TA Playlist Wrap-Up – Planet of Lana

The August TA Playlist poll featured four of the most-used games in this year’s community Bean Dive event. Join us as we discuss our "Off-Earth Odyssey" in this month’s featured game, Planet of Lana!

The TA Playlist Team

Published 28 Sep 2023

I’ve crossed a thousand lands, to find what I could stand
And all over the whole wide world, there’s still so much more to hold

Will I find my way home? I’ve crossed this map all alone.
Will I find my way home? I’ve opened all the horizons…

“Horizons” by Takeshi Furukawa feat. Siobhan Wilson
Planet of Lana Original Soundtrack

Each July, the TrueAchievements community goes just a little bit crazy, popping a single achievement in any unstarted games in their backlogs and trying to trash their completion percentages as much as possible. It’s called a Bean Dive (named after the lunatic who first conceived of the idea, Beanpotter), and for the 2023 edition, 998 divers took the plunge, starting a total of 30,821 games and wiping out 2,229 completion percentage points along the way.

For the August 2023 TA Playlist nominees, we chose four of the event’s most-dived games in the hopes of helping all those gamers who now begin the long road to recovery. It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that many of the most-dived games were recent GamePass additions, with games like F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch, McPixel 3, and Bramble: The Mountain King each included in many Bean Dives this year, but while it was a fairly close poll, those three couldn’t take the lead from our August 2023 Game of the Month, Planet of Lana!

Planet of Lana is the debut game from Swedish indie developer Wishfully Studios, and was published by Thunderful Games. It launched directly into Xbox Game Pass back in May and quickly garnered praise for its beautiful artwork and polished design, drawing favorable comparisons to other recent side-scrolling “narrative platformer” hits.

Kariyanine said:

I liked it quite a bit, and I think if you like narrative puzzle platformers (like Inside, Stela, Somerville, etc...) you'll enjoy this one, too. The world that is built is really solid, and while I don't think its puzzles are as engaging as some other like games, they're engaging enough.

It's easy to see comparisons to Limbo and Inside based on the gameplay – you’re generally moving from left to right across the screen, climbing up ledges and jumping across chasms while avoiding enemies and solving box-moving and button-pushing puzzles – but the atmosphere is what really sets Planet of Lana apart from those Playdead titles. While those games used dark, shadowy tones to create a creepy, foreboding atmosphere, Planet of Lana has a much more colorful palette for most of the game. Picturesque backgrounds and vibrant artwork are coupled with hauntingly beautiful sound design to give a sense of calm and peace to the natural world that Lana and her people inhabit.

Cylon 118 said:

I truly enjoyed this one and am always amazed seeing what the people who make these ones can do with such limited play space with it being 2.5D. The art, soundtrack, and even the story are top-notch, and the gameplay itself, although nothing new or unique, is solid and not too difficult or annoying.

The game opens in a primitive little seaside fishing village, with wooden huts built on stilts above the water, as Lana and her sister Ilo (pronounced EEE-low) chase each other across the wooden walkways and jump across the rooftops, laughing and giggling all the way. This serves as a brief tutorial to the jumping, climbing, and sneaking mechanics you’ll be using throughout the game, but it feels more like a nice, relaxing romp through a peaceful little town.

Lana and Ilo set off into the forest, stopping briefly to pay their respects at their parents’ gravestones, but the somber moment passes quickly as they continue their game of follow-the-leader through the idyllic woods. As night falls, however, ominous white streaks start falling from the sky, at first off in the distance, then closer and closer. Suddenly, a large black mechanical figure comes flying over the cliff, snatching Ilo and capturing her in a spherical cage on its belly. Stunned, Lana can only watch as the machine flies off back in the direction of the village.

Lana calls out desperately for Ilo as she races back through the forest, but by the time she arrives back home, the robot army has ransacked the town and imprisoned the villagers. In the background, gargantuan orb-shaped machines crawl across the landscape while smaller spider-legged robots prowl through the village, forcing Lana to sneak past without drawing their attention. When the night passes, Lana is alone, with no choice but to carry on in search of her sister and the other kidnapped villagers.

Along the way, Lana finds a small cat-like creature trapped in a cage. After setting it free, the animal, which Lana dubs “Mui,” joins her on her quest. Mui can jump higher and farther than Lana and helps solve puzzles by leaping ahead to knock down ropes and push buttons. Mui is even able to hypnotize and control some of the local wildlife, while Lana eventually learns how to gain control over some of the robots themselves. With Mui’s help, Lana crosses jungles, swamps, and deserts as she tracks the robot army back to their mothership, uncovering some surprising revelations about her planet’s history.

TymanTheLong said:

If I have any criticism, it might be that the world was too empty, but I’m not 100% sure that wasn’t a narrative design choice. But I think the game does a lot of things well. The art style has to be top of this list. The plot device (rescue your kidnapped sister) is a common trope, but I think that’s okay in most cases, and it’s certainly okay in a game like Planet or Lana.

As the player, you traverse the world and learn the backstory of this world. Generally, that’s a fun mechanic for me, but I thought the game was a bit stingy with the pacing of the revelations. […] There’s definitely a conflict going on between the laid-back, airy natural world and the whatever sinister civilization (which evokes tenseness and discomfort) the protagonist is working against to get [her] sister back.

Anyway, I do have an idea that I’ll return to Planet of Lana one day when I’m between games…. I think Planet or Lana is a good game to unwind with, provided none of the puzzles eventually get too frustrating; even the enemies are rare and easily fooled. Sometimes, I just need a game that’s a completely relaxing ride, and Planet of Lana is pretty close to exactly that.

As Tyman noted, the backstory for the game is something you’ll have to piece together for yourself rather than having it shown to you directly through dialogue and cutscenes. Murals and cave paintings (and the rewards from visiting the game’s secret shrines) depict human beings’ journey from Earth to this new planet aboard a generational spaceship, working together with android crewmembers and bringing the Mui-like cat-creatures along. Upon their arrival on the planet, dubbed “Novo,” according to the developers, the humans split up and went to colonize different areas of the planet, although why they abandoned the technology and allowed the artificial intelligence to develop on its own is not clear.

We also aren’t told exactly why the robots decided to attack the village and imprison the humans, although the clues seem to point to a benevolent AI taken to the extreme, rather than a maliciously evil enemy. As the game’s own store description says, “The disharmony that had been in the making for hundreds of years has finally arrived in the form of a faceless army. But this is not a story about war. This is a story about a vibrant, beautiful planet –and the journey to keep it that way.” What messages or themes did you see in the backstory? Sound off in the comments below!
Spa1h said:

I played this for the Playlist, and it is a really good game. I consider it as a modern/ brighter version of Limbo, especially Inside. I like the intuitive non-verbal storytelling, the quite precise controls, and the well-balanced pacing between relaxing and intense scenes are unmatched by anything else I have played.[…]

When I finished, I was not doing the usual complete uninstall move during credits. I was just satisfied, loaded into the Epilogue again, watched the village, people happily rebuilding their village with their robot friends, and was happy as well. If planet of Earth was that easy and happy too... 5/5 would recommend it to everyone.

Of course, the downside of the “environmental storytelling” model is that players are not required to interact with these elements or even really notice that they’re there, which might lead to some players coming away confused or even put off by the lack of a deeper storyline. Such may have been the case with this commenter:

BigBanjo K said:

It's just a lot of running around with a cat. At least Max: Curse of Brotherhood had him talking to the old lady for backstory, and you get chased by the villain's creature or whatever. This game just drops the story after the prologue/tutorial

If you’re just rushing through and not looking for details, this could easily be your takeaway from Planet of Lana. In fact, several commenters mentioned that focusing on the achievements, such as locating all the shrines or going for the deathless run on the first try, was detrimental to their overall enjoyment of the game.
Shadowclast said:

As someone who played the game in six hours on the Gamepass the Flawless achievement is a bit of an inconvenience. It isn't truly difficult, but it stole a bit of the fun from the game because to do it on the first run requires a guide and, for me, a couple of dashboards as I found the section with the multiple fans required a fair bit of luck to get through in one go.

RiBoP said:

Also liked this game very much. After a few chapters, I decided to let go of the flawless achievement and just enjoy the game. The artwork, the different environments, and the background music: very beautifully made. Did use the guide for the different shrines, however, but that did not really spoil anything really: some were not very easy to spot naturally.
I didn't get the 100% because of the flawless achievement, but will definitely play the game a second time to enjoy the story one more time. Did not care for the flawless achievement in Limbo but in this game it looks very doable, only the chapter with the end boss may be somewhat challenging.

The Flawless achievement was one of the most-discussed aspects of the game in our forums, but most agreed that it wasn’t as much of a challenge as similar achievements from other games.

BigBanjo K said:

Flawless on a first playthrough seems impossible. Better on a second run when you know what’s coming. Lana also needs a sprint button

Cylon 118 said:

I was dubious about the flawless achievement as I usually find them more difficult and rage-inducing than is worth it but because this game is really not too hard and quite lenient in the amount of time you have when the enemies spot u or u fall to quickly load last checkpoint its not to bad plus if death does occur it’s just a matter of starting the chapter over again none of which are too long and that’s like having a checkpoint system which is nice. Only chapter 12 caused me any real problems having to do it about 3 times! I am a little disappointed that getting all the shrines doesn't cause a secret ending as that would have felt like a good reward for finding them all!

Spa1h said:

I played it with a guide for shrines, trying to reload checkpoint/ quitting out on every death. When I was done, I wasn't 100% happy, because the flawless achievement didn't pop and with that you are sitting at an underwhelming 690/1000 GS. So, I played it again for a second deathless playthrough in a new Slot.

This time, it was much easier than anticipated. I also found it very satisfying to play it a second time. I could enjoy the great animations (especially between Lana and MUI) and background arts even more when I already knew what is coming.

Some commenters did have a few other minor quibbles with the game…
RiBoP said:

Only one minor disappointment was the abrupt change from cutscene to gameplay, which could have been a lot smoother, I think, but only a small smudge on an overall excellent game.

Muzzily said:

Great little platform puzzler with a regular reminder of why you’re continually going in that direction. The only thing I’m 50/50 on is the needless walking sections. I get why they do it (to avoid another load screen), but it just adds time to your gameplay. It feels like sometimes the load screen would have been better (which there are as well).

Jeffchob said:

I Enjoyed this one – not as much as Inside or even the more recent Somerville - but definitely worth a playthrough! Some of the Shrines are a little obtuse and have a 'no way back' mechanic if you just miss them, meaning you need to rely on chapter replay to mop them up - that's when you notice a lack of in-chapter checkpoint selection, meaning if you've missed a Shrine right at the end of a fairly long chapter, you'll feel a little pain when mopping up...

… but for the most part, the TA Playlist community seemed to really enjoy their time on the Planet of Lana!

Wicelow said:

I'm already in the middle of it; great art style and a very chill game to play after work. Gotta play it, people!

Of the 5,734 tracked gamers who unlocked at least one achievement in Planet of Lana during August, 3,633 of them were starting it for the very first time, so despite the theme, the bulk of our participants did not use this game for a Bean Dive in July. Somewhat surprisingly, the vast majority of those who started the game in August didn’t go on to finish it that month since we only recorded 362 completions, and therefore 362 instances of the 100% Complete achievement.

That wasn’t the least unlocked achievement, though – that honor goes to the aforementioned Flawless achievement, which was unlocked 361 times in August. If you’re keeping track at home, that means one person had already completed 'Flawless' previously but waited until August to come back and pick up the other achievements they needed (most likely collecting shrines) to finish up the game. 'Flawless' and '100% Complete' together account for 310 GS, nearly a third of the total Gamerscore in the game, and both are sitting at a current TA Ratio of 4.98, so you’re leaving a lot of points on the board by skipping those two achievements.

At the other end of the spectrum, the most-unlocked achievement was the 1.0-ratio Sneaky Sisters, which is earned about five minutes into the game and unmissable, with 3,631 unlocks during August. The next available achievement, The Journey Begins is also story-related and unmissable, but was only unlocked by 3,340 tracked gamers in August, which means that at least 291 gamers played just the first few minutes of the game and didn’t return. Starting Bean Dives of their own, maybe?

All in all, the TA Playlist community popped 41,737 achievements in Planet of Lana during August, earning 1,113,410 Gamerscore and 2,446,894 TrueAchievement score, the highest totals for a Playlist game so far in 2023. Given that and the relatively short length of the completion, it’s no surprise that we have a massive Shout-Out list of 215 gamers who unlocked all 25 of the game’s achievements in August. Special mention goes to Pretti14 with the fastest completion, at just 3 hours and 31 minutes from start to finish. Two other gamers, Cluck and TheNeonShadow97, also managed to complete the game in less than four hours. Great work to all of you!

With September almost in the books, you’ve only got a few more days to earn your badge for the current month’s game, Borderlands, either by popping an achievement in the game or by popping into the Spoiler-Free and Spoiler Discussion Threads to leave a comment with your thoughts about vault-hunting on Pandora. And don’t forget to join us when the new month starts for the October TA Playlist game, nominated by one of this year's GTASC champions! See you next month!

Thanks to BetaSigX20 for writing this Wrap-Up!

More Planet of Lana stories:

TA Playlist

Written by The TA Playlist Team

The TA Playlist is a monthly community event. Everyone votes on which of four games to play, and then we all play through it in the following month. There's a dedicated hub to discuss everything about the game, from story beats to gameplay tips – and of course, you can track your achievement progress during the month as well. TA Playlist was created by Mark Delaney and is now run by Miles, Nici and Chewie.