The original Planet of Lana is a game that has stayed with me since its release back in 2023. Its Ghibli-inspired 2D art direction, its story told in a made-up language, its swelling and emotive music — all of these areas are still, to me, some of the most beautiful in games today. However, I’ve always felt that developer Wishfully was just scratching the surface with Planet of Lana, and could push to do more with the land of Novo and its intricacies.
Well, a few years later, that’s exactly what Planet of Lana 2: Children of the Leaf hopes to do, with the upcoming sequel expanding not just the original’s story, but its mechanics and world as well. Wishfully has today announced a release date of 5th March, with a demo also coming to Steam, Xbox and Playstation from 11th February, and to coincide with that announcement I spoke to Wishfully’s creative director and co-studio head Adam Stjärnljus.
«During (the original) Planet of Lana, we first aimed to only create one stand-alone game,» Stjärnljus tells me during a visit to the studio last month, but he says the team never really wanted to stop there. «There was just so much to tell about Lana and Mui’s story, as well as the history of the people and the planet of Novo. So it became very natural as we needed to satisfy our own curiosity.»
This curiosity soon saw the studio begin work on Children of the Leaf, which is set to release later this year. Lana is now of course older than she was in the first game, and is much more agile and quick. Meanwhile her adorable sidekick Mui — who Stjärnljus describes as a monkey/cat/dog-like companion — now has some upgraded powers, which sees him able to override machines, as well as hypnotise and control certain creatures throughout the world.
«We’ve focused on improving all different parts of the game; Lana has a more fluid and responsive movement. The collaboration between Lana and Mui is much more expanded, enabling more intense stealth scenes and bigger puzzles,» Stjärnljus elaborates. «We’ve also focused on adding more weird creatures that you now have full control over,» the goal again being to expand the ways in which you can explore. Stjärnljus adds it «both made sense for Mui to have upgraded powers and it filled a need to improve the collaboration with Lana».
Indeed, Mui’s powers combined with Lana’s improved athletic prowess are key for Planet of Lana 2’s considerably more complex puzzles and stealth sections, as I discovered during a hands-on preview where I was able to play the first four hours. There was more than one occasion where I was left scratching my head as I pondered how to bypass a robotic sentry at the top of a frigid mountain fortress, or navigate an underwater labyrinth.
Let’s start with those underwater sections, an all-new depth (sorry) for Planet of Lana 2. Early on, I needed to find healing seaweed to make some medicine for a sick girl. However, this seaweed was not only submerged in the waters surrounding Lana’s village of Tailo, but also guarded by a hostile, inky-black sea beast, crackling with electricity (isn’t that always the way). Thankfully, I could use Mui’s powers to take control of and pilot some small fish through various underwater passages, and — once Lana had cleared the rocks blocking the way — lure this larger aquatic predator away from the plant.
Then, controlling Lana once again, I was able to trap the beast by closing an underwater gate which was activated from above. This took a decent amount of timing and skill to get just right, because the sea beast would soon return to its original place guarding the seaweed if I didn’t act quickly enough, and was a good example of that expanded collaboration Stjärnljus was talking about earlier.
«A platformer is limited in exploration by definition,» he says. «You can go left, right, up or down. That’s it. So, it felt like a very natural step to go down, and for the down to be filled with water that we could populate with a bunch of new creatures, mechanics and secrets.
«Also,» he adds, «because Mui is famously incompatible with water, we got really excited about working with that restriction both through gameplay mechanics and narrative.»
Ah yes, Mui not liking water! I had forgotten about that, but was soon reminded when I had to get Lana’s companion from one end of a watery expanse to another. At first I tried Lana’s whistle to call him over, but he did not come. I then tried to direct Mui (just like in the original game, you can instruct Mui to stay put, scout on ahead or interact with items like switches in the sequel), but again he did not comply.
Then I remembered Mui’s aversion to water, so I turned my attention back to Lana and dived under to find something I could use to transport my sidekick across to the other side. It was here I discovered Lana could run out of breath and drown — sorry about that, Lana. On the plus side, for larger areas of underwater exploration there will be pockets of air for Lana (and me) to catch a breath.
Soon after these azure waters, Lana and Mui found themselves in another new environment, this time up against the harsh winds and bitter cold of a snowy mountainside. Platforming came into play much more during this section, as Lana and Mui made their way up rocky ledges, occasionally ensuring they were both ducked behind boulders and such to protect themselves from sporadic bursts of wind that could blow them off the edge.
Once safe from the storm and tucked inside a cavern, I then discovered another new creature Mui could pilot: a white pom-pom of a being, which could stick to surfaces and leave a trail of flammable ash (at least, that is what I am going to assume it is) behind it. This creature could then roll into a flame to ignite the ash left in its wake, and burn through large webs blocking Lana and Mui’s path, or cause pillars to retract into the wall to clear a safe passage.
Again though, timing was key, because these pillars would soon reemerge from the walls. Sometimes there was more than one pillar to circumnavigate, which meant being canny with how I laid the ash trail. Ignite one too soon or too late, and I wouldn’t have time to reach the upper ledge before another pillar blocked Lana and Mui’s path ahead.
It may sound simple enough reading about it all here, but in practice, it was decidedly tricksy to coordinate… and I relished that challenge. When I ultimately puzzled my way out of the cavernous area, I was left with a sense of accomplishment I do not remember feeling in the original. Like I said, I did enjoy the first Planet of Lana, but I never really felt like my little grey cells (to borrow from Poirot) were getting enough exercise. Here, though, I felt like they had stretched, gone for a little jog, and then come home for a reviving yoga session.
Another area I explored during the preview was around a large, mechanically-themed facility and down into a mine. To add an extra layer of tension, this area also included patrolling machines, guards and security cameras. Again, Mui was an essential sidekick, and was able to temporarily disrupt cameras to allow Lana to pass safely. Sometimes there was more than one camera, and Lana would need to crouch inside drifts of snow to avoid detection, timing her runs between defensive sweeps of the vicinity.
Then we had those patrolling machines I mentioned. There were times when Lana and Mui had to work together to manipulate and position beams of light, which these machines had an aversion to. This essentially trapped the machines in a corner, allowing Lana and Mui to clear a safe passage forward. Other times it would again be a case of timing, so getting ready to sprint away from a scout machine and then sliding out of reach before getting struck. Again, this sounds deceptively simple, but my heart still raced each time Lana narrowly missed being caught.
I came away from my time with Planet of Lana 2 impressed. It is the kind of game I can imagine curling up with at the end of a busy day, and sinking an hour or so into each evening to unwind. The world of Novo remains as beautiful as ever with Lana’s bucolic fishing community a bright contrast to the cold and harsh industrial areas’ black and grey. Meanwhile, the music is as evocative as you would expect from composer Takeshi Furukawa. When the orchestra picks up during a mountainside climb, you can’t help but feel your soul swell, and the score feels as much a character in Planet of Lana 2 as Novo does.
Essentially, everything in Planet of Lana 2 has improved. And yes, it could be challenging, but it is also full of heart and emotion, with family, friendship and that sense of connection to others a key part of the experience. An achievement, given Planet of Lana 2’s scant dialogue and made-up language.
«We just love working with limitations! It really forces us to boil everything down to the essentials,» Stjärnljus says when I ask about players still feeling a connection to Lana and Mui, despite not actually being able to understand them. «In both Planet of Lana 1 and 2 we use every tool at our disposal to convey emotion as simply as possible to ensure nothing is lost in translation.»
Stjärnljus describes «Music, animation, voice acting and body language» as tools used by the studio to «fill the gaps» left by ostensibly simple character models with unintelligible language. You could argue that applies to most games, but there are good examples of it here, even right at the very start of Planet of Lana 2, when Lana and her niece meet and playfully roll down on the grass, the little girl clapping her hands together in delight. It’s the kind of warmth you feel throughout, from silly games in an old shipwreck, to the ache Lana feels when her young niece becomes ill. Oh, and before I forget, of course Lana can pet Mui.
«One of our favourite things to observe is when new players get past the point of just focusing on getting Lana where she needs to go, and start worrying if Mui is following along. Before long, most of them even start to feel guilty if they forget about her,» Stjärnljus says.
I can confirm that, yes, I did feel guilty on the odd occasion I forgot about Mui. One time he got struck by a machine after I (as Lana) had managed to evade it, and therefore assumed we were all in the clear. Well, it turned out we were not, and the game let me know by taking me back to my last checkpoint to try again, this time with Mui in tow. I also accidentally electrocuted Mui once, but the less said about that the better…
Planet of Lana 2 is obviously a more ambitious and far chunkier game than its rather snappy five-hour-long predecessor, thanks to all of its new puzzle mechanics and controllable creatures. In fact according to Stjärnljus, Planet of Lana 2 will be roughly double the length of the first game, so we are looking at around 8-10 hours overall. He assures me though that even though the two games are linked, you won’t need to have played Planet of Lana to still appreciate the upcoming sequel. But, if you did enjoy the first Planet of Lana, then I have no doubt that its sequel will be right up your alley.
Wishfully set out to improve and build on its original ideas from Planet of Lana, and from what I have seen so far, it is fair to say the studio has done just that. The world is bigger, the enemies are smarter and the puzzles are harder. As I had hoped it would, the developer has scratched further down beyond Planet of Lana’s surface, and unearthed something potentially deeper and richer.
This preview is based on a trip to Wishfully’s studio in Gothenburg. Thunderful paid for flights and accommodation.
