La-Mulana

[Marcus]

La-Mulana is a pretty fun independent game made by a small team of Japanese developers to have the same look and feel of a classic MSX game and even the on-line manual was custom designed to look like a classic manual.* The graphics are pretty crude, but the game plays out like a mix between Castlevania and Legend of Zelda II.* You run around massive dungeons, kill monsters, collect gold and items, and solve some pretty tough puzzles.* The game is pretty difficult at the start, but as you get further in the game it starts focusing less on action and more on puzzle elements (although there's still quite a bit of monsters to kill).* The graphics are poop, but the music is actually pretty awesome for integrated chip tunes and the game is fairly lengthy (12 hours in and I'm only about 50% done).*

Basically, it's the best indie game since Cave Story. Download it, it's free and you have no excuse not to try it at once. It might change the way you look at videogames... kind of like Seiklus did.

Screenshots, Download, English Patch

 

[Marcus]

Wow. Nobody wants to play this? It's free, it's long, it's challenging...

gawd

 

[Sketch]

I played it, but I personally didn't find it all that fun. It's awesome how they designed it to be -just- like an old MSX game (even with the boot screen and such) but I just didn't like it all that much. Was never a -huge- fan of old school platformers (save Mega Man and Mario :P) but this one is at least worth a look by anyone remotely interested in them.

I love that site...I've gotten many a Japanese game translated through them and enjoyed it thorughly. it's how I got/first heard about Cave Story (Now -there's- a platformer) :P

 

[Marcus]

It is a pretty difficult game and it's an acquired taste. It takes a while to get into and it has a pretty steep learning curve too. I hated it at first, but after an hour of playing when I figured out how to actually PLAY the damn thing, I loved it. I'm 40 hours into it and near the final boss. No other platform game, even professional, offered that kind of playtime without resorting to cheap filler tactics. This game is just very long.

 

[Sketch]

Jesus, 40hrs?!?

I may have to take another look at this one...As I was the same way, realy turned off at first...but if it's that massive and as good as you say...I may have to try and work through it....interesting

 

[Marcus]

I recommend going to youtube and watching the La-Mulana strategy guide. It's 80 episodes long and each episode is 5 to 10 minutes long but it details how to beat all the tough parts. Your best bet is to watch the first 4 episodes which tell you how to start off and how to get the holy grail (which allows you to set warp points instead of BACKTRACKING). Once you figure out the basics, the game instantly becomes more enjoyable because you can figure everything else out on your own.