Why Ghibli-inspired Planet of Lana II is "working against" Unity to achieve its unique 2.5D aesthetic

2D cinematic platformers have a rich heritage dating back to the original Prince of Persia (check out the excellent The Lost Crown review) with its unique rotoscoped animation. They've also had something of a comeback from some of the best indie devs, notably with games such as Limbo and Inside, though you should also count 2023's Planet of Lana among its ranks. Unlike the darker imagery of Playdead's titles, Swedish indie studio Wishfully's debut stood out with a Ghibli-esque focus on the beauty of the natural world, albeit one in the grip of a robot invasion.

It also turns out there was more to its story, which brings us to Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf. Indie sequels have certainly been more on the uptick, such as Toem 2 from fellow Swedish studio Something We Made. According to creative director Adam Stjärnljus, the idea of a sequel began forming halfway through production of the first Planet of Lana. "It was very apparent to us the lore, the universe and the story of Lana, Mui and her planet was so much bigger than we could fit in one game," he tells me.

That isn't to say that the predecessor ended on a cliffhanger, as it has a clear start and end. "But the actual story beneath is much bigger, why these robots are invading the planet from the beginning, and there are still a lot more questions that Lana wants answers to. That's why, in our eyes, the story needed to continue. So in the second game, things get more complicated and you get to understand more of its universe."

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A sequel that goes bigger

Planet of Lana II sees our titular heroine and her cute catlike robot companion exploring even more places than before. At a rough count, art director Jimmy Chan tells me that the game is about twice the size of the first one, though that's not all. "We have these sub-areas within the biomes that also are quite different," he explains. "We tried to make the variation a lot bigger this time because the first game we had was very nice, but we tried to make the progression change a lot more within the different levels."

That means even if you may enter, say, a cave, how it looks at the beginning shouldn't be the same as how it looks by the end. "You don't feel like this repetitiveness," Chan continues. "It comes down a little bit to the environmental storytelling; it progresses as you go along, which has been our goal."

New visuals and environments are also there to serve new gameplay functions, such as some breathtaking water areas, which naturally means Lana can swim, although Mui can't, meaning a puzzle where you have to figure out how to ferry them across. The same goes for new creatures you'll encounter, where form and function go hand in hand. Stjärnljus adds that there's also some intentional ambiguity in their design. "What we're really going for at the core is that when you meet a new creature, you get that sense of curiosity: is this a friendly creature? Is it a hostile creature?"

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Designing an alien art direction

One aspect that has been important to Planet of Lana and its sequel's vision is creating an alien world that is also reminiscent of our own planet. "We did try to go a little more alien with the art direction in the first game, such as the trees, but it didn't quite work," Chan explains. "We need to have [environments] closer to Earth to make it believable, even though it's a platforming game. You don't want to think too much that you're in a game, which is crucial for immersion."

Despite the Ghibli comparisons, Stjärnljus also wants to distinguish Planet of Lana's universe. "Ghibli almost always has a magical aspect to their work, and even though Planet of Lana sometimes feels magical, and players may even interpret it as magical, they're grounded in sci-fi," he explains. "That's also what makes Planet of Lana unique, having that mix of sci-fi with a likeness to our planet but still being alien and interesting."

Creating a more expansive sequel has also been easier thanks to building on the predecessor, as the team continues using Unity. But while its tools and the team's expertise are also tied to this engine, Stjärnljus says it's almost like they are working against Unity.

"The game started with concept images and then trying to translate those concept images to a game was a constant process over several years, where we finally found the style of 2.5D, where we mix these 3D and 2D elements to create this depth in the world that we have, but still [have the] feel of a concept drawing," he explains.

"That also makes the pipeline quite unusual because we're not making a full 2D game and we're not making a full 3D game. Everything is made in a certain way, a mix of a lot of sprites and 3D, and different ways of bringing that kind of hand-painted feeling to the game. We've been doing this for quite a lot of years and built up a very strong pipeline around how we're doing this and using the strength of the Unity engine to our advantage, but it is quite different from how you normally would approach it."

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Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf is coming in early 2026 to PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Game Pass, PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch.