Planet of Lana Review (Retromer)
Very much on the fence with this. It has beautiful art - the tree design/leaf animations are particularly great. However the game play often borders on excruciating for me. You. Walk. So. Very. Slow. And all of the destinations are spread out. This game is 50% a walking simulator and it's 4-5h long. What are you doing when not walking? Solving very repetitive easy puzzles, the end of most where a rope needs to be slowly rag-dolled down for you to clumsily climb up and leave. I've previously enjoyed games like Gris, where there is substantial walking and puzzles aren't too difficult, but this felt like a whole other level of needing patience. The puzzle complexity is such a let down relative to a game like Trine. In terms of the story, it has recently been told in some form or another a dozen+ times, so while it's good, and I like it, it's basically a trope.
I'd recommend this for kids that are old enough to handle some violence/gentle character deaths when you fail at something. But I don't know about adults. If you want a very casual, meditative experience, maybe.
Again, the art was great and animation was good and reasonably bug free. I'd consider checking out the sequel if priced right, after checking that the walking speed is up and puzzles are more complex and varied. If those two elements aren't dramatically improved I'm steering far away from it.
For a large part of this relatively short game I was wondering how much more I would have to play before it was over. So I don't think I'd recommend it (outside of the categories above) even on sale and certainly not at full price.
Before you buy watch part of a play through and see if you think the pacing looks reasonable.