Lunara: Planet IX logo

Lunara: Planet IX Review

Game: Lunara: Planet IX
Genre: Farm Sim, Adventure, Pixel Art, Indie
System: Steam (Windows)
Developers | Publishers: Luamar Games
Controller Support: Full
Price: US $5.99 | UK £4.99 | EU € 5,99
Release Date: August 31st, 2024

A review code was used, and many thanks to Luamar Games.

Lunara: Planet IX is a mix of all sorts of different types of games into a farming simulator. Much like other new sim games, you can farm, create, build, fight, interact, and go on adventures. And it’s all wrapped up in a pixel art package.

Which Planet IX?

The lore of Lunara: Planet IX is focused on how you are a space-faring adventurer who has gone to a planet called Planet 9 to start a new colony all on your own. However, the name is super unfortunate, as Planet IX is also the name of a crypto play-to-earn game. It is weird that the developers kept the name; they must have seen the crypto game taking up all the search engine bandwidth.

Lunara: Planet IX Knocking down a tree in Plant IX.
Chopping down trees to get wood.

I just want to be super clear that the game that I am actually reviewing is not the crypto game. As a heads up, if you search for Planet IX in Google, you will not get anything related to Lunara: Planet IX.

The Gameplay of Lunara: Planet IX

As you pick up Lunara: Planet IX, the first thing you need to do is cut down some trees and break some rocks to get crafting materials for making other objects. The tutorial will give you instructions on how to complete each of these steps, and then the game gives you access to basically nothing.

Lunara: Planet IX Everything you need to complete to win in Planet IX.
Everything you need to do to win.

I was blown away by the fact that after doing the first hand-holding missions of knocking down one tree and breaking a couple of rocks, there didn’t appear to be much of anything else to do. The town, the mines, and everything else that looked interesting were completely closed off, not even for a story reason. I was limited to just wandering around inside my base, right outside the base, and I could interact with a merchant who had a bunch of cool stuff I couldn’t afford.

Lunara: Planet IX An item in the merchant shop in Planet IX.
I’ll never be able to afford that!

So I went exploring in the only place open to me, the Valley. You basically have to walk all the way across the map to the right, and then you find yourself in a place that’s super dangerous and filled with dinosaurs. There is also a town with some aliens that you can buy things from. You can even build a little house for yourself there. But there doesn’t appear to be any sources of oxygen, and you’re already down a quarter of your meter by the time you even reach the town.

There are no maps for this section that I have found yet, and it is inexplicably lined with long and unbroken walls that you can’t seem to hop over. So I ended up spending a lot of time wandering around while my oxygen meter, then my health meter, went down. I could not find my way back. And all the while I was wandering around, there was a cacophony of dinosaurs and birds constantly yelling at me from every which way.

Lunara: Planet IX A dinosaur in Planet IX.
They are loud, but they look really cool.

By the time I reached the town on Planet IX, half my oxygen bar was depleted, so I had to immediately turn around anyway without really doing anything productive. Since the Valley was literally the only thing I could do, I felt really out of options. So I went home to see what I could make with some of the new items I had picked up along the way. And I could make a single chest to put items into.

Not a Great Farming Sim

I’ve played a lot of farming simulation games; I have just recently poured forty hours into Coral Island, and picking up Planet IX was pretty disappointing in comparison. The graphics are fine, and the sound design is fine if a little much, but the interactions you get with the game aren’t great.

Lunara: Planet IX The AI from your home base talks to you in Planet IX.
My AI buddy chats with me sometimes, but it isn’t always helpful.

I found the whole next post-tutorial quest almost impossible to complete without a map and a little more direction. I went into every house and building in the little town, walking back and forth to refill my O2, and getting progressively more and more annoyed at the lack of O2 stops in between. I must have been missing something, but Planet IX wasn’t giving up any hints.

The main character is standing in front of an alien in Planet IX.
This interactable character didn’t work; I couldn’t talk to him, and the same was true for many of the things with interactable icons.

Conclusion

I couldn’t get very far in Lunara: Planet IX. I have several hours in the game, and I haven’t really gotten anywhere. I was pretty disappointed with everything but the way it looks. It was so hard to get anywhere or do anything, and I couldn’t seem to get very far.

Final Verdict: I’m Not Sure
I'm not sure

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