I just started this gem of a game and I am in love. So what is La Mulana well its a metroidvania kind of game, your Indy Jones like character even starts with a whip. While the look and structure is similar thats about where the similarities end cause La Mulana is far more brutal than any of those games. In reality its like SOTN meets Fez meets Demon's Souls, it is BRUTAL.

There is no hand holding and not much of any direction, you simply start the game and go. You traverse rooms like in SOTN but soon find that most of the rooms have some tablets that you cant read. Some have chests that you cant open. Some places lead you to horrible traps that lead to your death. You see contraptions that you have no clue how to activate and figure well I dont have any of the necessary tools yet.

Eventually you find a store that sells a decoder so you can read the tablets which are usually filled with riddles. And here is where it becomes Fez like, each room is like a puzzles that you have to figure out by using a combination of the clues from the tablet and what items you have. Some are simple, most require some advanced thinking. Some are multi stage riddles that require you to keep notes (you can buy a program that records notes for you but I still have pictures of the screen on my phone cause it was not enough.)

I still have no clue what to do in the room in that pic. The tablet tells me to fall on the platforms from high up but I cant get that high up as the screen above is just a celing. Thats the kinds of situations you will find yourself in all the time.

Exploration is huge cause you can totally stumble your way into much later levels you should not be in. I ended up in a water level where all the water kills me. Clearly I should not have been there but I was able to solve a few puzzles so I kept up at it.

And I died and died and died and died and kept coming back.  Eventually figuring out I must have missed something from before cause this is way too hard. Yup skipped like 3 whole levels I should have done first. Like Demon's Souls you will stumble into areas you probably shouldnt enter but I was able to get some new items ahead of time by doing it out of order. Speaking of order I am still not sure what order anything is in. I have yet to fight a boss, I have three "boss key" type things and no boss, who knows how to activate that.

I am trying my best to play with no guide, I will probably fail at some point but for now I am making some progress. When you solve a complex puzzle it feels soooo good. This is not a simple "use the new item on the thing you couldn't activate earlier".  You will go through the same rooms 10 or 20 times just wondering wtf am I missing and eventually it will click. Even though I am making progress I still feel like this

So far the actual combat part hasnt been so bad but you dont have much life so you will have to teleport back to a heal spring at the start of the game a lot to refiill your life. Now to show how pure evil this game is I accidentally unlocked a hard mode that you cannot deactivate. There was this stone that said dont read it twice. Well I guess I returned to that room much later and forgot cause I read the stone and a bunch of new enemies spawned. This makes the entire game practically impossible to beat. Luckily I had a save before then but I will lose 2 hours of progress because of it. I had no clue it made the entire game harder. EVIL.

So that is the kind  of game you are getting. If a brutal game where you will be totally lost and confused doesnt sound like fun to you then you should pass. But if you enjoy a challenge,iIf you want to think to solve difficult puzzles this game is for you. It's brilliant. I just started and I feel overwheled but I feel something even better, that sense that I dont know what lies ahead. I have played so many games, I am so used to every gaming cliche, every by the book puzzle that nothing surprises me anymore. Well this game suprises me and that is special.

I just got this quote from the detructoid review:

f you go into La-Mulana like any ol' action game and don't pay attention to literally everything, you will find yourself wandering the halls lost and confused for hours. You can't take anything for granted -- the faintest etchings on the walls could offer some hint as to what item must be used. You must treat every word, every artifact, every structure like it's the most significant thing in the universe. Read those riddles with the same focus you would dedicate towards open-heart surgery.

This is assuming that you can even solve the riddles. Some are so vague or obtuse that you may try to convince yourself that you can solve the mysteries of the ruins without any hints. Of course, that would be a mistake, as the odds of stumbling across a room's solution by chance grow slimmer and slimmer the deeper into the ruins you delve.

What's so incredible about these puzzles is that, despite how infuriatingly impossible they seem, there is always going to be a clue. If you can't find one, it just means you haven't been looking in the right spots. The game wants you to get lost, wants you to throw your hands up in despair, yet it provides all the tools necessary for success if you just take the time to track them down. Learning the art of intense scrutiny might prove difficult for players who are accustomed to more expedited forms of gameplay.

Remember, this nontraditional brand of challenge is in addition to ball-busting murder at the hands of the ruins' traps and guardians.

Damn. What have I gotten into.... awesomeness!

I could swear I started a topic about this a long time ago, but...

...Good Luck with it! Can't wait for your reaction to Terraria!

We can compare notes (on either) when I eventually get back to it!

Gonna leave THIS here too...

Just something to refer to when you try that OTHER game you got!

I have defeated two bosses and am at a third one that is kicking my ass. These bosses are really cool, giant full screen monsters often times in moments where you are in some vehicle, for a 2D game it has some nice effects, classic SNES type stuff.

I think I am doing ok with the puzzles, I kind of have a grasp how this works. Its more like get a clue in one area for another area that you passed 2 hours ago and now you might be able to figure out that room which then gives you something you need in a totally different area. The game is totally non linear, expect lots of backtracking but the warp system is pretty good so its not that bad.

The sense of satisfaction from this game is huge. Just getting to a new area is like a monumental accomplishment.

How far did you get Leo?

Ok now I am making some progress. I needed a nudge in the right direction so I used a guide just to figure out where I should be going next and it helped tremendously. I have discovered this game is more like SOTN than I though, there is a whole other alternate world, ahhhh. Its MASSIVE. I am back to getting new items, that thrill of discover, the fear of something crazy waiting to kill me in the next room.

If any of you play this dont be afraid to use a guide simply to get your bearings straight. Wandering for hours with no clue what to do is not fun and ruins the whole experience.

This game is impossible.What kind of evil people designed this.

Back to bashing my head into a wall for 3 hours.

Wrong, Vader. It's a scientific fact that nothing is harder than DS.