La-Mulana – Anokturnus

I usually only review pure puzzle games, but La-Mulana was so great I had to.

First, don’t bother reading if you have no patience or don’t like riddles, this game just isn’t for you.

For the others, La-Mulana is a metroidvania that heavily focuses on riddles and difficulty. It’s designed to be hard, confusing and sometimes unfair.
It’s hard from the beginning, especially as you’re not used to the game yet. You can easily be put off, but don’t give up.

Now, what’s this game about?

One day, Mother, an alien being, fell from the sky. As she couldn’t go back, she gave birth to her first children and asked them to find a way to send her back. They couldn’t, and thus were destroyed by Mother. She repeated that cycle until humanity was born, and this is where your story begins.
You’re Lemeza Kosugi, an archeologist, and you’re tasked with exploring the ruins of La-Mulana, the birthplace of all civilizations.

As I said above, those ruins are full of riddles, secrets and traps. While your main goal is to beat the guardians of the ruins, your true goal as a player is rather to find any way to progress in this maze/mess.
You’ll regularly be overjoyed when you find a new area or item, thinking that finally you won’t be stuck anymore. Only to realize it just added more cryptic stuff to decypher and you’re stuck again.

Metroidvanias are usually rather straightforward, you explore an area, find an item that unlocks a previously unreachable area and repeat.
La-Mulana is more like : you find a riddle in area 1 that has its solution in area 4, it gives you an item that you can use in area 6 that has a riddle for area 7 etc. You have to be extremely thorough.
The game allows you to keep track of 10 pieces of text (20 with an upgrade) and I played using only that and my memory: DON’T DO THAT (especially if you have a bad memory or don’t play a lot).
Everything has its use, you have to keep track of literally everything and screen anything you can read (even what seems to be just lore) or anything suspicious. There are a few riddles that are extremely hard and obscure even with the hints but if you do what I said, the vast majority of the game will be fine.

And if you ever need guidance, a perfect guide was made by Cheshire. This guide allows you to confirm whether a puzzle is doable at your state of the game or not. If it is, then fine you just go back and think. If it isn’t, then it reduces the possibilities and that’s still a huge help.
Only use this if you’re really going crazy, don’t abuse it, and try to never read any solution. This game is so rewarding when you find a secret or solve a riddle.

The ruins of La-Mulana are very diverse. There are your classic lava, water, snow etc areas, but covered with mythology. As it is the birthplace of all civilizations, every area is indeed based on different mythologies. There’s something special with the atmosphere of this game, it feels so good to explore. As you’ll have to backtrack and take the same path a LOT, that’s fortunate.
Another huge positive point is the music. From the very first second, the soundtrack is incredible and sets the mood.
With well-crafted areas, riddles and excellent music, you just perpetually want more.

The control of Lemeza is smooth but there are rules that render platforming a bit strange and punishing. When you take damage, Lemeza is pushed back and unable to move. That means Lemeza will fall like a rock until he hits the floor if he is struck. There’s also no air control when you fall from an edge without jumping (this seems like it’s nothing but trust me it can be annoying).
Fortunately, the platforming aspect isn’t hard. Sure, sometimes you need to execute a few “precise” jumps and ennemies viciously placed can be annoying. But apart from the Hell Temple (which is a bonus ultra-lategame area), nothing is made to be very hard.

The mini-bosses and bosses are a huge part of the game and I have mixed feelings about them. They are epic that’s for sure, but it’s strangely balanced. Let me explain.
The bosses of the first two areas are the only ones that feel like you can beat them without taking damage. You can dodge and attack them after without putting you in danger. But every other bosses is usually like : go near, trade a bit of your life for a few hits because your weapons are too short and repeat.
It’s fun in the beginning and midgame, it feels like a challenge. Your main weapons don’t deal a lot of damage at this stage so you can make good use of your subweapons and dodge.
However in the lategame, dodging is just a waste of time (you can’t dodge AND attack with your main weapons at this point, it’s far too hard) and your subweapons are either too difficult to use on them or don’t deal enough damage. The only remaining option is to go braindead and spam while using the invincibilty frames you get after being hit.
So yeah, the bosses aren’t bad but the best option is often not what you’d like from a boss.

La-Mulana is for players who want a real challenge, a game that will put their brain, skills and patience to their limits.
I wonder how I could miss this game for so long, and I can’t recommend it enough if you’re still determined to try.

A unique masterpiece.

Developer: NIGORO
Publisher: PLAYISM
Platforms: Steam – Windows/Linux/macOS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Switch, Wii, Xbox One
Release Date: April 15, 2013