Planet of Lana 2: Children of the Leaf Review

Planet of Lana 2: Children of the Leaf is a very short game—you could probably beat it in a single sitting if you wanted—but somehow, I still feel like I haven’t truly, fully absorbed it. Part of this comes down to Planet of Lana 2’s bold creative decisions, such as having all of its dialog in a fictional language with no subtitles, but the game’s rich art design and musical compositions are also simply too grand, too substantive, to really appreciate in just a single playthrough.

Planet of Lana 2: Children of the Leaf follows 2023’s Planet of Lana, a tranquil side-scroller from Swedish outfit Wishfully. The first game earned much-deserved praise for its stylish and breathtaking atmosphere, and its traversal and puzzle gameplay, while not revolutionary, were broadly considered sufficient for the experience at hand. That is, no one exactly expected Metroid-level exploration or Mario-quality 2D platforming from Lana.

The question that I’m sure many original Planet of Lana fans have on their mind is, just how much does Planet of Lana 2 build upon its predecessor? This question applies to the aforementioned puzzle-platforming gameplay, of course, but also to Lana’s undeniably strong worldbuilding and atmosphere. While I don’t imagine that Planet of Lana 2 is going to subvert too many expectations in these respects, I do think that it is an obvious improvement over the first game in just about every way, although this growth is linear, not iterative.

Planet of Lana 2’s Visuals and Music Are the Main Course

I don’t want to be too dismissive of Planet of Lana 2’s gameplay, but it’s clear that it’s not the main event. Rather, Planet of Lana 2 is about telling a compelling story in a way that only a video game can: through thoughtful interactivity. Each level in Lana 2 is like an art gallery, every new area a perfectly composed painting whose visual depth and variety beg constant examination. During Lana 2’s more fast-paced platforming sequences, I was pained to move so quickly through its stunning hand-painted world, feeling like I was missing out on frames that would grant new insight into a given level’s visual splendor.

At nearly all points, Planet of Lana 2’s striking graphical style is elevated by its sweeping orchestral soundtrack. Characterized by droning horns and grand string sections, the game’s music is enrapturing, highlighting the mystery and grandiosity of Lana 2’s far-future setting. The game’s score was composed by Takeshi Furukawa, who had previously worked on The Last Guardian’s soundtrack, and while you can definitely hear the parallels, Lana 2’s music also has shades of classic Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey, making for a truly complex and epic auditory landscape.

Planet of Lana 2’s Story Is Moving Despite Its Vagueness and Brevity

I already mentioned how Planet of Lana 2 doesn’t have dialog in any existing language, opting to tell its story with a ready-made set of fictional linguistic tools. Lana 2 is far from the first game to try this narrative trick, but I would argue that it’s easily among the best.

The game’s story is rather simple: Lana needs to find various ingredients to make medicine for someone in need, and discovers centuries-old mysteries along the way. However, this simplicity is augmented by several factors, one of which being some surprisingly great voice acting. Lana 2’s actors may be speaking gibberish, but through masterful inflection, pacing, and tone, it’s not hard to understand what they’re saying, at least in a broad-strokes sense. You’ll probably even ascertain the meaning of a few basic words in this fictional language before too long.

Like the rest of Planet of Lana 2, storytelling is buttressed by visuals, with cutscene direction doing quite a bit of heavy lifting at times. Character animation, camera movement, and framing all work in concert to communicate the emotion or gravity of a given scene, which goes a long way toward making Lana 2 a more cohesive and intelligible narrative experience. It’s funny, AAA studios spend millions of dollars to make Hollywood-quality cinematics, but these smaller, more aesthetically distinct projects are so much more effective at making my eyes misty.

To be perfectly frank, you shouldn’t be coming to Planet of Lana 2 for deep or multifaceted gameplay. That’s not necessarily an indictment of the project: Lana 2 is about the aforementioned narrative, musical, and visual offerings, more so than any finely-tuned systems, high skill ceilings, and white-knuckle moments. Had the game leaned further into its interactive elements, it may have undermined its other strengths.

What I can say about Planet of Lana 2’s gameplay is that, while not revolutionary by any means, it is certainly varied. You’ll encounter familiar tools and templates, but for the most part, it seems like Wishfully tried very hard not to retread old ground with its puzzles and platforming passages. One moment, you might be piloting an aircraft with a super-powerful magnetic attachment, and the next, you’ll be plumbing the watery depths of the ocean, dodging electricity-imbued creatures and seeking out air bubbles to replenish your oxygen stores.

This variety is facilitated by some appropriately underspecified powers. Mui, the player’s cat-like companion, can emit a pulse that temporarily neutralizes electronics and also allows the player to possess certain lifeforms. Similarly, Lana herself can take control of some electronics, such as flying drones, with hacking capabilities of her own. While this leads to delightful and unexpected moments, the greatest critique I can raise about Planet of Lana 2 is that these ideas don’t go far enough. I was hoping for some culmination of these abilities—perhaps you would end up possessing a particularly large creature at one point, for instance—but they wound up being disappointingly limited. In a game as short as Lana 2, more meaningful development of such promising mechanics can go a long way.

Planet of Lana 2 won’t tickle the dopamine centers of your gamer brain, but there’s a very strong chance it will pull on your heartstrings. More than this, it will engage your imagination like few other games can, presenting its one-of-a-kind world with the utmost confidence and panache. And with best-in-class art direction and arresting musical composition to boot, Lana 2 is more than deserving of a spot on the narrative-platformer Mount Rushmore, right alongside the likes of Inside and Gris.

Planet of Lana 2: Children of the Leaf launches on March 5, 2026 for PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X|S. Game Rant was given a PS5 download code for this review.