La-Mulana

[h2]加点方式なら神ゲー、減点方式ならクソゲー[/h2] そんな表裏一体のゲーム。 特に留意しないといけないのは「謎解き適性にかかわらず、仕様上"しらみ潰し作業"を要求される」ということ。 具体的には [list] [*]必須アイテムの所在地がノーヒント [*]謎を解いた結果何が変化したのかが明示されない [/list] といったことがちょくちょくある感じ。 謎解きってだいたい「謎が解ければサクサク進む」ことを期待されがちだが、このゲームはその前提は成り立たないというところが大きな注意点である。 またその謎解き自体も [list] [*]「今解ける謎かどうか」を判定不能 [*]謎を解くための手がかり文が曖昧で解釈が一意に定まらない [/list] といった感じで、スッキリ綺麗に解けるかというと必ずしもそうでないものも混ざっている。 それらを踏まえて、プレイする人には「[b]無理せずヒントを見てもいいんだよ[/b]」とアドバイスをしておきたい。 前述のように割と欠陥も抱えた謎解きである以上、「ノーヒントは標準ではなく、むしろ縛りプレイみたいなものなんだ」と開き直るくらいがちょうどよいと思う。 特に中盤に「ファストトラベル関係で不便さを感じる場面」が出てくると思われるが、それについてはむしろさっさとヒントを見て解消しておくこと推奨まである（このゲームを嫌になる瞬間ってだいたいその部分が要因じゃないかな）。 ちなみにヒントサイトとしてはSteamガイド「Cheshire's hint-based guide to La-Mulana」がおすすめ。 いきなり解答ではなく段階的に示唆を与えるような作りになっている。 （ググると上の方に来る日本語ヒントサイトがあるが、それは一問一答なものの"示唆"ではなく"解答"を出してしまうものなので注意） 総じて [h3]加点要素も減点要素も山ほどあるゲームなので、うまく妥協して加点部分を中心に味わえば、十分良ゲーになるよ[/h3] という感じ。

Great game, hell temple made want to skin the dev alive

La-Mulana is the hardest game I've ever played. It not only demands that you understand how its platforming works to safely navigate the titular temple, but it also demands that you take notes and understand how its logic works just to make some progress. The artwork is top notch, the bosses are huge and imposing, the music is stellar, and each time you manage to overcome a difficult puzzle, a challenging boss, or find the right item to bypass an obstacle, you're gonna feel like a genius. If you're having trouble though, there are also guides you can find to help you along. I'm not hardcore enough to beat the game without help, but every puzzle has in-game hints to help you along, the challenge just comes from figuring out which clues are relevant to each puzzle.

This is a legendary game, and I feel that anyone who plays a lot of different games and has a lot of gaming experience has to give this a serious go at least once or twice. La Mulana has been on my radar for over a decade and I am glad I have finally gotten around to it. Before I get into any other details, I do have one piece of advice for new players. I am spoiler tagging it as it would impact how one goes about playing the game, but what I say doesn't really provide any specific information about any particular puzzle in the game. [spoiler] So obviously you will want to take notes -- my advice after going through multiple ways of trying to organize my notes is to keep written record of the text you encounter and critically designate one section for "text I have not yet used or understood fully".[/spoiler]. I think a lot of people say to play this game with a guide, I don't think that is necessary but if it makes the difference between playing the game and not playing, sure whatever (at least stick to a hint-based guide and try to figure stuff out on your own). I'd actually recommend installing a fan translation (I'm sure there's a trusted one somewhere) over using a guide. Anyway, my actual review for this game comes from the angle of "this would be the best game of all time if not for". There is way too much to cover all the good things about the game, though I'll shout out the amazing music, theming/visual aesthetic, and several really good and cleverly designed [spoiler] bosses [/spoiler] -- though not all of them are and that's okay. The following is my wishlist (that I may update as I remember things) for what I would prefer to be different: * The translation: You can tell there are inconsistencies in how "same" Japanese text is treated in different locations. For example there are three adjoining rooms with two called Babel and one is called Baberu. The example is not a big deal, but this really comes through with puzzles or even basic instructions that the game tries to provide you. * Visual clarity: The pixelated graphics are generally fine, but then you'll randomly have some piece of scaffolding that is climbable or some drawing on a tablet (or on an in-game object) that is just really hard to parse visually. Also weird that e.g. there are multiple depictions of the same thing that are inconsistent (e.g. dais depictions in tablets are vaguely similar, but definitely distinct from each other. why?) * "The game that doesn't want to be played": my first impression playing was that the game just didn't want to be played -- not in a "hostile design" way, in a "literally press every button on the keyboard to figure out how to pause or do anything" way. Would it kill to give the player any kind of instructions on how to play the game at all? Okay sure there's the "additional content" section in steam that I eventually noticed that links to a manual, but the manual also gives you arguably too much info. * In-game map improvement: I think this would be a controversial idea among La Mulana fans, but after having seen how Emuurom handles it's map, I wish we had some similar features in La Mulana. Obviously multiple tablets per room changes the UI a bit, but still it would be really nice to be able to scroll the map and re-read your tablets from within Lemeza's computer. Bonus points for being able to mark tablets (even just like put a star or a checkmark or a heart or whatever, a preset list of symbols you can attach). * Holy grail: I didn't have any issues because of the way I played, but IMO the game should at some point tell you that you're playing it wrong if you've accessed a bunch of areas without finishing the first one. Xelpud is already making jokes all the time, it would fit his character to laugh at you for not having the grail. (yeah yeah, the manual... this isn't the 1950s people aren't reading the manual and arguably it is spoilery anyway!) * The scanner: This is my by-far biggest proposal and would require a monumental amount of work, but just imagine. Imagine if using the scanner actually showed you higher res (even if only in the sense of "zoomed in") the part of the screen you're scanning. If you've played blue prince, imagine something like the magnifying glass. I think this would be way better for immersion, and would also improve a lot of puzzles (like [gate of illusion][spoiler] the random spot on the wall you scan and research mode tells you that you see some mechanism and hear a sound... imagine instead that you actually get to scan the walls and personally spot the mechanism, maybe click on it and then the whirring happens. [/spoiler]) The example puzzle goes from "arbitrary action was coded by developers to let you move forward" to "you've figured out a secret of an ancient ruin". anyway, that's just some thoughts I accumulated. I think there's also some minor missed opportunities like [spoiler] palenque being a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ boss despite the cool theming, and amphisboena being boring as ♥♥♥♥ [/spoiler], or also I think it is a pacing issue [spoiler] just how much of a cliff the game drops you off after 4 guardians, and that the twin labyrinth is mostly useless the whole game despite several insinuations that you could make progress in it[/spoiler]. I think it contributes to the pacing issue that some of the easiest puzzles (or even nonpuzzles) have multiple text explanations and its just something you'd have thought to do either way (given the translation, probably before you understood the action is related to the text) -- and then things that are much harder will just have 1 mention. I also don't love the emails, I did use them pretty effectively for the "first half" of the game as signposts its not like the information in them doesn't help, but it is kind of immersion breaking (same goes for the goofy jokes about xelpud being a gamer) and then the emails just like vanish all of a sudden lol. There's also I think too much of "here's a minor inconvenience for you cause why not" -- oh this elevator doesn't work but you turn it on two rooms left if you happened to go there first, but otherwise you just have to walk a little bit more; oh you only get one shot at this puzzle aka to reset the puzzle instead of walking in and out of the room you have to quit and reload; oh you wanted to close the game we have made it entirely non-obvious how to open the pause menu and which option in the pause menu lets you do this. I don't think having all these attributes meaningfully contribute or are required to the identity of the game (and many players would probably gripe about the control scheme regardless, even though it suits the game quite well). anyway, I'll stop the stream of consciousness there :)

absolutely terrible controls a ♥♥♥♥ ass hitbox that never works half the time bad puzzles i would not wish this game on my worst enemy i play darksouls and there hard because there meant to be this game is hard because it is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ TERRIBLY DESIGNED IN EVERY ASPECT NEVER PLAY THIS GAME ID NEVER WISH THIS ON MY WORST ENEMY

El metroidvania definitivo. Rebosa carisma, ingenio y personalidad en cada píxel, ofreciendo una de las aventuras más inolvidables (y estresantes) del medio.

这是一款主角从残疾人变成正常人的游戏（ 前期的手感很糟糕，但随着探索和解密的推进，主角性能和血量上来了，就会变成一场场的科考和返回休整。 虽然自己探索很有趣但是还是推荐看看攻略先拿到传送。 以及比起深入探索一个区域，这款游戏鼓励浅尝辄止和往返探索。在某个区域初期拿到一些有用的道具，可能会在其它区域才排上用场，有些机关在二次激活后才会产生效果等。很多的线索可能很前期就会看到，但到中期甚至后期才会用得上，而且有些截图功能也在中期，所以这能手动记笔记 orz但是解密真的很爽，尤其是那种误打误撞找到可解密的地方，在结合线索完成时，很有成就感。 属于不浮躁耐心玩下去才会很有趣的游戏。但又很多设计和玩家性能确实是非常糟糕的手感。确实是复古风格的游戏体验，但也保留了很多复古的糟粕。以及线索分布的广度和跨度太大，甚至有些缺乏头绪，导致体验很容易红温但却很上头 更新1：线索太过分散，当到一定程度之后 会变得毫无头绪可言，某些关键线索之间的联系根本就不存在！很多你认为的东西却并非如此，甚至有些反常识到戏耍玩家的意味在里面。 尤其卡关很久终于找到boss，战之后，解锁了什么都不知道又需要漫无目的的重新跑图寻找微乎其微的变化来前进，又或者有些甚至连线索都不存在的对话 会要求你重返某个风马牛不相及的地方才能得到线索。事已至此，建议打完boss之后直接看攻略知道解锁了什么。虽然解密确实很有趣，自己想到的一些线索串联起来也很有趣，但这种硬是拆散解容和线索关联的设计实在让我难以认同 更新2: 释然了，解锁了隐藏模式看到了开发者npc的对话后也就释然了。但是果然很多的解密一但第一思路错了就很容易想歪orz