Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf - Review
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Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf
2D Puzzle platforming in it's purist form

- Music / Score is beautifully tied into the gameplay
- The 2d hand painted art is beutiful
- Puzzles are fun and challenging with
- The story is wonderful
- The side characters are fun to play with
- Urmmmmm...
Embark on an unforgettable cinematic puzzle journey with Lana and her loyal companion Mui. Whether you're a returning hero or a new adventurer, step into a world where a new, ancient mystery emerges from Novo's hidden depths. But as they scour these depths, a new threat will put their unbreakable bond to the ultimate test, guiding Lana to confront her destiny amidst encroaching shadows.
Lana and Mui continue to uncover the past of the invading robot army. Lana must also fight to save his tribe against war in Novo whilst also trying to find a cure for his sister after some adventuring goes wrong. One of the opening gambits that's really enjoyable is a screen that tells you the language is made up. this is a wonderful mechanic that lets you the player make up parts of the story and narrative as you progress through the game.
As Lana and Mui you must uncover the secrets of the past across snowy mountains, lakes, forests cities and a train!
Each chapter takes you to different locations with new puzzle mechanics to learn and plenty of puzzles to solve. As it's a 2d platformer the puzzles are easy enough to find the components or solutions needed very close by. even when you think you're exploring there's a chance you're just uncovering part of a bigger puzzle. The controls are reactive and smooth as you control both Mui and Lana and guide them around the obstacles as needed with each of them having their own abilities to help solve the conundrums you're faced with.
As each puzzle is presented to you yo have to use these abilities along with a cast of other helpful critters you assume control of. This cast of critters opens up new abilities to help you solve puzzles but only for a short time as you can't take them outside of the puzzle room with you. This is both a shame as some of them are really fun to control but also completely understandable as they'd be game breaking if you could.
The puzzles are well thought out, and often simple enough to solve. There are a few that'll have you scratching your head though. Sometimes you need the a bit of patience to line things up but what else what would you expect from a puzzle platform game. Making a mistake is often fatal but the game utilizes a really good auto save feature that doesn't set you back too far.
With the art style the hand painted scenes are amazing, I tried to show my kids but they didn't appreciate the amazing artwork. It's very Studio Ghibli at points with more of a sci-fi dystopian feel.
You often have to standout colour cures of yellow and blue to show you actionable items, I know some people don't like these features in game. i'm not one of those people I'm not looking for realism, it certainly helps and is done without being a glaringly obvious hint at the hardest parts.
The score is by Takeshi Furukawa It gives the game a cinematic feel and adds depth to the world at the same time which helps with the immersion. It's so well done and aids the story telling the way all scores should do.
🏆 Final Verdict
Planet of Lana II is a wonderful puzzle adventure with incredible art and an amazing score to help immerse you into the action. It's puzzles are challenging but not too tough and the story can't help but make you feel your feelings.
If you enjoyed the first Planet of Lana Then you need to see how Lana's journey continues similarly if you enjoy game like little nightmares or abes odyssey you need to consider this masterpiece.
Retro Gaming Goods — Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf Review by Ben Willis