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 itIt'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