Author Topic: La-Mulana: That game about curry and traps  (Read 1523 times)

Yookie

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La-Mulana: That game about curry and traps
« on: June 07, 2014, 09:28:10 PM »
It's mostly about curry though.


La-Mulana was originally released 2005 as a freeware title (correct me if I'm wrong)
and was remade for the Wii in 2011 that came out for the PC as well in 2013 (which you can buy at a reasonable price, this time I'm 100% certain).
Also there's a second game in development, which is also featured on kickstarter. Here's the thread about it
It's a side-scrolling metroidvania-esque exploration game starring Lemeza Kozugi, curry-addict and descendent of ninjas as the protagonist.
He is also archeologist on the side and teacher at a university.


Lemeza's father found the ruins of La-Mulana, a place heavy with mistery, said to be the origin of all mankind and teased his son (they are not on the best terms) with his discovery,
telling him he's going to find the treasure of life ultimate curry recipe there (curry, trust me).
Lemeza can't leave this standing, follows him, gets all his stuff taken away at the airport except his trusty laptop and whip and ends up at the village near the ruins.
This is where everything begins.

The game also features a very nice plot that is a bit difficult to piece together, as it is spread throughout the ruins on tablets, murals and a few NPC's. The remake gives you a recording software that let's you save up to 10/20 of such texts, the original doesn't (I wrote done every, single bit that the tablets gave me. Worth it.)

I've played both the original and the remade version, albeit with prior knowledge to some of the puzzles
(While I have a considerable amount of patience there are just some "not so nice" puzzles where I was kinda happy to have an outside-hint to(looking at you, beginning of Illusion Gate))
but never went to "that area" because "that area" is the kind of area that I do not enjoy.
I also didn't go to "that area" in the remake.
One thing to note is that remake is no carbon-copy of the original with brushed-up graphics but it also features some changes in puzzles and availabe items.


I've mainly made this thread to see with what people had problems what their favorite part is (you know what I mean),
because so far from what I've heard there is something different for everyone.

From here on out most stuff I write will be in spoilers (yes, the game is 9 / 3 years old, but still.
It's the kind of game you want to hide your spoilers for) and I ask of anyone who participates in this thread to do so as well where necessary.

Spoiler:
The thing I've heard the most was, that Bahamut is a huge pain. I can confirm that for the original,
where I waited as long as possible to beat him after smashing my head against him for a while but he is a total pushover in the remake.
I've tackled all the bosses without using subweapons in normal mode and while the combat in the remake is more difficult most of the time the difficulty of the bosses has shifted.
As I've said, Bahamut in the original just smashed me. I can't remember any other guardian being noteworthy, except for Tiamat
who, while apparently having as bad a reputation as Bahamut amongst players, was surprisingly easy for me.

In the remake Tiamat stayed easy, Eldrich Marisa Viy became easier as well (good thing these tentacles don't shoot anymore),
I've already talked about Bahamut.
Amphisbaena, Palenque and Baphomet weren't all that hard either.
The ones that gave me a hard time were, to my surprise, Sakit & Ellmac
(except in my second run, where I just knew that I could get both the Axe and it's power-up Rom-Combo right away and smashed them both).
This might be due to me not using subweapons and these two being rather difficult to properly get close to (Sakit especially in his second phase)
but they are still relatively speaking easy when compared to the hard-mode.

Yeah, Hard Mode. I'm doing that right now, under the same restriction of not using sub-weapons on guardians. 'Cause that's how I roll. (But no going to  "that area", okay?)
Before taking on any boss I did everything possible, like getting Axe, randc&Mekuri for lulzy damage, a crapton of life-jewels,
going to the Tower of the Goddess (sadly realized that you really can't get up to the save-point without the feather.) because why not and doing general stuff.
When I had all that and noticed once again that I had to kill at least Sakit or Ellmac to proceed I said to myself: I'll just go and beat up snake and fishy.
So I did. Amphisbaena and Bahamut are still pushovers, even in Harmode.
Sakit smashed me.
So I went to Ellmac.
He smashed me. I mean, really. He's stupid. Beat him anyway after some time because the rails were nice to me. Didn't like the fight too much.
I then also first noticed in that fight that the minecart and Ellmac get faster and faster the more damage you inflict. The more you know.



All in all La-Mulana is a neat game and if you're into the genre and one of the people that are a bit into solving intricate puzzles (heh)
then you should check it out.
Get the old version if "you broke, fool" as it still holds up and has its own qualities over the remake.

Oh, and it has great music by the way. Really great music.

I just wanted to write an introduction post not a novel, dammit. :V
« Last Edit: June 14, 2014, 03:10:29 PM by Yookie »

Garlyle

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Re: La-Mulana: That game about curry and traps
« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2014, 10:54:47 PM »
I've posted a thread on here once before about being as hyped as possible for La-Mulana 2.  I seriously put down 255$ as part of the kickstarter too.  Someday I should be getting my hands on the One-Hit-Kill Edition of the original game.

If my love for the game isn't obvious from that, I've also gotten the perfect ending in the remake (the post includes the conditions for that, which shortform, boil down to 'do absolutely everything, in <10 hours, on Hard).  I still regularly stream it and still love talking about it, and if there are people who still haven't given it a try but want to, I have two copies sitting in my Steam account from sales still that I want to just give away to people willing to try it.  I've got like a billion things I could talk about for this game because I almost know it like the back of my hand now but I'm not even sure where to start.

For the record, the hardest bosses are
Spoiler:
Ellmac and the final boss, hands down, this coming from a huge number of playthroughs on Hard
.  I'm so looking forward to their nonsense on One Hit Kill <8D
« Last Edit: June 07, 2014, 10:57:10 PM by Garlyle »

Yookie

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Re: La-Mulana: That game about curry and traps
« Reply #2 on: June 08, 2014, 03:18:34 PM »
Getting the perfect ending is quite the accomplishment. Well done!
If One Hit Kill is what it says on the can then I'll pass on that.

The way the Hard mode
Spoiler:
increases the amount of enemies feels really random to me. For some fields there are no real changes throughout the entire area, some become chock-full of enemies. But it's not really about the additional lesser enemies anyway, so whatever.
And apparently I've always died to Sakit before delivering the final blow, since his second phase only needs 4 hits with the fully powered up axe. I felt a little stupid.
But I've decided to postpone defeating Viy until way later. To just before preparing to fight Palenque, since he unlocks nothing else I can't get to through other means or that I need until after fighting all guardians.
I'm looking forward to Baphomet and especially Tiamat, since I was a bit disappointed with them.
Also: I'm a huge fan of the Key Sword, even before it gets powered up. It has a fast attack, a good angle, high range and doesn't deal as low damage as the game wants you to think. And I can just switch to the Axe/Katana without needing to change my ROMs. But the best thing about it must be that sound it makes when stabbing.

« Last Edit: June 08, 2014, 04:50:57 PM by Yookie »

Edible

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Re: La-Mulana: That game about curry and traps
« Reply #3 on: June 08, 2014, 04:03:22 PM »
La Mulana is perhaps the most fun I've had with an indie game.  It's just excellent, and I am stoked for La Mulana 2.

Yookie

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Re: La-Mulana: That game about curry and traps
« Reply #4 on: June 09, 2014, 02:58:52 PM »


So, yeah. But apparently I screwed up and didn't buy the pistol before beating up the final boss and forgot a chest somewhere (which I picked up now), so I'll have to do that again sometime to get at least everything on the credits-scene that I planned to get.

So, here's a recap about hard-mode. Or rather about the guardians, since the other changes are negligible:

Spoiler:
Amphisbaena: Well, first guardian. What can you expect?

Sakit: He gave me a lot of trouble. In normal-mode you can just stay inside his head for the last phase and kill him, since he doesn't have too much hp. Doesn't work in hard-mode and approaching him gets rather difficult.

Ellmac: He was mean to me. No talking about Ellmac. It's just not a fun fight for me.

Bahamut: Still way easier than in the original.

Viy: I waited a while till I tried to beat him which then turned out to be unnecessary. I had some trouble with him on normal-mode but this time he went down in the first try. Don't know what was up with that.

Baphomet: She actually has a fixed pattern in the first phase. I just never noticed since it ends so fast normally. Was quite difficult since the fight takes so long and I still didn't figure out how the lightning attack in the second phase works.

Palenque: Disappointing. Felt like he wasn't changed at all from normal-mode.

Tiamat: Same deal as Palenque.

The Mother: Garlyle why did you scare me like that. :V She didn't take much more of a beating than usual. Still don't know how to dodge the baby's laser in the second phase though.

Honorable mention to the bomb-guardian, he took me out way too often.

I'm still not going to "that area". Maybe I'm making too much of a fuss about it, but whatever.

Oh, and I might be a bit late to that party but I finally got what the name of the game is actually about after reading it in katakana on the title-screen. It's silly. :V
« Last Edit: June 09, 2014, 04:02:44 PM by Yookie »