TA Playlist Wrap-Up – Planet of Lana

Each July, the TrueAchievements neighborhood goes just a bit bit loopy, popping a single achievement in any unstarted video games of their backlogs and attempting to trash their completion percentages as a lot as potential. It’s referred to as a Bean Dive (named after the lunatic who first conceived of the concept, Beanpotter), and for the 2023 version, 998 divers took the plunge, beginning a complete of 30,821 video games and wiping out 2,229 completion proportion factors alongside the way in which.

For the August 2023 TA Playlist nominees, we selected 4 of the occasion’s most-dived video games within the hopes of serving to all these players who now start the lengthy highway to restoration. It shouldn’t come as an excessive amount of of a shock that lots of the most-dived video games have been current GamePass additions, with video games like F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch, McPixel 3, and Bramble: The Mountain King every included in lots of Bean Dives this 12 months, however whereas it was a reasonably shut ballot, these three couldn’t take the lead from our August 2023 Game of the Month, Planet of Lana!

Planet of Lana is the debut recreation from Swedish indie developer Wishfully Studios, and was revealed by Thunderful Games. It launched instantly into Xbox Game Pass again in May and shortly garnered reward for its lovely paintings and polished design, drawing favorable comparisons to different current side-scrolling “narrative platformer” hits.

Kariyanine stated:

I appreciated it fairly a bit, and I believe for those who like narrative puzzle platformers (like Inside, Stela, Somerville, and so on…) you will take pleasure in this one, too. The world that’s constructed is absolutely strong, and whereas I do not assume its puzzles are as participating as another like video games, they’re participating sufficient.

It’s straightforward to see comparisons to Limbo and Inside primarily based on the gameplay – you’re usually shifting from left to proper throughout the display screen, climbing up ledges and leaping throughout chasms whereas avoiding enemies and fixing box-moving and button-pushing puzzles – however the environment is what actually units Planet of Lana aside from these Playdead titles. While these video games used darkish, shadowy tones to create a creepy, foreboding environment, Planet of Lana has a way more colourful palette for a lot of the recreation. Picturesque backgrounds and vibrant paintings are coupled with hauntingly lovely sound design to present a way of calm and peace to the pure world that Lana and her individuals inhabit.

Cylon 118 stated:

I really loved this one and am all the time amazed seeing what the individuals who make these ones can do with such restricted play area with it being 2.5D. The artwork, soundtrack, and even the story are top-notch, and the gameplay itself, though nothing new or distinctive, is strong and never too troublesome or annoying.

The recreation opens in a primitive little seaside fishing village, with wood huts constructed on stilts above the water, as Lana and her sister Ilo (pronounced EEE-low) chase one another throughout the wood walkways and bounce throughout the rooftops, laughing and laughing all the way in which. This serves as a short tutorial to the leaping, climbing, and sneaking mechanics you’ll be utilizing all through the sport, however it feels extra like a pleasant, enjoyable romp by a peaceable little city.

Lana and Ilo set off into the forest, stopping briefly to pay their respects at their mother and father’ gravestones, however the somber second passes shortly as they proceed their recreation of follow-the-leader by the idyllic woods. As evening falls, nevertheless, ominous white streaks begin falling from the sky, at first off within the distance, then nearer and nearer. Suddenly, a big black mechanical determine comes flying over the cliff, snatching Ilo and capturing her in a spherical cage on its stomach. Stunned, Lana can solely watch because the machine flies off again within the path of the village.

Lana calls out desperately for Ilo as she races again by the forest, however by the point she arrives again house, the robotic military has ransacked the city and imprisoned the villagers. In the background, gargantuan orb-shaped machines crawl throughout the panorama whereas smaller spider-legged robots prowl by the village, forcing Lana to sneak previous with out drawing their consideration. When the evening passes, Lana is alone, with no alternative however to hold on looking for her sister and the opposite kidnapped villagers.

Along the way in which, 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 bounce larger and farther than Lana and helps resolve puzzles by leaping forward to knock down ropes and push buttons. Mui is even in a position to hypnotize and management a number of the native wildlife, whereas Lana ultimately learns how you can acquire management over a number of the robots themselves. With Mui’s assist, Lana crosses jungles, swamps, and deserts as she tracks the robotic military again to their mothership, uncovering some stunning revelations about her planet’s historical past.

TymanTheLengthy stated:

As Tyman famous, the backstory for the sport is one thing you’ll need to piece collectively for your self moderately than having it proven to you instantly by dialogue and cutscenes. Murals and cave work (and the rewards from visiting the sport’s secret shrines) depict human beings’ journey from Earth to this new planet aboard a generational spaceship, working along with android crewmembers and bringing the Mui-like cat-creatures alongside. Upon their arrival on the planet, dubbed “Novo,” in response to the builders, the people cut up up and went to colonize totally different areas of the planet, though why they deserted the expertise and allowed the unreal intelligence to develop by itself isn’t clear.

We additionally aren’t instructed precisely why the robots determined to assault the village and imprison the people, though the clues appear to level to a benevolent AI taken to the intense, moderately than a maliciously evil enemy. As the sport’s personal retailer description says, “The disharmony that had been within the making for lots of of years has lastly arrived within the type of a faceless military. But this isn’t a narrative about battle. This is a narrative a few vibrant, lovely planet –and the journey to maintain it that means.” What messages or themes did you see within the backstory? Sound off within the feedback under!
Spa1h stated:

Of course, the draw back of the “environmental storytelling” mannequin is that gamers are usually not required to work together with these components and even actually discover that they’re there, which could result in some gamers coming away confused and even delay by the dearth of a deeper storyline. Such might have been the case with this commenter:

BigBanjo Okay stated:

It’s simply a variety of operating round with a cat. At least Max: Curse of Brotherhood had him speaking to the outdated woman for backstory, and also you get chased by the villain’s creature or no matter. This recreation simply drops the story after the prologue/tutorial

If you’re simply speeding by and never searching for particulars, this might simply be your takeaway from Planet of Lana. In reality, a number of commenters talked about that specializing in the achievements, resembling finding all of the shrines or going for the deathless run on the primary strive, was detrimental to their general enjoyment of the sport.
Shadowclast stated:

As somebody who performed the sport in six hours on the Gamepass the Flawless achievement is a little bit of an inconvenience. It is not actually troublesome, however it stole a little bit of the enjoyable from the sport as a result of to do it on the primary run requires a information and, for me, a few dashboards as I discovered the part with the a number of followers required a good bit of luck to get by in a single go.

RiBoP stated:

Also appreciated this recreation very a lot. After a number of chapters, I made a decision to let go of the flawless achievement and simply benefit from the recreation. The paintings, the totally different environments, and the background music: very superbly made. Did use the information for the totally different shrines, nevertheless, however that didn’t actually spoil something actually: some weren’t very straightforward to identify naturally.
I did not get the 100% due to the flawless achievement, however will certainly play the sport a second time to benefit from the story another time. Did not take care of the flawless achievement in Limbo however on this recreation it seems very doable, solely the chapter with the tip boss could also be considerably difficult.

The Flawless achievement was one of many most-discussed elements of the sport in our boards, however most agreed that it wasn’t as a lot of a problem as related achievements from different video games.

BigBanjo Okay stated:

Flawless on a primary playthrough appears not possible. Better on a second run when you already know what’s coming. Lana additionally wants a dash button

Cylon 118 stated:

I used to be doubtful in regards to the flawless achievement as I normally discover them harder and rage-inducing than is value it however as a result of this recreation is absolutely not too exhausting and fairly lenient within the period of time you have got when the enemies spot u or u fall to shortly load final checkpoint its to not unhealthy plus if dying does happen it’s only a matter of beginning the chapter over once more none of that are too lengthy and that’s like having a checkpoint system which is good. Only chapter 12 prompted me any actual issues having to do it about 3 instances! I’m slightly disenchanted that getting all of the shrines does not trigger a secret ending as that will have felt like an excellent reward for locating all of them!

Spa1h stated:

Some commenters did have a number of different minor quibbles with the sport…
RiBoP stated:

Only one minor disappointment was the abrupt change from cutscene to gameplay, which may have been so much smoother, I believe, however solely a small smudge on an general glorious recreation.

Muzzily stated:

Great little platform puzzler with a daily reminder of why you’re regularly moving into that path. The solely factor I’m 50/50 on is the useless strolling sections. I get why they do it (to keep away from one other load display screen), however it simply provides time to your gameplay. It looks like generally the load display screen would have been higher (which there are as nicely).

Jeffchob stated:

I Enjoyed this one – not as a lot as Inside and even the more moderen Somerville – however undoubtedly value a playthrough! Some of the Shrines are slightly obtuse and have a ‘no means again’ mechanic for those who simply miss them, which means that you must depend on chapter replay to mop them up – that is whenever you discover a scarcity of in-chapter checkpoint choice, which means for those who’ve missed a Shrine proper on the finish of a reasonably lengthy chapter, you will really feel slightly ache when mopping up…

… however for probably the most half, the TA Playlist neighborhood appeared to actually take pleasure in their time on the Planet of Lana!

Wicelow stated:

I’m already in the course of it; nice artwork type and a really chill recreation to play after work. Gotta play it, individuals!

Of the 5,734 tracked players who unlocked not less than one achievement in Planet of Lana throughout August, 3,633 of them have been beginning it for the very first time, so regardless of the theme, the majority of our contributors did not use this recreation for a Bean Dive in July. Somewhat surprisingly, the overwhelming majority of those that began the sport in August didn’t go on to complete it that month since we solely recorded 362 completions, and subsequently 362 situations of the 100% Complete achievement.

That wasn’t the least unlocked achievement, although – that honor goes to the aforementioned Flawless achievement, which was unlocked 361 instances in August. If you’re protecting observe at house, which means one individual had already accomplished ‘Flawless’ beforehand however waited till August to come back again and choose up the opposite achievements they wanted (probably accumulating shrines) to complete up the sport. ‘Flawless’ and ‘100% Complete’ collectively account for 310 GS, almost a 3rd of the whole Gamerscore within the recreation, and each are sitting at a present TA Ratio of 4.98, so that you’re leaving a variety of factors on the board by skipping these two achievements.

At the opposite finish of the spectrum, the most-unlocked achievement was the 1.0-ratio Sneaky Sisters, which is earned about 5 minutes into the sport and unmissable, with 3,631 unlocks throughout August. The subsequent out there achievement, The Journey Begins can be story-related and unmissable, however was solely unlocked by 3,340 tracked players in August, which signifies that not less than 291 players performed simply the primary jiffy of the sport and didn’t return. Starting Bean Dives of their very own, perhaps?

All in all, the TA Playlist neighborhood popped 41,737 achievements in Planet of Lana throughout August, incomes 1,113,410 Gamerscore and a couple of,446,894 TrueAchievement rating, the very best totals for a Playlist recreation to date in 2023. Given that and the comparatively quick size of the completion, it’s no shock that we’ve got a large Shout-Out checklist of 215 players who unlocked all 25 of the sport’s achievements in August. Special point out goes to Pretti14 with the quickest completion, at simply 3 hours and 31 minutes from begin to end. Two different players, Cluck and TheNeonShadow97, additionally managed to finish the sport in lower than 4 hours. Great work to all of you!

With September virtually within the books, you’ve solely bought a number of extra days to earn your badge for the present month’s recreation, Borderlands, both by popping an achievement within the recreation or by popping into the Spoiler-Free and Spoiler Discussion Threads to depart a remark along with your ideas about vault-hunting on Pandora. And don’t neglect to affix us when the brand new month begins for the October TA Playlist recreation, nominated by certainly one of this 12 months’s GTASC champions! See you subsequent month!