La-Mulana: Game of the Year '012 of the Society of People Who Totally Hate Themselves
 

Intro Crap



La-Mulana! It was originally a free Windows game that was released in 2006 and translated by AGTP in 2007:

The developers have totally remade the game for WiiWare and Windows, intending it for a slightly more general audience. They're also now charging for it!

It's still very much an old game tribute in design, but the music and graphics have all been upgraded, and there've been a hecka ton of tweaks to the physics, bosses, puzzles, etc. Instead of pretending to be an MSX game, it's now simply an homage to them.

Here's a promotional video for the game that compares shots of the original version and the remake:

(don't worry about the translation in the video; the game itself is fine)

This Game Rules Pretty Hard



If I can be bothered to make a thread in VG, it's usually because the game rules pretty hard. And guess what: this game rules pretty hard. Here are some neat things about La-Mulana:

1). You get to whip snakes in the face. You are adventure archaeologist Lemeza Kosugi, and you're here to explore some ruins, not put up with shit from snakes. If you like Castlevania and other games in which you whip snakes in the face, La-Mulana may be right for you.

2). Also, La-Mulana is a hugely nonlinear explorey Metroidvania thing. You have access to a bunch of areas from the start, without even getting any items or solving any puzzles. A lot of the game is not very strictly sequenced, so each time you play you can collect things and go through areas in a completely different order. Until you get to the end of the game (which unfortunately also coincides with the game getting more about item walls), there are always about four or five things you could be doing at any point.

Case in point: I was super dumb and got stuck on a puzzle forever, so I ended up fighting the first boss fourth! It's quite possible to fight it without ever leaving the first ruins area, but I had been through a huge chunk of the game by that point and was therefore totally overpowered. Which made it all the more satisfying to cruise through it because it's a snake. Didn't give a shit about any of its attacks; just whipped that guy right in the face.

3). This game is gigantic. It won't seem that big initially but there are a whole of ruins to explore and things to murderize in the name of archaeology, I tell you what. My completion time was 27:45:00, which didn't count the time I spent dying and restarting. There was a lot of that.

4). There's a pretty sweet balance of action and puzzles. I had been under the impression that La-Mulana was mostly action, and even if it were just that, I'd still be recommending it. There are a bunch of enemies that try to kill you in various ways and a pretty impressive set of minibosses and huge bosses. But there are a bunch of puzzles thrown into the mix too, because if there's one thing I learned from Indiana Jones, it's that ancient civilizations loved building puzzles into their temples. So look forward to rereading tablets for the millionth time trying to figure which one of these statue assholes is Futo.

5). But mostly the snake thing. Right in the goddamn face.

So if by this point you've thrown your wallet at your monitor, you may want to hold up for just one minute, because:


This Game Will Make You Set Your House on Fire



Remember how the major influence on this is an old Konami game? Yeah, about that.

1). Infuriating knockback. You know how you loved that part of Castlevania where you got hit by a bat and fell off the screen? Again and again? Well boy oh boy do I have some good news for you.

2). Wonky jump physics. If you'll believe it, they're actually improved over the original's! But look forward to hours of only being able to minimally affect your jump arc.

3). Instant death traps. This game innovates in the field of killing you with little warning.

4). Insanely difficult bosses. WHY DOES TIAMAT HAVE SO MANY LASERS

5). Cryptic puzzles everywhere. So the flipside to the puzzles thing is that you're going to have to take notes on basically every single piece of text you read in the game, because hints will often be fifty rooms away from the puzzles they apply to. Of course, even with the notes, you'll often not be able to figure out which hint is for which puzzle until it's waaaaaaaaaaay too late. This will get really bad in the second half of the game.

6). Sparse save points. There's one save point per field, so when you die, you'll often have a slog to get back to where you were. Also, for the first hour or two (depending on how smart you are), there is exactly one save point, located at the start of the game. So every time you find something neat, you have to go all the way back to the beginning if you want to keep it.

7). Enemies don't drop health and save points don't reheal you. At all, for any reason. The only reliable way to heal is to go all the way back to the start of the game and hop in the hot spring. You will be doing this a lot.


If You Still Want To, You Can Fork Over Cash Now



This game is absolutely not intended for a majority of human beings. If you think you can put up with its vast amount of bullshit, I cannot recommend it enough, because it is so amazingly good between those moments where you scream so hard your lungs fly out. There is a heck of a lot of game here and it is hard and fun as all get out.

La-Mulana is available on WiiWare for 1000 points and Windows for $14.99 through PLAYISM: http://www.playism-games.com/games/lamulana/. The WiiWare version is cheaper because it does not include Time Attack and Hell Temple. They were originally available as DLC for the WiiWare version in Japan but didn't make it overseas, and they're included with the Windows port. Time Attack is a fight against a boss or bosses with various equipment setups, and Hell Temple is an absurdly difficult bonus area.

It's also on Steam Greenlight APPLY ALL OF YOUR VOTES TO THE "YES" BUTTON: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...s/?id=93001822.

NIGORO are some rad dudes so they've released the remake soundtrack on Bandcamp: [Disc 1] [Disc 2] [Disc 3]. It's $4.99 per disc and each disc has over an hour of music. This game has a lot of music!


Getting Help



TAKE NOTES ON EVERYTHING TAKE NOTES ON EVERYTHING TAKE NOTES ON EVERYTHING TAKE NOTES ON EVERYTHING TAKE NOTES ON EVERYTHING

This game will break your brain into a million pieces. For real.

When the inevitable happens and you're stuck on twenty puzzles simultaneously, the ultimate resource is the wiki: http://lamulana-remake.wikia.com/wik...na_Remake_Wiki. Do note that it is really quite spoilery, so if you use it, there's a good chance you'll accidentally ruin several other parts of the game in the process. Depending on how frustrated you are with La Mulana, you may be 100% okay with this.

I had the good fortune of having someone very familiar with the game to nudge me through it, and I'm willing to return the favor to any of you if anyone actually feels like taking the challenge. A lot of the fun in this game is the discovery, but figuring out that you need to buy a bunch of things from this one store to unlock another store is just awful. If you're totally stumped, stuck on a boss, can't find an item, etc. just lemme know.

There's also no tutorial, so Mulbruk's here to get you started on the right foot:

YouTube Video

Yeah, I was aware of this remake for a while, but the preliminary videos didn't leave that great an impression on me at the time, because I was partial to the 8-bit style and chippier music. Even then, they kept postponing the release and I lost track of its progress.

Either way, I'm getting the PC remake just to see all the little tweaks and changes they've made. I loved the original, having beaten it twice, and have also cleared Hell Temple with a bit of help. I've even plugged it here.

I like how all rooms got names now, and that the game provides you with more information about the items you find, unlike the original where it left you in the dark and made you figure everything out. I'm gonna miss the MSX, though.

Box of tissues hehehe

I never played the original version; not sure whether to count that as a blessing or a curse of Mac ownership in this case!

I do know someone who's played the original a lot, and according to him, the main game has been made a tiny bit easier. You have a little more control over jumping, some puzzles are less obtuse and there are more hints, etc. So it's a bit more like an 8.5 or a 9 on the Old Game Rage scale instead of a 10.

But in contrast, most of the bosses have been made harder. Apparently most could be cheesed by spamming shuriken, but this is no longer the case. There's also at least one (non-lethal) trap added for people who've played the original, so look forward to being trolled anew. :cmb:

28 hours so far into the game and I haven't beaten the final boss yet.

And yeah, the game was so freaking hard but I enjoyed the journey until now, too bad I cheated and I relied looking at the wiki most of the time.

dear chz:
http://i.imgur.com/nbmI94h.png

<3

http://quiteajolt.com/gff/lamulana2.jpg

OH JESUS WHY

short talk with IndieGames.com

Good news, everybody! NIGORO has launched a Kickstarter for La-Mulana 2!

YouTube Video

>> insert money here <<

Money inserted.

(Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy)

Fuck yeah! Got into the $256 limited tier! :mulbrukdance: :mulbrukjukebox:

So should I have him draw Mulbruk or should I have him draw Mulbruk?

I have barely played the first one.

Your path has been chosen.

This seems like the appropriate place to mention that there currently is a 90% discount on the Steam version of La-Mulana. If you don't have it yet, be sure to make your move within the next 40 hours or so.

I'm broke as broke can be, but I can spare $1.49 for this.

Also as a fun aside, I've been hearing great things about this game for a long time, but I was totally mixing it up with Miasmata for some reason, no idea why. If I'd known this was something else and a Metroidvania-esque type of game I probably would have picked it up forever ago.

I... I have an extra copy of La-Mulana on steam. Do... do you want it?

Anyone who doesn't buy this for $1.49 deserves to have terrible things happen to them. Unfortunately, the only people who will have terrible things happen to them are the people who buy this for $1.49. Funny how the world works.

I already got it, but thanks! It's $1.49, not a big deal. I had about that much in card money, but spent that 2 days ago when Sword & Sorcery EP was on sale for the same price.

Another game I bought solely based on a thread I kinda skimmed. What a deal!

http://www.gamingforce.org/staff/Qwa...ieceofshit.png

::thispieceofshit.png::

I've played this a bit, recently. I'm convinced it's a lot more intelligent than I am, though. I might one day be able to get somewhere. The first time I played I didn't even manage to get into the caves. Got past that, but soon died a few times.

I don't want to look at a guide because it would really ruin the game, but I'm not sure I have the right kind of brain for this.

Damn, Q already found the axe and a game. You doing good buddy.

I've been making a lot of progress over the weekend. So far I've defeated Amphisbaena, Ellmac and Sakit.

I want to say I'm stuck but it's more like I'm not sure which place to focus on next. I unlocked the chamber of extinction but it sounds like it's too early to go there yet?

Diss trucked it all the way through the Chamber of Extinction in the fucking dark. u can do it q i belieb

That said if you want some :hintz: I would recommend working on the Spoiler: Spring in the Sky first.

B-but I don't want to fight Bahamut ;_;

You've got the axe, don't be a baby.

Fine >=|~

http://www.gamingforce.org/staff/Qwarky/bahahahamut.png