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Apr. 16th, 2025
Review: Planet of Lana
Apr. 16th, 2025 04:38 pmI grabbed Planet of Lana out of my backlog because I fancied something with a bit of a challenge, a bit of a plot, that looked gorgeous. And I got exactly that!
The art is painted, and looks it. It's set on a luscious moon where everything looks beautiful, and everything is just fine:
Well, maybe not *fine*:
Shortly after The Bad Thing happens you set off with your trusty friendly cat to Save Everything.
And then it's a lot of side-scrolling adventure as you head relentlessly rightward, climbing over things,distracting robots, avoiding being eaten by wild animals, until you find the source of The Bad Thing and Save The Day. If you've played Limbo or Inside then you know exactly the kind of thing you're in for. Only more Ghibli.
There's almost no dialogue, and what there is is in an alien language. But it's enough to pull you in. The plot is told through the things you encounter along the way. And it's explained as much as it needs to be, which isn't much.
The different environments work very nicely, whether you're trying to keep your cat dry:
or you're exploring underground caverns:
Or trying to prevent hordes of robot spiders from giving you an unfortunate hug:
The game lasts about 5 hours, but as it's on sale for over 50% off right now (£7.65 in the UK) I can happily say it's well worth picking up.
The challenge is fairly light - there were two puzzles I had to check walkthroughs for, but generally I could work my way through them, and it required very little in the way of reflexes.
Oh, and the music/sound design is gorgeous. You can listen to it over here.
Overall, highly recommended.
The art is painted, and looks it. It's set on a luscious moon where everything looks beautiful, and everything is just fine:
Well, maybe not *fine*:
Shortly after The Bad Thing happens you set off with your trusty friendly cat to Save Everything.
And then it's a lot of side-scrolling adventure as you head relentlessly rightward, climbing over things,distracting robots, avoiding being eaten by wild animals, until you find the source of The Bad Thing and Save The Day. If you've played Limbo or Inside then you know exactly the kind of thing you're in for. Only more Ghibli.
There's almost no dialogue, and what there is is in an alien language. But it's enough to pull you in. The plot is told through the things you encounter along the way. And it's explained as much as it needs to be, which isn't much.
The different environments work very nicely, whether you're trying to keep your cat dry:
or you're exploring underground caverns:
Or trying to prevent hordes of robot spiders from giving you an unfortunate hug:
The game lasts about 5 hours, but as it's on sale for over 50% off right now (£7.65 in the UK) I can happily say it's well worth picking up.
The challenge is fairly light - there were two puzzles I had to check walkthroughs for, but generally I could work my way through them, and it required very little in the way of reflexes.
Oh, and the music/sound design is gorgeous. You can listen to it over here.
Overall, highly recommended.