More alien cat action, big brain puzzles, and a "darker" story give this epic sci-fi adventure more bite than I expected

My thoughts see-saw between two definitive statements while playing the first three chapters of Planet of Lana 2. I am the cleverest person alive, my internal monologue gloats as I accidentally solve a tricky puzzle with an experimental button mash. I'm dragging a massive rock onto a movable platform, and now all I need to do is get Lana's cat-like animal pal Mui to raise it. Only, my hands forget how to function for a moment, and I send my beloved pet wandering right into an enemy vision cone. Mui gets sniped on-sight. Lana cries out in horror. I am the stupidest person alive.

The first few times I die in Planet of Lana 2 are absolutely horrifying. The playable characters simply ragdoll to the floor, much like in the first game, but the longer pauses between death and respawning gives me a moment to question everything about myself. True, death becomes less and less shocking the more it happens to you (and trust me, I die a lot during this hands-on session), but developer Wishfully is making me work for my victory – and I'm my own player two.

Unexplored depths

Sitting down with Wishfully co-founders Klas Eriksson and Adam Stjärnljus, it's clear the duo has one goal in mind for Planet of Lana 2: do the same thing as the first game, but better.

"We didn't set out to make a double-size game," Stjärnljus tells me of the stunning cinematic sequel, projecting a seven or eight-hour runtime off the back of Planet of Lana's four to five. "It actually became longer than we thought it would be. When we finally had the first alpha of the full game, we were surprised. And we've actually cut away quite a bit from it as well, just to make it as good and tight as possible."

Instead of focusing on game length, as the creative director of the project, Stjärnljus was more concerned with what would make the game "interesting," particularly when it comes to puzzles. It's the most notable difference to me off the bat; instead of short, fairly logical puzzles involving moving one or two items to gain a bit of height leverage, Planet of Lana 2 has me controlling little spiders to draw elaborate flammable pathways, manipulating machines to access more of the vertical environments, and positioning Mui using RB on my Xbox Series X controller so that I can be in two places at once.

It helps that the new dual-camera feature zooms in and out to give a better view of on-screen characters – which are often spread out across the side-scroll world – provides a tactical advantage when coordinating Mui and Lana's next moves.

But before I even get that far, I'm treated to a quick recap of the first game, told through a short cinematic at the start of the game. It's about as direct as the storytelling gets, and that's intentional.

"Video games tend to be quite exposition heavy," Eriksson says of Planet of Lana's pared-back approach. He's the lead scriptwriter, which might sound strange, since the first game had very little dialogue. "In Planet of Lana 1, the story is quite a bit simpler. It's mostly just her and Mui, so the verbal communication is limited. We have the fictional language there as a foundation to help tell the story," he says. "But this time around, we wanted to push that even further." The challenge? "To use everything we've got at our disposal to fulfill that old adage of 'show, don't tell.'"

I see that progression very quickly within my first hour with Planet of Lana 2. Set two years later, with her village thriving once more after rescuing them from the War of the Worlds-like robot invaders that terrorized their lands in the first game, Lana, her sister, and her new friend Anwa have learned to live in tandem with the artificial life forms around them.

Lana's movements feel careful and calculated this time around, able to run faster, jump higher, and pull off other new stunts of agility. I note that she has far fewer vocalizations of surprise, shock, or horror when encountering dangers, which speaks to how much she's had to adapt to this new way of life.

Cat got your tongue?

Mui herself seems to play a far more central role in Planet of Lana 2. The increased complexity of puzzles lends itself well to my furry friend's new and improved utility, allowing Mui to jam mechanical items or hypnotize other creatures to help unblock my path.

One sequence sees Mui control a little fish to create a diversion near some hungry sharks, allowing Lana to swim past safely so that she can collect magical seaweed from the waters beneath her fishing village. The greater challenge makes for "a more rewarding experience" for the player, according to Stjärnljus, giving us greater insight into Lana and Mui's teamwork and resulting in a self co-op experience.

The underwater levels are some of my favorites. "It was something that we definitely would have wanted in the first game, but didn't have the production capacity," Stjärnljus says; it makes sense that a girl who grew up living on the water would be a strong swimmer, after all. But these sequences aren't just beautiful, showcasing a vibrant new world of oceanic flora and fauna; they also add a new element of danger.

Lana can't breathe underwater, which is something I optimistically hope would be the case when I note a lack of on-screen breath meter the first time she ducks underwater. Instead, my controller starts to shake when she's running out of oxygen, paired with an alarming on-screen aura pulsing around the edges of the screen to urge me back to the surface.

With a clean UI integral for creating a cinematic and "immersive" experience, Planet of Lana 2 has a beautiful seamless world where trial and error is essential. I wasn't being dramatic when I said that the puzzles are harder here than in the first adventure.

Lana's increased agility means I am constantly needing to match her pace, analyzing the space around me to think logically and move as carefully as possible. I'm delighted that the controls feel much snappier in the sequel, but while it's enough to make me a little bit better at gauging when to jump during a platforming segment, the greater responsiveness means I need to be oh-so-careful with maneuvering tougher spots.

One puzzle at the end of chapter three had me stumped for at least 20 minutes. Not because I didn't know what to do, but because timing is incredibly essential. Whether I'm using Mui to disable a robot so I can rush Lana past it unscathed, baiting a shark into a cage just in time for Lana to seal it inside from up above, or accidentally setting fire to yet another hypnotized spider in an effort to set off a chain reaction, the smallest wrong move is all that stands between victory and frustration.

I'm not the most patient person ever, so you can imagine my annoyance after each and every mistake. You can also imagine the magnitude of the groans I let out upon realizing that, yes, another puzzle was asking me to do something that required a lot more dexterity than my clumsy thumbs could muster up.

And yet nothing takes away from the beauty of the experience. Eriksson describes Planet of Lana 2 as narratively "darker" than its predecessor – "there's this bit of an identity crisis going on, both internally for Lana and and for the planet as a whole," he hints – but the bright spark of hope burns throughout these first few chapters. There are plenty of questions still to solve, from hints at Mui's tragic backstory to the origins of these strange glowing rock ores making townspeople sick. It's that very hunt for answers to mystical questions that keeps me enthralled, eager to press on even when my lack of platforming aptitude gets the better of me.

With Lana set to investigate a host of stunning new biomes, from underwater realms to snowy mountains, the road ahead seems an exciting, intrepid one. "She is a more competent young woman that has been to hell and back for the people that she loves," says Eriksson of the brand new Lana. "We wanted to convey that she is a little bit more formidable – still no action hero, but you know that she can look after herself in a different way now than she could last time."

Planet of Lana 2 is one of many new games coming in 2026, and we've listed all the rest right here for you in release date order!