La-Mulana

Full stop one of the best metroidvanias ever made. It's brutally cruel, not in the precision platformer sense but in the sense that it expects you to pay very close attention to absolutely everything. Go in with a notebook and a lot of patience and you'll be rewarded with a game that respects your intelligence and trusts you to work out some of the hardest puzzles in gaming and will make you feel like a genius when you do it. There are many people this game won't be For, but for the right person this will instantly become a personal favourite. It's certainly one of mine. Oh, and make sure to read the manual thoroughly.

Hated every moment of it. Best game of my life. 10/10

La Mulana was a…. unique experience to put it lightly. In a lot of ways I appreciate what the game was going for and wish there were more titles like it. Plopped in these huge and sprawling ruins you have to explore and solve a variety of open-ended puzzles often with limited hints, use info gleaned from one area in a completely different area and context, and keep a close eye on various environmental details. It's a strong foundation and in some ways feels like a precursor to some later Metroidvania and adventure game titles. But while I like the general direction, its execution was deeply flawed thanks to how many puzzles relied more on their obscurity and bespoke mechanics over any particularly clever design. Throw in a lot of wasted time and some very rough gameplay and the overall experience ended up being much worse than what it felt like the game was actually capable of achieving. --------------------------------- Luckily for me, I got to play La Mulana in what's probably the ideal way of doing so. I had a friend already familiar with the game watching over my shoulder who could provide hints, confirm or deny theories, or point out exceptionally stupid puzzles so I could bypass them altogether. As a result I was spared from a lot of the game’s worst aspects though I was still aware of them as they played. Even if a friend isn't available, you should at least use a guide because I can confirm that this would be absolute hell to play blind for reasons which should be clear before long. ------------------------------- The core issue with much of La Mulana’s design is with the general structure of the game and its puzzles. Aside from the first two areas where everything tends to be effectively contained, a huge portion of the puzzles in the game will separate the hints from the area where you apply them in a way that can be interesting but causes far more issues than its worth. You may read a hint in one area and have no idea what it's for because it applies to a puzzle on the opposite side of the map that you won't reach for another 20 hours, by which point you’ll forget the hint ever existed. Or likewise you can find a spot where there’s clearly a puzzle but you have no means of solving it because the hint is somewhere completely different. These aspects can be interesting, though without guardrails their annoyance far outweighs any strengths they have. What’s much worse is when it's unclear whether you have the means of solving a puzzle. Because of the aforementioned gaps between hints and execution, even in cases where you do have everything necessary to solve a puzzle you might skip them because you don't realize that you have the necessary pieces, made common by just how obscure some of the puzzles can be. Even more annoying are some of the items and mechanics you use to solve puzzles. There are a good deal you’ll use throughout the game but plenty of others are essentially one or two time uses. Suddenly solving a puzzle isn't enough and you instead need to solve it while having a specific item equipped (the item in question not actually doing anything but still needs to be in your hand for the solution to count). It's annoying enough when you only use the item once and can ignore it the rest of the game but you’ll occasionally use an item for a 2nd time in a completely different context without any real hint. --------------------------- There are a handful of cases where La Mulana’s structure works quite well and forces you to keep track of and synthesize a lot of information at once to figure something out. But these few good puzzles are far outweighed by how many feel like they were scattered around the map and left for the player to figure out without any real structure or logic to guide them. Meanwhile certain other mechanics can actively discourage aimless wandering in search of solutions by putting such a high cost on it. There are doors which can only be opened with weights, but they will close again after you leave the area so a second run through an area requires you buy another weight to re-open the same door. And the large and often interconnected maps means that trying to find your way to a specific point can be quite an endeavor even in situations where you know where you want to go. You’re definitely intended to be taking notes as you play but even if you do so it's no guarantee you’ll write down the detail that actually matters unless you’re painstakingly recording everything regardless of whether it turns out to be puzzle related. --------------------------- While the puzzles are the real core of the game, the gameplay is also a major part of the experience. And unfortunately it contributes even further to making the overall experience a negative one. Movement is rather awkward when it comes to how it handles your speed and momentum especially when you jump. Because of how momentum is carried and how little control you have over your trajectory after jumping you can land in wildly different places depending on just a small difference in your initial conditions which can really screw with the game’s many platforming sections and bosses which require precise jumps. And even more annoyingly is how you lose all momentum and control upon being hit all the way until you fall to the ground. This wouldn’t normally be an issue in a game, but the level design of La Mulana can make falling down a screen a big issue since many paths are one-way only and going just one screen away from where you’re supposed to might force you to start back from the beginning of an area. Some late game areas are extremely vertical and thus getting hit might cause you to fall down multiple screens and then climb your way back up each time. The combat is similarly flawed. While most normal enemies don’t pose a threat they can still be a hassle to deal with once you reach the midgame, particularly in conjunction with other environmental hazards. You can deal with them quickly once you’re close enough to attack with melee (ranged weapons are all consumable and are too scarce to be worth using against non-bosses) but the combination of the weird movement, ranged-attacking enemies, and various platforming and obstacles present in most areas can make doing so a real hassle. And enemies will respawn whenever you leave an area or even traverse just a handful of screens which can make exploring an area needlessly annoying when you need to fight the same enemies over and over again despite never leaving the vicinity. And worst of all are the bosses. Some are fine and relatively easy, but most (especially later in the game) can only be beaten in one of two ways. Either you stock up on projectiles and spam them until the boss is dead or you find some other cheese strategy to avoid fighting it as regular. Because fighting some of these bosses in a standard way can be a genuinely painful experience thanks to the mix of tight platforming and attack avoidance with limited windows for your own attacks. I get that the game wants to have combat so there’s something else to do other than endless obscure puzzle solving and to provide a bit of friction, but I can’t endorse just how messy the execution actually was. --------------------------------- For now, while I do admire La Mulana in a lot of ways I can’t bring myself to recommend it without a lot of asterisks attached. In the best case scenario you should play it with somebody else who can offer specific hints to you and barring that an online guide to give hints for specific puzzles is a good bet. You definitely shouldn’t play blind unless you really hate yourself. But if you are a really inquisitive person and La Mulana’s puzzle design sounds interesting for you I can see this being a decent way to spend your time so long as you have the right expectations going in.

[h3] 《La-Mulana》—— 献给考据狂与受苦者的知识锁神作[/h3] 终于玩完《La-Mulana》了。回顾了一下，光是我的笔记文件就占了 580 MB，里面包含了大部分的碑文、小地图以及我自己的思考。对这款游戏的评价我确实非常纠结，所以打算先从我自己的体验讲起。 我最早接触《La-Mulana》是在 2015 年 9 月的 PSV 港服会免。当时中文游戏很少，我以为这就是款普通的“小嘎拉米”游戏，靠着连蒙带猜就开始玩了。因为完全看不懂那些古英语碑文（那会儿的机翻也不行），我只能全靠“舔图”——不断地走、不断地乱 A 墙。可就算这样，在纯瞎玩了 40 个小时后，我竟然莫名其妙获得了两个安卡宝石，打败了两个 Boss，还误打误撞进了困难模式。现在通关后再看，小时候的我居然能在不看碑文的情况下熬到第二个 Boss，这毅力足以给自己颁个成就了。不过，这游戏连房间名都不知道是没法死磕到底的，当时我卡在伊甸园连怎么解放都不知道。小时候的我对它自然没什么好评价，觉得折磨了 40 个小时还没通关，简直“不是人玩的游戏”，避之不及。但也因为当时玩的游戏少，遇到 Boss 越难我反而越兴奋，至少比在什么也没变化的世界里到处撞墙要好。 2015 到 2026 年，整整十一年过去了。看到朋友们都在玩二代，我决定在开坑二代前，重新挑战一下一代。这次我选择了和玩《蓝图王子》时一样的打法：我和朋友“双人成行”。我负责操作主角小杉在遗迹里受苦，朋友就像“地上的村长老头”一样在电脑前看碑文指挥我。这种“两个臭皮匠顶个诸葛亮”的配合，极大地改善了游戏体验，让流程稍微顺畅了一些。 我说“稍微顺畅”，是因为这游戏的动作和战斗实在太难了！先声明，我通关时没进困难模式，并且除了双头蛇 Boss 外，全程使用了 Cheat Engine 开了“锁血”（血量锁住，但保留受击击退）。所以我并没有完整体验它 90 年代那种硬核的战斗流程，而是完全专注于了解谜。但这依然不妨碍我深刻体会到那个著名的官方嘲讽特产——“这就是 La-Mulana！”。它总会在你情绪极度崩溃、被坑得死去活来的时候弹出成就，如同嘲讽一般。 这里的地图布满了作者的恶意：跳跃没有空气控制，你从哪儿下落就必定落在哪儿。换区时初见怪物的位置极其阴险，只要被碰一下就会被强制击飞，然后精准落到刺上大出血；就像《掘地求升》一样，好不容易爬到顶点，被一只小蝙蝠或小鱼人一头撞回谷底。我开锁血的真正契机是在拿二段跳前：我在地上瀑布那里想拿个宝箱，结果被一只飞着的秃鹫折磨了半个多小时。好不容易要拿到了，却发现竟然还有一堆蝙蝠在守着你，服了……爬梯子被顶、跳跃被顶，每次受击还强制偏离路线，九成的情况都会掉下去。后来我才发现，如果你先去拿到二段跳，根本不需要跟它死磕！这种“难题后置”、解谜顺序极度开放的设计，如果你不看攻略，往往会吃哑巴亏。 因为流程极度开放，8 大安卡宝石可以随意使用，导致每个人的心路历程完全不同。比如我小时候极早遇到了妖精，而这次却很晚才获得妖精的帮助。这也导致这游戏网上的攻略大多“没法看”：大家进度不同，你如果完全按攻略走，就会变成无情的执行机器；如果不按攻略走，卡关时几乎只能靠自己，因为别人就算告诉你答案，也无法解释这个推导过程。所以，玩这游戏必须要自己记笔记！并且笔记一定要有全局搜索功能，不能只停留在截图翻译的表面，因为有太多跨房间的解谜线索。 比如太阳神殿的“咒文”谜题，就因为我少收集了一个核心提示，导致死活找不出规律；拿到提示后才恍然大悟，正推不行就得倒推。这种贯穿全局的“表里世界”和“循环”谜题非常精妙，它全程都在暗示你，但需要玩家有极高的悟性才能串联起来。我相信，每个通关玩家的笔记，最后都能整理成一份详尽的 Wiki。如果不是我前期的笔记做得有点水，我都想把它开源到网上了。所以我决定，等玩《La-Mulana 2》时一定要做得非常详细，把它变成一份攻略资产。 还得吐槽一下这游戏的全成就，比 PSV 版还难。流程上有很多“做了就无法回头”的恶意，比如贤者的某个谜题，一旦进错房间触发了机关，就算读档也无法挽回；再比如收集女主穆尔（Mulbruk）的所有对话，因为流程极度自由，一旦错过某个节点就永远错过了，看文字攻略都极难补救；更别提“困难模式只使用主武器打败所有 Boss”这种对于手残党不可能完成的挑战了。 虽说被这些恶意折磨得不轻，甚至小时候还做过被锁在太阳神殿里的噩梦，但在通关后我却感到一阵怅然。这游戏带给我的“尤里卡时刻”真的是无可替代的。当你纯靠自己和朋友的推理，懂了什么叫“做个小男人吧”、懂了“苹果是这样放的”、懂了“要跪下才能继续”、懂了为什么“房间名真的很重要”；当你面对那段“傻瓜与智者”的碑文，深思熟虑后决定留在原地的那一刻，那种震撼是看攻略绝对体会不到的。市面上能给我纯粹“知识锁”震撼的，上一款还是《星际拓荒》。 最后，这游戏对“考据迷”来说绝对是量大管饱的福利。探究“母亲”的设定，研究第八代、第七代子女的区别，还有引导之门对应的玛雅文明、无限回廊的中国神话、双子迷宫的古希腊文明、诞生之碑的印度教……和朋友一起推理这些神话大杂烩，简直是一大乐事。 但是，我不推荐任何现代的快节奏玩家去碰它；但我强烈推荐那些玩过《星际拓荒》等知识锁游戏、觉得市面上同类代餐太少的朋友，去挑战一下《La-Mulana 1》（打不过开修改器防被折磨就行）。 2026年6月更新：最近看到了一份 2026 年 4 月才出的新攻略，直接惊呆了。我通关后才发现，竟然还有整整一个大地图（类似时间之门那种额外区域）我从头到尾都没进过。我感觉没有任何碑文引导我去那里，以后有空再研究吧。说了这么多，我也准备好去开坑《La-Mulana 2》了，至少，二代有中文了！

This dev deserves the worst punishment ever, some House Bolton stuff you know? If this game did not exist, the world would be a better place.

I had to think long and hard about this one, but I cannot recommend the game. I did enjoy my experience with it but I am in the vast minority of players and even I end up coming away from the game disappointed. I enjoy retro games, I enjoy challenges, I enjoy ball punching difficulty and this game has those things. But nobody is completing this game without either a guide or hundreds of hours. There are still guides with certain achievements that can't say with 100% certainty how to get them. Some of the puzzles in the game work very well and you'll feel good figuring them out. Some of them are beyond impossible without trial and error for hours on end. If you DO want to play this game, I would say generally the first 4 bosses are doable. Then the next two, doable but you will need to put in a lot of work. For the last 2 bosses? Dozens of hours of work. For the last boss? You've cheated. You did not figure it out and if anybody asked you to show your work you would not be able to. I have heard that the 2nd game in the series is more approachable and one day I will check it out, but on this night I cannot recommend anybody this game unless they are specifically looking to spend 100+ hours wandering around checking every wall, logging every bit of game text in a notebook, and hand drawing maps of every room.

A bit of a product of it's time, but in a way that I really, really enjoy. A puzzle adventure game that puts a lot of emphasis on the puzzles to the point it's a bit ridiculous. Many puzzles are cryptic, inconvenient, and at points even reasonably impossible to the common person to not brute force through. I've beaten through 80% of the game without hints, only truly taking them once I felt like I was in a complete and utter standstill. It was not too often, because sometimes it takes just a little push to get it rolling. The thing to expect about this game is that it's designed to be difficult. It's designed to piss you off at times, and sometimes it just makes fun of you. You have to go into this game with the mindset that at some points you'll be toyed with, and you just have to play around it. Get used to unfair deaths and weird situations. For me, it was fun to go through it despite that. The style of the game is very tasteful. Being a remake, it follows the vision of the original very well as far as I've seen, and it does it with love. The art-style is stupendously good, along with the music having so much good tracks it's hard not to get hooked into it. What I enjoy about the game is also how well it integrates the lore into it's puzzles, managing to have you interested in parts of it while also progressing and figuring out further. (I also need to put in bragging rights about getting the This Isn't Even My Final Form achievement, which took me a straight whole day.)

Combat and movement feel awful. The "puzzles" are not fun, the vast majority of them boil down to writing down every note you see and then when you enter a new room check your notes to see if any mention what is in the room and if so then follow the instructions in the note. It is not fun to figure out, it is just time consuming and tiring.

DNF The controls suck, the RNG bosses suck, the hit boxes suck, the ping-ponging back and forth between enemies (and spikes) sucks, the intensely irritating enemy placement sucks, the getting hit and not being able to move again until you touch the ground sucks, and the puzzles (which are often purposefully obtuse, and in many cases illogical) suck. There's a big difference between games that refuse to hold your hand, and ones that want to cut it off and take a dump on it. This one's not worth the toilet paper it was conceived on. Bye