Planet of Lana 2

The last few weeks have been pretty bad when it comes to video game discussion. It makes me glad I have hobbies aside from just video games and writing. That and having the knowledge to know how to block these people out so you can carry on with your merry day. Look, I play video games to have fun or interact with them in intriguing ways. Not start flame war with keyboard warrior chuds who have nothing else better to do but refresh their Twitter page every fifteen or so seconds. Now that is a sentence I never expected to type among the seven years I’ve been writing game reviews. One of the most recent discussions among gamers is what constitutes a game. As games have become more cinematic over the years due to improvement in technology. Putting less of a focus on gameplay at times in favor of storytelling. An argument I never really cared for as someone who sees gameplay as art. As long as a game does what it wants to well and delivers a decent message that’s all that really matters. 1000xResist is a masterpiece, but all you’ll do is walk and read through dialogue scenes. I’m fine games put heavier focus on storytelling, because there are times when a game can be light on gameplay and succeed.

Back in 2023 there was a game called Planet of Lana. Developed by indie studio Wishfully, but I didn’t play the game until it was ported to other consoles one year later. A rando recommended it to me, and I bought it during a sale. What I got was something more than just shiny visuals. This game was a breathtaking odyssey across an alien world filled with mystery and wonder. A past to be dissected and what society came afterward. The bond between a small girl and feline as they worked together to save a kidnapped tribe. All being told without speaking a single sentence of English or any real world language of the matter. Planet of Lana is a masterpiece in what it has managed to do with such little. The gameplay is one of those 2D platformers heavy on physics & punishment similar to Inside or Little Nightmares. With the occasional puzzles thrown in so what you end up doing doesn’t get too repetitive. A formula that had gotten pretty stale at that point, but to me Planet of Lana was a breath of fresh air alongside another release from the same year, American Arcadia. Rather than follow a small child in a scary world out to hurt them like the 2 other games mentioned, they're colorful, forgiving, and aren’t afraid to compelling albeit simple stories that stick the landing. Planet of Lana is a top fifty indie of the current decade and I was excited to see what the developers would cook up next. I

Planet of Lana 2 is announced in 2025 and while dozens of indie games have gotten sequels over the years, all of which I’ve praised or am hyped for, this one I was a bit skeptical of. It’s not that the game looked bad, or it’s wrong for the developers to give us more of the same. A lot of my favorite video game sequels are ones that are mechanically similar but add a few tweaks. I won’t stop talking or thinking about Octopath Traveler 2 and you can’t stop me. Hades 2, Dishonored 2 and so on. A sequel can go the route of being incredibly different like Hollow Knight: Silksong and Alan Wake 2, or what I had just mentioned. The problem with Planet of Lana 2 is that there’s not much to really build off of from the original. The gameplay and systems are really simplistic and to throw in too much stuff would diverge the series from what made it what it was. There is no room for improvement or screw up, but Planet of Lana 2 doesn’t want to be a safe sequel. It wants to go in new directions and proposes being a grander adventure than the first. Then you watch the trailer and it kinda looks the same. More colorful environment, cinematic shots, and a few places to look almost identical to the plains you traversed in the first game. I’m not trying to talk down the work of Wishfully. I was still excited for the game and hoped it would do a good job following up. Planet of Lana 2 comes out and it’s what I expected. 

A great story sequel to the first and a couple additions that surprised me a bit, but does it surpass the original? My biggest fear with Planet of Lana 2 is how it’ll age. How will its legacy stand up when they eventually make the third, which the devs do plan on! What is the single mistake they made that slightly holds it back, and why do I plan to compare it to Spiderverse!? Let's talk about Planet of Lana 2 and see why it deserves your attention.

Story

Two years have passed since the events of the first. Don’t you love it when the time passed since the first game matches how long it took for the developers to make the game or when the game is released? Good stuff. Anyways, Lana saved her people from the machine that kidnapped them & now lives peacefully once more in her village. Having tamed the tin cans so the villagers can use them for everyday work. The machines cooperate well with the villagers, they’ve grown outside their borders, and slowly began to make contact with new tribes. All is good, but Lana still likes to wonder what of the world that came before. Who left these machines and ruins of the planet, and has humanity existed years before current day events? Lana decides to explore the ruins and see what she can find. Venturing alongside are her niece Anua, and a strange cat she befriended on her first adventure, Mui. The cat’s origins are unknown, but upon unraveling the ruins more they uncover a cabin. The ruins are actually the remnants of a ship, and found within the cabin is a painting of the captain and her robot companion. The captain also had a child and pet, and the pet is similar to Mui. The three are amazed by the discovery made and decide to pack it in for the day. Running home so they have a nice feast together. At home is Lana’s older sister Elo and an old man named Rakuen whom Lana also befriended during her last adventure.

One happy little family, but all that changes within a few seconds. Lana decides to run outside the village a bit with Anua and a strange vehicle flies by. A tribe of humans from outside their village, and those humans are hostile. Dropping a rock emitting toxic fumes the likes they’ve not seen. Anua breathes in the fumes, falls unconscious, and Lana runs back to the village for help. Elo, realizing the village and plains around them is under threat, decides to lead a pack to locate where these individuals came from. Ordering the devastated Lana to stay behind, because she is not capable of who these people are. Lana is frustrated for being unable to do anything, but old man Rakuen has a plan. Anua can be cured, but it requires gathering three resources outside of the village. These resources are located with a cold mountain cavern, ocean floor, & forest home to a deity. Rakuen says this may be another opportunity for Lana to venture out and learn more of what lies outside the village. Lana, wanting to undo what she failed to prevent, ventures forth. Mui once again by her side and Rakuen piloting a ship towards their destinations. A road trip of excitement, dangers, and glory alike. A girl and her cat working together a second time.

Gameplay

By design Planet of Lana 2 is more of what made Planet of Lana great, but with some tweaks to make it a slightly better game. You still have a focus on physics and punishing the player for not understanding real world logic. Lana can only jump so high and far due to realistic jumping. Falling from a far enough distance will kill Lana, and basic environmental hazards will kill her instantly. Same goes for Mui who's always following you, but is susceptible. Carefully time your jumps so you get to where you need to be, but some additions have been with Planet of Lana 2. You can now sprint and slide. Some sections need you to build up speed so you can either clear a larger gap or reach a small crevasse within a short period. Lana can wall jump, which I cannot remember if she did much of in the original but I guess that’s an addition. To divide platforming up is the occasional stealth section where you must avoid enemy sightlines, and puzzles. All are cleverly designed and utilize the game’s new journal system. Keeping track of info you pick up so you may use it for later. Again, the basic mechanics of Planet of Lana are the same.

What is new though is how Mui works. Returning once again is the ability to command Mui to help with puzzles. Reach areas Lana can’t get to normally to press buttons or push down a rope Lana needs to climb up. Mui now has the ability to briefly hack machinery. Leading to machines activating or deactivating. Lana even has an ability to hack certain robots to assist with puzzles. Mui can take control of smaller creatures and much like hacking machines you can use to reach areas you normally can’t and solve the ongoing puzzles. Yeah, that’s Planet of Lana 2. More of the same, but with a few more mechanics are level ideas. This sounds bad on paper, but trust me Planet of Lana 2 is a very well made game. I never found portions of it to be frustrating or unfun. I had a good time playing it overall, and if all you want is to play more Planet of Lana then this is the way to go. What it comes down to is the whole picture, so how’s Planet of Lana 2 overall?

Thoughts

The way I opened this review up sounded pretty negative for the most part. I mean I began with discussing how bad online game discussion is nowadays, so that’s something. Planet of Lana 2 is nothing new or significant for the series. It is more Planet of Lana, but that’s not a bad thing. The original had a formula that worked well, and all Planet of Lana 2 had to do was test it in all the ways it could think of. I would even go far to say Planet of Lana 2 is the better game as what it lacks in innovation is made up for with good level ideas and mechanics. Planet of Lana does a great job introducing new gimmicks for the players to toy around with. Stacking ideas onto each other to create more complex challenges with time. Throwing out ideas when they’re about ready to get stale and tossing in new ones. Here’s a level with human-eating monsters, but the beasts are chased back with light. The same level has you turning electricity on and off, and at a later point you get a pushable platform with a light mounted to the front. Push the platform so the monster is forced backwards. Here’s an underwater level where you must carry Mui around in a portable encapsulating plant as Mui can’t swim. You must avoid killer fish while also making sure to take in air so you don’t drown. Here’s a point where you can’t avoid the fish’s sight, but using a small fish you can’t create a cloud of ink to swim through so the killer fish can’t see you. Here’s a part where you play a flute and notes are learned in caves. With the final part requiring you to mix the notes together into one sequence for the final musical segment.

This game is fun to play with good difficulty pacing, scaling, and unraveling. Nothing feels made to frustrate you or kill you as soon as possible. If you’re making one of these games with realistic logic and a single mistake kills you instantly then you might as well make it make sense for the player. You always get a clear sight of jumps, what is ahead, what a contraption will do if you interact with it, and even if you do die you aren’t sent too far back. Checkpoints are forgiving & at times even place you right where you died. Planet of Lana in general is a fun experience and something nice to boot up for a weekend play. It’s one of the many reasons I prefer it over all the games with this similar formula of gameplay. It’s just a good game, that’s it. Although I will say the only thing that holds Planet of Lana and its gameplay back from being perfect is that these are not the most replayable games in the world. Once you know the solution to a problem you know how to carry it out again. Everything is set up to be done one way and one way alone, so replaying the game is gonna kill some of that thrill and excitement of getting over problems. So what though!? Replay value hasn’t stopped me from loving games, and I will say unlike the first this one doesn’t have a trophy rewarding you for beating the whole thing without dying. I got the platinum trophy for Planet of Lana 2, and it was a very nice one to achieve.

Gameplay  despite being the same is still good in Planet of Lana 2, and the same applies to a lot of the other aspects that defined the original. The art direction and how everything is bright and colorful without the usage of outlines. Letting everything pop out while still making it distinct on what is what. The music is still spectacular as it’s this grand orchestra that feels like it came out of a Star Wars movie. Now that I think about it, Planet of Lana feels very inspired by Star Wars. With how it cinematically presents itself, the design of specific places and machinery, and ideas for its universe. It’s still amazing how the writers were able to convey a cohesive narrative with just animation and the made up language they made for this game. I always praised games for being able to deliver moments without dialogue. Hyper Light Drifter is my go to example, and the Planet of Lana games are probably my second choice at mastering this. There are a lot more scenes where characters talk though. Seeing how they can’t do the whole kidnapping thing again. It makes me wonder how the language for Planet of Lana was written. If the writers had a whole dictionary for words, because that’s really cool in my opinion. How they kept up with what word meant what so that the voice actors could read sentences fluidly. 

Planet of Lana 2 is a strong game overall and I recommend it. There’s not many games that have achieved what Wishfully has done and I don’t see anyone topping this high bar any sooner. What is left to talk about is the story. Overall I really liked the narrative. It builds upon the world very well and explores more of the society that came before. What they were trying to do and how it led to what is occurring now. Telling a fantastic subplot about love, devotion, dedication, and the push to keep moving forward even when all is lost. The main plot is great as well, showing Lana maturing as a person, seeing how her choices can lead to big things, and seeing the consequences of her actions.  The writing is great, but I have two problems with it. The first isn’t too big. The way this journey plays out while good doesn’t feel as great as the original. First I saw a little girl venturing to territory outside her home. A one person odyssey across a wild world, and it felt grand despite the game not being that long and linear in structure. It really felt like a journey to me, and the second feels video gamey in my opinion. You gotta go to X1 so you can obtain Y1, so you can then combine all three Y elements to get Z. The premise is good, but the way this is executed feels less like a journey than a checklist the player has to fulfill. Video gamey.

My second problem is the ending to Planet of Lana 2. It’s not what happens that I dislike. What happens is a massive plot revelation, the thrill of it, and paving the way for what’ll happen in the third game. What I dislike is that it’s a cliffhanger leaving you begging for more. Which brings me to the Spiderverse comparison. Both films available as of now are great. The first tells a great story and ends on a satisfying note. Showing our protagonist growing as a person, the world has developed alongside them, and ending on a note that leaves room for more but ends the path the protagonist has traveled. The first Spiderverse is a well written story with a satisfying end. The second has a great story and a cliffhanger ending. Yes, the ending gets you excited for what will happen next but now your story feels very abrupt. The writers have more to say, but they need more time to finish. That third entry will come later down the line, but when it does how will the second entry hold up. Will it be seen as its own thing, or a partial chunk that ended too soon. I think you can understand where I’m going with this. Planet of Lana 2 has a cliffhanger, but said cliffhanger leads to the story feeling somewhat unfinished. Whereas the first game ends and just feels good. A statement I don’t like making because there was effort put in here .

Planet of Lana 2 is a game I really liked. Again, I do recommend this game. I hope the devs are able to make enough money off this game so that they may be able to make the final entry to the series. Planet of Lana 2 did the job of getting me both excited and interested in Planet of Lana 3, but now it has gotten me more skeptical as to what it is. When the third entry arrives will it then tarnish the legacy for Planet of Lana 2? Will the second game turn itself into the weakest entry? Let’s not dwell on that too much. Planet of Lana 2 is great, I really liked it, and it’s worth checking out. I give Planet of Lana 2 a 9/10 for excellence.

9/10, Excellence