A girl, robots and an alien cat. Planet of Lana game review [Backlog]

The puzzle/platformer Planet of Lana was released on Windows PC and Microsoft consoles two years ago, in late May 2023, and in the spring of 2024 it appeared on Sony and Nintendo consoles. As usual, some other games prevented me from getting to know Planet of Lana in time, and only the news that the game was leaving Game Pass made me think of it. And for good reason, because it is actually one of the best indie games of recent years.

The girl Lana, together with her sister Ilo, lives in a pastoral world - in a peaceful settlement on the seashore. It is a simple, but dignified and joyful life in unity with nature. But one day, spaceships with aggressive robots begin to land on Lana's planet, destroying the settlement and hunting its inhabitants. And worst of all, among the people who were captured is Lana's older sister.

The girl sets off on a search and along the way meets a strange alien creature resembling a cat - Mui. He becomes Lana's companion, and they will help each other move forward.

Yes, the events of Planet of Lana do not take place on Earth, and there are quite a few very strange, sometimes funny, like Mui or stones with legs, and sometimes dangerous creatures. By the way, the plot of the game, although simple, is quite interesting. There is not a single word in it, because the characters communicate in gibberish, and all the important information is presented in pictures. But the mystery of the appearance of robots and the life of people on the planet Lana deserves to be revealed.

Lana and Mui are weak and cannot directly fight the robots, except to distract them and lure some into traps, so the girl and the cat's progress is all about solving puzzles and stealth. In creating puzzles, the authors of Planet of Lana seem to have been inspired by the games of the Playdead studio, primarily Inside (2016), although some reviews and even direct quotes from Limbo (2010) are also present here, as well as the classic puzzle The Lost Vikings (1991) from Silicon & Synapse, which we now know as Blizzard Entertainment.

In most cases, you need to guide Lana and Mui to the other side of the screen, helping each other and hiding from or using robots and dangerous creatures. Lana can break through shaky wooden walls, drag heavy objects, swim, climb ropes, and later take control of some mechanisms and even robots. Mui can jump high, throw a rope to the girl, press buttons, and even control some alien creatures.

All of Planet of Lana's puzzles are logical and not too difficult, except for the task with a huge mechanical organ that can cause some problems, but the hint for two of the pipes is on the game screen, and the positions of the other two are easy to find with a simple brute force, there really aren't many options.

The acrobatics in the game are not complicated, this is not Limbo, there are only a few action episodes and the QTEs in them have a huge margin in terms of timing, although they still look a bit redundant in the game.

Planet of Lana is truly enchanting. With its graphics in the spirit of classic Studio Ghibli cartoons (oh, what clouds, grass, trees, stones and sea!), incredibly cute characters, music and songs (it's a pity that there are only two of them), and general goodness. After completing it, the pleasant aftertaste will stay with you for a long time.

Planet of Lana is a small game, you can play it in just one evening, it's only 3.5-4.5 hours of gameplay, depending on your pace. Perfect length.

The game remains on Game Pass until May 16, 2025, so there's still time to play. In addition, Planet of Lana often goes on sale, the last of which was in April 2025, when the game cost only 186 UAH on Steam. That's a good price.

PS Quite unexpectedly, Planet of Lana has Ukrainian menu localization. It's not really needed here, because there's no text in the game at all, but it's there, which is nice.

MEZHA SCORE

9

/ 10

What we liked

• picture in the spirit of Studio Ghibli cartoons
• interesting puzzles inspired by Playdead games and the classic The Lost Vikings
• touching science fiction story
• alien cat Mui
• optimal game duration
• good soundtrack
• unexpected Ukrainian localization

What we didn't like

• several action episodes with QTE seem unnecessary in the game

An incredibly good and beautiful indie game that leaves a very pleasant aftertaste upon completion.