Planet of Lana Review (CindyK_JA)
Planet of Lana is a beautiful side-scrolling adventure that follows a young girl and her cat on a search for a lost friend. Lana witnesses the destruction of her village by an extra-terrestrial invasion and manages to escape. The rest of the game is traversing a variety of landscapes with natural challenges (chasms, hills, etc.) while evading the invaders (death ray drones, mechanical spiders, etc.). You also find alien machinery to puzzle out and use as you make your way. The game feels a bit like LIMBO or INSIDE but has less violence and seemed a bit easier. Your alien encounters are interspersed with long walking sequences that provide respite.
I am not a cat person, but I could not help cheering for Mui - Lana's feline companion who responds to her commands and has special powers. Lana is 'the last child standing' and the cat provides friendship and assistance. All dialog is in a fictional language but the game manages to create strong emotions about love and joy, fear and loss. It also does a good job of creating an atmosphere of true menace when Lana is at risk.
Typically, I do not excel in this genre. However, Planet of Lana was manageable. A couple of the evasion scenes are quite tricky as you coordinate the movements of Lana and Mui to survive. My timing failed more than a few times before I finally hit the magic combination and moved on.
For me, the hardest task in the game was when I had to load Mui on a drone and fly him about without killing him. The drone controls are very wonky and keeping the drone steady without sending Mui into an electrified wall or industrial fan was quite daunting. After several days, Mui survived my drone piloting and we were headed towards the final chapter. There is no true 'boss' battle at the end. However, there is a QTE-like exercise which almost gave me carpal tunnel. I played with a controller but there was still a lot of button mashing.
The game autos-saves frequently, after each collectible (10 shrines to locate) and each major scene. Although there are some exceptions, progress on incomplete puzzles is not saved. Failure usually meant starting from the beginning of the exercise. SIgh...
The art is beautiful, the music is passionate, and the story is sweet. If you don't mind some running, jumping, climbing, and stealth, then I'd highly recommend this game. Completionists have their work cut out for them... 100% requires that you survive the entire game without dying (a lofty goal, indeed!).