La-Mulana (PC 2005/WiiWare, 2011 (Remake))

• Partially non-linear structure after the first area (you can explore several areas right away but you'll frequently need one or more items or abilities to make the most out of exploring later areas (plenty of key item gates), surface area eventually connects to 3 dungeon areas, can't explore much of area 4/spring in the sky until after area 2/mausoleum (need helmet from twin labyrinths/area 7 though it can be reached after area 2), can't get to cave of inferno before temple of the sun?, need to get a key from confusion gate to explore most of area 8/endless corridor, need to enter area 4/tower of the goddess via area 6 or after clearing parts of area 5/inferno cavern, can finish chamber of birth/confusion gate/endless corridor in any order?, one optional challenge area, ), Item path chart

• Layered world within the dungeon (front- and rear-side versions of each area however they aren't as strictly aligned or as interconnected as in Goonies 2 for example and tend to have only one connecting point here - instead areas on the same plane also tend to have fairly complex connections between them and parts of some areas are only accessible via a certain ladder going from one or two other areas and/or via a front/rear-side door in a not very obvious way)

• Scan for hidden items or clues and lore on signs and stone tablets - Maze of Galious/System Shock/Metroid Prime

• Many key gates (weights as generic keys, four seals, various key items)

• Teleport to visited and recorded areas with the grail item (found in the first dungeon area, need to find the grail transfer point and use the glyph reader on it in an area to record and teleport to it, antarctic adventure+comic bakery rom combo lets you teleport to the rear-side dungeons as well), Some shortcuts can be opened up (area 5->area 7 and 5b/tower of ruin->1b/confusion gate for example)

• Save point in town which can be warped to later on (any collected "experience" is lost when loading a save but you're also healed, one slot at first which can be upgraded to 5 slots with an item in the mid-game, only shows date and time of save), No save points within dungeon areas here

• Decent area maps (have to find them; maps need to be used via the in-game laptop (fully upgraded map takes up 2/2 slots and shows exits to other areas, the grail tablet/warp room, the opposite area (rear/front) entrance room and the basic layout; no room topography, no paths between rooms, no chests, no shops, no NPC caves; several areas having a part which is separate from the rest of the area that can only be accessed via another area can lead to some confusion since you can only view one area map at a time and not see if an exit is one-way only)

• Also have to find: Save cartridge, scanner and reader items, multiple save slots, map upgrade

• Many puzzles and various puzzles span more than one area (various spatial awareness and some block puzzles but most are clue-based and/or key item-based, some good platforming puzzles; there's a lot of trial & error here but there are some decent puzzles: some spatial awareness puzzles, some riddles, most block puzzles, most time freeze puzzles (lamp of time item) besides the long cooldown time on it, some logical puzzles besides the harsh punishment for failing)

• Control and volume+OST config (have to use the keyboard for teleporting though, two different versions of the soundtrack based on the SCC MSX sound chip (added stereo and echo/reverb) and the Roland SC-88 midi module)

• Many breakable walls and hidden paths

• Off screen enemy respawning in various rooms (sometimes they respawn like this until you've cleared the room and after that they respawn if you move two rooms away or into another area and back - other times they always respawn)

• No health drops from enemies

• Many places near the village where it looks like you can exit the screen when you can't

• Features a fairly large and varied collection of equipment including various sub weapons

• Audio clues for breakable objects and walls (Link's Awakening/Metal Gear) as well as hidden rooms (shops and NPC encounters) within rooms if you buy a certain item

• Item combination effects (can combine some of the game roms found after upgrading your laptop - for example athletic land+cabbage patch kids=much longer invincibility time after a hit, 3 of them also contain mini-games for a total of 4, this is a reference to some Konami MSX games that let you do this for various effects)

• One optional area (hell temple - as brutal as it sounds)

• Some environmental effects (transformed final area, flooding part of temple of the sun via a4/spring in the sky+parts of area 4 itself+tower of the goddess via the mausoleum, hitting switches or breaking objects to rearrange larger platforms in some rooms, activating and deactivating a pretty large statue to use it as a platform at one point; MMX, Strife, Metroid 2 & Prime, etc.) and some interesting transitions between sub areas (area 4 down to area 3)

• Static difficulty (an area or its boss doesn't become more or less challenging based on what you've cleared so far)

• Healing points in some areas via semi-hidden fairies (if you bring a certain item to the one in the endless corridor; one of them (yellow) also helps open a door or solve a puzzle in the current area)

• Super Metroid-style area foreshadowing at one point (confusion gate to temple of moonlight path via tower of the goddess)

• Can get permanently stuck in a few spots from failing to solve a puzzle (get trapped in small section of a room and have to reload your save if you trigger some mechanism that blocks off exits) or if you didn't get the grail/teleport item in the first dungeon area before wandering off into a later area (happens in the mausoleum if you stand around for a few seconds after grabbing the red jewel)

• New enemies appear in a previously visited area but only at two points in the game (area 1 spinning fireballs room and shrine of the mother after its transformation - unless you also count enemies appearing where you beat a mini-boss in dimensional corridor)

• Unlockable hard mode though the way to unlock it is odd - have to read a tablet in the mausoleum area twice (reading it once gives you a warning not to read it twice, hard mode=more monsters and monster spawners)

• Can't enter rooms from below by jumping except for at a single point in the game (sometimes used for puzzles but can be annoying when it's not which is more often the case)

• Used weights/keys disappear visually when reloading but the effect remains (need to keep in mind where you've used one to not waste time getting to a pedestal again)

• No jingle for when there is a puzzle yet solved in a room (now you pretty much have to kill every enemy in every room and hit walls and statues even if most are traps to be sure that it doesn't unlock something) - see Link's Awakening

• Economy stays relevant throughout the game however the grinding makes this tedious

• Two teleporter mazes with invisible teleporters

• No bunemon.exe (message log) software here and you also can't place map markers - taking notes is required for various puzzles, The town elder sometimes gives gameplay tips which aren't repeated while his other comments are often repeated

• Up to jump and to climb ladders

• Can't speed up dialogue text

• Plenty of backtracking (no warp point before the final boss (5+ min walk), to save and regain health (no consumable health restoratives that you can bring with you), to the rear-side areas until you get the Antarctic Adventure+Comic Bakery rom combo (mid-late game), for the mantra tablets and then the rooms where you input the mantras in the late game, to summon key fairies until you get the Q-Bert+Diviner rom combo (mid-game), to make the jewel appear in twin labyrinths (would've been better if you could open a path from the small space with the chest in room d-2))

• Some other tedious aspects (see the mini review)

• No checkpoints or lives means the early game is hard until you find the grail and can teleport back to town (there is a single checkpoint outside one entrance to the twin labyrinths if you die to the gas there)

• The "get all roms and something good will happen" tip is false according to the fandom wiki

• A few neutral creatures but they can't be interacted with

Playthrough - Review - Mini Review

Influences: The Maze of Galious, Castlevania series, possibly Metroid series, possibly Lutter (FDS), Legacy of the Wizard, Zeliard, Xanadu

Infuenced: Possibly Battle Kid, Toki Tori 2, Fez, The Witness, Environmental Station Alpha, Alwa's Awakening?