Planet of Lana Reviews
Planet of Lana is a game I had no idea what to expect from it. Just when I thought it would be a simple side-scroller, it subverted my expectations and turned into a highly engaging puzzler with emotional story moments. The sheer scale of the game and what it achieves is nothing short of incredible. Despite never knowing much of Lana, Elo, or Mui. The journey was one that I could never have expected and is an easy recommendation.
Planet of Lana offered a short adventure that excelled in its art direction and strong animation to have the player feeling like he is literally wandering around an art piece, in addition to fun puzzles, its problem was its repetitiveness and that it was unchallenging.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Step into Planet of Lana and have a beautiful, low-stress time. Its puzzle are enough to get you thinking but simple enough to keep the game relaxing and perfectly-paced.
Planet of Lana is short and sweet and never overstays its welcome. There was an onion or two cut in front of me by the time the credits rolled around. It is a remarkable debut effort from Wishfully Studios that is sure to delight with its gorgeous visuals, grand story, and brain-busting puzzles.
Despite the simplicity of some aspects, Planet of Lana features a well-balanced level design between a cinematic and puzzle experience, and a sensitive and reflective adventure about cooperation and harmony with technology and nature. The game is recommended for art game lovers as well as casual players looking for a good adventure experience in a few hours.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The team behind Planet of Lana, Wishfully, should really be proud. The game is truly a fun experience, and it is always nice to see smaller teams pull off something that looks this nice. It uses art to tell a story, and while it isn’t an Earth-breaking type of story, it is fun. If anything the game feels like it was a passionate project instead of something specifically targeted towards an audience. It is a reminder of what video games should be, those unique experiences that hold the player through until the end, instead of the more common triple-A experiences. Planet of Lana will be something to remember going forward, and hopefully, more game development teams will look at Planet of Lana and change things up a bit going forward.
I really enjoyed Planet of Lana and it has so much charm and gameplay hooks that you cannot help but love
Planet of Lana is exceptionally beautiful and atmospherically dense. The side-scroller offers classic platform puzzling, which gains in complexity through Lana's companion, Mui. Mui is a brave little guy - and one of the cuddliest representatives of his guild.
Review in German | Read full review
Wishfully Studio's debut title, Planet of Lana, shows immense promise with its hand-painted art style that pops off the screen at any given moment, musical tracks that imbue the somber yet adventurous nature akin to both Star Wars and Marvel, and puzzles that feel well catered and simple for players of all kinds. While Planet of Lana's art and ambiance are arguably unmatched, its solid suspenseful enemy encounters and clever puzzles lack a certain special factor that would make this journey reach the heights it potentially could have. Nonetheless, Planet of Lana is an adventure worth your time, filled with elements reminiscent of folks like Playdead, Ghibli, and Team Ico elements.
While its evocative graphics will attract players on this beautiful journey, the simple traversal puzzles and lack of emotional weight mean Planet of Lana is just not very memorable.
Planet of Lana tells a touching tale of loss, discovery, and adventure. It happens on a scale far greater than expected, delivering it in a great puzzle-solving package.
Planet of Lana is simply mesmerising, with the stunning world and engrossing puzzling ensuring it truly shines as a puzzle-platforming spectacle. Sure, it might not be the most original experience when it comes to the gameplay and it’s rarely challenging, but the variety and creativity it showcases ensures it still feels captivating to play – just don’t expect to see too many ideas that you wouldn’t have seen before. It didn’t stop Planet of Lana from being a wonderful experience though, and it’ll always stands out to me as one of the most beautiful games that I’ve ever played.
Planet of Lana is the rare combination of potential and quality. With a soundtrack that will surely win awards, an unforgettable cinematic style that constantly impresses, mechanics and gameplay that evolve smartly, giving you just the right amount of challenge, and a friendship that warms the cockles of the heart. This is a wonderful adventure that, bar a few minor misgivings, has a bit of everything and will stick with you long after the credits roll.
Planet of Lana is a side-scrolling adventure of rare beauty, superbly blending simple but never predictable gameplay with highly inspired design and a soundtrack of the highest quality. A title that every video game lover should play.
Review in Italian | Read full review
In conclusion, Planet of Lana is one of the best games I’ve played recently. It is clear that for Thunderful Publishing, it was a labour of love, from the premise to animation, world lore, music, and sounds. Even more impressive, the whole game studio was created around this project, and this game is their first. Based on PoL, they have a bright future ahead of them.
Planet of Lana is an exciting adventure with well built puzzles, breathtaking set pieces, a stunning art style, and a score that underlines it all perfectly.
Planet of Lana is one of the most charming, wonderful and endearing games that you’re going to play this year. It’s a game that most certainly is on your to-do list for 2023 and better still, it’s on Xbox Game Pass. So, go and pick it up already.
Planet of Lana is a lovely puzzle platformer with a lot of heart. The lead characters, Lana and Mui are meaningfully integrated into each puzzle, and their journey across different regions of a beautiful world is equally touching and compelling. The puzzles lack the creative punch you'd see in similar titles and don't fully leverage the setting, but the strong presentation depicting the resilience of nature rejecting an alien invasion is breathtaking.
Planet of Lana is a game of resounding balance between light and dark, gameplay and story, beauty and simplicity. It is an organically unified piece that uses the sum of its parts to fully synergize an experience to elicit a myriad of emotions from the player as they traverse the planet with a variety of landscapes, encounters, and ultimately, a simple story of reunion and friendship.