An excellent but difficult metroidvania. If you like that sort of game, you'll probably really like this as long as you're fine with the increased difficulty. If you're not a fan of that sort of game, definitely pass on this one. If you're not already a big metroidvania fan, I think it's unlikely that you'll enjoy playing through all of this game.

I should've listened to the negative reviews. Before buying, take a moment to read through what people have to say about this, and trust what they are saying.

First of all, you need pencil and paper in order to play this game. If that doesn't sound appealing to you, give this a pass. You'll need to do a lot of writing down everything you read. If you don't, you'll probably forget a vital clue and waste a bunch of time wandering around, stuck. I think it's unfortunate that the game doesn't do a better job of helping you keep track of what you read. There are a few in-game items that can help you slightly, but you can miss them and they only keep track of a small number of things you read.

You will get stuck a lot in this game. When you're stuck, you have to wander around. Most of the hours I spent on this game involved just wandering around and exploring and trying to figure out what I need to do to progress. For me, that's just not very fun. I think the main thing that makes puzzles so difficult in this game is that they are spread out so far. I am a big fan of puzzle games, but I am not a big fan of the puzzles in this game. Because they involve having to traverse around the map and try different things and read things, they end up taking a lot of time to solve, and quite a bit of that time is just not fun - going through the same areas over and over and killing the same enemies and hearing the same music.

Even when you know what you need to do, you still may end up spending a lot of time bored because of the amount of time it can take to move around the game world. There are certain areas later in the game that you do not have the ability to warp to until you get a certain item. So they are essentially telling you that your reward for getting the item is that you don't have to waste as much of your life traveling around. I find that sort of situation telling of this game's design philosophy. They don't seem to be too concerned about players having to spend time doing things that aren't fun. I come to games to have fun so that's a problem for me.

I think the developer of this game focused more on just building an intricate, mysterious labrynth first and giving you the experience of an explorer trying to make their way through that structure, and I think they delivered on that. As part of achieving that, it's totally understandable why there's lots of moments where someone like me gets frustrated and bored. The game doesn't care about my moment-to-moment level of entertainment, it cares primarily about achieving that vision. But when I'm playing something, I'm constantly asking myself "am I having fun? is this how I really want to spend my evening / weekend? At the end of the day, will I be satisfied with how I spent my day if I keep playing?". With this game, I found the answer to all those questions ended up being "no". Just think of everything you could be doing instead of spending yet another 5 minutes backtracking to the last place you died so you can make another attempt at the boss.

Also, let's talk about the music. By itself the music is great, but we are playing a game here. Good game music has to respect the fact that it's not the only thing going on. This game makes the mistake of so many other indie games where they have a short, loud (musically speaking, not talking about sheer volume), busy song played way too often (on loop). With the amount of time you end up spending in the same area, you'll probably start to get some serious listening fatigue. Take super metroid as a good counterexample. They save the busy stuff for short, intense moments in the game (boss fights, escape sequences). During the actual exploration the music becomes much more atmospheric with long notes and moments of quiet. I think this fits the game a lot better and prevents you from hating the game because you're sick of the music.

So, if you're someone who can put up with lots of the things that you find in metroidvanias - backtracking, corpse runs, wandering around with no clue where to go, you'll have a great time with this game. Otherwise, if you're someone like me who isn't necessarilly a metroidvania fan but just wants to have a consistently fun experience, look elsewhere. There's so many games out there that provide consistently better fun / hour. I value my time too much to justify what this game asks me to do.

I like platforming games, but this one seems to be a bit crude, not enough there to keep me interested.

Basically a Metroidvania more aimed to puzzles and clue hunting. The ruins are massive, and puzzles will get more complicated as you advance in the game, to the point that you will need to write down some tips and possibly look up in the internet what to do when you're nearing the endgame. It's very satisfying to do it in your own. Controls feel a bit weird, specially in the jumping mechanics, but it's not too bad. Music is amazing, one of my favorite OSTs of all time. Definitely recommended if you like exploring and solving puzzles, and wondering why God hates humanity as well.

Gameplay - 7/10
Difficulty - 9/10
Music - 10/10
Graphics - 8/10
Replayability - 7/10
Overall - 8/10

the "better Spelunky"

Never did I have a harder time writing a review than before. What should I do? I think I will look at the different aspects of the game.

Story:
The basic premise: You play Lemeza Kosugi, an archeologist who wants to explore La-Mulana, also known as the ruins. So you are doing exploration.
Lemeza doesn’t have much character and frankly, he doesn’t have to because what makes this game good is the story behind the story.
If it was for the story alone, this game would earn full score and a recommendation because I love the creativity behind this.

Graphics:
Given that it is a retro game, the graphics look great. The different parts of the ruins are all beautiful and can be easily distinguished. At parts I just stopped to take in the scenery.
The animation of the enemies is smooth and they look also pretty great, especially the bosses.
If it was for graphics alone, I would also give a recommendation.

Music:
Alright, here I’m indecisive. When it comes to dungeon music, some pieces are repetitive and too short for my taste. Then there are themes that start to get on my nerve after a while (e.g. hell temple). However the boss pieces fit their respective fights perfectly. Tiamat’s and The Mother’s music pieces are the best of the bunch. Also the theme of the true shrine of mother is something I could listen for hours.

Gameplay:
It is so weird. If you look at my profile you will notice that I’ve got more than 70% out of all the possible achievements. On the one hand, if you manage to figure something out and solve a puzzle, it just feels great. On the other hand, the way there. Let me tell you how my first time with La Mulana went.
I got inside the ruins and started to investigate them. I explored them and eventually got to the mausoleum of the giants. I got the save point there and scanned every tablet. Eventually I stumbled upon one that warned me to read it again. Eager to see what would happen, I looked at it again and started Hard Mode. Without a holy grail to teleport from tablet to tablet, without anything. It was hard to get out of the mausoleum and to the hot springs on the surface again. Then I tried it again, entered the ruins and this time got to the temple of the sun. Here my journey ended. I didn’t have enough weights to open the doors.

At this point I gave up and watched a playthrough and learned that you can get the grail at the very beginning and that it is basically required to beat this game.

This angered me so much.
I respect that La Mulana gives you the chance to go wherever you want right at the beginning (like you can go to the giant monster protecting the feather and die there if you feel like it or to the waterfall at the other side and die in the water). HOWEVER too much freedom can alienate players to the point where they will just give up.
First impressions are very important for certain people and this wasn’t a good impression.
I dare say there should be a beginners’ mode to help players get what they need at the beginning like the Holy Grail before making the game world open to explore as you like.

Speaking of the grail, I am not done yet. There is a problem gameplay wise and that’s Lemeza’s laptop. Let’s say you have found the tablets of the main areas like the mausoleum of the giants or the gate of guidance. Later on you find other areas like the tower of the goddess or the tower of ruin. Can you teleport there with the Holy Grail?
Yes, if you install special software for it.
WHY?!
Why would you need that?!
Why does it work with the main areas but not with the special areas unless you use software? Why would software make an ancient artifact do that?!

I’m sorry, this just hurts. What does a piece of software do to an ancient artifact to make it teleport Lemeza to places it didn’t before?! My suspension of disbelief is gone here.

But it goes on with this problem: So our hero has found a map of a specific area and you press F1 to look at it. Can you see it?
No, you can’t: You need to install a specific piece of software to see it. An additional kind of software to gain details. So you need the map, the software to display it AND additional software to see details. Sorry, why? If it was only two steps (like most games do like Zelda: You need a map and a compass to get the most out of it) I would accept it, but three?

However the worst part: Some of the software you gain doesn’t even tell you exactly what it does. Why?
Overall I didn’t like the part with the software. If all of it told me what it does and if there was a list of software combinations to look up, I would like it. But how it currently is? No thanks.

Yet another problem in this game is healing. What can you do to heal yourself?
First: Finding hot springs, jumping in there.
Second: Gaining enough experience points will restore HP. This is done by collecting green energy balls.
Third: Finding a healing fairy (which have a 50% chance to appear)

That is all. You won’t get healed at save spots and you don’t have healing items.
This makes this game much harder than it needs to be. For example GBA Castlevania games are much more forgiving: You have dangerous places but you can buy and use healing items and getting to a save spot restores all your HP.
Speaking of save spots, they are too far away from the bosses if you ask me. Especially when I was about to face the final boss, that took way too long. Or Bahamut.

Furthermore: Lemeza is a bit stiff to control at the beginning. Until he gets some decent equipment like the feather or the software that makes him go faster (however this is supposed to work in reality), he is a pain to control. Especially the jump at the beginning is hard to control.
Also, what bothered me from beginning to end was the knockback. When Lemeza gets hit, he flies back two blocks. Let’s say he falls down a deep chasm. He will fall and fall and fall after falling back two blocks. This can be very frustrating, especially the first time in the inferno chambers where the lava drains away health like no tomorrow. In conjunction with not buying the item that lets you open the laptop in lava this can lead to a game over very fast for one simple mistake.

Speaking of mistakes, sometimes I couldn’t believe what mean tricks some ruins pulled. Like the gate of illusion where you need to teleport by walking into certain walls. Oh, and instant death traps. Some that can’t even be predicted. This can be super frustrating.

So what I did: My first run left such a horrible taste that I stuck to a speedrunner video to play through this game. I have to say, the endgame is better than the beginning. Lemeza can double jump, moves faster, is versatile… and I had enough motivation left to beat the hell temple after finishing the game.

However 72% is the farthest I’ll go in this game. Beating final boss gave me a hard time and I’ll never fight her again. Not under the current circumstances.
Given that not even 5% have actually finished the game, here are some suggestions now that I’ve heard that La Mulana 2 is in the making:

First: More guidance in the beginning.
Second: The healing issue. It is just so bothering. I suggest save spots that heal and having healing items to ease it up a little.
Third: The software gimmick needs to be revised. Like secret software actually telling what it can do.

So what should I do? Bash this game for making my first time with it a nightmare? Praise it for its other aspects that come midway through and at the end?
Well, I am 52% pro and 48% contra so I will give it a pass.
The way La Mulana is currently, I can only recommend playing it with a guide until you get the Holy Grail and then investigating on your own if you want to play it the way it’s meant to be. It’s just to spare you the frustration I had at the beginning.

However I do love the backstory of this game and look forward to see what the developers will do with the sequel.

This use to be my love...




... now it's my life.