La-Mulana 2

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Summary

In La-Mulana 2, you will take on the role of Lumisa Kosugi on a mission to find the entrance to the ruins of Eg-Lana, which is rumored to be the source of recent monster appearances. The ruins themselves are compromised of a variety of areas as well as huge boss creatures known as Guardians. Who knows what lies in wait at the end of Eg-Lana?


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La-Mulana 2 Reviews & Ratings

100
Review by Cubed3
August 12, 2020

La-Mulana 2 ranks as one of the greatest metroidvanias ever made. It is steeped in lore, and has an elaborate interconnected world. The constant drip-feed of upgrades and items with devious traps and puzzles keep the pace flowing nicely for several dozen hours. It even has a sense of humour too, making even the most tired and cynical gamer stop for a moment to have a good laugh. It is such a confidently designed 2D adventure, with a clear and focused vision that has incredibly mature sensibilities. The overall aesthetics and music are the absolute tops that the genre has to offer, and Takumi Naramura proves himself to be a true master of his craft.

60
Review by tehko [user]
July 4, 2020

After putting around 50 hours into this game I'm about ready to give up on it because the frustration is starting to outweigh any satisfactionAfter putting around 50 hours into this game I'm about ready to give up on it because the frustration is starting to outweigh any satisfaction or fun I'm getting out of it. I feel the need to vent even though maybe no one will ever read this. I played the first La Mulana and enjoyed it after accepting that I would need to look up several of the late game puzzle solutions online. Hoping that the sequel would improve on some of the shortcomings of the original, I had really high expectations after such a long wait. La Mulana 2 does so many things very well: the visuals, the music, the atmosphere of mystery and sense of exploration really draw you in initially, just like the original La Mulana. But so many aspects of it are just plain bad in my opinion.First of all the game performance feels poorly optimized. Load times feel inexplicably long for a 2D game that is not even remotely graphically demanding. Occasionally the framerate stutters, which can happen at the most inopportune moments causing you to miss jumps, usually leading to instant death. The controls, while slightly improved compared to the first one, still feel needlessly stiff and awkward. After playing games like Ori and Hollow Knight, which have amazingly fluid responsive character movements, La Mulana 2 just feels a lot less fun than it could be. A lot of the difficulty stems purely from the awkward controls, which in this day and age is quite frankly just poor game design in my opinion. Many of the boss battles feel very underdeveloped. Initially most seem impossible until you discover that you can stand in certain places and pretty easily avoid damage and just spam range weapons. In one particular case the boss moves incredibly fast compared to you, but I got it into a loop where we just traded attacks one for one leading to a victory of attrition since I had enough health. When the simplest and best way to beat a boss involves cheap tricks, that's not good game design.All of this I was willing to forgive though, because the game really does enough things well to hook you. However, progression in the game just gets frustrating to the point of tedious after a while. It does not feel well thought through enough for such a complex game. Too many areas open up fairly early on, giving you too much space to trudge through as you maneuver your way around countless instant death traps over and over again trying to figure out what you need to do in order to progress. For me, worst of all is that it feels like some of the clues are written in such a way as that key words and phrases are designed to be deliberately misleading. Maybe it's a translation problem, but after finally breaking down and looking up a few of the solutions online, I was very disappointed. Some solutions require very loose interpretations of the clues. You keep thinking that maybe you need some item or need to chant some mantra that you haven't acquired yet, or will find some clue that you missed, so you end up wandering around aimlessly for hours.In some cases you just have to talk to some npc again in order to trigger something essential to progress. Sometimes the game makes this clear, other times not at all, and it's something easy to overlook as the game overwhelms the player with information, much of it useless, or only useful until much later. This tends to just encourage trial and error. I read an interview with the developer who actually said that many of the puzzles are designed to reward trial and error. It is really unfortunate that they put so much emphasis on making the game punishing and deliberately frustrating, instead of putting a little more effort into making it fun to play. The obsessive stubborn part of me may win out and compel me to finish the game eventually, but I no longer expect it to be enjoyable or rewarding. The game actually tells you early on, anyone who values their life should leave immediately. Maybe I should have taken that advice.

80
Review by FNintendo
May 7, 2020

La-Mulana 2 is a sequel that improves on the legacy of its predecessor in nearly every single way and which brings an overall improved Metroidvania experience to the Nintendo Switch. Its difficulty level may get frustrating sometimes but dedicated players will be duly rewarded by the effort they put into it, and with its charming 16-bit era visual world, wonderful soundtrack and entertaining plot and dialogues, La-Mulana 2 will certainly appeal to most players out there.

65
Review by Xbox Tavern
April 16, 2020

La-Mulana 2 is just as fun, frustrating and tricky as its predecessor. It has improved on some of the aspects that let the first game down a little, although not completely such as the jumping aspect. However, the game relies on a Myst/Dark Souls philosophy; that those that are determined and persistent will persevere and feel rewarded upon completion. For those into retro platformers which a decent difficulty level then this could be up your street.

60
Review by Pure Nintendo
April 8, 2020

I still enjoyed this game for the way it offered some youthful nostalgia. It delivers a definite challenge. But LA-MULANA 2 is cut from the same cloth and does very little that’s different from the first. While that doesn’t make the game bad, it does make it frustrating.

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Game Information
Release Date July 30, 2018
Publisher Nigoro, NIS America, PLAYISM
Total Rating 83%
Content Rated T (Teen)
Game Modes Single player
Player Perspectives Side view
Genres Platform, Puzzle, Adventure, Indie
Themes Action, Fantasy, Open world
Platforms PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch