Let's Play La-Mulana: The Mother Has Been Waiting

Weighting the dais causes the sound to play and the exclamation to appear, but nothing changes on this screen. What has it done? There was a clue nearby that said I'd get the medicine of life for defeating the invisible enemy, maybe it's done something to give me access to that.



I run around pretty much the whole Field (watching the video, I realised that I missed -3/-1, the room with the door to the Inferno Cavern), but don't find anything different. Maybe I should check this Field's obverse, the Inferno Cavern? If I don't figure it out soon, I'll probably never be able to nail it down - if it's something in a place I haven't been yet I won't know the difference, and if it's somewhere I have been, how will I know whether it was this or something else that caused the change?



Since I'm in the area, I head to the Confusion Gate. I've got a few things left to do there and I thought the dais I just found might have a activated one of them. I'm expecting the block at the upper right of this room to be cleared at some point, since I get struck by lightning when I hit it, but if I'm right I haven't yet found the mechanism.



I did take a hit while I was there, which I've contrasted here with an earlier hit in the Tower. I think I've figured out what the Athletic Land/Cabbage Patch Kids combination does: in the Tower, without the combo, Lemeza blinks for 48 frames after being hit. In the Gate, with the combo, it's 72. That could come in handy now and then, particularly for bosses, but Lemeza flashing sometimes makes getting the screenshot I want harder so I'll probably be sticking with the Metal Gear combination as my default.



This is the other screen I thought might have changed. Something is going to drop that barrier eventually, but what?



I warp back to the Village and talk to Xelpud, who notices the Talisman I picked up and tells Lemeza about his father. Just who did he hear about Shorn's progress from, I wonder?



I save and return to the Tower of the Goddess, taking the shortcut I opened up to start climbing the biggest tower. Last time I was here I made a brief attempt to take out the gun platforms with the katana, which didn't work.



The Shuriken works, though it takes quite a few of them. I don't get anything for taking them out other than a much easier climb to the next screen.



I head up to the next screen and repeat my assault. I'm pretty low on Shuriken by the time I've finished the enemies off, but the chest has opened and I score the Plane Model.



What does it do? Who knows! Perhaps this is the "flying iron bird" or "flying iron lump" that will cause the goddesses to leave the land in sorrow? There are goddess statues blocking paths to other Fields just a few screens up from here. Let's head up and investigate:



Or not. Oh, La-Mulana! Don't ever change!



The goddess statue at the base of the tower is still there, but when I head left and down the middle tower there's one missing. Behind where it was is a door to another Field that I hadn't noticed before. I head through and find myself in what looks like the Tower of Ruin.



Yep, I'm in the upper right section. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to get out of the room. The pillars on the left attract divine wrath when struck. Maybe next time I should try jumping up through the hole in the roof? Generally that doesn't work, but there was that room in the Twin Labyrinths where it did.



I'm pretty sure there must be a way to interact with the woman in the background over the platform, but I don't find it. I head back to the other Tower and look around some more. The goddess statues by the entrance have not fled in sorrow, and the area in the fourth image here where Lemeza is standing does not reveal anything on scanning, contrary to my speculation last time.



The goddess at the top of the leftmost tower is gone, allowing me to reach a new Field. I don't find anything this update that definitively identifies it, but the stele in the room I enter it from (the one in the first screenshot here) says "Challenge the Chamber of Birth", so I think that's probably what this place is called. Its layout also resembles that of the Chamber of Extinction, so it's probably that Field's reverse. It looks like I'm stuck in this little area at the bottom left of the screen, kind of like how the entrance to the Tower of Ruin from the Goddess Tower just let me in to one room.



Or not! Looks like I can walk through at least some of the walls here.



I carry on to the right and down, where there's another earthen doll/golden key clue. As for praising life, I'm guessing that's to do with the Dance of Life. "Dance" isn't really one of my verbs, but I guess I'll figure it out. There's a lot going on in the background of this area - elephant and hand images, rotating panels that attack when they're facing out, and what look like sephirot images (the groups of ten holes over a human (?) figure).



The next screen at first appears to be a dead end, but it turns out there's a gap in the ceiling that lets me jump up to the next level. I can tell this Field is going to be a pain to navigate.



I haven't seen a clue about the woman in a while. "The man risks his life" isn't much of a clue, given how much risk Lemeza's been taking through the whole game, but the thing about many corpses is interesting. Maybe it's a reference to the as yet unobtained Death Seal? I continue on the winding path through this Field and reach the first enemy to be found in an accessible location: an elephant.



It seems to function like the shield guys I've seen elsewhere: invincible from the front, vulnerable from behind.

I carry on behind more walls to another clue, which once again features the sephirot image, then continue to another apparent dead end. The room has lots to do in it, including a bigger version of the sephirot image than elsewhere in the Field which I'm guessing is the place where I need to cause the large earthen doll to be born, and a path to another Field behind a presumably impassable elephant pillar.



As I mentioned, it's only an apparent dead end - the red pillar is false. This GIF also lets you see the rotating panels in action.



I try to attack the panel with the katana, but don't seem to be able to do anything to it. I'm not sure if that's because it's invincible or if I just wasn't reaching its hitbox. Then I head down to the first room of this Field that I can actually access all of at once. I head up the left side and smash the pot to reveal:



A stele. Its message doesn't make a lot of sense, but I do know from earlier clues that "The left eye sees Kindness" and "The right eye sees Charity", which would translate this clue to: RLRRLRLL, the endless sound of the waves. I haven't figured out that last bit yet, or where to do this. I have seen a few eyes in the background of this Field, on hands and on the faces of elephants. The hands are all the same so far (left hands), but there have been elephants facing both left and right. Maybe it's to do with them?



These guys are kind of odd - skulls with hats and capes that throw scythes at Lemeza.



I head right, where there's an image in the background I find hard to make out but which could be Ganesha? The stele has a clue about the use of the Crystal Skull. Tiamat I assume is the Guardian of the Endless Corridor. I've seen the Guardians of everywhere else except the Chamber of Extinction, and I expect to find Palenque there. According to an earlier clue, the Endless Corridor is the one Field where the Guardian is in the reverse rather than the front. Maybe the Skull gives access to the reverse?



The next screen has another mural. Lakshmi? I'll confess to being pretty ignorant regarding Hinduism. There's also a new type of eye, this one in a pyramid. The clue tells me to dance, which I think relates to this clue. Putting various clues together, it seems if I praise life by dancing, I'll awaken the large earthen doll. From the doll I can get the golden key, which will allow me to summon the riddle in the large mural from the small mural, which I think will somehow allow me to summon Palenque, the Guardian of the Chamber of Extinction, this Field's front side equivalent. The clue about the dance seems to depict facing left three times, then right three times, then jumping while facing left. Let's give it a go!



I tap left three times, then right three times, then jump and take a hit. Nothing happens. Is it because I took a hit, or am I doing this wrong? The figures in the clue kind of look like they're holding something up - maybe I'm supposed to be raising and lowering the shield instead of moving?



I head over to check out the bottom right corner and this happens. Yes, it's another teleport maze. Hooray.



The platform below has another warp, back to the room I just came from.



I attempt to perform the Dance of Life by jumping three times in front of the left eye, then three in front of the right, and then again in the middle. It doesn't work.



So I head back into the teleport maze. There's also a maze of passable walls, so it's a double maze. Great. I'm noticing as I write this a crack in the wall that I don't think I've seen much of in the Field. It's above the blue elephant column at the lower right of the second screenshot above. Maybe I should try scanning there. I'll add it to the list.



Not being able to see enemies doesn't help when fighting them. At least the low part of the katana strike is visible in front of the platform below so I can tell where Lemeza is.



I find a gap in the floor above and use it to reach a teleport to the upper part of the first screen of the Field. Nice! Unfortunately, Lemeza is immediately dropped through the ground to the entrance. Back to square one. I wonder if jumping to this warp point would allow me to steer Lemeza after the warp and so avoid falling through?



I return to the first teleport and this time head left immediately after it. This takes me to the spot in the fourth shot. This is about halfway through the hike from the Field entrance to the first teleport, so it's a setback.



I return to the first teleport and this time head right twice from where it takes me.



As I break this pot, the "ping" of a breakable wall sounds.



The only other weapon I can hit it with is the spear - it seems the bricks directly below Lemeza in the first shot here can be broken, but not from here. I find the next teleport in the upper right area of the room.



I head down from where I've wound up and find myself in the space above where the first teleport takes me. Don't worry, I'm lost too. There'll be a map at the end of the update. Regarding the clue, I think Lemeza is probably the strong one. I just need to find that flute to prove it.



I head through a few walls and a door to the right. It occurs to me now that I didn't try going through the wall above and to the right of Lemeza in the last screenshot. Next time. For now, what could the wall to Lemeza's left hold?

Another teleport, of course. You can't really tell because of the wall, but I didn't try to jump to the left side of the wall Lemeza walks behind right after teleporting. I should probably give that a go next time.



I go left. Looking at the video, I didn't walk to the left side of the middle level (one above where Lemeza is) in the second shot here. Another one to try later.



This is a little confusing. There's a teleport behind the wall that drops me behind another wall, from which I am hit by a skeleton's projectile, which knocks me to another teleport that puts me below where I started.



Heading to the lower right of the screen warps me to the top, allowing me to take the ladder up.



Going left from there gets me back to the upper part of the entrance room, but another thing I noticed in the video in this room is the shadow behind the pot I'm breaking in the second image. There's probably something there and I should have scanned it.



I realise it wasn't that long ago in the LP that I last fell through this trap, but in playtime it was several minutes of teleport mazing ago. I feel no shame falling for this again.



It is quite a hike to get back to where I was, though. Along the way I try this alternate path through the wall, which allows me to skip a couple of other teleports.



This time I stay well away from the hole in the ground and make it to the stele. The Tree of Life I think relates to the sephirot images that are all over the place here.



The ladder leads to yet another teleport point.



It very nearly gets me to this chest, but there's another teleport to get past it.



I reach the breakable wall I identified earlier. I try out all my weapons against it except for the flare and spear (which don't shoot forwards and so can't hit it), but nothing works.



The trip back features the same teleport as before, in reverse.



Returning to where I entered this corridor drops me back in the path before the first teleport.



Having had enough, I warp out and save. Whew!

Maps:

Tower of the Goddess:



Tower of Ruin:



Chamber of Birth:



As with my map of the Confusion Gate, I've put in the teleports. A capital letter is a starting point, lower case indicates a landing point. For example, teleport "A" will take Lemeza from 6/-3 to 2/-2, and "B" will do the reverse. I think I've covered almost all of the map, the obvious exception being the main part of 5/-2. I reckon there'll be a teleport landing point in the little corridor that runs from it to 4/-2 which will be reachable either from 0/0 (in the upper middle section), 1/-1 (above "G"), or 2/-2 (between "d" and "f"). Or I'll be entering 5/-2 through the door from another Field, in which case there might be a teleport starting point in the small corridor.

Clues:

Village:

"Have you found all the ROMS? Something good will happen if you do."

"The traps and tricks in the ruins are said to have been set by the Four Sages. They wait for you to come."

"The twin ruins are two and yet one. They look a lot alike but are really different. You'll have to figure out the difference."

"That tower moves by the power of water. Is it converted to hydrogen maybe? That's what the spring's for."

"That talisman... it belonged to your father. Your father went into the ruins and never came back, though I hear he got pretty deep into them. You should look for his diary. He should have had it with him. Maybe he wrote what he found in it. What? You saw someone that looked like your father in the ruins? Don't be ridiculous. Do you have any idea how many days it's been since he went in there?"

Guidance Gate:



Confusion Gate:



Mausoleum of Giants:



Graveyard of the Giants:



Temple of the Sun:

"Challenge the cavern of the inferno. It will be a long road. He who follows it should be prepared to die."

"If there is a man, there is also a woman. You must not use weapons inside the woman. If you wish to solve the riddle of the temple, proceed into the next room."

"Summon the power of the twins. The twins are two and yet one. The twins are very much alike."

"Chant the correct Mantras, and seal off Tiamat, Baphomet, Palenque, Viy, Bahamut, Ellmac, Sakit, and Amphisbaena."

"The first Mantra is in a corridor. The entrance to the corridor that continues forever."

"The second Mantra is by the feet of the twins. The place where their feet connect."

"The third Mantra is a green beast. By the side of the guardian of Hell."

"The fourth Mantra is by a serpent. The path connecting to the pyramid Nu Wa guards."

"The fifth Mantra is below the goddess. By the feet of the goddess who gazes at the crumbling tower."

"The seventh Mantra is by many spikes. Spikes that protude from seven floors."

"The final Mantra is eight stars."

"Sahete's understanding/clarity
was born from The Mother"



Temple of Moonlight:



Spring of the Sky:



Tower of the Goddess:

"This is a forbidden land that no one may enter. The place concealed beyond here hides a secret. Fly on golden wings."

"The model of the flying iron lump is a symbol of the desire for the skies. Attain it and the goddesses will leave this land in sorrow."

"This is the Tower of the Goddess. A place to grant the wish of the Mother."

"The mischievous Rusali. Yaksi, who beguiles men. Dakini, dancing enticingly. Only one of them has a pure heart."

"Ye who desires power, prove thy wisdom. Show thy ability to balance the souls and the power will be thine."

"Strike the one who blocks the Golden Wings."

"The right eye sees Charity."

"Challenge the Chamber of Birth. Take the Golden Key. Proceed to where we were born."

"To the left is the secret of life, to the right is the power of destruction." (at 2/5)

"Ye who leaves this land, take this to heart. We can not grant the Mother's wish. Which child of the Mother art thou? We, her second children, wish that you can grant her desire."

Inferno Cavern:



Tower of Ruin:

"The kind, mischievous fairy. The kind, lonely fairy. Her mischief is innocent. Innocent mischief will do thee no harm."

"The large earthen doll, It carries the flying golden key."

"The flying iron bird. Distressed at its travel, the goddesses depart."

"That which moves too fast to see. Even stopping time cannot stop its movement."

"The people who created Nu Wa, those who imitate the power of the Great Mother. The power to create life. The power to create us. That wish goes unfulfilled."

"The left eye sees Kindness."

"To ye who hast made it this far, undertake the final trial. The Mother's wish can no longer be granted."



Chamber of Extinction:

"If thou cannot go left, go right."

"A joyful soul is milky hued, an eloquent soul is black, an honest soul is purple, a happy soul is green, a pure soul is white, a passionate soul is red, and a kind soul is blue. Souls have colors."

"The Guardians lurk in the front. Places without them are the rear. This is the law of the ruins. Only the Infinite Corridor is an exception."

"Spriggan, the giant statue. Show hostility and he will awaken. Fight him more and he will return to sleep."

"There is a riddle Hidden between two murals. Concealed within the large one, it is summoned by the small. Challenge the riddle with golden key in hand."



Chamber of Birth:

"This is the land where life was born. When life is praised, the large earthen doll will be born, the earthen doll that holds the golden key."

"Charity, Kindness, Charity, Charity, Kindness, Charity, Kindness, Kindness, the endless sound of the waves."

"The Crystal Skull suppresses Tiamat's power and summons forth the dimension in which she dwells."

"Dance here. Praise life." (6/-3)

"The four Sages silently wait for the time when the strong one arrives."

"The Tree of Life is the source of all life. The mud dolls become people."

"As they become people, this land prospers. Gathering power, they leave this place on a journey. And they continue to prosper, aiming for the skies in other lands."



Twin Labyrinths (Front):

"Cast a spell on the spirits that have the elixir. The Elixir gives shape to souls."

"The word of the black Onyx is "Eloquence." The word of the purple Amethyst is "Honesty." Gems have words attributed to them. Gather these words from the spider's web that connects the whole world."

"The King of Hell, Beelzebub. He guards the eight souls in front of the Mother."



Twin Labyrinths (Reverse)



The Shrine of the Mother:






To-Do:

Anywhere:
-Find Shorn Kosugi
-Figure out what the blue crosses do
-Find the Four Sages and talk to them
--Get the flute
-Clear each screen of enemies at least once
-Complete the software use and software combinations lists in the manual
-Figure out what the key fairy does
-Get all the ROMs
--Have something good happen
-Push the wall on a moonlit night
-Use the golden key on the small mural
--Solve the riddle in the large mural
-Figure out what a Mantra is and find them all
-Find Shorn's diary
-Undertake the final trial

Village:


Guidance Gate:


Confusion Gate:


Mausoleum of Giants:


Graveyard of the Giants:


Temple of the Sun:
-Scan steles: 1/-2 (several)
--Do something at gap in top row of steles at 1/-2
-Solve all the puzzles
-Do something with the wall that goes "ping" at the upper left of 3/-3
-Do something with the statue at 4/-2
-Do something with squiggles at 3/-3
--Bring the Woman Statue

Temple of Moonlight:


Spring of the Sky:


Tower of the Goddess:
-Read stele: 1/2
-Enter door: 1/-1 (behind water)
-Open chest: 2/4
-Talk to statue at 0/1 after getting flute
-Scan lowest level of -1/3
-Take path to other field at -1/4, 1/5, 3/5
--Clear goddess statues
-Summon key fairy at 2/5
-Destroy flying guns at 2/3, 2/4
-Clear holy block at 1/2
--Balance the scales
---Lemeza weighs 62 units

Inferno Cavern:


Tower of Ruin:
-Defeat the invisible enemy (probably at -4/1)
--Get the medicine of life
-Figure out what weighting the dais at -4/1 did
--Check -3/-1
--Check Inferno Cavern
-Do something with the blue cross at -3/2
-Reach the fairies at -3/3
-Get to rest of Field from 0/3
--Try jumping through the roof
--Clear pillar
-Interact with background woman at 0/3

Chamber of Extinction:


Chamber of Birth
-Praise life so large earthen doll is born
--Dance to praise life at 6/-3
---Try the shield
--Get the golden key from the earthen doll
-Open chest: 3/-2, 5/-2
-Read stele: 2/-2, 5/-2
-Take door to other field: 5/-2
-Do something with large sephirot image at 5/-2
-Scan cracked wall: 1/0, 2/-2, 4/-2
-Break wall: 4/-2 (lowest)
-Check the space over the gap to the left of teleport landing point "j" at 2/-1
-Check the left side of the middle level of 1/-1
-Scan behind pot at 1/0

Twin Labyrinths (Front):


Twin Labyrinths (Reverse)


Endless Corridor:


The Shrine of the Mother:
-Do something past falling pillar at 0/4
-Remove eye blocks: -2/1, -1/3, 0/4
-Open chest: -2/4, room reached from Twin Labyrinths
-Get Crystal Skull at -3/4
--Try the Lamp of Time
-Weight dais: -3/4
-Do something at the platform at -1/2
-Do something at the box platform at -3/0
-Defeat Beelzebub at -1/1
--Open the core of La Mulana
-Chant the correct Mantras to seal off each Guardian at their images (?)





Death Locks:
-Temple of the Sun 0/-4
-Shrine of the Mother -2/4

Fairy Locations:
-Confusion Gate -6/3
-Temple of Moonlight 0/-1
-Spring of the Sky 3/1
-Tower of the Goddess 2/5
-Chamber of Extinction 8/-3
-Endless Corridor 0/-2



ROMs:



Glyph Key:

Sheesh, that scale puzzle was beyond unfair. At least you finally got it.

I'm very glad you're playing this, I would've thrown the keyboard away in frustration I don't know how many times by now.
I bow before your patience and methodicalness. m(_ _)m

Thanks! I still don’t get the underlying mechanics. Arguably the first thing I tried should have worked (the second time I tried it and got it right), since it had the same weight on both sides. If they wanted you to have to put Lemeza on as well, they should have made the sum of the gems uneven so they couldn’t be distributed in a balanced way without him. Even then the only thing that’s really unfair about it is the way the movement of the scale didn’t always reflect the balance, which I really don’t understand. Surely the easiest way to have programmed it would be to check the balances and move the scale accordingly. Fix that and it’s a neat puzzle you’d feel clever for solving. Also it would be nice if I had the ROM I need to warp to reverse fields so I could get back there quicker after each attempt.

Hello again. Today we'll be exploring the exits I opened up in the Tower of the Goddess last time. First off, I'm returning to this room in the Tower of Ruin. There are two things I want to do here: something to do with the figure of a woman in the background (I think she'll be dispensing the medicine of life once I get something to put it in, and my suspicion is that if I'd come here before finding and weighting a hidden dais near the clue about the medicine then she'd be holding a vase upright instead of pouring one out towards the viewer), and getting from this room into the rest of the area. I thought I might be able to do the latter by jumping up through the gap in the roof:



Nope!



So I return to the Tower of the Goddess and set off for the presumed Chamber of Birth. As with the room in the Tower of Ruin, there were some things I wanted to try doing here. Also as with that room, I won't achieve anything this visit.



I come to this stele, which reads "Dance here. Praise life." I attempt the dance of life, using the shield this time, as I speculated might work in the previous update. It's quite tricky to fit it in between appearances of the rotating wall panel, and I get it wrong. It should be three times to the left, three to the right, and then jump facing left, but I do left three times, right four times, and jump facing right. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't work.



This is arguably a better attempt, though I still start the jump facing the wrong way and I do it in a different location which could be the wrong one. I really feel like I don't have enough information yet to figure this one out.



I enter the teleport maze. The crack in the wall that Lemeza is standing in front of seems suspicious, so I scan it but find nothing.



I thought I might be able to steer after this teleport if I was jumping when I entered it, but no go.



I also thought there might be another teleport in this wall, but it turns out it's solid and can't be walked into. Doesn't seem to be breakable, either.



Here are some more locations I thought might be hiding something but which aren't. I was really sure about the last one, too. The dark spot on the wall behind the pot seemed like a sure-fire clue.



These spots seemed like contenders, too, but no dice. I also take another shot at doing the dance, this time holding the shield up the whole time. No luck.



Frustrated, I give up on this Field for a while. Time to head for the other Field entrances I think I've opened up in the Tower of the Goddess. I just need to climb this tower again first.



Yep, just a short trip up this tower.



I found this difficult the first time I went up it, but I have even more trouble with it this time. I've figured out why: the shortcut I opened up when I got the Mace. Each time I go through the gap in the wall into the balance room, it resets all the enemies in the tower area. The first time through that gap wasn't there, so once I'd killed an enemy once (in particular, the flying eyes in the room with the guns) I didn't have to do it again. Now, I'm resetting them almost every time I fall down. I could have fixed this by climbing up on the right side away from the opening, but if I screw up a jump on that side then I fall down an extra screen further.



It only takes me a few attempts this time, fortunately.



Sadly, this won't be my last trip up the tower in this update. I summon the key fairy - even though I know my speculation that it might get rid of the goddess statues for me was wrong, I still don't know what it does and I figure this summoning point might be here for a reason. Unfortunately, I then fail the jump over to the room on the left.



It takes me over three minutes to make it back to the top. This time, not feeling brave enough to risk repeating the fall, I head straight to the left without trying to summon the key fairy. Also, the sparkle hasn't reappeared yet so I couldn't summon it anyway, but I didn't notice that at the time.



As expected, the goddess statue that was here before is now gone, allowing me to access the doorway to another Field, which turns out to be the Confusion Gate. That's a pretty neat statue! According to the stele at the top of the tower I just climbed, this area will contain "the secret of life", which might be what I need in the Chamber of Birth.



I check the map - I'm in the previously unexplored upper right bit of the Gate. The stele at the bottom is blank, and the statue doesn't like to be attacked.



I scan various places around the room, break all the pots, and try my luck with the whip again. The statue also doesn't like to be struck in the face.



I take the upper exit to the left, winding up in a dead end in which the hand scanner also finds nothing. I head back and go through the lower exit, giving me access to more of the room. As I enter, two extra ladders appear.

I take out the enemies that I can reach and the pot at the lower left. As the pot breaks, several more ladders appear, enough that I'll actually be able to reach the stele and the upper left exit from the room.



Once I start climbing the ladders I learn that which ones are visible changes with each climb. I keep going with it and eventually reach the stele.



Is the mother ocean the same as the Mother? Presumably the kindness and charity mentioned here are the same as the ones seen by the left and right eyes, but I still don't know what it all means. I'm lucky enough to have a ladder leading to the exit as my one path out of the stele chamber, so I carry on.



I reach the ladder that I saw Shorn climbing earlier, which takes me to a room with some kind of bat suspended over a drop back to the rest of the stage. Taking it on while standing on the little platforms available doesn't appeal, so I test the wall next to me and find a path to the screen of La-Mulana most likely (so far) to appear on a metal band's album cover. Well, this or Baphomet, I guess.



I take out the "soul" enemies and scan the three fancy steles at the bottom. Given there are three pairs of barriers here (and also that I'll have cleared one pair by the end of this update), I think I need to act on each clue to get to the chest. Hopefully clearing all the barriers will open it, too. I think the first clue relates to the thing I saw hanging outside the entrance to this screen, the second relates to the screen just left of this Field's altar, and the third to the statue I saw a few screens ago. I broke all its pots at the time, but maybe I need to do it "all at once". How I'll pull that off, I don't know.

Also, I think I tried scanning in front of the face up top, but I'm not certain, so I'll add that to my list just in case.



After a brief detour to fill my EXP and restore my lacking VIT, I start with the large, sad bird.



It doesn't go well - I run out of Shuriken and walk off the little platform that's keeping me in the room.



This puts me back in the other part of the Field, which means I'll need to climb that damned tower in the Tower of the Goddess to get back up and take another shot at the sad bird, but I make the most of it by heading for the wandering lizard. I need to get the light from the middle of the room up to the lizard somehow.



I attempt to reflect it with my shield without success, then try sending flares up to the lizard, which doesn't work either. For the moment, I give up. I head for the Guidance Gate to collect some more Shuriken, since I just ran out, and then return to the Tower.



The climb actually goes pretty well this time - I only fall down once. I return to the room of the dancing child. As I write this, I've just figured out what I need to do. I need to use the Lamp of Time to freeze time, and break all the pots in the room before it runs out. It's so obvious, I'm probably wrong. Still, next time I'll give it a go.



For now, not having had that idea yet, I try to simultaneously attack the two pots the statue is holding. I don't quite time it right, so even if this is the correct approach the attempt doesn't work.



All of the ladders in this room are now visible at once, which makes navigating it a lot easier. This GIF also holds a clue to how I'm pretty sure I'll be solving the lizard puzzle.



I return to the sad bird, and this time do better than before. This guy, by the way, is the last of the room guards to have a picture in the manual:



I think it's this one, anyway.



I attempt to jump to all the little platforms in this room and scan them. It goes ok for a while, but then I miss a jump and fall down. That means I'll be climbing the tower again.



I head to the wandering lizard again, but have no new ideas. I have had once since, though: note that the lizard is climbing down the ladder in the screenshot. If I push the block on the platform it's climbing to over to the right, the lizard will be able to climb down the other ladder and come to the light itself, instead of me bringing the light to it. Sadly, I didn't think of this at the time, so it'll have to wait for next time. For now, I warp back to the village and return to the Tower of the Goddess.



I regret to say...



...that I can no longer recommend...



...La-Mulana...



...as an enjoyable...

...game to play.



Admittedly, this is largely the result of me trying to rush it.



But I have had enough of climbing this tower.



<sigh>



I actually did this twice in a row, but I've skipped the GIF for the second time.



This was looking promising, until it wasn't.



This is at least efficient.



やったあ!



I manage to hold it together and make it to the Confusion Gate without falling back down. I never want to climb that tower again. As I expected, one of the barriers in the album cover room has disappeared.



I decide against attempting to scan all the little platforms again and return to the peak of the tower. It's time to try the key fairy again.



I know I've said this before, but the star animation is so good.



At last I've found something for the key fairy to do: it hovers near the platform up top and a dais appears. When I weight it, the wall to the right vanishes to reveal a doorway. Where will it take me?



Whoa... where is this?



Wherever it is, it's got a cool tree and an Unreleased ROM. One of Xelpud's lines is about wanting an unreleased ROM to be found. I wonder if he'll comment on this one? I'm not warping back to check until I've done whatever else I can at the top of the tower, though.



I can't go any further in the tree area, so I head back to the Tower and this time to the right. According to the stele on top of the tower, "the power of destruction" is this way. Let's see where I wind up:



It's the previously unreachable part of the Graveyard of the Giants. I get an ominous clue from the stele (is the red stone just an Ankh Jewel?), and a ROM from one of the skeletons (the other one doesn't seem to scan). It's Mopi Ranger, a 1985 title that looks kind of a like a Pac Man clone. You control a mouse in a boat paddling through a maze of canals to rescue "Moplits".



I head left, where I find the Field's blue cross. The ice block in the centre of the room makes a "ping" when struck, so I guess I'll be breaking it open at some point to reach the skeleton inside. For now, none of my weapons work on it. I'm not sure if the clue refers to what I'm about to do in the rest of this update or if it's something else.



I head up the ladder to a room full of spikes. It's a bit of a pain to get around in. I weight the dais up top, but nothing obvious changes, no sound plays, and I don't get the exclamation mark. I wonder what it did?



I get to work clearing out the enemies. Unfortunately, the spikes, slippery floor, and these snowpuffs' tendency to dodge make it quite difficult.



I get there in the end but gain nothing for my efforts, so I head down and to the left to reach a room I've seen before, but only from the leftmost edge. The broken stele is blank, and the dais is still out of reach. That only really leaves one option:

I go down. There are two daises down here, one of which I can reach. Again, weighting it shows no immediate benefit. There's also a path to another Field (the glyph next to it is the one for six, so it'll take me to the Chamber of Birth), and a stele with another clue that mentions a Jewel. My detector hasn't gone off in any of the rooms of the Chamber of Birth (which I think is "where life is born"), so I see three possibilities: 1) It has gone off and I didn't notice; 2) The shop is in a screen I haven't been to yet; 3) The shop isn't hidden in the usual sense (behind a pot or wall that needs to be broken), so the detector hasn't gone off, but it is hidden behind one of the foreground walls that Lemeza can walk through. I don't much fancy going through the whole of the Field attempting to enter doors I can't see, so I hope it's not option three.



I head back up the ladder and find that the barrier has gone, allowing me to weight the dais. I do so, and then go back to the screen below, where the barrier in front of the lower dais has also disappeared. Presumably the first dais I weighted in this area got rid of a barrier in front of the dais at the upper right of this screen.



Activating this dais finally gets me the "you did a thing" sound, and a ladder appears.



The ladder leads me to the upper area of the room above, where I read the stele. Hmm... what does it mean?



A-ha! It's lucky I got this - I doubt I'd have come back here and found it later if I hadn't done it now.



Up the stairs I find a holy block.



Jumping causes a Room Guard to appear - some kind of fox with a scythed front leg. It flings out a projectile which seems to just keep circling, and I get a little careless with the downward reach of the katana.



I manage to land a couple of hits, though it's hard with the slippery ice. The projectiles seem to persist until they hit Lemeza.



As usual, I am underutilising my sub-weapons. This would have been a good time for a flare barrage followed by multiple shuriken. Or at least some shield use to avoid the hits I'm taking.



Eventually I get my act together, though I never manage to stop taking hits, and the fox is defeated. The holy block disappears to reveal... something... but I fall down before I can reach it.



Fortunately it's just a short ladder climb to get back and claim the Bomb, a new subweapon. I equip it, but as usual start off with no ammunition.



This must be the power of destruction I've been looking for.



If I can use it to blow open the pinging wall in the first two screenshots here, then I'll have created a path to the top of the Tower of the Goddess that doesn't require climbing the tower. Fortunately, there's some ammo in a rock in the next room. Let's give it a go:



The manual wasn't lying about it harming the hero, but I succeed in blowing open this ice block. The arc of the bomb looks a bit tricky, though. Will I be able to aim it where I want to break the wall in the other room?



I get a ROM from the skeleton in the ice and then head left to the wall I want to destroy. Space Manbow is a 1989 shooter developed specifically for the MSX2. The name apparently comes from your ship (and/or the final boss) being shaped like a mambo fish, and it has much better horizontal scrolling than most MSX games. It looks pretty cool, in fact.



This is not a great start.



Nor a great continuation. I've only got one shot left - it took two to break the ice, so even if I find the right spot to throw the bomb from, I might not be able to do it.



I take a shot from the ladder, but don't get it right here, either. It's interesting that the bomb is exploding there but bouncing off of other locations. Is there a breakable wall there, as well? Sadly, I'm out of bombs, so I can't find out.



Out of ammo, I head back to the Village. I thought Xelpud might have something to say about one of the places I've been, the unreleased ROM, or the new weapon I picked up, but he doesn't. I save and quit.

Maps:

Confusion Gate:



The Graveyard of the Giants:



The Tower of the Goddess:



The Legendary Tree:

Clues:

Village:



Guidance Gate:



Confusion Gate:

"Ye who has life. There is still time. Turn back. The confusion continues."

"11 children guard Tiamat's chamber. The Grail is powerless therein."

"You have done well in making it this far, wise one. Break through the final confusion."

"This is the Confusion Gate. The path will open to the wise."

"Is the one reading this tablet wise or a fool? I pray it is one that has wisdom."

"The mother ocean watches kindness and charity."



Mausoleum of Giants:



Graveyard of the Giants:

"Only thy own strength can get thee through this frozen land."

"Art thou the chosen one or not? Proceed ahead. We wait for thee beyond."

"The rogue that releases many lights. He who does not hold the silver shine is doomed."

"Just walk down the path. A new power awaits thee at its end."

"Where life is born, there is a shop that sells a Jewel."



Temple of the Sun:



Temple of Moonlight:



Spring of the Sky:



Tower of the Goddess:

"This is a forbidden land that no one may enter. The place concealed beyond here hides a secret. Fly on golden wings."

"This is the Tower of the Goddess. A place to grant the wish of the Mother."

"The mischievous Rusali. Yaksi, who beguiles men. Dakini, dancing enticingly. Only one of them has a pure heart."

"Strike the one who blocks the Golden Wings."

"The right eye sees Charity."

"Challenge the Chamber of Birth. Take the Golden Key. Proceed to where we were born."

"To the left is the secret of life, to the right is the power of destruction." (at 2/5)

"Ye who leaves this land, take this to heart. We can not grant the Mother's wish. Which child of the Mother art thou? We, her second children, wish that you can grant her desire."

Inferno Cavern:



Tower of Ruin:



Chamber of Extinction:



Chamber of Birth:



Twin Labyrinths (Front):



Twin Labyrinths (Reverse)



The Shrine of the Mother:






To-Do:

Anywhere:
-Find Shorn Kosugi
-Figure out what the blue crosses do
-Find the Four Sages and talk to them
--Get the flute
-Clear each screen of enemies at least once
-Complete the software use and software combinations lists in the manual
-Figure out what the key fairy does
-Find other key fairy locations, if they exist
-Get all the ROMs
--Have something good happen
-Push the wall on a moonlit night
-Use the golden key on the small mural
--Solve the riddle in the large mural
-Figure out what a Mantra is and find them all
-Find Shorn's diary
-Undertake the final trial

Village:


Guidance Gate:


Confusion Gate:
-Open chest -2/5, -4/1 (x3)
-Enter door -4/1 (upside down)
-Get past barrier at -5/3
-Push block to obstruct light at -5/3
-Summon Key Fairy at -6/3 and look for something to unlock
-Reach the left side of Shu's blood shower head at -3/2
-Do something with the statue at -1/4
-Clear barriers at -2/5
--Return light to wandering lizard (-5/3)
---Move the block so the lizard can return to the light
--Vanish dancing child's treasures all at once (-1/4)
---Use the Lamp of Time
-Scan in front of face at -2/5
-Scan all the little platforms at -3/5

Mausoleum of Giants:


Graveyard of the Giants:
-Get something from chest at 1/-3
-Break the wall at 2/-1
-Try to blow up sloped roof to the right of breakable wall at 2/-1
-Scan stele: 2/-1 (x2)
-Weight dais: 2/-1
-Open barrier: 2/-1
-Do something with fake spikes at -1/-2
-Scan giant head 2/-2
-Take path to another Field at 2/-2

Temple of the Sun:


Temple of Moonlight:


Spring of the Sky:


Tower of the Goddess:
-Enter door: 1/-1 (behind water)
-Talk to statue at 0/1 after getting flute
-Take path to other field at 1/5, 3/5
-Summon key fairy at 2/5

Inferno Cavern:


Tower of Ruin:
-Get the medicine of life
-Figure out what weighting the dais at -4/1 did
--Check -3/-1
--Check Inferno Cavern
-Do something with the blue cross at -3/2
-Reach the fairies at -3/3
-Get to rest of Field from 0/3
--Try jumping through the roof
--Clear pillar
-Interact with background woman at 0/3

Chamber of Extinction:


Chamber of Birth
-Praise life so large earthen doll is born
--Dance to praise life at 6/-3
---Try the shield
--Get the golden key from the earthen doll
-Open chest: 3/-2, 5/-2
-Read stele: 2/-2, 5/-2
-Take door to other field: 5/-2
-Do something with large sephirot image at 5/-2
-Scan cracked wall: 1/0, 2/-2, 4/-2
-Break wall: 4/-2 (lowest)
-Check the space over the gap to the left of teleport landing point "j" at 2/-1
-Check the left side of the middle level of 1/-1
-Scan behind pot at 1/0
-Find the shop that sells a Jewel

Twin Labyrinths (Front):


Twin Labyrinths (Reverse)


Endless Corridor:


The Shrine of the Mother:






Death Locks:
-Temple of the Sun 0/-4
-Shrine of the Mother -2/4

Fairy Locations:
-Confusion Gate -6/3
-Temple of Moonlight 0/-1
-Spring of the Sky 3/1
-Tower of the Goddess 2/5
-Chamber of Extinction 8/-3
-Endless Corridor 0/-2



ROMs:



Glyph Key:

I don't remember the tower climb being quite so frustrating in the remake.

Is this all of the subweapons now?

According to the manual, there's still a gun I haven't found yet. I guess there's no caltrops in this version. I don't think they were super useful (I remember trying to use them against Bahamut but not if it worked well), but I liked them.

RE: Lizard; Reverse your order of thinking.
As for the dancing man, you have an item that messes with the passage of time, no?

That's probably a kamaitachi.

And speaking of Japanese stuff, lately reading some of these updates the "Sahet" clue came back to mind and I started to doubt whether it was correctly translated, so I finally decided to recheck today:
Reminder here:


So yeah, this time I bothered to check whether the characters were correctly transliterated in the first place, which I didn't back then and indeed they weren't:
The first character is a "su" (ス) instead of a "sa", and the first apparently empty row is not so: it has two small comma-like characters that are the " modificator in kana, which means the "he" (へ) and "fu" (フ) characters are actually "be" (べ) and "bu" (ブ):
That "funmei" that gave me trouble was indeed "bunmei" after all.
With this the phrase actually means:
"All civilization/culture
came from the Mother."

...the bad news is that this looks more like flavor text rather than a clue, that'd be why it's not on a stele or on a skeleton or a spoken line. But who knows, amirite? This game has pulled off more obscure shit, after all.

Did you try equipping only the unreleased ROM and talking to Xelpud?

Thanks for the help, MB, but (I think) I’m all over it:

Sensenic, your efforts in translation are as always superb. I’m having Psycho World flashbacks. Sorry about the transcription errors. I think you’re right about the kamaitachi, too.

Torzelbaum, I think I tried talking to Xelpud with just the unreleased ROM, but I might have had whatever was already in the second slot still there. I’ll try it next time. I should probably try running it using F4, as well.

I apparently skimmed past that bit, whoops!

I start off today by putting the Unreleased ROM in my cartridge slot and firing it up. Whatever it is, I can't run it as a program. I head in to see Xelpud with it, but I'm pretty sure I just get a generic message from him. It's a slightly odd one, but I don't think it's specific to me having the ROM in. Then I head for the Guidance Gate to gather ammo. I didn't mention it, but when I beat the kamaitachi last time I used up all my Shuriken. I'd also like to find some more Bombs.



I run all over the Gate and the Mausoleum without finding any Bombs, even in the shops. At least I get a decent number of Coins, Shuriken and Throwing Knives out of it.



Eventually I find that the supplier in the Tower of Ruin has them for sale. They're pricey, but at least I get ten of them instead of the five you get from a pot drop. Time to start blowing stuff up!



Before I do, though, I head to the bottom of the Tower and run around Inferno Cavern a little. I still haven't figured out for sure what the hidden dais I found in the Tower last time did when I weighted it (though I have a theory). The room in the last screenshot here is the front side equivalent of the room with the dais, so I thought there might be something there. So far as I can tell, there isn't.



Time for explosions. I head for the unbroken wall that I'm most keen to get through - if I can bust this one with Bombs, I don't need to climb the Tower of the Goddess again. But can I do it without the explosion throwing me offscreen?



Ohthankgoodness. I take some damage, but I make it through.



I thought I might be able to uncover something here as well, but it seems to not be so. Oh well.



I scan the giant head in the lower room (nothing there) and pick up some more Bombs from the rock that's the only place I know of so far in the game that gives me them for free, then head up the ladder to the Tower of the Goddess.



On my way across the top of the tower I experience a moment of sheer terror as I'm knocked down to the screen below. Fortunately, I only fall one screen before landing and am able to climb back up without incident.



I finish my trip over to the Confusion Gate. I need to upset this statue by breaking all its pots simultaneously by freezing time with the Lamp of Time. I start by clearing the room of flying eyes, just to keep them out of the way. Now, I only get a few seconds of frozen time, and the pots are all over the room. I'll need to be quick. Let's do it!



I blow it. You can't hear it, but only the first strikes against the pots made a sound, meaning the further strikes were probably unnecessary. Not making the jump at the start didn't help, either.



I can't try again until the Lamp reignites, which will take a few minutes, so I set off for some of the other stuff on my To-Do. The closest thing is that I'm still trying to scan all these little platforms. I think I've done the whole right side now. I manage two on the left before failing a jump and falling down. To be honest, I don't really think I'm going to find anything here, but you never know with La-Mulana.



At least I'm now close to the other part of this puzzle. I need to get the lizard up top down to the light source in the middle of the room. Pushing the block to the right clears a path for it down the ladders. Now I just have to wait.



Waiting is kind of dull, but eventually the lizard starts heading down.



What? Don't go back up!



That's better! It walks into the light, starts to shake, and explodes. Success?



I head a few screens away and return. The shield guys have respawned, but the lizard remains absent. Looks like I've made progress. I head back to the Village and save.



The Lamp of Time isn't recharged yet, so rather than heading for the statue in the Confusion Gate again I set off for the Chamber of Birth. There's a breakable wall in there that I wanna try to blow up. Along the way I find my second source of non-purchased Bombs. When I first reached this screen and was stuck in the tunnel running across it, I speculated that I might be able to blow it open. Perhaps the presence of Bombs here is a clue that I can?



It's in the foreground, though, so I can't hit it from here. I'll have to try from inside the tunnel at some point.



I carry on to the Chamber of Birth and through its teleport maze to the bricks I wanna destroy. Along the way I inch through the foreground walls pressing down with each step in case there's a hidden shop behind one of them, as a stele last time potentially suggested. I don't find anything in the four and a half minutes it takes me to get from the entrance to the Field to the end of the teleports.

My first attempt at blowing the wall doesn't go so well.



Nor does my second. For the third, I take out the skeleton above with the whip, on the assumption that it's what's causing the Bomb to explode as soon as I throw it.



The assumption is incorrect.



I wise up and just run in and throw the thing. Success!



Then I get knocked back to the previous screen again, this time by enemy fire. I attempted to equip the shield to block it, but hit F1 to pause instead of F2 for the item menu, and so didn't manage to get it out in time.



On my return I'm able to access the teleport where the wall used to be, and reach the right side of the room.



This gives me access to the room with the big sephirot image. What can I do here?



Ah. Here's a screen I haven't seen in a while (outside of boss fights). Blowing myself up over and over trying to destroy that wall left my VIT pretty low. Good thing I saved recently!



I reload and head for the Spring of the Sky, where there's another wall I've been wanting to break.



I'm not sure why I didn't try to do this from further away, but I got there in the end, anyway.



Scanning the newly revealed space turns up Shalom, the third game in the Knightmare series (after Knightmare and Maze of Galious). The first game was a vertical scrolling shooter, the second an exploratory platformer, and this one's a top down adventure. I try it with all my other ROMs (which I don't do every time I find a ROM, though I'd be more likely to find all the combos if I did) and find that it combines with Diviner Sensation (not with Knightmare, though). I head for the nearby fairy summon point to try it out, but it hasn't obviously changed what Diviner Sensation does on its own. I get a blue healing fairy.



I warp to the Temple of the Sun. There's another wall here I've been waiting to break.



That first shot flying off to nowhere is a reminder of why I've gotten into the habit of just taking the hit from the Bomb. Once again, I'm able to blow open the wall with it.



Appropriately for something hidden in a pyramid, I find King's Valley, a 1985 puzzle platformer. I've already got its sequel, Seal of El Giza, but they don't play the sound when combined. I head for the next breakable wall on my to-do list, this one in the Twin Labyrinths.



I thought I was far enough away this time, but nope.



Clearing the wall allows me to push this block down, but once I've done so I realise there's a problem: I have no path to the lower left side of the screen that will allow me to push the block to the right. I could solve this by pushing the lower block down first, but if I do that then there won't be enough space to the left of the upper one after I push it to the bottom level to move it to the receptacle. This is a pickle.



I push the block in the pit just so I have a way off the screen, then think to check if I can break the wall below the lower block - I can't. So I exit and re-enter. I have an idea about how to solve this: the doorway at the upper right is the shop where I got the Lamp of Time. I've seen in the Tower of the Goddess that the Lamp can stop blocks from falling, so I just need to push the block over the edge, stop time, run under it, and then push it rightwards. Easy:



I wasn't sure I'd be able to push it if time was already stopped, so I try to use the Lamp after pushing the block over the edge. I'm not sure if it didn't work because I stopped time too late or if I'm just doing it wrong. Time is still stopped (watch the red spots on the wall) when I push the block into the pit, and it seems to fall just fine, so I'm not sure what's going on here. I can't try again with the Lamp until it recharges, so I'll have to leave it for now.



I manage to fall in the pit, which I can't get out of without warping, but I've still got business in the Labyrinths, so I warp to the Temple of the Sun, head to Inferno Cavern, and from there back to the Labyrinth.



I manage this one without hurting Lemeza.

My reward is Penguin Adventure, a pretty odd looking 1986 game where you play a penguin running into the screen. I mistook it for Antarctic Adventure (which PA is a sequel to), my most desired ROM because the manual says it will combine with Comic Bakery to warp me to rear fields, which would save me a lot of walking. I put Penguin Adventure in with Comic Bakery anyway and warp to Field 2. If the combination were working, it would take me directly to the fourth screenshot here, but instead it takes me to the third and I have to walk the difference.



I was hoping I'd be able to blow this tunnel open, but it doesn't seem to be so. After three attempts my VIT is getting pretty low, so I'm not game to keep trying.



I warp back to town and save, then head for the Chamber of Birth again to redo what I did in there before dying and take a proper look at the room with the big sephirot. Along the way my EXP ticks over and I get my VIT back.



I repeat the long walk through the Chamber yet again and this time reach the room I'm after with decent VIT.



Clearing the room of enemies gets me nowhere. The stele has yet another golden key/Palenque clue. I wouldn't be surprised if the chest on this screen holds the golden key. Also, I'm a big fan of the face of the figure in the sephirot mural.



I attempt the dance of life, but it doesn't work.



I run around with the scanner, spend some time trying to attack the elephants in the background, and eventually give up and head back to the previous room.



There's a teleport back across.



I warp out and head for another obstruction in the Shrine of the Mother.



Along the way I get another glimpse of Shorn Kosugi, this time tantalisingly close.



But when I reach the next room, he's already disappeared. That's not what I'm here for, though: it takes three Bombs, but I clear the blocks at the upper left. Sadly, this doesn't clear a path to the next room. I'm guessing a ladder will be revealed here at some point.



For now, I warp to the Mausoleum again and repeat the trek to the statue in the Confusion Gate. Along the way I summon a fairy using the Diviner Sensation/Shalom combination. I get the blue fairy again. Maybe it's coincidence, but perhaps what this combo does is guarantee you'll get the blue fairy and a full heal rather than sometimes getting the orange one for a partial heal?



I take another unsuccessful shot at breaking all the pots. This time I only get one of them - I thought that pots struck while time was stopped would break in one hit, so I was trying to save time by only hitting once. No good.



I check the album cover room - one more barrier has disappeared along with the lizard I took to the light earlier. I make another attempt at scanning the little platforms. I think it's just the leftmost one and the one next to the angel in the middle that are left now. I fall down again, meaning I have to go back through the Mausoleum into the Graveyard and through the Tower to get back to the statue.



That's OK though, because the Lamp of Time hasn't recharged by the time I get back, so I would have just been waiting for it anyway. I use the remaining waiting time to clear the flying eyes and to strike each pot once, then get in position for another attempt. I'm taking a slightly different approach this time:



I check my item window, see that the Lamp is charged again, and work smarter, not harder, using a throwing knife to take out the right side pots and breaking the upper left one through the floor. I actually have a couple of seconds wait between when I finish and when the Lamp runs out. And it works this time!



I head upstairs and find that the last barrier has cleared and the chest has opened, allowing me to collect the Flywheel:



A flywheel is a storage device for rotational energy, apparently. I dunno what I'll be doing with it.



Once I have it, though, the solid shapes in the sephirot images clear, and mudmen start emerging from them.





Here are a couple of shots from earlier. I notice that in the stele image of the sephirot, the middle bit looks kind of like the Flywheel. Is it activating them somehow? I wonder if mudmen will also be emerging in the Chamber of Birth.



But that's a question for another day. After beating up on mud lumps for a while and failing again to land on the upper left tiny platform, I warp back to the Village and save. I thought Xelpud might have had something to say about the puzzle I just solved, but he did not. Oh well. This is a relatively short update, but it might be the longest so far in terms of time spent playing the game. Until I got the Flywheel I was starting to worry I wasn't going to actually achieve anything substantial this time.

There's only small changes to the maps, so I won't post any here, but I will update the master list back on the first page of the thread.

Clues:

Village:



Guidance Gate:



Confusion Gate:

"Ye who has life. There is still time. Turn back. The confusion continues."

"11 children guard Tiamat's chamber. The Grail is powerless therein."

"You have done well in making it this far, wise one. Break through the final confusion."

"This is the Confusion Gate. The path will open to the wise."

"Is the one reading this tablet wise or a fool? I pray it is one that has wisdom."

"The mother ocean watches kindness and charity."



Mausoleum of Giants:



Graveyard of the Giants:



Temple of the Sun:



Temple of Moonlight:



Spring of the Sky:



Tower of the Goddess:



Inferno Cavern:



Tower of Ruin:



Chamber of Extinction:



Chamber of Birth:

"This is the land where life was born. When life is praised, the large earthen doll will be born, the earthen doll that holds the golden key."

"Charity, Kindness, Charity, Charity, Kindness, Charity, Kindness, Kindness, the endless sound of the waves."

"The Crystal Skull suppresses Tiamat's power and summons forth the dimension in which she dwells."

"Dance here. Praise life." (6/-3)

"The four Sages silently wait for the time when the strong one arrives."

"The Tree of Life is the source of all life. The mud dolls become people."

"As they become people, this land prospers. Gathering power, they leave this place on a journey. And they continue to prosper, aiming for the skies in other lands."

"Palenque sleeps within a wall. Take the golden key and challenge him."



Twin Labyrinths (Front):



Twin Labyrinths (Reverse)



The Shrine of the Mother:







To-Do:

Anywhere:


Village:


Guidance Gate:


Confusion Gate:
-Open chest -2/5, -4/1 (x3)
-Enter door -4/1 (upside down)
-Get past barrier at -5/3
-Push block to obstruct light at -5/3
-Summon Key Fairy at -6/3 and look for something to unlock
-Reach the left side of Shu's blood shower head at -3/2
-Do something with the statue at -1/4
-Clear barriers at -2/5
--Return light to wandering lizard (-5/3)
---Move the block so the lizard can return to the light
--Vanish dancing child's treasures all at once (-1/4)
---Use the Lamp of Time
-Scan in front of face at -2/5
-Scan all the little platforms at -3/5

Mausoleum of Giants:


Graveyard of the Giants:
-Get something from chest at 1/-3
-Break the wall at 2/-1
-Try to blow up sloped roof to the right of breakable wall at 2/-1
-Do something with fake spikes at -1/-2
-Scan giant head 2/-2
-Take path to another Field at 2/-2

Temple of the Sun:
-Solve all the puzzles
-Do something with the wall that goes "ping" at the upper left of 3/-3
-Do something with squiggles at 3/-3
--Bring the Woman Statue

Temple of Moonlight:


Spring of the Sky:
-Get the statue in the room at 0/1 to say or do something
--Go to it after getting the flute
-Reach the two circular objects in 2/0
-Break wall at 1/-2

Tower of the Goddess:


Inferno Cavern:


Tower of Ruin:
-Get the medicine of life
-Figure out what weighting the dais at -4/1 did
--Check -3/-1
--Check Inferno Cavern
-Do something with the blue cross at -3/2
-Reach the fairies at -3/3
-Get to rest of Field from 0/3
--Clear pillar
-Interact with background woman at 0/3

Chamber of Extinction:


Chamber of Birth
-Praise life so large earthen doll is born
--Dance to praise life at 6/-3
---Try the shield
--Get the golden key from the earthen doll
-Open chest: 3/-2, 5/-2
-Read stele: 2/-2, 5/-2
-Take door to other field: 5/-2
--Remove elephant pillar
-Do something with large sephirot image at 5/-2
-Scan cracked wall: 4/-2
-Break wall: 4/-2 (lowest)
-Find the shop that sells a Jewel

Twin Labyrinths (Front):
-Solve block puzzle at 3/-2
--Find way to push leftmost block to the right
---Break pinging wall above block
--Try the Lamp of Time again
-Defeat Baphomet at 3/-1
-Break pinging wall at 2/-3

Twin Labyrinths (Reverse)


Endless Corridor:


The Shrine of the Mother:
-Do something past falling pillar at 0/4
-Remove eye blocks: -2/1, -1/3, 0/4
-Open chest: -2/4, room reached from Twin Labyrinths
-Get Crystal Skull at -3/4
--Try the Lamp of Time
-Weight dais: -3/4
-Do something at the platform at -1/2
-Do something at the box platform at -3/0
-Take left exit from -1/3
-Defeat Beelzebub at -1/1
--Open the core of La Mulana
-Chant the correct Mantras to seal off each Guardian at their images (?)





Death Locks:
-Temple of the Sun 0/-4
-Shrine of the Mother -2/4

Fairy Locations:
-Confusion Gate -6/3
-Temple of Moonlight 0/-1
-Spring of the Sky 3/1
-Tower of the Goddess 2/5
-Chamber of Extinction 8/-3
-Endless Corridor 0/-2



ROMs:



Glyph Key:

So what verbs have you tried for the Dance of Life, anyway? I feel like you should be super close there.

Just walking, jumping, and holding out the shield. I guess I should try attacking as well, though if I have to do the dance in front of the stele that says “dance here” I’ll struggle to get six attacks in between appearances of the wall enemy. Maybe if I stop time?

I definitely feel like I’m missing something.

I realised this morning that I left something out of the last update:



I spotted Shorn again on my way to break the block in the Shrine of the Mother. This one I actually noticed while playing, but forgot about while putting the update together. It just popped into my mind this morning that I'd left it out. I've edited the post a little to put it back in, but this GIF is pretty much all there is to it.

Welcome to Let's Play La-Mulana, part 37: Suddenly it's an STG. This time we'll be making some progress and mixing the gameplay up a little. Only a little, mind. I actually played most of this update twice - I neglected to record the first time so I had to go back and do it again. I tried to do the same stuff in the same order as if I didn't already know what would happen, but there was one change near the start that kind of threw everything off. On the plus side, it means I have a more concrete idea of what caused certain events.

I start off today by returning to the Chamber of Birth. When I got the Flywheel last time, the sephirot images in the Confusion Gate started emitting mudmen. Will the ones in the Chamber do the same? Probably: the figure underneath is now an empty space where before it was filled in.



Sure enough, mudmen start coming out of the wall and walking around, before sinking into the ground and re-emerging on other platforms. Meanwhile Lemeza takes a few sickles to the back of the head.



I carry on down the path through the Chamber. The little sephirots have come to life, but the big one doesn't seem to be active.



I return to the stele which reads "Dance here. Praise life." I've tried dancing empty-handed, I've tried doing it with the Shield. This time, I'm gonna use a weapon.



I take too long the first time and get hit by the wall panel, but the second attempt does the job. This was sort of a surprise, and is also the thing I mentioned earlier that I didn't do on my first run at this update. For the moment, it's not clear what it's done.



I head through the teleports to the last room I've been able to reach. Along the way I scan a couple of spots that're on my to-do list (in the second shot here I'd not realised I had Bombs equipped instead of the Hand Scanner, but I scanned it afterwards). Eventually I reach the big sephirot image. Has anything changed?



Yes! A big mudman emerges from the wall and starts running around, before sinking into the ground the same way the small ones do. I love the spritework on this thing. I'm pretty sure this is what the Dance of Life does, because on my first attempt when I didn't do the dance this guy didn't come to life.



A few Shuriken later, the mudman is destroyed. The left and right exits open, along with the chest at the upper right. There's a clue about a giant statue named Spriggan who awakens when you show hostility, which I arguably did by using the whip in the Dance of Life. Spriggan returns to sleep when you fight him more, which again you could say is what happened here. So maybe this was Spriggan, but it wasn't exactly a statue and it didn't exactly go to sleep, so I won't cross that clue off just yet.



The chest gives me the Pochette Key, which I think is the golden key referenced in so many clues, which would make the thing I just killed the "large earthen doll".



Apparently pochette is French for a small pocket, and might mean a small handbag here - it looks enough like one. But what will it open? Well, there have been clues:

The "in hand" bit even makes sense with this thing being a clutch handbag. Now I just need to figure out where these murals are. For now, though, I have a more pressing task: the interfield door leading right has just opened.



The new Field is: still the Chamber of Birth. That's odd. I spend a weight to get further into the room.



I scan the stele for a clue which, as usual, doesn't make much sense at the moment ("wedges"?), then scan behind the wall at the lower left to find GR3, a Gradius on MSX-style game by GR3 Project, i.e., the developers of La-Mulana. I'm kind of surprised watching my video back that I didn't immediately try to combine it with PR3, another not-actually-an-MSX-game ROM I picked up a while back. I'll have to give that a go next time.



I head up the ladder, where I find this area's blue cross (I still haven't figured those out yet). The clue on the stele makes me think of a trap I've seen in the Temple of Moonlight. Do I need to just stand there and get hit by it?



As I head up the left side of the screen I find another teleport, ending my exploration of this screen for the moment.



This shape looks familiar...



This dark spot at the bottom looks for all the world like it's a ROM hiding place, but if it is I failed to find it. The stele for once gives me a clue that is meaningful straight away: after all these hints about murals, here's one telling me where one actually is.



This cross, unlike the equivalent in the Chamber of Extinction, has an entrance I am able to find. And an easily reached exit.



Rather than pursue the cross further, I head up the ladder. I'm pretty sure the interacting with the cross is going to take me towards the boss, and I want to look around some more first. What's that thing on the left?



Yowza! It's a laser gun!



I scan the altar. Turns out I've had the name of this place wrong: it's the Chamber of Life, not of Birth. I was close. The meaning of the stele in the middle of the room isn't immediately clear...



...But it doesn't take long to figure out: a mudman sets off the switch in the closed chamber at the upper right, revealing the Perfume:



Sounds useful, but what exactly does it do? Some possibilities: kills all the skeletons in the ruins (yes please!); kills the Anubis enemies ("A monster with the power of death"); kills Beelzebub (who looks like a vampire); gets rid of the giant corpses in the Graveyard.



I head left, where there's a stele, a chest down below behind the laser gun, and spikes that extend from the ceiling.



It's a good thing that I have a lot of VIT. This is a dangerous place!



The next screen is broadly similar, with rising and falling spikes, a stele with a clue, and a ROM hidden in the conspicuous pyramid mural. It's Konami Soccer, a 1985 sports sim. It's soccer. Having read the clue, I spend quite a while whipping the wall at the upper left, but nothing obvious comes of it and I give up after a while.

The next screen features another Bomb ammo drop. Nice! Oh, also there's a door here. Presumably it leads to the Chamber of Extinction, which is interesting because I don't think I've seen a door there. For now it's closed. The glyph over the door represents the number six, so it'll open when I beat the boss of the sixth area: the Chamber of Extinction. I head upwards.



This room has a lot of ladders, which it turns out mudmen can climb. The shuffle I do across the bottom platform is something that's becoming more and more prevalent in my explorations: I'm taking a tiny step, then scanning, then another step, then another scan. I'm not sure I've actually found anything this way yet.



The stele has more about Hell and Nu Wa. I'm sure I'll find the place eventually. I head up the ladder and find myself coming up the unexplored path out of the Graveyard. This isn't a surprise for me, because on my unrecorded first pass at playing this update I didn't kill the large doll and so wasn't able to enter the part of the Chamber I've just been in from below. Instead I went in through this ladder and explored it in reverse order. Anyway, since I'm in the area I pick up some more Bombs. Whatever the Perfume I just picked up does, it looks like it doesn't destroy these dead giants.



I head back in to the Chamber of Life, where I have unfinished business. Along the way I find another Bomb drop (not shown: my prolonged efforts to actually get to it without getting knocked offscreen and having it disappear - note the difference in VIT between screenshots here). First order of business: the laser gun. A stele on the screen to the left says "The golden shine reflects the narrow extending light". I don't have a golden shine, but will my Silver Shield do?



Yes it will. There's another clue that might relate to this: "The rogue that releases many lights. He who does not hold the silver shine is doomed." I'm leaving that on my clue list because I'm not convinced that this gun is a rogue.



Removing the gun clears the path to the left and opens this chest, allowing me to collect the Container:



Good question, user's manual. I have an idea:



Here are a couple of shots from earlier in the LP. The stele image on the left sure looks like it's depicting the container along with the figure in the shot on the right. I think I need to go there and fill the container with the medicine of life.



I head further into the Field. Last time I went to the right side of the third screen here I teleported out before I finished exploring it, so I'm returning.



The only thing I find is that the uppermost block of this wall makes a noise when struck. I keep at it for a while and eventually the "you did a thing" sound plays. Sadly I didn't have the exclamation mark ROMs equipped. I think this is what the earlier clue "Keep striking the white wall. The darkness will eventually dissipate." was about. But where's the darkness that's gonna dissipate?



I head through a couple of teleports and return to the cross.



In the middle of the cross I find another teleporter that takes me to the equivalent cross in the Chamber of Extinction.



I'm at last able to reach this dais and weight it. The sound plays, so it's done something, but nothing has changed on this screen. I thought this cross was supposed to summon Palenque? Well, whatever. I head back to town and save, after first checking if Xelpud has anything new to say (nope).



Having made some progress and gained some new items, I set off to figure out what's changed throughout the ruins. I start by heading through the Confusion Gate to the Temple of Moonlight.



There are a couple of things I want to check out here, and the first is this room. One of the clues says that "The woman lies beyond many corpses.", which brought to mind this room. If she's here though, I fail to find her.



Also, I speculated earlier that the Perfume's dead-destroying power might mean I don't have to face skeletons anymore. Incorrect.



I also thought it might do something to these Anubi, but they appear unphased.



The clue on the right here is from earlier in this update, in the Chamber of Life. It made me think of this room, where weighting the dais causes the spiked ceiling to fall. It also reminds me of another part of the clue about many corpses: "To get the woman the man risks his life." Do I need to just stand there and take the hit without moving?



It doesn't seem to work. I stand there for longer than I've shown in this GIF, but nothing happens. Have I got the wrong room? Do I need to stop time first? Is there something else to it?



For now, the only way out of the trap is to warp. I head for the other Temple.



From there I return to the Temple of Moonlight, this time through the pyramid. I've had an idea that the "risks his life" clue relates to getting struck by lightning when attacking in the Temple. Do I need to break the pots or defeat the enemies in the Temple despite the lightning? Along the way to find out, I scan behind the moon (I've been doing a lot of scanning lately because I suspect I'm supposed to have the ROM that lets me warp to Reverse Fields by now and I'm trying to find it in places I've already been) and find Parodius, a 1988 Gradius parody in the form of a horizontal scrolling shooter.



If attacking anything in the pyramid is going to work, it's probably the "soul" enemies, but they're quite hard to hit so I start with a stationary target. I manage to break the pot and find nothing in it, but I've lost so much VIT in the process that I can't afford to try anything else. I warp to the Chamber of Extinction, another place that I suspect will have changed since my activities in the Chamber of Life.



And also the site of a fairy sparkle. I once again load up Diviner Sensation in combination with Shalom and once again get the blue fairy for a full heal. My confidence that there is a cause and effect relationship there is increasing.



I head back into the dark part of the stage. As I suspected, the clue earlier about striking a white wall to dissipate the darkness and the subsequent white wall that I struck until a sound played seems to have been referring to this area. It's lit up. There's a clue on a stele in the darkness somewhere that says "There is naught to disperse the darkness here", so I'd assumed it couldn't be done at all. If I'd known this was coming I might not have spent so much time going through this area in the dark repeatedly.



Heading through the former darkness, a few things have changed. Some, but not all, of the wall torches have disappeared.

Also, this wasn't here before. Is that a picture of the Pochette Key in the mural?



I think it is! Putting Lemeza in contact with the Pochette image causes a dais to appear, which I then weight. I get an exclamation mark, but nothing happens on this screen. Still, I think I have this figured out: I've taken the golden key from the large earthen doll and used it at the small mural, which was summoned by the dais in the cross that I weighted a little while ago. I'm gonna be able to cross so much stuff off my clues list from this!



I take the lower path through the darkness as well as the upper, finding a ROM I missed before in what now seems like a pretty obvious place to scan (I'd taken the raised platform to just be a clue about where to shoot a flare from to temporarily light the room) and a stele that is on my previous map of the Field but which I guess I missed scanning before. It confirms that the flywheel is what's made all the mudmen appear.

The ROM is Time Pilot, a 1983 port of the 1982 arcade shooter in which you travel to various time periods and shoot people. The wikipedia page has a neat anecdote about the game:



Once I reach the end of the previously dark area, I warp back to town and save, then set off again. My next destination is this room in the Tower of Ruin. Now that I have the container, I expect the figure in the background here to fill it with the medicine of life, as depicted in this clue.



I go and stand there, jump up to the mouth of the vessel, but nothing happens. Maybe I've got this one wrong?



I also take a crack at bombing the wall open. Bad idea.



The container is at the bottom right of my item list, still empty. I must be missing something. Then, to mix things up a little, I head to the Graveyard of the Giants and spend fully ten minutes running around the whole place scanning everywhere. I find nothing. I'd been hoping to turn up the Arctic Adventure ROM which will allow me to warp to reverse Fields. It just seemed like this frozen area was the most likely place to hide it. Oh well.



Since I'm in the area, I stop by the stele in the Tower of Ruin that mentioned the medicine of life. This really looks to me like I'm supposed to be taking the container to the woman with pot image in the other part of the Tower after defeating the invisible enemy in the room in the third screenshot here (which I've done), but it doesn't seem to work. Frustrated and seeking more frustration, I head to the Labyrinths for another look at this block puzzle.



I again try to stop time while dropping the block. This time I am certain I stopped time while it was in the air and it didn't slow its fall. There's gotta be some way to do this that I'm missing.



I warp back to the Village and save, and then head for where I expect to find Palenque, having used the golden key at the small mural. This means taking the hike I complained about when I was fighting the Viy, plus a few more screens in the Chamber of Extinction. When I get there, I find that a new mural has appeared in the wall, and an Ankh on the floor. Let's get out an Ankh Jewel:



I activate the Ankh and the mural peels away. What had appeared to be a human figure in the mural is revealed as a fairly alien creature in some kind of flying machine. Lemeza gets his own tiny aeroplane and we both take flight.



Briefly. We're in a corridor full of columns, which Palenque can break through but which do a fair bit of damage to Lemeza. Between that and its attacks, I don't last long. I need to brush up on my shmupping skills. Or maybe I can just get up close and lob a tonne of Bombs in quick succession. Either way, that'll be a task for next time - I'm done for today.

Maps:

Chamber of Extinction:



Chamber of Life:

Clues:

Village:



Guidance Gate:



Confusion Gate:



Mausoleum of Giants:



Graveyard of the Giants:



Temple of the Sun:



Temple of Moonlight:



Spring of the Sky:



Tower of the Goddess:

"This is a forbidden land that no one may enter. The place concealed beyond here hides a secret. Fly on golden wings."

"This is the Tower of the Goddess. A place to grant the wish of the Mother."

"The mischievous Rusali. Yaksi, who beguiles men. Dakini, dancing enticingly. Only one of them has a pure heart."

"Strike the one who blocks the Golden Wings."

"The right eye sees Charity."

"Challenge the Chamber of Birth. Take the Golden Key. Proceed to where we were born."

"To the left is the secret of life, to the right is the power of destruction."

"Ye who leaves this land, take this to heart. We can not grant the Mother's wish. Which child of the Mother art thou? We, her second children, wish that you can grant her desire."

Inferno Cavern:



Tower of Ruin:

"The kind, mischievous fairy. The kind, lonely fairy. Her mischief is innocent. Innocent mischief will do thee no harm."

"The large earthen doll, It carries the flying golden key."

"The people who created Nu Wa, those who imitate the power of the Great Mother. The power to create life. The power to create us. That wish goes unfulfilled."

"The left eye sees Kindness."

"To ye who hast made it this far, undertake the final trial. The Mother's wish can no longer be granted."



Chamber of Extinction:

"If thou cannot go left, go right."

"The Guardians lurk in the front. Places without them are the rear. This is the law of the ruins. Only the Infinite Corridor is an exception."

"Spriggan, the giant statue. Show hostility and he will awaken. Fight him more and he will return to sleep."

"There is a riddle Hidden between two murals. Concealed within the large one, it is summoned by the small. Challenge the riddle with golden key in hand."



Chamber of Life:

"This is the Chamber of Life. The place where all life was born."

"This is the land where life was born. When life is praised, the large earthen doll will be born, the earthen doll that holds the golden key."

"Charity, Kindness, Charity, Charity, Kindness, Charity, Kindness, Kindness, the endless sound of the waves."

"The Crystal Skull suppresses Tiamat's power and summons forth the dimension in which she dwells."

"Dance here. Praise life."

"The four Sages silently wait for the time when the strong one arrives."

"The Tree of Life is the source of all life. The mud dolls become people."

"As they become people, this land prospers. Gathering power, they leave this place on a journey. And they continue to prosper, aiming for the skies in other lands."

"Palenque sleeps within a wall. Take the golden key and challenge him."

"Drive in the wedges. Awaken the Mother. The Shrine of the Mother will then show its true form."



Twin Labyrinths (Front):



Twin Labyrinths (Reverse)



The Shrine of the Mother:






To-Do:

Anywhere:
-Find Shorn Kosugi
-Figure out what the blue crosses do
-Find the Four Sages and talk to them
--Get the flute
-Clear each screen of enemies at least once
-Complete the software use and software combinations lists in the manual
-Find other key fairy locations, if they exist
-Get all the ROMs
--Have something good happen
-Push the wall on a moonlit night
-Use the golden key on the small mural
--Solve the riddle in the large mural
-Figure out what a Mantra is and find them all
-Find Shorn's diary
-Undertake the final trial
-Try combining PR3 and GR3
-Figure out what the Perfume does

Village:


Guidance Gate:


Confusion Gate:


Mausoleum of Giants:


Graveyard of the Giants:
-Get something from chest at 1/-3
-Do something with fake spikes at -1/-2
-Take path to another Field at 2/-2

Temple of the Sun:


Temple of Moonlight:


Spring of the Sky:


Tower of the Goddess:


Inferno Cavern:


Tower of Ruin:


Chamber of Extinction:
-Weight dais: 6/0
-Summon Palenque probably at 6/0
--Get the golden key
-Defeat Palenque

Chamber of Life
-Praise life so large earthen doll is born
--Dance to praise life at 6/-3
--Get the golden key from the earthen doll
-Open chest: 3/-2, 5/-2
-Read stele: 2/-2
-Take door to other field: 5/-2
--Remove elephant pillar
-Do something with large sephirot image at 5/-2
-Scan cracked wall: 4/-2
-Find the shop that sells a Jewel
-Attempt to break lower wall at 6/-1
-Go through door at 2/0
--Defeat Palenque

Twin Labyrinths (Front):
-Solve block puzzle at 3/-2
--Find way to push leftmost block to the right
--Try the Lamp of Time again
-Defeat Baphomet at 3/-1

Twin Labyrinths (Reverse)


Endless Corridor:


The Shrine of the Mother:






Death Locks:
-Temple of the Sun 0/-4
-Shrine of the Mother -2/4

Fairy Locations:
-Confusion Gate -6/3
-Temple of Moonlight 0/-1
-Spring of the Sky 3/1
-Tower of the Goddess 2/5
-Chamber of Extinction 8/-3
-Endless Corridor 0/-2



ROMs:



Glyph Key:

For the trio block pushing puzzle, have you tried coming in from the left and jumping over the pit so you can push the lower left block into that first slot on the left, then dropped the right block and then pushed it right onto the third slot, and then dropped the top left block onto that platform then circle around underneath it and push it off to the right for the second slot?