To say something is “hand-crafted” does, pardon one’s bluntness, run the risk of coming off needless and by a game’s end, rather redundant. Aren’t all games, at their core, hand-crafted? And even its close-knit sibling of a descriptor, “hand-painted,” risks losing most of its intended luster when the alternative would be what exactly: “programmed”? Shapes and figures simply a result of mathematical and computational tinkering. Point is: as understandably focal developer Wishfully Studios want to be with their own brand of puzzle-platformer – with a child at its heart and a grand, ambivalent world to make one’s way through – and though far from fault, to say such a term has been overused in this corner of games, would be putting it lightly.
Art-style and aesthetic – not least that which aims to replicate the physical application of such materials as paint or textiles, as if spread across some hypothetical canvas – are naturally important. An easy area to attract with, harder still to convince that what said game is doing is worth anything more than a solemn agreeing that…yes it does indeed look nice. Nice, but nothing else. So to Planet of Lana’s credit, the use of “hand-painted” among its features feels anything but unwarranted. Going as far as to say that it’s because of the very visuals, in combination with the manner at which it ties such an aesthetic together, that help Wishfully’s effort stand out more so than its otherwise content and a tad formulaic sequence of set-pieces would imply.
Call it the game’s saving grace, or maybe just a fortunate counter to an otherwise indecisive four-to-five hour narrative. One that isn’t sure whether to invest more so in the characters the game eagerly wants you to empathize with or its world-building that (like so many other games prior) banks on its allure as a desire to interpret and/or stipulate as one sees fit. But as uncommitted Planet of Lana does unfortunately feel on occasion – just that one extra push could’ve elevated the relationship between Lana and her other-worldly feline-like companion Mui to being truly something to highlight – what saves it is its overall direction. And not just one of an artistic sense, but musically too. Easily one of the project’s wisest decisions in recruiting composer Takeshi Furukawa (of The Last Guardian fame) to score Lana’s soundtrack, pays off superbly. Capped off with an ending theme so fitting, Wishfully have the honor of crafting a game whose credits sequence I immediately replayed to have it play back a second time over.
But so far as the gameplay underpinning all this, the fundamentals remain relatively unchanged from the ample iterations and efforts you’ve no doubt experienced or at least heard of floating about the independent scene. Controlling Lana, you’re tasked with making it through a series of puzzle-based platforming segments that include all the regular suspects so far as interactivity: objects to move about and climb atop, gaps to make a brave leap across, enemies to avoid and at times bait into performing specific actions. And as insistent Planet of Lana remains in reminding you what button prompt to initiate around a given object or environmental cue, this is as far as the game thankfully goes when it comes to telling you where and how the solution may be found. The key part of this lies in the “dual” system of managing the survival of both its characters: Lana and Mui. Two characters that serve as a kind of yin-and-yang whereby one’s abilities and shortcomings are balanced out by the other. For one, Lana is perfectly fine with swimming in water – Mui isn’t. By contrast, later on in the tale, Mui can manipulate certain creatures to have move about and even affect the layout of the environment – Lana must then traverse these changed surroundings to further progress.
It’s a simple-enough case of finding the right sequence of interactions in combination with this brand of platformer’s usual tropes of putting one’s self in potential danger in the pursuit of success. Sometimes that’s getting an enemy to catch sight of one character so that the other can move undetected. Sometimes it’s getting one character to a particular object only they can interact with. The puzzles are neither new nor complex in this sub-genre, but they do a sufficient job at emphasizing either character’s pros and cons to at least make Planet of Lana feel anything but another pale imitator in an already deep sea of pale imitators. But that success is less to do with its orchestrations of puzzles, but moreso with Planet of Lana’s overall tone and its intention to break away from similarly-established reliance on some oppressive surrounding or otherwise feelings of weakness. Choosing instead to be one whose world is more vibrant, inviting and as such, a touch more curious as to where exactly its more narrative-leaning details inevitably lead us to.
I say a touch though, because as noted, Planet of Lana doesn’t quite stick the landing – either landing – in committing fully to the notion of a narrative with some dramatic reveal impacting its characters. The closest the game comes to this, coming in the form of its “final encounter” – even if the execution does straddle the line between grand and just plain ridiculous. But as notable as some of its latter-half locations and settings may be – one of which is the point many will [wrongfully] suspect is the point the narrative starts to become more substantial in world-building – instead peters away. Relegated instead to mere optional collectibles and voluntary deductions on a back-story that doesn’t evoke the same manner of investment as its two main characters provide.
The same can’t be said for the visuals and at the risk of sounding like a broken record: it’s that dedication to its aesthetic and to the way visuals look on the screen that works wonders in Planet of Lana. A game that very much invokes the use of the term expressionism to describe the painterly qualities of its world. One that extends to that of the very specific use of color too. Sections that deliberately limit hues to that of greens and earthly shades of blue. And while the transition between regions isn’t always the smoothest, the shift in colors arrives at just the right moments to prevent the game feeling too monotonous in its presentation. The contrast of the game world’s painterly texture with the single-color, geometric and cel-shaded attire of its robotic, antagonistic faction too, is just one more example of how well Wishfully pulls this off. Even if the game does run the risk a fair few times of feeling too indulgent with its cinematic tendencies. Sections whose visuals may be aspiring, but whose gameplay requires little more than holding the analog stick right until the game deems it time to move on.
Closing Comments:
Far from the most inventive or unique take on the puzzle-platformer formula, Planet of Lana mitigates its relatively-safe gameplay with a striking visual style and a surprisingly compelling use of music alongside. In a genre so used to feelings of helplessness, hostility and horror, Planet of Lana serves up a refreshing alternative in an already-crowded market. And while the game isn’t entirely hostile to the notion of danger and discovery, it’s a brief adventure with sufficient challenge that still finds ways to engage and impress. Far from the scale of odyssey its tagline implies, what it lacks in some emotional gut-punch or satisfying narrative depth, Planet of Lana eventually wins over through the raw power of artistic direction. A direction that if nothing else, ensures such a brief trek across an alien world, remains an eye-catching one.
Planet of Lana
Reviewed on PC
