Planet of Lana II: Children Of The Leaf PS5 Review. At the risk of being drowned out by anticipated releases such as Resident Evil Requiem and Bungie’s Marathon, Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf has arrived, the sequel to the quietly acclaimed indie darling released nearly two years ago on PlayStation consoles. And what a step up it is.

Planet of Lana II: Children Of The Leaf PS5 Review – Hitting New Heights

Bigger And Better Than What Has Come Before

As is often hoped for with direct sequels, this is a classic case of bigger, better, and more refined. For those unaware, Planet of Lana is a side-scrolling adventure replete with precarious jumping and tense combat encounters that reward patience and precise timing, harkening back to the era of the likes of Prince of Persia or Abe’s Odyssey – minus the flatulence, that is.

That’s where the comparisons stop with the latter in particular, as unlike the dour embrace of RuptureFarms, the world of Children of the Leaf is positively gorgeous, with tight animation work, beautiful art and colour use, and a sense of scale which represents a marked sea change from its humble beginnings. Most things do make a return – yes, you still get a trophy for petting your cat robot companion, Mui – but what’s clear is that Planet of Lana walked so its sequel could run. Quite literally, in fact. Yes, Children of the Leaf makes use of a run button this time around and you’re going to need it. This simple addition, if nothing else, adds to the sense of urgency that the game’s narrative and hide-and-seek gameplay increasingly demands this time around.

Whereas the original game was more contemplative and even sometimes had its impact undermined by its rudimentary and plodding gameplay, its sequel suffers no such fate. Marry that with the ability to now wall climb and slide with your momentum, and you have a set of fundamentals which feel much more aligned with not just the game’s fast-paced sequences but also the emotional weight of the story.

Another significant new inclusion is the ability to dive underwater, a luxury which is not extended to Mui, in keeping with her established – and quite adorable – fear of water from the first game. This added consideration is smartly woven into the game in one of two ways, either by a need for Lana to find makeshift rafts for Mui to traverse with, or by use of a mysterious plant with flytrap properties that can envelop her and make diving together a possibility. It’s one such instance of smart navigation in the face of restrictions imposed by the game’s logic.

For such a chance of pace, the game is naturally full with sections that require the use of diving, and this gives rise to some interesting encounters and narrative beats that smartly build atop of ground rules established in the original game. Beyond the robot possession abilities that do make a return, Children of the Leaf also features something similar for creatures in some of the biomes, each with their own distinct skills to leverage. As an example, Mui can possess an ink-fish, which can be used to obscure the vision of dangerous sea predators via an ink splatter or can lead them away from Lana’s intended path. There are other such creatures, but at the risk of spoiling them and their powers, let’s just say they slot in seamlessly into what is already a now-layered set of mechanics.

Where this all bears out is ultimately in the game’s puzzles, an area which also represents a step up from what has come before. With the introduction and expansion of the game’s tool set, they are more thorough, fully formed, and multifaceted. Indeed, the puzzles – or more so sequences oftentimes – aren’t necessarily confined to a single camera shot but can instead span greater distances, particularly in the case of the animal possessions, and in most cases will have multiple elements stacked on top of one another as the game progresses.

Whether it’s timing based or something which requires a little bit of a step back for a more logical approach, the game is largely consistent in its execution and, whether it is enemy or environment-focused, maintains a cohesion that never errs on the side of frustration. Rarely do any of the puzzles ever challenge, which may irk some players looking for a little more meat on the bone, but they do serve what is a brisk pace, which in turn supports the game’s narrative.

Smart Gameplay Additions Thrown Into The Mix

The added momentum of Lana doesn’t just bear out in gameplay terms but rather the story too, with a widened cast and decidedly higher stakes this time around. Though the characters maintain their silence like in the first game – outside of a catch-up sequence at the beginning – they are far more expressive, with subtle head-turning and other animations that help drive home the narrative, which this time revolves around trying to save Anua, a young village child struck down by a mysterious illness of unknown origin, in addition to delving further into the relationship between humans and the robots.

There’s also a more prominent role for Rakuen, the village elder who, by use of a ship which wouldn’t look out of place delivering food in The Fifth Element, opens up the ability to visit more diverse areas than was thematically possible in the original. The main narrative thrust also makes such travel necessary as you’re tasked with collecting various components of a medicine for Anua, taking you from snowy mountain tops to lush jungles. Given the tasks at hand are a touch more complex than what’s come before, the game makes use of objectives and visual cues via notes to tee up what’s required of Lana at different times.

These visual notes – sometimes with accompanying arrows – feel too explicit, especially when compared with the deft touch applied to practically all other elements on show. Planet of Lana II is still a 2D linear game ostensibly, and it leaves little doubt as to where to go at any one time, which again makes these types of notes feel a little out of place. The fact that the characters don’t talk might be seen as a limiting factor in delivering the requisite direction but this really isn’t the case at all.

A Moving Narrative Which Sticks Its Landing With Aplomb

As this is a more globe-trotting affair relatively speaking, the sense of scale marks a significant change, and the musical stylings of Takeshi Furukawa are more than up to the task, with a beautiful array of pitch-perfect accompaniments as the story gathers pace. There are still more reflective moments amidst some of the bombast and it manages to end on a high, with smart call-backs and an ending that sticks its landing in impressive fashion.

Throughout its six-hour runtime, Children of the Leaf draws liberally from its tapestry of tricks but manages to strike a balance whereby it doesn’t overextend itself or rely on one particular mechanic, but rather knows intuitively when to move things along and when to introduce another twist to the formula. It has all the markers of a developer hitting the heights of its powers, but with a keen recognition that there is still more to come. It’s a supremely assured offering that is better than its predecessor in virtually every way, layering just enough mechanical depth on top while never losing sight of the beating heart underneath.