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LA-MULANA 1 & 2 out now on Switch, Xbox One, PS4!
Gennenalyse Rueben
The Prettiest Boy is Ridiculously PrettyRegistered User regular
The Prettiest Boy is Ridiculously PrettyRegistered User regular
Finally La-Mulana has reached consoles! The adventure starts here!
Long ago, this thread began as a Let's Play of La-Mulana. Back in those ancient times, there was only the MSX-stylized freeware version. While that version of the game is still available for download, unfortunately it has serious compatibility issues with Windows 10.
What Is La-Mulana, Anyway?
The madness of a deranged mind made manifest.
Alternatively: Indiana Jones-like Metroidvania platformers with a huge emphasis on puzzle solving. They're pretty infamous for their difficulty, to the point that the remake was sometimes pitched as "the Dark Souls of platform games". This is not true. Dark Souls' difficulty is very much not La-Mulana's.
The general set-up of the original La-Mulana is pretty simple: you are Professor Lemeza Kosugi, an archaeologist with a background in ninjitsu (not kidding). You arrive at a village just outside the legendary ruins of La-Mulana, the supposed cradle of all civilization. You're armed with a whip, a laptop and pretty much nothing else. Your goal: explore the ruins of La-Mulana and uncover their secrets.
The sequel is set years after the first game and sees the daughter of Lemeza, Lumisa, shows up and has to solve some new mysteries that have popped up by delving into the ruins.
How La-Mulana Challenges You
To boil this down as succinctly as possible: La-Mulana is old-school difficult. Limited jump physics, cryptic puzzles, few tutorials and very little hand holding are just some of the ways these games go after you. If you don't cheat and look up the correct solutions to puzzles, you will find yourself stuck at many points. It can be annoying, it can be frustrating, it can be infuriating!
But then you crack open a puzzle, feel that heady sense of accomplishment and progress onward. Or maybe that's just me? Whatever the case, La-Mulana requires a certain mentality when you play it. It's not trying to be friendly, it's not trying to help you and it's certainly not trying to be for everyone. But if it is for you? Then you'll have a blast!
Where Can I Get This Game?
On Steam, GOG, Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch! Possibly more places that I'm not aware of, too.
Gennenalyse Rueben on
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Looking good so far, dude. Not to steal your thunder, but I first learned about this from Deceased Crab's LP of the game. Check it out sometime - his freak-outs are hilarious, especially during Hell Temple. Good luck to you.
The only way to play La Mulana is 100% hell temple complete. Anything less is not La Mulana.
I never asked for this!
What?
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If that "what?" is referring to what I think it is, then that is your reward for completing the ultra-hard, massively frustrating bonus dungeon.
Oh god. I don't. I don't.
Hell Temple is HELL.
The History of the Giants
We will be exploring this race's tragic history through the tablets that we've been reading all throughout the mausoleum. But first, I've compiled an image showing each Giant within the mausoleum and who they are:
Tablet 1: “We were the second race born of the Great Mother. We were born to return her to the skies. This is the sad story of our race.
Nine brothers led our race: Zeb, Bud, Migera, Led, Fut, Abt, Zi, Riv, and Sakit.”
It took a while, but I managed to figure out which Giant is which. This tablet assisted me in the process. We don't learn a whole lot from it, but it tells us that the nine Giants we're finding across the Mausoleum are brothers and the leaders of their kind. It also tells us of their race's mission: to return the Mother, whoever she is, to the skies. The obvious answer is zomg aliens.
Tablet 2: “Migera is left-handed.”
This also assisted me in identifying the Giants. Migera is the only one holding anything with his left hand and it almost certainly is intended to assist you in the Life Jewel puzzle.
Tablet 3:
This is a tablet I missed reading, so I took a screenshot of it for you. As you can see, nearly half of the brothers did not want to fulfill their race's mission. They wanted this “Mother” to remain with them, probably for the same reason most children would not want their parents to leave. I also noticed a very interesting thing relating to this: Abt, Zi, Riv, and Sakit are all near one another, on the opposite side of the mausoleum from those that supported the mission.
Tablet 4: “The eldest, Zeb, could not move, as he had to hold up the Earth.”
Note that Zeb, the Atlas-looking fellow who appeared to be holding the roof up, is separated from his eight brothers. He does not fit into either group. The significance of this is likely that Zeb was neutral in his brothers' disagreements and conflicts. I would hypothesize that he “held up the Earth” by being an arbiter between them, he “could not move” meaning that he was unable to take a side lest things go to hell from a disruption in the balance of power.
Tablet 5: “Bud, Migera, Led, and Fut built a flying tower to return the Mother to the sky.”
Confirming that the Giants' leaders had two opposing factions, the other four supported the mission given to their race by this mysterious Mother being. That said, we haven't seen any indications of advanced technology in this ruin yet. Maybe we're misunderstanding the idea of a “flying tower”?
Tablet 6: “The mother was great. Great enough so that even the Giants seemed dwarfed by her.
The Giants were great. Great enough that thee, little one, seem dwarfed by them.”
We now know the truth. The Mother was Lavos. Er, no. What this tells us is that this Mother entity was freaking ginormous. Actually, it puts into doubt the very existence of this entity. Perhaps the Mother was, say...a mountain that these Giants worshipped? Even a Giant the size of a small building would be dwarfed by a mountain.
Tablet 7: “On a day when the sun was bright, Led fell in battle. A large hole torn in his chest, he went into his long, final rest.”
This is how I identified Led, though it was pretty easy considering he's the only one with a gaping hole in his chest. Still, there was a battle. There are no indications anywhere that the Giants had any outside enemies, so it seems likely that their race was undergoing a civil war by this point. Sad.
Tablet 8: “To launch the tower, water was indespensible. Migera carried a lake to this land and expired in the effort.”
Launch? Uh, yeah. We're not misunderstanding anything – that was a rocket. What this tells us is that one of of the Giants brought an entire damn lake to La-Mulana. If he carried it all by himself, no wonder he died in the effort. Considering they were Giants, there probably weren't too many of them...so it's possible he actually did do it solo.
Tablet 9: “Zi started praying on a moonlight night.”
A hint as to what happens when you switch the room of time to triple moons, not much else.
Tablet 10: “Bud went into a long, final rest on a night when the sky was full of stars.”
Used to identify which one was Bud and a hint as to how to get the Ankh Jewel for the field.
Tablet 11: “Grieving for his elder brothers, Riv dug a tunnel from the lake to the tower to bring water to it. He collapsed in the effort and went into a long rest.”
Apparently the tragedy that was occuring around him caused Riv to have a change of heart. Sadly, he died in the effort. Also, I identified Riv by a tablet that appears much later in the game – and it will actually have some relation to this tablet...
Tablet 12: “The youngest, Sakit, followed his own path. He locked Led's body, left power in his hand, and went into a long rest.”
This is one of the most important tablets in this field. Sakit followed his own path. He was one of those in the Opposition faction, but yet he followed his own path. My hypothesis is that Sakit is the one that initiated the civil war that most likely destroyed the Giants, killing Led in the process. This is also a hint as to how to activate the Ankh of the field: Led's body is locked. The Ankh also appears in his hand, where he left power. His long rest may also not actually be death, but instead merely stasis...
Tablet 13: "In order to hold up the Earth, Zeb stopped moving, and the brothers split into two factions and fought amongst themselves."
Basically a repeat of the information above about the factions, and Zeb not being part of them. This could also mean that Zeb died, leaving the factions to squabble with no mediation.
Tablet 14: “We could not grant the Great Mother's wish.
I am the only one to remain, and here I go to my long, final rest.
Abt”
The only tablet signed by an actual Giant. This is the only thing we have indicating anything about Abt, so I pretty much had to figure out who he was by process of elimination. I can only imagine what it would feel like to be the last member of your species alive...
What can we gather from all of this?
The Giants were a technologically advanced race capable of spaceflight, yet they existed for scarcely one of their generations. There is no way to tell how long a Giant lived naturally, but I presume it was a pretty long time. Their race was plagued with in-fighting and ideological divisions. Zeb served as a mediator between both groups, keeping things in place. When he died at an unspecified point, tensions mounted.
The youngest and presumably most foolhardy of the nine brothers, Sakit, then initiated the hostilities that ultimately caused the demise of their race. Towards the end of this conflict, Riv – wracked with guilt and sorrow over the death of his kinsmen and people – completed the work on the flying tower that was started by Bud, Migera, Led, and Fut. He died in the process, however.
In the end, only Abt was left standing. Alone. I believe that he was the one that wrote the history that is scattered about in the mausoleum, doing what he could to leave some kind of legacy for his people before his inevitable death. He may even have been the one who created the mausoleum. Whatever the case, it seems very likely that the Giants died out entirely at their own hands. A sad end for any race.
Indeed, it's one of the many things I absolutely love about the game. As much as I dislike not knowing things, at the same time not knowing can be more fun because of everything you come up with yourself.
Also, I absolutely destroy the Sun Temple in the videos 9 and 10, which are in the OP now.
Also water is deadly to Lemeza because he gets a cramp from all the curry he eats. Everyone knows not to go swimming after eating...
Didn't stop the cricket that was outside from being audible for my first video, though. I hate that so much.
I also find the funny facebook status ideas.
The video is hilarious; watch it.
You can go buy it here:
http://www.playism-games.com/