth experience, and the sheer charm of the game makes it very easy to forgive a missed jump or two.
A Breathtaking World
I cannot overstate how stunning this game looks in motion. You travel through deep forests, freezing mountain ranges, and massive brutalist industrial complexes. The background art is layered perfectly to give a massive sense of scale. The developers know exactly how to guide your eye, framing massive derelict spaceships against vibrant sunsets.
The audio design is equally brilliant. Composer Takeshi Furukawa delivers a majestic, sweeping soundtrack that knows exactly when to swell during a chase sequence and when to pull back during quiet moments of exploration. The sound effects ground the cartoonish visuals in reality, from the heavy mechanical clanking of the mining drills to the soft rustling of the grass.
The PC Port Compromise
If you play on a standard monitor or a television, you are in for a visual treat. If you are an ultrawide PC gamer, prepare to make a compromise. A game that relies entirely on sweeping, cinematic vistas forcing you to stare at thick black bars on the sides of your screen is a bit of a bummer. It is a valid technical gripe for PC enthusiasts, but the art style is so strong that it ultimately wins you over anyway.
Leaving You Wanting More
My only real heartbreak with Planet of Lana 2 is that it has to end, and it does so a bit too soon.
I rolled the credits in just under six hours. That includes me taking my time, hunting down hidden collectible holograms, and generally soaking in the atmosphere. Just as the story hits its absolute peak, shedding light on the true nature of the Dijinghala tribe and the origins of the robots, the game drops a massive cliffhanger and cuts to black.
Investing emotionally in these characters only to have the curtain fall right at the climax is jarring, but it is a testament to how good the writing actually is. It does not feel like a cheap trick. It feels like a brilliantly crafted first act of a much larger story. I am genuinely desperate to see what happens next.
The Verdict
Planet of Lana 2 is a stunning piece of interactive art that completely nails its atmosphere and soundtrack. The new puzzle mechanics with Mui are genuinely clever, and the world is an absolute joy to explore. While the platforming can occasionally feel a bit floaty and the campaign ends on a massive cliffhanger, the journey itself is incredibly special. If you love gorgeous indie games, this is an absolute must play.
Score: 8.2/10 - A breathtaking sci-fi painting that leaves you desperate for the next canvas.
We at NLM received a key for this game for free, this however didn't impact our review in any way.
