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

Palenque sure chews through that life bar.

Yeah, I did this when I wasn't recording. The upper block lands too close to the lower left one for Lemeza to get between them and push it.

But it shot first...

I think you mentioned last time that you were going to try freezing time before the block falls. Have you tried that since/is it even possible to push blocks when time is stopped?



Also, seconding Mogri on that damage. It would seem the beamcannon doesn't play around!
I'd be curious to see what the shield does in that fight, besides demand tedious menu use.

I sometimes forget what I said I would do when I’m playing, and there’s a wait of a few minutes between uses of the lamp. One of those is probably why I haven’t tried freezing before pushing yet. The shield is a good idea. If it reflects the beam then the fight might get a whole lot easier, but even if it just blocks it it could help.

I’ve already played the next update, so both of these ideas will have to wait for the one after.

We start off today by trying out a ROM I picked up last time with one I got some time back: GR3 and PR3. When I select them together, the combination sound plays. Let's try pressing F4 to run my MSX:



!

What's this?



Whoa! PR3 is playable! I try the arrow keys, but I don't seem to be able to select the options menu. Oh well. Let's start a 1PLAYER game:



It's a shooter! Perhaps it's not coincidence that I found the GR3 ROM that lets me play this on the path to Palenque, the shmup boss. These first couple of enemy waves each drop a power-up that highlights a point on the bar at the bottom. I'm not very familiar with the Gradius series, but I think that this is how power-ups work in those games.



Pressing the subweapon key (M) activates the selected power-up, in this case MISSILE!!, which adds to dropped bomb to the weapon fired when I press space.



Here's the next wave. They've got hiragana characters on them:

ときめき❤
Tokimeki ❤

Google translate gives this as "palpitation" or "throbbing (noun)". Thanks, Google! When I search for it, though, I get results about Tokimeki Memorial, a dating sim series released by Konami for various systems, but not the MSX. Wikipedia gives the translation of the title as "Heartbeat Memorial", which would suggest Tokimeki means "heartbeat". That fits with the heart icon, too.



As I shoot them, different characters appear. They're pretty hard to make out because they're all laid on top of each other, but I'll give it a go:

ひてふ!!
Hitefu!!

I'm not getting anywhere trying to figure out what this means. But wait:



The characters disappear in the order they appeared, so each winds up on top briefly. They're still hard to make out, but I think it might be:

ひでぶ!!
Hidebu!!

Apparently this is something characters say in Fist of the North Star as they explode, and is supposed to be "ittai desu", meaning "it hurts", but mispronounced because they're exploding. Makes sense for something I just blew up, I guess.



A couple of space dragons (?) show up. Each of them also drop a power-up and the same series of characters. It would have been easier to read if I'd screenshotted them instead, but oh well. The sequence of power-ups so far is NUTHIN!!, ZOOOM!!, MISSILE!!, DOUBLE!!, then FAMICOM!!. I've seen what missile does, but let's try famicom:



Or not. I activate it but fail to dodge some heartbeats and die before I can see what it does. My ship, like the enemies, cries out ひでぶ!! as it explodes.



My next life starts off promisingly, and I activate FAMICOM!! to learn that it upgrades my main gun to a laser. I also activate the MISSILE!! and manage to fire one off before dying at the exact same place as last time.



On my third life I use a couple of ZOOOM!!s to increase my speed, then try out DOUBLE!!, which gets me a second shot that fires diagonally up from the ship. With my increased speed and firepower, I am able to outmanouver the enemy that ended my first two lives.



This exploding card has a different message appear when it dies to the other enemies so far:

いやん!!

Iyan!!

Wiktionary gives this as "No!!", which makes sense.



Power-up bearing enemies continue to appear as a landmass scrolls into view.



Things start getting pretty strange, with enemies taking the form of heads on the floor and ceiling and what look like bouncing soccer balls. I activate the FAMICOM!! laser and am disappointed to learn that it doesn't stack with DOUBLE!!, meaning I lose my upward shots. I am able to add a MISSILE!! while keeping the laser, at least.



The strangeness continues as I face I giant baseball player and several small women with guns. It looks like I picked up something that makes my power-up selector scroll through all the options. It's hard to make out, but I stopped it on ZOOOM!! (randomly). Let's see that again in super-slow motion:



It appears to be a normal pickup that starts the cycle. The first four choices we've already seen, but OPTION!!, WHAT TH-!!, and BARRIER!! are new. The last one is presumably a shield, and the first I would expect to give me a secondary ship that'll follow my movements and fire its own shots. As for WHAT TH-!!, I have no idea. Maybe it blows up my own ship?



Before long I go down again, and it's GAME OVER. Darn.



Here are a couple more oddities: the building with the pseudo-Konami logo billboard firing out speech bubbles, and the master of fish from the main game appearing as an enemy. I've tried to figure out the text in the bubbles, but I haven't got it. The font is really tiny, and I'm bad enough at identifying Japanese characters as it is. If anyone can transcribe and translate it (and/or correct any errors I've made with the other translations), I'd appreciate it.



My score is less than half the HI score. I'll have to add getting the high score and beating the game to my to-do list. I wonder if it's just a one-level thing or if it's got multiple stages? There don't seem to be any continues, so if it's the latter I'll have to 1CC it to get a clear, which is probably not going to happen. I sit on the title screen for a while to see if there's an intro or demo, but nothing shows up so I power down the MSX and swap out PR3 for the Unreleased ROM. The combination sound plays, so I guess I can run this one, too. Let's see what we have:

Another Kobami product, just like La-Mulana itself (PR3 was Kenami). The title:

むきむき SD メモリアル
Mukimuki SD Memoriaru

Most of this is actually in English, I think: SD for super-deformed, and memoriaru would be "memorial". That just leaves mukimuki. Putting "むきむき" into google got me some results that appeared to be about foreskins, and a whole lot of buff dudes. Putting in "mukimuki" gets results saying it either means "suitable", "muscular", or "manly". So it's Muscle Man Memorial SD, I guess. The "memorial" bit brings to mind Tokimeki Memorial, mentioned earlier in this update, suggesting this is a dating sim, and the SD I think refers to the art style, with the characters being drawn as short, with big heads.



I am one player using a keyboard, so let's go with that.



I haven't played Tokimeki Memorial, but I was on its wikipedia page earlier in this update and the screenshot of it there looked a lot like this. The game seems to start in media res. Who is this guy? Why's he in the classroom after graduation? Where's everybody else?



I'm able to walk around and examine stuff.



Does this matter? Dunno.



I spend a while trying to find stuff on the desks. There's actually something visible on the lower left one, but I failed to notice it until I'd walked to most of the others.



The Legendary Tree was the name of the hidden location where I found this ROM. But who wants to see me there? I try to go down in the corridor on the right, but it doesn't work. I am allowed to exit at the top.



Our mystery man makes his way to the tree. It must be a hike, because he seems out of breath on arrival. A woman emerges from behind the tree to speak to him. I guess his name's Shiori. Or is that her name, and he's speaking to her? It's hard to tell.



I'm not sure if she's supposed to be wearing glasses or something? Sadly, there's no portrait of the male character. There's a lot of text coming up, so I'll just transcribe most of it:

I've never gone out with a boy before........
But it's not like I had no interest. I've always wanted to go out with a boy, and several even sent me love letters. But I just couldn't go out with any of them.

Wh-Why not?

Because........
You were always there....
I always thoought of you as just an old friend........
Maybe I just convinced myself I thought that, because I didn't want to admit my true feelings....
But now that we're going to graduate........
Now that we may have to go our separate ways........
I understand what I truly feel........
It's embarassing and I feel like running, but I don't want to be just friends any more. I want you to look at me as a woman, so I'll be brave.
........

I think this is fairly boilerplate stuff for a dating sim, though I hope the ellipsis use is exaggerated. But then:



The dialogue goes off the rails a little. Has she got an abscess?



Waah! What's going on? I haven't played the game Snatcher, but I think this is a reference to it - I believe it's about robots that pretend to be human and an organisation called JUNKER that looks for them. Snatcher also had an SD version released.



Our guy challenges the woman/robot, but she launches into a pretty brutal attack on his character:

So predictable, coming here just from a letter! Legendary tree my ass! I'll burn it down! Why confess love after graduation anyway!? It's not like there are no boys in college!! Dream on boy! Dating all those girl at once! Don't think just a phone call can appease women!

But that's how the game system works........

Real women don't operate by game systems! Come on, slap my face, I dare you! Or else die!!



Things get stranger. I guess the player character's name is Taihei, so Shiori must be the woman. The fish must be a reference to Metal Gear, the robot sidekick in Snatcher.



I feel like there are things happening here that are going right over my head.



The peaceful-ish scene fades away and a shooting segment begins. I can point the cursor at any of the nine squares and fire, but I don't make a great start. It looks like I landed at least one hit, but Shiori's life bar remains full, while mine goes down rapidly to her shots.



My performance improves, but I can't keep up with the damage I'm taking and before long it's game over. This is pretty tough!



I start over, this time selecting 2PLAYER with JOYSTICK, which makes no difference I can identify. I try to make a beeline for the door, but Taihei won't leave until the letter is found. After that I go through the conversation again. It doesn't seem to be possible to skip cutscenes, so it takes me three and a half minutes to get back to the shooting segment.



I think this attempt goes better than the first, but it still ends in failure. The faces appear in a different pattern to the first time, so I guess I won't be able to memorise my way through this. I'll just have to git gud. For now, I don't feel like mashing through three minutes plus of dialogue again, so let's get back to La-Mulana proper:



Lemeza has been sitting outside the Elder's hut this whole time playing games on his laptop. I try combining all my other ROMs with GR3 to see if anything else playable comes up, but nothing does. I check in with Xelpud to see if he has any comment on the games I've been playing (nope), then warp to the Mausoleum.



I head down to the celestial body chamber and align the stars so that Bud will fall over and allow me to climb up to where Lemeza is standing in the third shot. I've been trying to find any ROMs I've missed, and I thought maybe there was one here. There is not (I hope there aren't any behind the wall blocking the empty chest), so I head back down and realign the moons, because I still need to push against a wall on a moonlit night somewhere.



I've got a couple of things I want to try in the shrine, too. I thought having the Perfume ("Destroys the dead") might allow me to kill Beelzebub here, but it doesn't - he dissolves into bats and respawns when I re-enter the room. I also give bombs a shot to no effect.



This is a bit of a deviation from events, but here's a GIF I just made from the part 37's footage. I had an idea about what the Perfume might be doing as I wrote the above, and I think I was right: Lemeza now kills skeletons in one hit. The first part of this GIF is killing a skelly in three hits, pre-Perfume. The second is the same skeleton, with the same weapon, after getting the Perfume: one hit. That's convenient!

Anyways, back in the present, one of the other things I wanted to take another look at in the Shrine was this raised spot in one of the rooms. After finding Time Pilot at a similar point in the Chamber of Extinction, I thought there could be something here. I'm pretty sure I scanned it last time, but you never know:



After a little time spent on it, a sound plays and the platform rises up. I'm trapped! That's not what I was hoping for. But:



Busting out the Hand Scanner, I find Snatcher, a December 1988 port of the November 1988 PC-8801 cyberpunk adventure. While I think it was deliberate that I got access to the hidden shooter game just as I reached the shooter boss, it's pure coincidence that I found this shortly after unlocking the hidden dating sim/cyberpunk adventure game.



MSX Snatcher came on floppy disk, with an expansion cartridge to increase RAM and also the system's sound capabilities, so it's no surprise that it combines with Shin Synthesizer, but what will it actually do? In the manual one of the listed combination effects is "Music mode without limits", which you would think would be what this unlocks, but I open Music mode and it sounds the same as it did with just the synthesizer ROM, everything above No 39 is still locked, and there's still glitchy text when you go up to the higher numbers. It doesn't seem to make a difference. Maybe I'm just failing to hear the change in sound? I'll put it on my ROM list under "Runs with the F4 key", but I'm not sure if it should be under "Cartridges with special effects" instead.



I have to warp to get out of the little box I've been trapped in, so I stop by the Village and save before returning to the Shrine. I thought maybe stopping time would let me collect the skull:



It doesn't. I also try out the Silver Shield to similarly no effect. Stopping time doesn't even seem to stop the projectiles here, or stop the pot from breaking, so it's hard to identify when in the GIF it's stopped (it's just before I walk into the skull without the shield). It's strange how inconsistent it is - sometimes pots won't break until the time stop ends, sometimes they will, sometimes blocks will be stopped, sometimes they won't.



There's one more place in the Shrine where a wall will appear to trap Lemeza, and I want to go there and scan it again after what happened with Snatcher, but along the way I spot something. Just below Lemeza in the second shot here is a Life seal that I'm pretty sure wasn't there before. Neither was the chest on the right, come to think of it.



Unlocking the seal opens the chest, which I can't reach because of the pillar that falls down as I enter the room. I could get past that with the Lamp of Time, except that I just used the Lamp to try to get the Skull and it hasn't recharged yet. Sigh.



I head up to the trap I wanted to scan in an allow myself to get caught. The Hand Scanner doesn't find me anything, so I head to the Guidance Gate to scrounge up some Shuriken for Palenque and fill in some time before heading back to the Shrine with a charged Lamp.



With time stopped I'm able to get past the falling pillar, though the room is still a bit of a pain to navigate. What's my reward?



Xelpud mentioned that I should look for Shorn's diary. This is probably it, which would explain my sighting of him in the Shrine a few updates back.



Yep, it's Shorn's. But how do I read it?



While I'm here I try to use a Bomb to detonate the eye blocks in the wall, but it doesn't work. I suspect they're just decorative.



I warp back to town, since there's no other way out, and talk to Xelpud. I guess in place of me being able to read the diary he's going to spell it out for me.



Lots of dialogue this time, eh? Xelpud's speech connects to various clues I've seen throughout the ruins (is the second screen here implying that the ruins are the Mother, or just that the children were born from the Mother?). The Mother's second children were the Giants, and I think that the Mudmen were the seventh, and left the ruins to become humans (they're described in the manual as a primeval form of humans). I'm not sure if Xelpud is saying that the clan he descends from were an earlier group or if they were also the seventh of the Mother's children but they stayed behind. The cursed treasure he mentions I've heard of before, but what is it?



Shorn came to La-Mulana seeking the source from which all civilisation sprang, and brought Lemeza here by sending a letter claiming to have found it. I guess Xelpud sent him into the ruins to be the chosen one the Sages have been waiting for, and now that he thinks he's failed he's sending Lemeza instead. Outside I check my inventory, and sure enough there's a new item (second from the right on the bottom row, a slot which was briefly held by the Diary and before that Lemeza's father's Talisman):



The manual's description isn't much use, but Xelpud's told me it will allow me to get the cursed treasure and it is clearly the item pictured on the stele about the cursed treasure.



I guess I spoke too soon in my previous thoughts on what Xelpud was saying. When I go back in he's got more to say. It looks like Xelpud's clan were the seventh children, and humans the eighth. No idea who all the earlier ones were, aside from the giants. Lemeza has a mission now: mercy killing the creator. Heavy.



I visit Xelpud again, but he's back to his normal lines, so I save and head back in to the ruins.



I'm in the Temple of Moonlight for two reasons. The first is I thought maybe the Mulana Talisman would allow me to avoid the lightning in this Pyramid - no dice. I still want to break all the pots and things, but trying to use the whip was a mistake. Lemeza gets struck by lightning during the backswing, so I run out of VIT before I manage to break anything. I also head up on top of the pyramid while I'm in the area in case the path in from above has opened, which it has not.



And this is the second thing - I tried this before, but this time I've stopped time first (watch the green and black boxes on the right, which freeze even through nothing else seems to). Maybe this clue refers to something else?

I warp back to the Shrine and the most obvious contender for a cursed treasure. Sure enough, now that I have the Mulana Talisman I can just walk up and take the Crystal Skull. I still can't reach the dais down below, though.



According to clues I've seen on steles, it's supposed to summon forth the dimension in which Tiamat dwells and suppress her power. Tiamat is the only Guardian I haven't found yet, and I would expect to find her in the Endless Corridor if not for the clue that said that it was an exception to the rule that Guardians lurk in the front - she'll be in the reverse Corridor, which I haven't found yet.



I head back to town and talk to Xelpud, who confirms it. So I head for the Corridor. The first thing I thought of, this absent ladder, is still absent, so I guess that's not the path. I think that's the glyph for nine on the signs, which would mean it connects to the Shrine of the Mother somehow.



As I re-run the Corridor I get an exclamation by weighting this dais, but I'm not sure what if anything it has done (this dias started the timer by the end of which I needed to reach the bottom of this screen when I was first going through the Corridor).



I go back up to check, but the ladder still isn't there. Then I run through the rest of the Corridor, finding nothing. I think a little and remember that there's another missing ladder I can try in the Twin Labyrinths.



While I'm here I finally remember to look at the map again from the right side of the Labyrinths, but it's no different to the one you get on the left - there should be a yellow rectangle on the right side where Lemeza is, too (the rectangle which would be red is a room that isn't shown on the map). Anyway, my destination is the room with the arrow upwards at the far right of the map. When I get there, sure enough, the ladder has appeared, along with a blue skull on either side of it. Those were not there before, which seems to me an odd choice. Them being there before would make figuring out where to go with the skull much easier.



I climb the ladder and reach somewhere new.



As I cross the central column the two chests open to reveal the Map and the Ankh Jewel. Have the developers run out of puzzle ideas?



If so, I'm not complaining. I break the infinity box down below for some Shuriken, then collect the Jewel and Map. Let's take a look:



So I'm in the Dimensional Corridor? The layout looks like a mix between the Endless Corridor and the Shrine of the Mother, and the only path out appears to be a door in the room above. I can't go back the way I came because there's no ladder back down from the room that I'm in. There was also a stele in the Confusion Gate that suggested I won't be able to warp out:

And there doesn't appear to be an Altar (which would be a yellow room on the map), so I might not be able to warp in, either. There have been various clues about this place. The main one is what Xelpud just told me: that this is actually the front side of the Field, but Tiamat has warped it to the back and sent the Endless Corridor to the front. There's a stele in the Twin Labyrinths that reads "The front of ... beyond the skull", which I think probably refers to this area, since I just climbed a ladder past skulls to get here (which makes the wall skulls not being visible until I had the Crystal Skull all the odder).




I head up the stairs, where the door stands open beneath a blue shape on that wall that looks like a keyhole. Unlike the other doors I've seen, this one doesn't have a glyph above it, which kind of makes sense since the glyphs have all corresponded with which Guardian I needed to beat to open them and this one is already open.



I start off trying to break the boxes, then get myself knocked offscreen trying to take out this demon-looking thing.



The next attempt goes a bit better, allowing me to break the other boxes for some more ammo drops. Then I fall back down onto the spikes.



Then I try to door. It takes me to the Endless Corridor, where I try to go back through but can't. Oh well.



I warp back to Xelpud and save (he doesn't have anything to say about my arrival in the Dimensional Corridor), then head through the Chamber of Life to the cross in the Chamber of Extinction. I don't remember why I did this, since it's a dead end (maybe I forgot that this is the path to unlock Palenque, but isn't the path to fight Palenque), but along the way I whipped the wall in the second screenshot here, which I'd missed the first time through. I don't find anything, though. There is something new going on, though it's not apparent in the screenshots: when I entered the Dimensional Corridor the only music I got was percussion, which I took to be the style chosen for the area. Now I'm in other Fields but still only hearing the percussion tracks, none of the other instruments. I assume that's a bug.



I warp to the Inferno Cavern and head to the Chamber of Extinction from there, then use an Ankh Jewel to activate Palenque. Can I beat it this time?



I don't make a great start. None of these Shuriken seem to be connecting, either hitting pillars instead or drifting harmlessly through Palenque's body or ship. I guess I need to go for the face?



Here's an attack I didn't see last time. Might be a good chance to use some Flares next time. At the end of the GIF one of my Shuriken actually connects with Palenque's face.



I get right in close and land a few more Shuriken, but in the process I take a hit from the laser and lose a lot of VIT.



I manage to navigate through broken pillars for a while before taking some minor hits from this blue debris attack.



Palenque starts dropping bombs again and I land a few more Shuriken by sitting in its path, but that leaves me trapped when it closes in and I lose the last of my VIT. Darn.



That's it for today! I'll probably start upcoming updates by taking a shot at PR3 and/or Mukimuki Memorial, and finish with attempts at Palenque. I want to take it out to unlock the door in the Chamber of Life. I've still got Baphomet and Tiamat to take out as well, but there's a clear reward in the offing for Palenque's defeat so that's my priority. I've found all but one Ankh Jewel so far, but I'm still missing the one from the Chambers of Life and Extinction. It's possible that the last one is beyond that door, though it seems unlikely since that would mean if I took out the other two Guardians first I'd have no way to reach the last Jewel (unless there's another path to wherever the door goes).

Maps:

Dimensional 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."

"Tiamat has distorted the front and rear of her part of the ruins. Yes, endlessness is the back."

"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?"

"In obesiance to the Four Sages, we guarded the ruins. The four Sages realized that they could not grant the Mother's wish to return to the skies. Therefore, they wish at the very least to grant her the peace of death. That was the final conclusion that the Seventh Children reached. It is a sad thing that wish must be passed on to you, the eighth children. All children must eventually leave the parent's nest, I suppose. Your father was after the treasure of Life, the remains of the Mother's spirit once she dies. I hope you can get it in his place."

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:



Inferno Cavern:



Tower of Ruin:



Chamber of Extinction:



Chamber of Life:



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
-Figure out what a Mantra is and find them all
-Find Shorn's diary
-Undertake the final trial
-Try combining PR3 and GR3
-Get the high score in PR3
-Beat PR3
-Beat Muki Muki Memorial SD
-Figure out what the Perfume does

Village:


Guidance Gate:


Confusion Gate:


Mausoleum of Giants:


Graveyard of the Giants:


Temple of the Sun:


Temple of Moonlight:
-Open chest at 0/-1
--Try the dais again
---Try the dais after stopping time
-Open chest at 1/2
-Do something with the reproductive system image at 1/2
--Go to sleep inside the woman
---Get into the chamber at the lower right of 1/3 and drop from there to 1/2
-Break all the pots and defeat all the enemies inside the pyramid
-Get the statue in the room at 2/2 to say or do something
--Go to it after getting the flute

Spring of the Sky:


Tower of the Goddess:


Inferno Cavern:


Tower of Ruin:


Chamber of Extinction:
-Defeat Palenque

Chamber of Life
-Open chest: 3/-2
-Find the shop that sells a Jewel
--Try to enter holes in walls mudmen emerge from
-Attempt to break lower wall at 6/-1
-Go through door at 2/0
--Defeat Palenque

Twin Labyrinths (Front):


Twin Labyrinths (Reverse)
-Look at the 24K map
-Go up to another Field from 0/0 (or come down from another Field into 0/0)

Endless Corridor:
-Reveal and climb the missing ladder at 1/-1

The Shrine of the Mother:
-Do something past falling pillar at 0/4
-Remove eye blocks: -2/1, 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
--Try again with the Perfume
--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:

Outside the obvious Snatcher bits, the rest of that matches the generic bits of Tokimemo 1's ending, yeah (outside the fact that none of the game was a 2D navigation bit as far as I remember).

Well, that was unexpected. Amazing. XD

It's an onomatopoeia for, indeed, palpitation, intense heartbeat from excitement.

Indeed! "Hidebu" is just one of the most famous nonsense string of syllables that characters in FoNS say when they're about to explode gruesomely (along with "abeshi" or "tawaba"). They're just random grunts, but they became famous to the point they're basically a meme.
Another curious thing is that they lifted these "hidebu!!" explosions straight out from the original Parodius!! And I know this because I learned of it just the other day, when watching bits from the video you linked in this same LP.

It's an stereotypically girly, cute and/or playful way of shouting 'no' and... it's usually used to imply sexual pleasure, embarrassment, the works, so yeah.

SFW voice sample

The bubbles say "soshii" (ソシイ) and "hanken" (ハンケン).
No idea what those mean but a quick google gets me:
soshii = "half-baked, bland food".
hanken = old word for "Copyright"

So I think it's maybe the Konami offices complaining somehow that this is a bland/poor copy of their IP's? I gots nuthin.

Thanks as always, Sensenic. I hadn't noticed those characters in the Parodius video (I don't watch them all the way through before linking), but in retrospect I should have picked PR3 as a Parodius knock-off rather than Gradius from the bizarre content and the name.

Welcome back to Let's Play La-Mulana: The Mother Has Been Waiting. I said last time that I'd begin today by playing PR3 again, but I didn't do that. Instead, I've warped to the Temple of the Sun and set off towards the Inferno Cavern. Why? Well, take a look at this image from Part 15, all the way back in January:



At the time I was passing through these ladders when I noticed a Life Seal that I'd previously missed. Do you notice anything else in this image? Something else I missed?



It's a ROM! And not just any ROM - Antarctic Adventure! A few posts ago I scoured the Graveyard of the Giants specifically looking for this, and I've spent plenty of time looking at the maps for any searchable spots I might have missed, and here it is. I guess it sort of blends in to the wall and kind of looks like one of the blue dots in the background pattern. I went through this chamber over forty times in Part 16 alone (over 80, come to think of it, since each time I went up I also went down), but never noticed it until I was looking back through the LP a few days ago. Bloody hell.



Antarctic Adventure combines with Comic Bakery. It's one of the combinations listed in the manual, in fact. But what does it do? Well:



This could have saved me so much walking, particularly the hike from the Village past the waterfall up through the Goddess Tower and into the Chamber of Life. I can now warp to the Confusion Gate, Graveyard of the Giants, Temple of Moonlight, Tower of the Goddess, Tower of Ruin, Chamber of Life, and the reverse side of the Twin Labyrinths. I haven't found the altar in the Dimensional Corridor yet (I'm not sure if I'd be able to warp to it anyway since the Grail isn't supposed to work there), and I haven't even seen the reverse of the Shrine of the Mother. Trying to warp to a reverse Village doesn't work either, which was a little disappointing.



I warp to the reverse Labyrinth (which puts me one screen to the right of where I'd warp to without the ROM combo - some of these alternative warp points are more useful than others), but then realise that the altar in the Temple of Moonlight is probably a shorter walk away from where I want to go: this damn block puzzle. The plan this time is to stop time before pushing the upper block in the hope that it'll be suspended in the air when I push it off the edge, allowing me to walk under it and so push it to the right.



It doesn't work. As with my previous attempts at this, you can tell when I stop time by watching the red bits in the background. It's well before I push the block, which continues to move freely. I just can't figure this one out!



I have one more idea, which is to freeze time before even entering the screen, but I'd have to sit around waiting for the Lamp to recharge, so instead I warp to the (reverse) Labyrinth altar and head for the ladder to the Dimensional Corridor.



Last time I was here I only visited the first two rooms. This time, I head left from the second, reaching a waterfall. As I arrive I remember a clue:

This will be highly relevant to this update, but for the moment I'm interested in the second bit: I call up the menu and attempt to use the Grail to warp out. It doesn't work. I'll need to make my way back to the door in the room with the blue cross if I want to exit.



My attempt to clear the room of enemies ends in failure, as I fall to the screen below.



On landing I'm faced with a blocked ladder back up and a trident wielding merperson who seems to have two attacks - a multidirectional blast from the trident, and a passive throwing off of sheets of water. I get my subweapons mixed up and initially try to attack with the downward shooting Spear before switching to the more efficacious Flares.



Never let it be said that I am good at this game, but even so this doesn't take long. I took a lot of hits in the fight, but the EXP reward takes me over the threshold for a VIT refill. I think this thing was Kulull�, one of Tiamat's children in ancient Mesopotamian mythology (specifically, the Babylonian creation epic the En�ma Eli�). From this website:

Some of these creatures are easier to align with the enemies I'll encounter in the Dimensional Corridor than others, but I'll give it a go as we go.



I even get back the Spears I wasted from the block on the left. The clue at the top doesn't make sense to me and still doesn't, even though I'm pretty sure I've solved the puzzle it relates to. Killing the room guard re-opened the ladder back up, so I return to the previous screen. Say, what's going on with the left-most waterfall and the upper left platform?



The platform continues behind the waterfall (even though Lemeza walks in front of it), and I'm able to pick up King's Valley Disk, an alternate version to the cartridge I already have. The disk release has four times as many levels, and a level editor. Pretty neat find, except I already have the expanded version on Game Collection 1.



I try combining the King's Valleys, but nothing comes of it. Oh well. I combine it with the sequel to no effect, too.



I head up the ladder to a peaceful room.



Or not. A winged bull appears and starts throwing balls of light around the place. I start taking hits again. This would be Kusarikku, the bull-man, although there's not much of the man to this one.



I get out the Shuriken and go to town, again taking a lot of hits but getting enough EXP to top up my VIT. I like the way the wings start flapping before it takes flight.



The last ball of light hangs around for a while.



The door that was revealed with the bull's death leads to the fourth of the Four Sages. I still can't talk to them, though, so I move onwards and upwards. Check out that winged royal skull crab in the next room. That's a cool enemy!



Monarchy is capital crime, sadly.



I clear the room of enemies and blocks, then pause to think about whether I should weight the dais at the lower left and activate whatever that thing above it is. Eh, let's just do it:

It seems to have caused the sun to set and the moon to rise... could it be?!



It could! After resetting the puzzle in the Mausoleum several times and pushing against every wall in the ruins that looked slightly like the one on the stele, it turns out "Push against the wall on a moonlit night" refers to this moon and this wall, not that earlier puzzle.



As I enter the hidden room a creature appears and starts throwing fireballs at me. Looks like the head of a snake, front legs of a lion, rear legs of some kind of bird, wings of a bird, maybe a tongue for a tail. I think this is mu�ḫu��u:



I take my standard approach to this sort of situation. It takes longer than usual, but the beast succumbs. Unusually, it leaves behind a skeleton.



Which quickly returns to life!



I flee the scene and take a moment to ponder the situation.



On my return I work smarter, not harder, and defeat the beast much more quickly.



This time it seems to stay dead, and I search the carcass to find Gradius 2 Beta, an unreleased and presumably early version of Gradius 2. It's got a couple of stages that aren't in the released version.



I exit the room and return. The creature is still dead, but there's a regular enemy in the room now. Killing it doesn't do anything obvious, so I move onwards and upwards to a room with three of the same enemy and a holy block.



Their flame attack surprises me but does little harm. When I take the third one out a lamp lights in one of the sconces at the upper level. I guess I need to get all three of them lit to remove the block. Maybe I have to kill the enemies in a certain order, starting with the top one?



I exit the room and re-enter, but the enemies have not respawned. Oh well. I'll do it later.



The next room contains another room guard, this one a soccer ball that summons snakes. I guess. Several of Tiamat's children are snake-based, but I can't figure which of them this would be.



This room also features the return of recognisable glyphs in the background. Let's get out the old glyph-Japanese characters key and break them down:



Looks like:

いちじとばしでよめ!
Ichijitobashideyome!

Or, if the second-last character is a modifier rather than a letter,

いちじとばしでょめ!
Ichijitobashidyome!

Putting this through google and wiktionary and breaking it into bits gets me "One o'clock flying away with wife", which doesn't seem likely to be correct. The flying away bit fits with what the mother is trying to do, though, or perhaps with Tiamat moving the Dimensional Corridor to the rear. Someone (Sensenic), help me out!



Heading right one screen I find a room with eleven lights, four of them lit. Just a guess here, but the lights probably represent the merperson, winged bull, chimaera, and snake ball that I've killed on the way here. Once I find and beat all eleven of the children guarding Tiamat's chamber, the Ankh should appear here. For now I head up the ladder to the room above, where I find another room guard. This one appears to be a demon of some sort, but again I'm not sure which of the children it's supposed to be. It's holding what looks like a platform above its head, for some reason. Anyway, let's take it out:



Easy-peasy. Now to reach the upper level:



Ah. OK, well I guess if I leave the room and come back maybe the platform demon will reappear?



I guess not. Perhaps I have to kill all eleven children in one go, and exiting the Field will cause them to respawn? I make my way back to the doorway and leave the Corridor.



I stop by the Labyrinths on the way back, because my Lamp has recharged and I want to try stopping time before entering this screen to see if it'll prevent the block falling. No good. Maybe if I don't kill the harpy I'll still be able to walk through it but the block will stop on top of it? Seems like a stretch, but nothing else is working for me.



I return to the Dimensional Corridor, where I find that the winged bull is still dead, the lamp in the holy block room is still lit, and the platform demon is still gone. It would appear I've locked myself out of whatever's above this room. Unless...



Nope. I spend four minutes and all of my VIT attempting to damage boost off either this enemy or its projectiles to reach the upper level, but I can't pull it off. I reckon it's probably possible, but honestly I was fairly resigned to having to replay everything since the start of this update so that I could get up there using the platform demon.



This time I save after getting Antarctic Adventure, just so that if I wind up starting over again it's one less thing to do, then I take out the bull and the merperson and collect the game behind the waterfall. Unlike last time, I head up to the holy block before going through the wall to the chimaera.

Once again one of the lights goes on when I take out the enemies. This time it's the one on the left. Is it different because I took out the left side enemy last? I have no idea.



I head down and take the chimaera out again. I try to scan for the ROM I found here last time, but it doesn't seem to be there.



After I take it out a second time for the second time, the ROM is there. I'd thought maybe it would keep coming back to life until I took the ROM, which would have meant I could have taken it the first time, but I guess you just have to do it twice. I head back up to the holy block room and take out the demons from bottom to top again, which results in the rightmost lamp lighting.



I take out the snake thing again, then head through Tiamat's chamber to the platform demon. Let's be a little smarter about this this time:



Success! First I check the block on the left (10 coins), then I take the ladder.



As I enter the room above a block falls offscreen. I recognise this puzzle from the Tower of the Goddess: I need to use the Lamp of Time to halt its fall at a height which will allow me to use it to reach the left side of the screen. I just hope this block follows Tower rules and not Labyrinth ones.



My first attempt does not go well. I stop the block too soon and don't leave Lemeza any room to jump from it.



It takes a few minutes for the Lamp to recharge for another shot, so I attempt to head back down and explore the Corridor a little more before returning for another shot, but until I take out the platform demon the lower exits from the room will be blocked, and if I take the demon out then I won't be able to climb back up. Plus the Grail is blocked, so I can't warp out. Instead, I head up the ladder and sit there until the Lamp is available again.



Then I screw it up again. Sigh. I'm pretty sure I could have made the jump from where I stopped the block, but I fluff the drop down to it.



This isn't a GIF, but if it were it would be no different to watch. I sit here for three minutes, waiting.



Success! OK, Yimmers: don't screw this up.



Playing against type, I make it up the left side of the room and get the Life Jewel without incident.



Paranoid about missing something, I jump to the lower platform and then climb back up, scanning every step of the way and throwing Shuriken at the left wall in case there's something there. I would not put it past La-Mulana to hide something else in this room which I will probably never be able to reach again.



Finding nothing, I head down and hurl Flares at the enemy until it dies, then go back to the room with the lights (note that one more is lit now than before I went up there) and head right.



In the next room I encounter this wind dragon. Maybe Umū dabrūtu, which apparently means "violent storms"? Initially I land a few hits with the katana, but each time it changes direction it gets slightly higher and it is quickly in a position to hit me while I am unable to hit it. The whirlwinds coming from the sides don't help.



I get in another hit or two on the upper level before being knocked to ground, where I wait for it to come down to me. Eventually I get tired of that and move up to re-engage on the middle level. This probably would have been a good time to use some sub-weapons.



A couple more hits and the job is done. I lost a fair bit of VIT in this fight, but all of these minibosses are dropping heaps of EXP, so I get it all back.



I head left (where another lamp has been lit) and return again to the room with the holy block. This time I kill the lowest enemy last. The final lamp lights and the block disappears to reveal the Angel Shield:



I'm a chronic neglector of my Shields, but I'm not going to complain about getting a better one.



Here it is in action. It's bigger than my old one, taller than Lemeza. He's doing well to hold it up one-handed.



I put it away again and head down and to the right. Looks like I'm facing a horse this time.



A teleporting, ultrasonic horse. Maybe this is Uridimmu, the lion man/howling dog.

I struggle a bit with getting into a useful position to attack it.



When I finally do manage to reach it, it turns out I was one hit away from finishing it off. I wonder if these enemies are programmed to warp away just as you're about to kill them, or if it's just chance?



Jumping down to the next screen I manage to land on the next Room Guard, which appears to be a person with a scorpion tail. This would be Girtablull�, the scorpion man among Tiamat's children.



It's not a particularly tough fight.



I head right and find this Field's altar. The Grail doesn't work inside the Corridor, but will it allow me to warp in from outside? I'll have to try it next time. I think the clue here refers to a puzzle I've already solved - the wall I walked through after turning the mechanism to night. But it's written pretty oddly so I might have it wrong.



I head right and find a maze of twisty corridors, all alike.



As I enter a gross worm appears and starts crawling around. My katana makes a ping when I strike its front, and I struggle to land a good hit on the backside. Again I can't clearly identify it with the children of Tiamat, but I guess it could be one of the snakes.



I try out various weapons without success.



Eventually I try the keyblade and find that it works. I don't use it much because it seems to lack the advantages of the other weapons. Plus it's got a swastika in the middle, which, no thanks.



Getting close enough to land a hit is a pain, but at least its increase in speed as I damage it means I'm not waiting forever for it to clear each corner. Just as my VIT is starting to look like trouble, I finish it off. Phew! This fight has taken about three minutes, much longer than the other children.



I head down the ladder to a room with a couple of stele. Both depict hidden rooms I've already found.



I drop down to what looks like a dead end with no way out.



Arms and armour drift up from the water below to form a humanoid figure. I definitely can't find this guy in my list of Tiamat's children. My attempt to attack it fails, though that might be because it hadn't fully formed yet. As it falls apart and sinks into the water again, I drop in and scan to find Gradius 2, a 1987 game that I found the beta version of not long ago. Apparently it's a different game to Gradius II.



I try the whip on its second appearance. Again I get a ping when I strike while it's forming, but the two hits I land after it's formed and before it hits me sound like they've connected.



As it forms for the third time I break a block and get some Bombs. They seem like a good idea, and seconds later I've beaten the enemy. When I do a ladder appears that will allow me to escape this room.



I head back up, getting a chance to use my new shield along the way, and head up from the altar. There's another child up here, the eleventh and last. It looks like a lion, so I guess it's either Ugallu, the lion-demon or Uridimmu, the lion-man. I've already labelled an earlier child as the latter, so let's call this Ugallu.



This could probably have been done more elegantly, but it's done.



I head up the ladder that appeared when I beat it and find myself in the lamp room again. Now all the lamps are lit, and the Ankh has appeared. Time to summon Tiamat!



Or not. In a rare display of sense, rather than get myself killed and have to redo everything, I hoof it to the exit and save. I'll take on Tiamat next time.



I try out Gradius 2 with my other ROMs and find two combinations: Penguin Adventure and Salamander. I have not yet figured out what these combinations do. Apparently putting Penguin Adventure in the second slot while playing Gradius 2 on a real MSX will turn your ship into a penguin and the power ups into fish, so maybe it'll be something similar to the cups of tea from the Yie Ar Kung Fu combination. Salamander actually requires Gradius 2 in the second slot in order to get the true ending, so maybe that combo will allow me to see something hidden?



I take another shot at PR3. The red thing mirrorring my ship is the OPTION!! upgrade, which is useful but doesn't get me out of the corner I trap myself in in this footage.



I also try Palenque again, but this is probably my worst attempt yet. I reckon if I could land a Bomb I'd do a lot of damage very quickly, but probably not as quickly as what Palenque does to me. Ouch.

That'll do for today! I feel like I'm closing in on the end of the game - I'm running out of things to do, even if my to-do list is still super-long. There are things I know I haven't done yet and places I know I haven't been, but not many where I know how to do/reach them. The obvious move is to take out the remaining Guardians, but I'm reluctant to do so while I still have stuff to do in the Shrine because of the warning in the README. I'll at least take a look at Tiamat, but my main goal for the moment is taking out Palenque so that the door in the Chamber of Life will open. Plus I wanna beat PR3 and the dating sim/cyberpunk adventure, though I doubt doing either will advance the main game.

Maps:

Dimensional Corridor:

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 Life:



Twin Labyrinths (Front):



Twin Labyrinths (Reverse)



Dimensional Corridor:

"Make praise, the bright sun shines into day, the dark moon will then vanish, push from the celestial wall forever."

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
-Figure out what a Mantra is and find them all
-Undertake the final trial
-Get the high score in PR3
-Beat PR3
-Beat Muki Muki Memorial SD

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:


Inferno Cavern:


Tower of Ruin:


Chamber of Extinction:


Chamber of Life


Twin Labyrinths (Front):
-Solve block puzzle at 3/-2
--Find way to push leftmost block to the right
--Try the Lamp of Time before pushing
--Try the Lamp of Time before entering screen and without killing anything
-Defeat Baphomet at 3/-1

Endless Corridor:


Dimensional Corridor:
-Talk to Sage at -1/2
-Attempt to warp in from outside
-Summon and defeat Tiamat at 1/4

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:

You rang?
It means "Read by skipping every other letter!"

ichi ji - one letter (it can also mean "one o'clock")
tobashi - jump, skip (it can also mean "to make sth fly away")
de - by (or also "with")
yome - imperative of read (or "wife" if you put the emphasis on "yo" instead of "me")

So, without kanji, your translation was technically correct as well, indeed. XD

Funny thing is I googled "ichiji tobashi" to make sure I got the meaning right (I didn't, in fact, I thought it was just "skip one letter" which made less sense) but the first google link was the La Mulana fandom wiki with the correct translation. Talk about an easy job. XD
Which btw, contains an additional explanation that might save you some headaches, putting it here in spoiler just in case you really don't wanna know, but I recommend reading it, since as an English version player you're not supposed to know what that text says anyway: This clue is used to decode another clue from a certain stele that contains an "encrypted" text in the original - in the English translation this stele was decoded outright, so this clue is unnecessary.

Another cool thing Japanese related is that the weird scribbles in the background of this area are actually archaic forms of kanjis, keeping with the theme of all cultures coming from the Mother. Some are too changed for me to get, but some I recognize:

In this same room, from left to right:

• 原 Hara/gen - Plain, field, but also origin, original.
• 楽 Tanoshii/gaku, raku - Music, easy, fun
• This one, no idea. u_u
• 神 Kami/Shin - God, shinto spirit.

Or in this screen:

• At the bottom right there's 主: Aruji, nushi/shu - Lord/master/owner, chief, main
• And the best one, the rightmost one: 鳥 tori/chou, which can clearly be seen in the game that it represents a "bird".

You’ve gone above and beyond, Sensenic. That stuff with the archaic characters is really neat, especially the bird. I figured the symbols meant something, but I didn’t know how to go about figuring out what.

Hello again. When we left off, I was feeling like I was running out of things to do. So this time I'll be playing around a bit, at least initially. I saved in slot 1 instead of my usual slot 0 last time, because I was worried I might have screwed something up in the Dimensional Corridor. I don't remember what I thought I'd done, but I'll be saving back in slot zero during this update. I keep backups of the current save with each update, anyway. The reason I point it out is so I can mention that you get a different loading sound in slot 1 than in 0. Zero reminds me of an old modem, but I think it's probably supposed to be the sound of digital data on a cassette tape. 1 made me think of a printer first, but I think it's actually supposed to be a floppy disk drive. Man, how long has it been since I heard one of those? Here we go. Or, more realistically.

Anyway, still on the subject of sound, I go into the menu and switch from SC88 music to SSCC.

I actually thought I'd been on the basic mode and was switching to the fancier one, but when I opened the menu the brackets were around SC88 and when I switched them to SSCC the music changed. This LP has no sound, so it's kind of a moot point. I was doing this for two reasons: the music goes strange in the Dimensional Corridor and I wanted to see if changing this would fix it (yes), and I was hoping to take another shot at the Shin Synthesizer/Snatcher combination. I'm sure the sound expansion cart that came with Snatcher is supposed to change the sound test somehow. Maybe it'll be more apparent on the other music setting.



I decide to listen to one track closely with and without Snatcher added to the Synthesizer and settle on GIGA-MAGMA. It certainly sounds different with the SSCC versus the SS88, but I can't hear any difference between just the Synth versus the Synth/Snatcher combination. Oh well. I fire up another combination - it's time for the dating sim/Snatcher hybrid.



I fire up Muki Muki Memorial SD, read the note and walk out of the classroom, attempt to skip the dialogue with almost every key on my keyboard (no luck), and then read an article on my phone while mashing space bar until the shooting game starts. From pressing start on the game to the shooting bit starting is three and a half minutes. It's about another 30 seconds before I'm out of health and the game is over. Sigh. Back to my article!



If you want to review the plot of the game, here's my previous entry on it. This second attempt starts out ok, but quickly degenerates to failure. I'm starting to wonder if it's even possible to win this thing. Do I really want to keep waiting three and a half minutes per attempt at the minigame?



I give it one more go, and this time manage to hold it together and take her out. Yes!



Jeez, Gyonin. That was not love.



Suddenly, another character appears.



It looks like she's Saki Nijino, one of the characters in Tokimeki Memorial (Shiori, who the robot I just beat was pretending to be, is also a Tokimemo character).



Or not! Looks like another fight is coming. I really don't want that.



Yes, exactly!



The game gives me some good advice and then mercifully crashes. I have to turn off Lemeza's computer to exit this screen. I assume that's all of this game, and I will not be trying it any further to find out for sure. It's an amusing diversion, but having to repeat the start over and over until I passed the shooting bit wasn't much fun.



Time to try out the other playable ROM.



I'm starting to develop a regular approach to this game: I start by taking two ZOOOM!! powerups to get my speed up, then a missile to improve my offence.



This is a pretty regular part of my attempts, too, but not one I'm aiming for.



I do slightly better the next time, activating a second missile which falls upwards, but get too greedy for powerups and trap myself in front of the next two waves.



When I died I still had a powerup in the bank, and it's retained for the next life, allowing me to get MISSILE!! from the first enemy drop (if I'd noticed I still had the powerup I would have used it straight away for the speed). I dunno if that's a feature or a bug. Is that how it works in Gradius/Parodius?



I get a bit further this life and manage to get enough powerups to activate an OPTION!!. Along the way I encounter a blue powerup. It's hard to make out in this GIF but when I pick it up all enemies on screen die.



The option trails my movements and doubles my firepower, but it's not enough to get me past the baseball player. Game over!



I start again, this time taking DOUBLE!! instead of waiting for OPTION!!. I missed a couple of powerup drops and also didn't start with one in the bank. I do have one when I die, though. Let's see if it carries over:



Yep! I once again fail to notice and so wind up taking MISSILE!!



I can't seem to get past this point today.



Although I was up to FAMICOM!! on the powerup bar, it drops back to ZOOOM!! when I respawn.



I manage some close dodging, score an OPTION!! from the randomised powerup, and get past the baseball player. Barely. OK, enough games! Back to La-Mulana!

Xelpud has no comment on my beating Muki Muki. I save, just in case finishing the game does something, then head for the Ankh that I unlocked last time. It turns out that although the Grail doesn't work within the Dimensional Corridor, it can still take you there. Activating this thing should lead to an encounter with Tiamat. Let's do it!



As usual, the room fades away and the Guardian appears, this one apparently formed by eleven lights presumably representing her children. Who I've killed. Lemeza might be in trouble, here.



Tiamat appears to be a giant naga, a woman with the lower body of a snake. For some reason I was expecting something different (side note: anyone else who used to watch the 80s D&D cartoon might be interested in a recently released Brazilian Renault commercial which provides some much-needed closure to that series). In the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation epic, Tiamat is one of the primordial gods, mother of later gods, representing chaos and salt water. She and Apsu, her partner, became annoyed with their creations, but she chose restraint, preferring not to destroy them. Apsu was convinced to wage war on the other gods, but was captured and killed. This spurred Tiamat to create the eleven children I've faced already and to attempt to destroy the younger gods. She was defeated by Marduk (after other gods sent against her ran away before getting close) and her body made into the heaven and the earth. I think. I'm not finding the mythology easy to make sense of.

It's quite violent and unpleasant in parts. There's not really a clear description of Tiamat that I can see in it, but she seems to be a serpent or a dragon or a woman, so this snake-woman doesn't seem too far off the mark.



Since I'm beneath her I try some flares, but don't manage to connect with the two I have left after taking on her children last time. She seems to be turning away from me as I move from side to side. I wonder why?



Suddenly, her face changes. She looks less peaceful.



The reason she faces away becomes clear as Tiamat hits Lemeza with her tail. I think the hair attack must be forewarned by the facial change. It also seems to cause slowdown. The first Bomb shows no sign of inflicting any damage, but the two that explode against the infinity symbol at the lower left make pinging noises as they burn, as does the subsequent Bomb to Tiamat's face. So it seems I can hit her in the face, but not with this weapon.



The infinity symbol is not susceptible to Bombs, but can be destroyed with the katana. I make the assumption that I need to remove all four of them before I'll be able to attack Tiamat directly. I get the first three without too much trouble, but fail the jump over to the fourth. The hits I take from the hair and eye attacks don't seem to cost much VIT, but the tail and making contact with Tiamat's face are pretty damaging.



As I struggle across the room the infinity symbols start to reappear, but I manage to get them all, at which point a bigger one appears across Tiamat's face.



There's no audio response to trying to hit the symbol with either the katana or the Bomb, and the Bomb to the face still gets the ping of an ineffective hit. I think I need to hit her in the face with something else, but how can I do that when she instantly turns away from me? Maybe I can stand on the symbol to attack from behind?



Any attempt at that will have to wait for another time. I'm out of VIT. Marduk I am not.

There are a set of clues that might relate to Tiamat: the first states "The mother ocean watches kindness and charity." Tiamat is a goddess of salt water and the mother of the other gods, so she could be the "mother ocean". I've been told that the right eye sees charity and the left eye kindness. Then there's this:

If Tiamat is the mother ocean and associated with endlessness, then perhaps I need to somehow interact with her right eye, then the left, then right, right, left, right, left, and left. How exactly, I don't know.



I reload my save. The music isn't working because I've been in the Dimensional Corridor, so I open the menu and switch devices and it starts up again. Then I warp back to the corridor, undoing that. Time for a rematch?



Nah, I'm here to check for anything I might have missed last time and pick up some ammo drops, which I noticed there were a fair few of in this Field.



I don't find anything new, but I get a decent refill and then head for the exit. It drops me in the Endless Corridor, so I have a look around there as well. I was hoping whatever makes the absent ladder in the fourth screenshot here appear might have happened, but it's still not there. Oh well.



I carry on through the Endless Corridor, reweighting the dais in the first shot for another exclamation mark that doesn't seem to mean anything and then summoning the key fairy and running around with her a bit to no effect. At least I'm still picking up ammo. The lower dais in the last image here sort of looks like I need to do something to access it, but I already opened that path by dropping the blocks on the receptacles the first time I was here so I don't think I need to. I'm basically hitting my head against the wall hoping to stumble on something at this point.



I finish running the corridor and head to the Shrine of the Mother again. The dais under where the Crystal Skull was is still taunting me. I try standing in the spikes where I am in the last screenshot for a while, thinking of the "Prepare to die." clue, but the path doesn't open.



Thinking of this puzzle, I try getting all the statues to fire at me at once, but nothing comes of it.



I try the same thing in Tiamat's room in the Shrine, but it doesn't make the ladder appear. Oh well. I head for the room of the Shrine only accessible from the Labyrinths. Along the way I remember that I'm supposed to be trying out the two ROM combinations I found last week and put Gradius 2 and Pengiun Adventure in my laptop.



I had thought that pushing the wall on the moonlit night, which was clued on the stele here and which I did last time in the Dimensional Corridor, might have opened this chest. No such luck.



Upsetting the statues, however? Effective. It makes it quite hard to actually reach the dais (I probably could have left and re-entered the screen to stop them firing, or at least used my shield to keep one side under control), but when I do the chest opens and I score the map.



So here's the layout of the Shrine. Looks like the boss (the blue box) is beyond the ladder in Tiamat's room, and there's another isolated room on the left that I haven't reached yet, with a ladder leading down from it. Looking at my maps, there are only a couple of upwards ladders that I haven't reached yet, unless there are some in rooms that aren't shown on the maps. The ladder to that isolated room is either in the part of the Inferno Cavern that I haven't reached yet, or it's the ladder in the Endless Corridor that I just checked on and found to be still missing. It's probably the latter, since that absent ladder has the glyph for 9 next to it and the Shrine is the 9th Field.

I stick my trial ROM combo back in and make my way through the Labyrinths to the dolphin room to take another shot at this puzzle. This time the plan is to freeze time before entering the room and try to use the harpy to hold the block up so I can get to its left before it falls.



This was, let's face it, never likely to work, and it doesn't. Sigh. Maybe something will change here at some point?



I also try pushing the lower block down first, but it doesn't leave a large enough gap to push the other block rightwards once I drop it down. This is a frustrating puzzle. Maybe the mural means something? It's got to. No idea what, though.



I warp to the Chamber of Life to try something out. There's a clue that says "Where life is born, there is a shop that sells a Jewel." This is where life is born, but I haven't found the shop. I've thought of two possibilities: the shop is behind one of the foreground walls (I think I've already checked for that), or the shop is entered through one of these sephirot images, which are even more where life is born than the Field as a whole is, since they spawn mudmen now that I have the flywheel. It's kind of hard to show me trying to enter these things, since nothing happens when I stand in front of them and press down (aside from in the last one, where Lemeza climbs down a ladder instead).



I'd also like to reach and open this chest somehow. Warping back and forth around it doesn't seem to be working. I'm guessing I need to warp in to it from somewhere, but I'm pretty sure I've walked everywhere in this field and I haven't found a warp to it yet. It's probably just the map anyway. I don't have one for this place yet.



As I run through the Field trying to enter sephirots (14 tried at the time of this GIF), something odd happens. A pot drops a fish. Huh. What did that pot drop last time I was here? Looks like it was a coin. I guess this is the Gradius 2/Penguin Adventure combination in action - coins replaced with fish. I assume I'd still get ten coins from it if my cash supply weren't already maxed at 999.



After what seems like a million attempts on various sephirot (probably somewhere between fifteen and twenty), one of them lets me in. Nice!



The store is selling the promised Jewel, which I pick up. I believe that that's the last one, meaning I can now take out the three remaining Guardians and so open the path to the Mother. This is probably what makes the Flywheel important, since I doubt I could have entered here before it opened and started putting out mudmen - otherwise the only thing the wheel's gotten me is the Perfume, which while nice is hardly essential (and/or the giant mudman, which I'm not sure if I could have awakened with the dance of life before getting the wheel). I head out and carry on checking sephirot, just in case there's another door in one, but I don't find any more. Though I've realised watching the video back that I missed at least one (at 2/-2 on my map). Ah well.



I make a bit more of an attempt to get the chest between elephants, but eventually give up. I head back to the Village to save, then head for Palenque's lair. This time, the alien is going down!



I start off fairly well, landing a decent number of Shuriken, but then it charges me and I lose a lot of VIT. I've actually cut off this GIF before the VIT loss stops, because it was taking too long.



When Palenque closes in again I dodge it and start throwing flares, but it lands the next attack and it's all over. Darn.



For my next attempt, I put in the Athletic Land/Cabbage Patch Kids combo, which increases "blink time" after damage. It might help me take fewer hits.



The fight actually goes fairly well, with me managing to land a fair number of hits and not take too much damage. These four screens take place over the space of a full minute, which is a lot longer than my other attempts so far. The trick I think is to avoid contact with Palenque or its ship, and avoid the big laser. Everything else does fairly minor damage.



Sadly, the minor damage adds up and Lemeza dies - but look closely! Palenque's ship starts to fall and explode a few frames before Lemeza cops the explosion from one of its bombs. I won! Almost. If I'd just stayed back on the left I would have survived.



I open my next attempt by running straight into the gun. That's the only hit I took before the second shot, so that one mistake cost two-fifths of my VIT. I do a bit better after that, but get ambitious trying to hit Palenque with Flares while it's above me and wind up making contact again. Game over!



My next attempt is pretty pathetic. I have not done well trying to hit this thing with Bombs.



The next rematch goes pretty well - I'm able to dodge the big attacks and land hits from in front, above, and below. I do cop the odd wall to the face, though.



Before long, Palenque's ship goes down again. Once more I fly directly into its parting bombs, but this time I have enough VIT to survive it and witness the ship exploding. Success!



I look around the empty room I've landed in with the Hand Scanner, but find nothing. Going one screen left and then back to the right reveals it's the room from which I summoned Palenque, but the mural is now blank.



I'm able to reach the door at the top with a damage boost, but the message inside hasn't changed.



Then I realise that I didn't get any EXP for Palenque and my VIT is pretty low. I stop messing around and head back to the Village to save. Next time I'll head to the door in the Chamber of Life that should have opened with Palenque's death and see where it takes me.

Maps:

Shrine of the Mother:

Clues:

Village:



Guidance Gate:



Confusion Gate:



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:



Inferno Cavern:



Tower of Ruin:



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."



Chamber of Life:

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

"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."

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

"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."

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



Twin Labyrinths (Front):



Twin Labyrinths (Reverse)



Dimensional Corridor:



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
-Figure out what a Mantra is and find them all
-Undertake the final trial
-Get the high score in PR3
-Beat PR3
-Beat Muki Muki Memorial SD

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:


Inferno Cavern:


Tower of Ruin:


Chamber of Extinction:
-Defeat Palenque

Chamber of Life
-Open chest: 3/-2
-Find the shop that sells a Jewel
--Try to enter holes in walls mudmen emerge from
-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 before entering screen and without killing anything
-Defeat Baphomet at 3/-1

Endless Corridor:


Dimensional Corridor:
-Talk to Sage at -1/2
-Attempt to warp in from outside
-Summon and defeat Tiamat at 1/4

The Shrine of the Mother:
-Remove eye blocks: -2/1, 0/4
-Open chest: -2/4, room reached from Twin Labyrinths
-Weight dais: -3/4
-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:

Looking at this, I have an idea. What if you pushed the upper right block to half a block to the right of where the second block falls? That would let you push the second block to the right enough to get a gap.

This only works if you can then push the block underneath all the way to the right, though. I'm not sure you can push blocks that have a block on top.

Once you push the block on the right down, there's no way to get to the right of it so you can push it left, unfortunately. Even if there were, once a block is on a receptacle they usually can't be pushed any further, so I wouldn't be able to get it all the way over there. And I'm pretty sure you can't push a block with another on top of it.

Oh right.

Well, I'm stumped.

Ayup!

Regarding the block puzzle, I'm sure you already tried, but I don't remember and it's the only thing I can think of: given that other block puzzles had some switches change the state of the room, maybe if you place that one first sth might?

Other than that I got nothing. u_u

Rewatched Highwang's LP of the remake last weekend and it jogged my memory about that puzzle. Not going to spoil it unless Yimothy gives the go ahead, since it's one of the more memorable moments of the original (the puzzle's different in the remake).

I think I’ve tried pushing the other blocks into place to see if they change anything, but reviewing the LP I don’t see any evidence of it, so I guess I should give that a go.

MB, I may ask for your help eventually, but for now thanks for not spoiling it. One thing, though: it seems so obvious that the puzzle should be solved the way I’ve been trying, i.e., by stoping time so I can run under the block, that I’ve been concerned that I’ve been doing the right thing and some bug in the game is stopping it from working. So let me know if you think I’ve done it right and it hasn’t worked, but otherwise I’ll leave it on my to-do list and hopefully figure it out at some point.