Planet of Lana 2: Children of the Leaf took me high up snowy mountains and deep into underwater trenches — but environmental diversity isn’t the only reason why the sequel to Wishfully Studios’ 2023 puzzle-platformer promises a lot of range. During a 45-minute hands-on demo at Gamescom, I got a glimpse of a deeper narrative and a set of puzzle mechanics far more complex than the original game.
At the start of the first game, Lana’s planet is overrun by robotic abductors who swiftly clear her village of all its inhabitants, leaving Lana as the sole escapee. Luckily, Lana soon meets an adorable cat-like friend called Mui, and together they run tirelessly towards the right side of the screen in an attempt to save Lana’s family and friends, crossing serene forests, dark caves, and barren wastelands along the way.
In Planet of Lana 2, there’s still plenty of trouble ahead as Lana and Mui leave on another dangerous journey — this time, to investigate an ancient mystery. I don’t know the details beyond that, but I did spot a potential supervillain during the demo: a cloaked scientist-type figure who put poor little Mui in a cage. Surely he doesn’t mean to extract and misuse Mui’s powers?
As I expressed my interest in the history of Lana’s tribe and the reason behind the invasion, creative director Adam Stjärnljus told me that Planet of Lana 2 will have more narrative depth: “You will get to explore much more of the lore and the history of the planets. You’ll learn why everything is the way it is.”
“There are more NPCs, including some friends that you come across along the way, and also new villages,” Stjärnljus explained. “They may join you on your journey.”
As delighted as I was to hear this, it made me wonder if Planet of Lana 2 is easy enough to understand if you haven’t played the original. “Of course, they are tied together,” Stjärnljus said, “but as the narrative is separate from the first game. It’s not necessary to play Planet of Lana.”
But enough about the story; what about the gameplay? As the demo consisted of four different segments, I was able to explore a snowy mountain, a colorful underwater realm, an ominous industrial building, and a lush forest. While this is in line with the varied landscapes seen in the first game, which included everything from a swamp to a desert, the industrial and underwater sections in Planet of Lana 2 have a far more distinct feel to them — instead of just looking different, they really play differently.
To traverse the underwater realm, Lana has to open entryways to deep caverns, swim past deadly fish, and find air bubbles before her oxygen runs out. There’s just one issue: Mui can’t swim. Just like the original game, the player controls Lana and directs Mui, so you must instruct Mui to stay put, run ahead, interact with an item, or use a hypnotizing ability on other black-and-white creatures. Leaving Mui on the shore, I swam down with Lana to find the solution to my problem: a black bubble-like creature (or thing?) to carry Mui like a little submarine on a leash.
I soon ran into another problem when both Mui and Lana couldn’t jump from one pool to another, but to my surprise, I could use Mui to hypnotize and take control of a tiny black-and-white fish. After jumping into the desired pool, I swam down and dropped a big cloud of ink (let’s assume it’s ink, and not something else) in front of a dangerous fish, allowing Lana and Mui to continue the adventure.
Perhaps an even more interesting part of the game was the industrial building, which felt a bit like an escape room. After watching Lana wake up in a prison, I had to push a bunch of colorful buttons in the correct order to free Mui and help him enter the air vents. Mui’s range (how far he can move from Lana, which was rather limited in the original game), has clearly been improved. Lana and Mui then had to proceed downwards, reaching new rooms by moving magnetic cubes from wall to wall, which is but one of several new abilities.
“The puzzles are more complex than those in the first Planet of Lana,” Stjärnljus told me. “The collaboration between Lana and Mui has been expanded upon, which should make it more fun and varied, with new jamming and hacking abilities, and the fact that you can take over creatures.”
I didn’t get to control any animals other than Mui in the industrial section, but once I’d reached the forest, I got hold of a cute blob creature that could float around while carrying water. By watering the nearby bamboo shoots, I caused tall, swishy poles to grow that could help Lana climb upwards and reach higher cliffs.
Because of the new puzzle mechanics and controllable creatures, I started to suspect the sequel is a far chunkier game than the five-hour-long original. Stjärnljus confirmed this: “The game is around double the length of the first Planet of Lana. The narrative, the gameplay, the puzzles — everything is expanded upon.”
Of all four gameplay segments, the forest was my personal favorite, partly because it looked positively magical. The snow segment impressed me the least, but I’m not saying that because I got blown off a mountain about one minute into the demo — it’s because I didn’t discover gameplay mechanics as unique as the ones in the other three areas. That said, seeing the four sections together, and especially the promise of additional lore and characters, make me very excited for Planet of Lana 2: Children of the Leaf.
Planet of Lana 2 will release on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch in 2026.
