La-Mulana is a great game. But what does it mean exactly in terms of
mechanics? Style is fresh, beautiful(more so for the new game) and
satisfies me 100%. Story premise is interesting - it's kind of like Tomb
Raider's archeological story which poses questions about history of
some ruin or artifact.
What about gameplay? That's where it gets interesting. Gameplay is very hard. But not in a good way hard. It's hard in a way that you have to look at wiki or die trying to figure out some stuff.
Remake gives you a lot of gameplay tips which is better. At first I thought it was cheap but then I kind of liked Xelpud's childish behavior(he is like a comic relief character). The game on one hand tries to tell you this extremely serious story. On the other hand says: do not worry, just try to have fun and experiment with the game, nobody will judge you. Sometimes I wish devs would just make up there mind. But it's pretty common in japanese culture I guess. Comic relief characters are now in every serious anime(usually some plushes, comical toys etc).
Health regen mechanic is trash. To regenerate helath bar you have to get next level. Except there is no leveling system and next level does not give you anything except health regeneration. Sounds dumb? It is. And you have a lot of health too. It makes you play carelessly and not worry about your health. Then some time later you realize that your health bar is red and you need a fix. But there is no fix! You have to kill monsters until you get next level or you have to return to the first village and there is a pool with hot water there which regenerates health. So the game makes you do this stupid stuff time and again.
Fighting is bad. You have to fight the same enemies thousands of times. Like in MMORPG. La-Mulana is like 2D MMORPG gone bad. It's like one time they decided that it's not going to be an RPG(which is good in my book). They threw out skill system design and decided to leave this atrocious fighting. Enemies are slow and easy. Anemy AI is dumb(like I know 90s games which have better AI). You basically have to suffer through screen after screen of annoying hordes of bats, slowly jumping monsters and god knows what else. At some point you have to ask yourself why?
Puzzle design. That's the only hard part of the game. You can kill bosses with certain number of tries. But puzzles are just overly complex in their meaning and require you to write down different pieces of knowledge scattered around level on these tomb stones. Why would you do that? It's not working - it's not fun to figure out the order in which you have to read this things and try to connect different layers of meaning. You could have written these texts in some kind of journal which would aligh them in correct order. I found myself writing this texts in my notepad and reading this texts again and again. Did you project this kind of experience? If so then you succeded. Sometimes you arrive at some level in different places(it's metroidvania after all) and you realise that you're reading tomb stone which does not make any sense to you. And if you're keeping notes you do not know where to place a new note - it's just out of place. It's annoying. Then you realize that you have no health and you have to warp back at the first village to regenerate. The point is you cannot warp back quickly. You will have to move at this new location again and kill annoying monsters again just to get to the most annoying part - the puzzle itself.
Things that make this game working
Boss design is on whole another level. It's hard(in a good way) and requires you to think about what weapons you can use against the boss. Although getting these weapons can be not as straightforward as you might have hoped.
Jumping mechanic feels awesome. There are also upgrades which make you do some complex moves. Esthetic of this moves feels ver good. I get this sense of fun and enjoyment when jumping from platform to platform.
Perceived feeling of progress. There is no leveling system. You make no progress killing enemies but you feel great because exp bar slowly moves to the new level threshold.
Complex metroidvania world and upgrades. In this world you move from section to section and think about upgrades when you cannot move somewhere. People who like oldschool stuff like this kind of design. It gives you feeling of accomplishment when you discover that using a new upgrade you can get to places which were not reachable before.
Perceived feeling of complex puzzles. Puzzles are simple in nature but require a lot of search, trial and error. This gives you feeling of game complexity. If you like things which are not obvious at first and then you discover that if you have all information they are pretty easy you will like this game.
You carry notebook with you. You can install programs on your notebook which translate to game upgrades. Some things are required and game cannot be completed without them. Some things should be available to you from the beginning(ability to track tomb stone notes).
Final thoughts
There are certainly better games than La-Mulana. But in terms of complexity and feeling that you're in deep involved word with great story game works great. Sometimes I even realize that I want to google some fictional stuff in the game and know more about it. The world lives even with comic relief characters like xelpud who can magically sense that you've taken some upgrade or item and send email to you. I guess the world with all its flaws just reflects the love that developers have put into it.
What about gameplay? That's where it gets interesting. Gameplay is very hard. But not in a good way hard. It's hard in a way that you have to look at wiki or die trying to figure out some stuff.
Remake gives you a lot of gameplay tips which is better. At first I thought it was cheap but then I kind of liked Xelpud's childish behavior(he is like a comic relief character). The game on one hand tries to tell you this extremely serious story. On the other hand says: do not worry, just try to have fun and experiment with the game, nobody will judge you. Sometimes I wish devs would just make up there mind. But it's pretty common in japanese culture I guess. Comic relief characters are now in every serious anime(usually some plushes, comical toys etc).
Health regen mechanic is trash. To regenerate helath bar you have to get next level. Except there is no leveling system and next level does not give you anything except health regeneration. Sounds dumb? It is. And you have a lot of health too. It makes you play carelessly and not worry about your health. Then some time later you realize that your health bar is red and you need a fix. But there is no fix! You have to kill monsters until you get next level or you have to return to the first village and there is a pool with hot water there which regenerates health. So the game makes you do this stupid stuff time and again.
Fighting is bad. You have to fight the same enemies thousands of times. Like in MMORPG. La-Mulana is like 2D MMORPG gone bad. It's like one time they decided that it's not going to be an RPG(which is good in my book). They threw out skill system design and decided to leave this atrocious fighting. Enemies are slow and easy. Anemy AI is dumb(like I know 90s games which have better AI). You basically have to suffer through screen after screen of annoying hordes of bats, slowly jumping monsters and god knows what else. At some point you have to ask yourself why?
Puzzle design. That's the only hard part of the game. You can kill bosses with certain number of tries. But puzzles are just overly complex in their meaning and require you to write down different pieces of knowledge scattered around level on these tomb stones. Why would you do that? It's not working - it's not fun to figure out the order in which you have to read this things and try to connect different layers of meaning. You could have written these texts in some kind of journal which would aligh them in correct order. I found myself writing this texts in my notepad and reading this texts again and again. Did you project this kind of experience? If so then you succeded. Sometimes you arrive at some level in different places(it's metroidvania after all) and you realise that you're reading tomb stone which does not make any sense to you. And if you're keeping notes you do not know where to place a new note - it's just out of place. It's annoying. Then you realize that you have no health and you have to warp back at the first village to regenerate. The point is you cannot warp back quickly. You will have to move at this new location again and kill annoying monsters again just to get to the most annoying part - the puzzle itself.
Things that make this game working
Boss design is on whole another level. It's hard(in a good way) and requires you to think about what weapons you can use against the boss. Although getting these weapons can be not as straightforward as you might have hoped.
Jumping mechanic feels awesome. There are also upgrades which make you do some complex moves. Esthetic of this moves feels ver good. I get this sense of fun and enjoyment when jumping from platform to platform.
Perceived feeling of progress. There is no leveling system. You make no progress killing enemies but you feel great because exp bar slowly moves to the new level threshold.
Complex metroidvania world and upgrades. In this world you move from section to section and think about upgrades when you cannot move somewhere. People who like oldschool stuff like this kind of design. It gives you feeling of accomplishment when you discover that using a new upgrade you can get to places which were not reachable before.
Perceived feeling of complex puzzles. Puzzles are simple in nature but require a lot of search, trial and error. This gives you feeling of game complexity. If you like things which are not obvious at first and then you discover that if you have all information they are pretty easy you will like this game.
You carry notebook with you. You can install programs on your notebook which translate to game upgrades. Some things are required and game cannot be completed without them. Some things should be available to you from the beginning(ability to track tomb stone notes).
Final thoughts
There are certainly better games than La-Mulana. But in terms of complexity and feeling that you're in deep involved word with great story game works great. Sometimes I even realize that I want to google some fictional stuff in the game and know more about it. The world lives even with comic relief characters like xelpud who can magically sense that you've taken some upgrade or item and send email to you. I guess the world with all its flaws just reflects the love that developers have put into it.
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