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

Clues:

Village:



Guidance Gate:



Confusion Gate:



Mausoleum of Giants:



Graveyard of the Giants:



Temple of the Sun:



Temple of Moonlight:



Spring of the Sky:



Inferno Cavern:



Tower of Ruin:



Chamber of Extinction:



The Maze:



Endless Corridor:

"Walk the End Year of the Aztecs' Fifth Age."



Ninth Field:

"Proceed from the correct path."






To-Do:

Anywhere:
-Find Shorn Kosugi
-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
--Take it to one of the missing Field change ladders
--Take it to the fairies at Tower of Ruin -3/3
-Get all the ROMs
--Have something good happen

Village:
-Go through invisible door at 4/1
--Defeat Inferno Cavern Guardian
-Return to hidden door at 4/2 with all the ROMs

Guidance Gate:


Confusion Gate:
-Open chest -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
--Take the fairy to the other fairies in the Tower of Ruin
-Reach the left side of Shu's blood shower head at -3/2

Mausoleum of Giants:


Graveyard of the Giants:


Temple of the Sun:


Temple of Moonlight:


Spring of the Sky:


Reverse Spring


Inferno Cavern:
-Unlock and take the path to another Field at -2/1
-Reach the two rooms at the top left of the map
-Defeat the Guardian Viy at -3/-4

Tower of Ruin:


Chamber of Extinction:


The Maze:


Endless Corridor:
-Explore the Endless Corridor
--Find a way into the rooms below the second to top floor
--Find a way into the rooms below the third to top floor
-Walk the End Year of the Aztecs' Fifth Age
-Do something with the blank lamp frame at 0/-1
-Reveal and climb the missing ladder at 1/-1
-Do something with the middle of the floor at 0/-1
-Activate the dragon at 0/-2
-Weight dais: 0/-2
-Scan broken stele: 0/-2

Ninth Field:





Death Locks:
-Temple of the Sun 0/-4

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



ROMs:



Glyph Key:

I'm impressed that you didn't break down and consult a guide a long time ago!

Same here!
Your resolution and methodicalness are amazing and undoubtedly one of the high points of this LP. But of course, never take it to the extreme, this should be a fun project for you above all.

Thanks guys! I’ve certainly been tempted a few times, with this puzzle probably being the worst, but making the LP is mostly keeping me going. Having footage of the gameplay, all the hints, and being able to review what I’ve done has been a big help. I often think of something new to try while doing the write ups. Plus I’ve had a few bits of help from the thread.

Last time one Let's Play La-Mulana, I flailed around helplessly stuck before discovering I'd had the right idea all along and had somehow dropped the ball on execution. This time, I return to the furthest point previously reached, in the third level of the Endless Corridor. The message on the stele here:



I start off by killing everything on the screen, which gets me nothing. The dais is tempting, but I decide to explore first, so I head left. Hey, there's a pot up top I can't reach without going back!



I go up there and break the pot, but find nothing, even with the scanner. Then I head back right and start testing the walls. The first two get me nowhere, but the third:



Is false!



The pillar blocking the big dais down the bottom isn't, though. I get some Throwing Knives from the pot at the bottom. Unable to jump back up through the hidden path, I head right. There are a lot of spikes in here! And a treasure chest.



I take out the various enemies and pots without finding anything unusual or opening the chest, then head for the exit. It's not very inviting. Is there another way out?



There is! This place is riddled with hidden passages.



I try to take out the flower by jumping at it, which doesn't work. It does give me a chance to read the stele, though. What does it mean? All will become clear in time.



To get back to the top I have to get through the spikes in the pathway left. I get just enough invincibility from walking into them to get through them afterwards. Then I head back up to the hidden passage, take out the flower with Shuriken, and make my way through the enemies and pots towards the next screen.



The floor falls away beneath me.



Twice! I'm still not sure what the point of this is, actually.



I use the paths left to check out the previous screen's upper right bits, finding nothing, and work on killing all the enemies, which does nothing.



I'm not sure what I thought I was going to achieve going through this door.



Heading right instead takes me to the broken stele and Konami Boxing, a 1985 2D fighter. This is the first screen I reached on this level, so I've completed the loop. I guess there's nothing left to do but weight the dais:



I place the weight and a timer appears. Crap! What am I supposed to be doing here? The ladder back up is gone...



I belatedly realise that the pillar blocking the big stele is gone, too, and make a run for it through the hidden passage, getting there with about four seconds to spare. This allows me to drop a weight and release the dragon to reveal the ladder downwards. I guess this is what the thing about exhausting strength or wisdom was about: I could either make a run for it to the left and try to get through all four screens to reach here, or I can just drop through the wall and reach it easily.



Before going down the ladder I decide to take another look through this level to see if anything has changed. This pays immediate dividends when I score the Twin Statue from the now-open chest.



There was a clue in the Inferno Cavern that I think relates to this:

Lemeza has managed to run through this area very quickly indeed by taking a shortcut, and in so doing appears to have freed the twins. The other place with a lot of references to the twins is The Maze. One of the clues there seems to relate very directly to what I've just picked up:



It appears I'll be able to travel through the Twins' Gates now.



For the moment, though, I'm pushing on with the Endless Corridor. The rest of this level seems unchanged since I solved the puzzle. I think it's just designed to be hard to move through quickly so that it's a challenge to get to the big dais in time. I suspect it's not possible, though I haven't actually tried. Before going down the newly revealed ladder to the next level, I summon the key fairy and head back up to the missing ladder on the previous level. It remains missing. Whatever the fairy unlocks, it isn't this.

So I return to the ladder I've uncovered and take it down to the next level. That's a lot of pots! The background is the same as on the higher levels, but red now. That redness, the star, and the onion domes are giving me a Soviet feeling.



I like this clue. The puzzle itself seems fairly straightforward: I push the left block all the way to the left and break the pots with Throwing Knives to get it down to the receptacle. On the right, I need to push it down into the gap in the upper row of pots, then break all of that row and the two pots above the receptacle, and push the block down. Let's do it:



Or rather, let's go left one screen. It's a dead end, though, with another block puzzle. Looks like a tough one.



I go back to the first screen and push the upper block into place. When I do, another receptacle appears. Ah. I bet I've stuffed this up.



I get the one on the left where it goes and another block appears.



There's no way to get that block where I need to get it to. Darn.



I smash all the pots for a decent haul of weights, then exit and re-enter the screen to reset the puzzle.



I put all the pieces in place...



And finish the job. A path opens at the right side of the room. Next!



Looks like another block puzzle.



As I enter the room part of the floor breaks. I kill of the enemies and go up to the level with the blocks. Some of that floor falls away too, but there's no obvious path created to get these blocks down to the receptacles. I decide to try the dais that I can reach:



It causes the second floor to open briefly in four places. It happens pretty quickly, and I didn't catch where exactly it opens. I actually exited the room and placed the weight again to try (and fail) and get a better look before deciding that it must just open in the spots above the receptacles.



Here's my first attempt, which fails.



I can't get in between the two blocks to Lemeza's left, which means I can't move the left one further left.



Here's where I gave up on attempt #2. I won't be able to push the leftmost block further left if I push it down unless I first push the second-to-left block further right, but if I do that I won't be able to push it back unless I push the third-to-right block so far right that it won't be possible to move back.



I got it right on the third go. I thought about cutting out the lengthy periods of Lemeza standing in place while I think from this GIF, but decided to keep them for authenticity.



Weighting the dais drops the blocks where I want them, opening the path to the lower dais, which in turn opens a path to the right. Next!



More blocks! There's one receptacle under the pot at the bottom. It's in the middle of the pit, which means I can't drop it in directly over the edge because it'll land at one side with no way to push it. This is a pickle! The other receptacle looks pretty simple: I just need to move the lower two blocks on the right to build a path to move the upper one to it.



I start by killing enemies and breaking pots, the latter of which turns up a ROM cart. It's Yie Ar Kung Fu 2, the 1985 sequel to Yie Ar Kung Fu. Say, I have the first game. Do they mix?



I put them both in at once and the combination sound plays. Great! But I don't know what they do together. Apparently if you put in the first game while playing the sequel then the main character's dad will show up with healing tea when you're nearly dead. Maybe it's something like that? Seems unlikely Shorn is gonna just drop by, though.

I find a collapsing platform.



After thinking for a while I try out the upper receptacle. It changes the arrangement of the platform to its left. I'm not sure yet how that will be useful.



I exit and re-enter, and try moving the block on top of the moving platform and then activating it with the other blocks. The result is not useful.



Stumped, I poke around the room a bit and strike gold when I realise this wall can be broken.



I exit, re-enter, clear the enemies, break the wall, and then push this block down so that it hangs over the pit. Now I just need to move the block above Lemeza over so that it'll fall down when I move the blocks on the right onto the upper receptacle.



Sadly, my brain takes a moment off and I screw it up. I flee the scene in shame.



I return, clear the enemies, pots, and wall, and push the blocks into position. Let's do it:



We did it!



It's the screen to the left of the starting point. There's another block puzzle, lots of pots, a dragon in the floor that promises a pathway downwards, and a tiny headless horse.



One less weird creepy headless horse in the world.



I spend a little while looking at this trying to figure out how I'm going to get a block to that floating receptacle and decide it's time to call it a day. I figure I can stare at the screen for as long as I like while I do the write-up and figure it out then.



I might as well break all the pots before I go. They could have some weights or ammo in them.



I uncover a hidden receptacle and drop a block onto it, causing a dais to appear. In the part of the room I can't reach.



I break the rest of the pots, then exit and re-enter the screen to check that the leftmost block remains where I put it and the dais is still there. Tick on both counts. The horse is back, too.



Turns out it's not just a tiny horse. It's also a normal-size horse and a giant horse. When it's not tiny it seems to be invincible to forward attack.



I wonder how they decided which enemies to include in the manual? Googling Rong Xuanwang didn't really turn up much for me, and trying to look for headless horse information just gets me headless horseman stuff. Does anyone know what the deal is with this? Is there some other name for it? And why a corpse (presumably the absent head is a factor, of course)?



I head back to town and save. I'll weight the dais and solve the puzzle next time (in retrospect, I should have placed the weight before warping out so I could see what it did). I gotta say, I've really enjoyed this section of the game. Just pushing blocks around is a nice break after the difficulties I had last time.

Maps:

Endless Corridor:

Clues:

Village:



Guidance Gate:



Confusion Gate:



Mausoleum of Giants:



Graveyard of the Giants:



Temple of the Sun:



Temple of Moonlight:



Spring of the Sky:



Inferno Cavern:

"Strange, these ruins are strange. This shouldn't be a dead end..."

"Discover where the truth of this land lies."

"This is the Inferno Cavern. A place that was once a source of power."

"If you can't find something important where it should be, check the back."

"The imprisoned twins. The man that runs faster than anyone will free them."

"What is here is not everything. This is the critical location. Take another path and return to this land again."



Tower of Ruin:



Chamber of Extinction:



The Maze:

"Release the twins."



Endless Corridor:



Ninth Field:







To-Do:

Anywhere:
-Find Shorn Kosugi
-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 Yie Ar Kung Fu and Yie Ar Kung Fu 2 do in combination
-Figure out what the key fairy does
--Take it to one of the missing Field change ladders
-Get all the ROMs
--Have something good happen

Village:


Guidance Gate:


Confusion Gate:


Mausoleum of Giants:


Graveyard of the Giants:


Temple of the Sun:


Temple of Moonlight:


Spring of the Sky:


Reverse Spring


Inferno Cavern:


Tower of Ruin:


Chamber of Extinction:


The Maze:
-Release the twins
-Figure out the layout
-Go through the Twins' Gates
--Acquire the Twins' Souls
---See if the Twin Statue is the Twins' Souls

Endless Corridor:
-Explore the Endless Corridor
--Find a way into the rooms below the third to top floor
--Find a way into the rooms below the fourth to top floor
-Reveal and climb the missing ladder at 1/-1
-Activate the dragon at -1/-3, 0/-2
-Weight dais: -1/-3, 0/-2
-Scan broken stele: 0/-2

Ninth Field:





Death Locks:
-Temple of the Sun 0/-4

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



ROMs:



Glyph Key:

Other than yet another seamless loop, you mean? You gif artist, you...

Haha, man, this is completely different in the remake.

I don’t remember this part of the remake at all.

I think the only things the remake keeps of this are the general structure and layout (four endlessly looping corridors using puzzles to unlock the path between layers), outside of the fairy queen being here and one or two of the block puzzles. It's been a while for me too, but I vaguely remember the ultimate puzzle requiring you to run a gauntlet through the entire fourth layer?

It makes sense though, as the remake was designed to screw with vets of the original.

What happy looking murderous spirits (the white monsters).

Also, they remind me of the characters from VVVVVV!.

Hello again. Last time, I made some progress in the Endless Corridor, and obtained the Twin Statue. I'm pretty sure that's the key to unlock The Maze, and I'm keen to go there and try it out, but I've still got Corridor to explore. For today, I'm loading up the Yie Ars Kung Fu combination to try and figure out what it does, and heading back to the Infinite.



I head down through the layers. In the red zone, I notice that the block receptacle at the lower left is still there. Dropping a block on it causes another to appear, but without the receptacle at the lower right there's nothing I can do with it.



I try anyway and get nowhere, but that's not what this screenshot is for. What's that thing just above Lemeza in the first shot? Last time I was here a lot of these pots dropped weights, and when I pick it up my weight count goes up by two. I guess it's a weight? Have they always looked like that?



Nope! Here's this weight drop pictured next to one from earlier in the game. Last time I was in this room the weights looked like the one on the right, now they look like the one on the left. What's changed? The only thing that comes to mind is that I've got the Yie Ar Kung Fu/Yie Ar Kung Fu 2 combination in my MSX. I mentioned last time that if YAKF2 is played with the first game in the second slot, the player character's dad will show up with healing tea when you're low on health. This new weight sprite looks kind of like a cup with steam coming out, doesn't it? I found a video of YAKF2 where the father appears and drops the tea. The sprite doesn't look like this one. Even so, although the tea sadly doesn't restore any of Lemeza's VIT, I think I've figured out what this combination does. I wish I'd realised it while playing, though. I'll spend the rest of this update having to switch Glyph Reader in and out each time I reach a stele.



I go left one screen and weight the dais I caused to appear last time. This brings a pillar into the room which will allow me to push the rightmost block onto the receptacle. Let's do it:



I start by pushing the uppermost block slightly to the right, then break pots below it until it falls to a location from which I can stand on it and push the rightmost block. Getting it to the receptacle causes another big dais to appear at the upper left.



As you'd expect at this point, weighting the big dais causes the dragon at the bottom to break free and clears a path to the level below.



At this point I realise that the pillar and the block are preventing my accessing the rightmost part of the room. What if there's a ROM hidden there?! As I write this, I've just opened up the game with a save from before summoning the pillar and gone in and had a look. I couldn't find anything with the scanner, so crisis averted, I guess. I also took the time to check the weights with and without the Yie Ars, and the sprite definitely changes when the combo is loaded. Good to know.



I take the ladder downwards to the lowest level of the Corridor. The backdrop is now black, with only the stars and the outlines of the buildings visible. I read the stele, which talks about shutting eyes, and after I do the eye in the corner comes alive.



Initially it just bobs there. Sadly I didn't stay in place long enough to get a seamless GIF.



When I turn away the eye opens and starts to follow Lemeza, but when I turn back it closes up again and stops. It's your basic Mario ghost behaviour.



I bait it across the room and try attacking its nest, with the usual result. I'm not keen to take on the eye until I have some idea what it's about (there was a clue earlier, "The left eye sees Kindness", that maybe relates to this?), so I head for the next room.



The eye follows me. Once again, the lack of sound in a GIF lets us down, but when I strike the llama I hear the ping of an ineffective strike as the backswing of the whip clips the eye. I head for the higher platform to confirm, and get the same sound from each strike.



This section of wall gives the more satisfying sound that indicates I'm doing damage, and soon breaks. The upper bit doesn't.



I kill and break my way through the room, not finding anything notable. The last rong xuanwang corpse spends ages in its invincible middle size, but I get it in the end. Time to move to the next screen.



Smooth.



The eye soon joins me as I make my way across these small pillars. I drop down at the far end, either accidentally or because I want to clear the room of enemies. I don't know what the point of the pot floating between two pillars is. It doesn't drop anything when broken, and standing on it and scanning gets me nothing.



I make my way to the next room.



There's a heck of a lot going on in this room. There's another eye nest at the upper right, but instead of a big eye following me around there's a mass of eyes on the floor spitting more eyes at me. The makers of this game certainly weren't afraid to break the MSX sprite limit when the situation called for it. Killing the eye mass takes the pressure off, but doesn't open the path forwards.



After clearing out the bats as well I start trying to get the big eye into the nest at the upper right. It builds momentum as it moves, so it'll keep going towards something even after Lemeza moves or looks at it.



This isn't working for me.



I try attacking it again. Some of the shots bounce off, some pass through, and some seem to land. It looks like when the eye is closed it's invincible, but when it's open it can be damaged by striking the iris/pupil.



I make an attempt with the whip, but it isn't working, so I go back to my standard move for room guards: loads of Shuriken. It works, and when the eye dies a large dais appears. Let's use it:



Success! This is the lowest level of the Endless Corridor, and it looks like the ladder leads to a Field transition. I haven't seen any sign of a Guardian or Ankh Jewel yet, which is kind of odd, but remember this clue:

I guess when I find the Rear Corridor the Guardian will be there. There was a clue about this in The Maze, I think:

If I have it right, Tiamat is the Guardian of this place, but currently absent.



I head down the ladder and sure enough, I'm in a different Field. I think this is the Ninth Field, in fact. According to another clue:

So I guess this is everything.

What appeared to be three bats is revealed to be... more than three.



It takes a little while to clear all of them out. In the process, one of the statues starts spitting at me. The stele again talks about the chosen one. I think Lemeza is the chosen one, so I'll be carrying on.



Right after I get trapped, that is. Hmm.



I warp back to the village and take the chance to save. Because I've just warped out of a trap I use the Game Master 2 cart for the save, in case I've locked myself out of something. It's probably unnecessary though, since when I return through the Corridor to the nightmare of bats in the Ninth Field, the trap appears to have been reset.



The pot at the lower left doesn't seem to hold anything. Trying to get back to the platform at the right I fall on the spikes. I use the mercy invincibility from this to reach the next room at the lower level, where I scan two shorter-than-usual spikes to find Konami Baseball, a 1984 sports game.



I'm forced to take a hit to get out from below the platform, and then I take another because I didn't realise the moving platform would go down into the spikes. Whoops. There's a picture of Amphisbaena in this room. I guess it matches the one of Bahamut I saw near the other entrance to this Field.



I struggled a bit with these skeletons, but I got to the stele in the end for another Tiamat clue. I guess if she's not in the reverse corridor maybe she's here? I head down the ladder and find myself with little choice about where to go next.



As I head right a pillar falls and blocks the right side of the screen. I guess I need to come back here once I find a way to stop time. There's another Guardian portrait here - this one's the big lizard from the Temple of the Sun.



I head back to the left. The combination of bats and spikes everywhere is not a friendly one. I head down a ladder to a room with more of the eye blocks and another Guardian picture. I don't recognise this one, which looks like a woman's face in profile. Maybe Tiamat?



I try without success to get past the eye blocks and am attacked by one of these wall monkeys. I saw them in the upper room that I reached from the Chamber of Extinction entrance to this Field, but I don't think I managed to stay on that screen long enough for this move to activate.



I read the stele and take out the monkeys. The hippos are a little harder:



There are two: one stationary that teleports when struck, and another that flashes constantly, moves on its own, and respawns after dying. Killing the first also removes the second. The statues firing at me don't make it easier.



Not wanting to navigate the statue spit, I head back up and try going left, reaching a room full of moving platforms over a floor almost entirely spiked. The treasure chest is the one place at the bottom where I can stand. There are also four locks on the walls, one of each type.



I break the three locks that I have the seals for, then fall in the spikes.



I head left again, where I find more hippos, a chest, a Life Lock, a dais I don't seem to be able to reach, a stele, and another Guardian picture (I think it's the Giant). I think the "great soul" in the clue here must be a Guardian, meaning I need to get the flute so that the Sages will talk to me in order to find it. I guess.



Breaking the lock here opens the chest, but I can't reach the contents. It's a bit hard to tell because of all the stuff coming out of the statues, but the barrier that pops up when I approach the skull hurts Lemeza.



I think this is the item we're looking at here. The power to warp spacetime might be what's making that barrier. For now, I have no idea how to collect it.



I work on taking out the hippos, which is made more difficult by all the projectiles coming out of the statues. Apparently I've already forgotten the recently learned lesson that killing the hippo that doesn't blink will get rid of the other one too, but at least I top off my EXP for a VIT refill. Once I do take them out, nothing obvious changes. I don't know how to get down to the dais at the bottom.



I head back to the monkey room and go down from there. What awaits?



Skeletons!



The one at the mid-level on the right has some moves I haven't seen before, and I get caught out by one of them. It's also a subtly different sprite - there's a little protrusion from the upper front corner of its skull.



Speaking of new attacks, check out the pegasus (?) on this next screen. There's also a Guardian portrait. Looks like a sad turtle. I don't think I've met this one.



I take out the enemies and read the stele. Not sure who "we" refers to on this one. Humans? There was a stele earlier that referred to the Giants as the "second race born of the Great Mother". I wonder what the first, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth were? I head back to the left. The raised platform just to the left of the middle of this screen looks interesting, doesn't it?



If there's anything to be done there I don't find it, sadly. I clear the room of enemies without finding anything, then move to the next screen. Will we see any new attacks here?



We will, but first things first. There's a stele here! I guess the Sages are statues for longevity purposes.

Here are the new attacks. The demon guys spit fire, and the monkey has a screen-filling multi-fireball attack.



The monkey is immune to the whip and to flares, but the axe does the job.



I take out the other enemies for no benefit and move to the next screen, where I'm stuck in a little corner dead end. I backtrack a little and reach the stele. Maybe this refers to the spark that comes out when I use an Ankh Jewel?



I head down the ladder. The portrait on the next screen appears to be The Viy. I make my way to the screen below, where there's a picture of I guess a bull. I haven't met that Guardian yet. There's also the highly suspicious box Lemeza is standing on in the last shot. There's gotta be something in there, right?



I make a couple of attempts to get into the box, but no dice.



So I head back up and take a right, finding the area's altar and with it a name: The Shrine of the Mother. Ominous!



I head to the next screen, where a tall person stands beneath a big eye symbol. He seems peaceful. Let's try diplomacy:



Diplomacy fails, and I'm left chasing little clouds of bugs around the room for far longer than I want to be. Killing them gets me nowhere.



I think this is Beelzebub, which would make this the core of La Mulana.



I don't seem to be able to interact with the eye. Leaving the room and returning causes Beelzebub to respawn.



I get the same result with the Shuriken that I did with the axe.



He doesn't seem to hold grudges, at least.



I've been to this room before - the next screen down has the path to the Chamber of Extinction. I haven't been able to get through these eye blocks, though, and I wasn't expecting them to crumble beneath me, either. I manage to stay on the screen, but can I make it back up to to rest of the Field from this platform?



Nope!



I spend quite a while trying to get back up, but I just can't pull it off. The moving platforms don't go high enough to reach the upper level, and I can't get rid of the monkey to clear my landing on the lower level.



Eventually, low on VIT, I warp back to town and save. Then, just to test it out some more, I put in the Yie Ars Kung Fu and warp to the Endless Corridor to deliberately get hit by the flower and see if some healing tea will appear (I hadn't figured out that the Yie Ar Kung Fu combination was responsible for the different weight sprite at this time). No tea appears, and I die. Good time for a break!

Maps:

Endless Corridor:



Shrine of the Mother:



This map looks like a human figure, or at least it would if I'd reached -2/3. It made me think at first of the Woman Statue, which I've seen in the manual but not yet in-game, but that statue appears to have its legs together, while this map is clearly manspreading.

Clues:

Village:



Guidance Gate:



Confusion Gate:



Mausoleum of Giants:



Graveyard of the Giants:



Temple of the Sun:



Temple of Moonlight:



Spring of the Sky:

"The water that operates the tower. It flows here and is converted to energy."

"Walk down the infinite corridor. Beyond it lies everything."



Inferno Cavern:



Tower of Ruin:



Chamber of Extinction:



The Maze:



Endless Corridor:



The Shrine of the Mother:

"Proceed from the correct path."

"Endlessness and dimensions. With her great power, Tiamat bent the laws of both."

"A land guarded by 8 souls."

"The Sages will only show the path to the chosen one. At its end lies a great soul."

"We were born of this earth. We were the seventh to be born. And we forgot our Mother..."

"Through a ceremony passed down through the ages, the four Sages attained undying bodies."






To-Do:

Anywhere:
-Find Shorn Kosugi
-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 Yie Ar Kung Fu and Yie Ar Kung Fu 2 do in combination
-Figure out what the key fairy does
-Get all the ROMs
--Have something good happen

Village:


Guidance Gate:


Confusion Gate:


Mausoleum of Giants:


Graveyard of the Giants:


Temple of the Sun:


Temple of Moonlight:


Spring of the Sky:


Reverse Spring


Inferno Cavern:


Tower of Ruin:


Chamber of Extinction:


The Maze:


Endless Corridor:
-Explore the Endless Corridor
--Find a way into the rooms below the fourth to top floor
-Reveal and climb the missing ladder at 1/-1
-Activate the dragon at -1/-3
-Weight dais: -1/-3

The Shrine of the Mother:
-Get past 0/1
-Get past falling pillar at 0/4
--Try stopping time when able
-Remove eye blocks: -2/1, -1/3, 0/4
-Open chest: -2/4
-Get Crystal Skull at -3/4
-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



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
-Chamber of Extinction 8/-3
-Endless Corridor 0/-2



ROMs:



Glyph Key:

Or I could be wrong, lol. That last floor of the Corridor is basically the same in the remake.

Boy, the enemies at this point sure like shooting a bunch of bullshit at you.

That seems kind of lame unless maybe the combination doubles the amount received from all "drops".

I want to suggest that you try using the knockback from the statue shots to knock you into the skull but I feel like the game wouldn't make things that easy.

So blink / displacer Hippos? This game has everything!

You keep running headlong into those projectiles. Use your shield sometime!

I don’t think the Yie Ar combo changes the number of weights. Getting two from a pot is normal. The knockback idea seems like a long shot, but I’ll give it a go.

Good advice. I tend to forget I have the shield, which isn’t helped by the need to equip it in place of any other subweapon (including the scanner).

I did not know that. I had assumed that normally you only get 1. You sure do seem to get a lot more weights than you need.

Yeah, in retrospect I should have made that clear, given I don’t think I’ve mentioned getting two weights from pots since the very first update. Pots give ten units of ammo or two weights when they drop stuff, and are refilled each time you start a play session (except for the ones in the village). Enemies drop one of either.

There is an exception: there are two pots in the teleport maze in the Confusion Gate that drop one Shuriken each, and are refilled whenever they respawn (so, like, each time you teleport). No idea why.

As for an oversupply of weights, I think that’s at least in part because of how I’m playing. I’m only going for 30-60 minutes at a time, so the pots are getting refilled a lot more than they probably would for the average player.

Hello again. I'm starting off today by returning to the Shrine of the Mother. There are a few things I haven't managed to do here. In the last shot I'm attempting to climb down an invisible ladder to get into the box Lemeza is standing on. There isn't an invisible ladder, so it's not working.



I head back past the altar and go the other way. Scanning Beelzebub gets me nowhere, unsurprisingly. Last time I came to the screen in the last two shots here I broke a bunch of eye blocks which had been limiting the movement of the white platforms. Even after breaking them, the platforms wouldn't go past where they used to be. Returning now, the platforms go all the way up and I'm able to pass through.



In the first screen here I find that striking these eye blocks makes the "ping" I've come to associate with breakable walls that I'm using the wrong weapon on. I try out everything I have, bar the Spear (which goes straight down and so I can't get in to position to use), but can't break it. I move on to the room with the Crystal Skull.

Let's give it a go:



I head down there and start whipping the statue on the right hoping to get it to spit at me. The other one starts instead. Never mind, I've got another suggestion for dealing with that:



Looks like the Buckler isn't up to the job. Maybe one of the better shields can do it?



Eventually the other statue starts firing and in a haze of crossfire I manage to get knocked back towards the Skull. Its barrier still stops me.



I also try attacking the Skull, which doesn't work.



No sign of any way in to reach the dais down here, either.



I had an idea that if I gunned it for the right side of the screen I might be able to beat the falling pillar here, but yeah... nah. Man, I'm getting low on VIT!



I head for the fairy in the Chamber of Extinction, unfortunately getting the orange one that does only a partial VIT refill, then head for The Maze via the Temple of the Sun. I've got the Twin Statue, which I think should allow me to make sense of this place, but for the moment I still have to deal with the clouds and timer.



As expected, I'm now able to use the Twins' Gates. This confirms that the Twin Statue I got in the Endless Corridor is the Twins' Souls mentioned in the clue I just linked to. Once I head through I'm immediately knocked back by what could be a Hsing-t'ien:



The broken stele is blank. Heading for the ladder upwards, a hole opens beneath me and I fall back into the Gate.



I head back through and try to get upwards, but am caught out again by a false platform. I wind up running out of time and collapsing.



Fortunately this just drops Lemeza back outside the entrance again. I thought Xelpud might have something new to say, so I warp out to talk to him, but it's just one of his random lines (I'm pretty sure the Konami Code doesn't work on any MSX titles). I head back to The Maze, this time entering from the Mausoleum.



The Twin Gate here just takes me between two areas I could reach already, and I don't find anything else different. Back to the Temple entrance!



This time I head through the gate, weight the dais on the upper platform (weight just visible behind the cloud in the third shot) to no apparent effect, and take the ladder up to what appears to be a room in the Shrine of the Mother.



I take out the monkeys and scan the stele. This clue I assume refers to the sun/star/moon machine in the Mausoleum of the Giants. I haven't thought about that in a while! I spend a little time running around the room scanning randomly and not finding anything before heading back down the ladder into The Maze again.



I try taking out all the enemies in this room, but get nothing for it.



I take the gate to the other side, where I notice a dais has appeared at the top left. Before I can reach it the timer runs out and I'm ejected back to the temple.



I head straight back in to find that the dais is gone. I go through the gate to reweight the other dais (stopping through the Shrine to reset the timer), and sure enough after I do it the new dais has reappeared. Let's weight it:



When I do, the clouds disappear, along with the barriers to the left, right, and downwards exits to the room. What a relief!

I take the left exit.



The witch is a bit of a hazard, shooting fireballs at wherever Lemeza is standing at the time.



I take out all the enemies and scan the stele, which doesn't make sense at the moment but I think will by the end of the update, then head back to town and save. I'm pretty low on VIT but high on EXP, so I return to an old grinding spot in the Guidance Gate and kill this myrmecoleo until I get a health refill.



I then return to the Mausoleum and realign the moons to create a moonlit night, as mentioned on the recent stele. I head for the spot this giant is pointing to, and attempt to push on the wall there. It doesn't work, though there are a few reasons I thought it might - the first is the giant pointing to it, the second is that the layout of the platforms looks kind of like the picture on the stele (though backwards, but the moon in the stele is the other way around to the ones in the machine), and the third is that I'm sure something happened here in the remake. I think you had to stand on the pot or break the pot and stand where it was and then press down (there being a clue that said to duck, even though Lemeza can't). Maybe it's different in the original, or maybe I'm just remembering wrong.



I try a few other walls, but no luck, so I head back to the Maze.



The ladder leads to the same room as it did before I unlocked the Maze, but now the path to the right is open. I take it, and in the room beyond step on a footswitch which reveals a hidden chest containing the Ring.



I'm not sure what this actually translates to in-game. Maybe it improves the sub-weapons somehow?



I move to the next screen. There are a couple of things of note here: the two dinosaurs just below the platform Lemeza's standing on I believe relate to a clue I'll be getting later in the update, and there's a crack in the base of the pillar in the background which I didn't notice while playing but which I think will need a scan in case it's hiding something. I don't know if the female figures in the background are significant. The first three get progressively larger, and then the fourth has no face and what might be a child between her legs. Does it represent a pregnancy and maternal death in childbirth? The lack of face seems pretty gross.



There's also this harpy enemy and its musical attack. Once again my preference for GIFs lets us down, and you miss the chirping noise that accompanies each group of notes.

Fortunately this one is not invulnerable. Alternatively it could be a siren, also often depicted as a bird/woman combination, but as I understand it the siren's song draws the listener in, where this music knocks Lemeza back.



The stele has another partial clue which again I think I'll have a meaning for by the end of the update, and I move on to the next screen. There's another dinosaur here, and a gate I'll need to drop a weight on each time I want to pass. The broken stele is blank.



The other stele has a clue that I don't understand on several levels: how do I cast spells? Which spirits have the elixir? What is the elixir? What does it mean to give shape to souls? Hopefully all will become clear in time. For now, I take the only ladder I can reach (the one on the right is blocked at the bottom), which takes me to the screen where I unlocked the Maze (the one you reach when you enter from the Temple of the Sun). I can't go back down because the ladder I came up isn't visible on this screen and the other one leads to a blockage.



I head up and try the dais, but it's ineffective - I've already used it to unlock the Field. So I head through the gate, which leads to the same place it did before. What's the deal with these gates, anyway? Do they just go to other parts of the Field? If you look closely at the rooms on either side of the gate (so the first image and the third image here), they've got pretty much the same layout, but left/right flipped. What could it mean? Anyway, just like on the other side, the exits from the room in the third screenshot are now open. I start by going back to the room in the Shrine, though. Now that I've set the moons in place in the Mausoleum I want to see if maybe the wall I need to press against is in here where the stele is. If it is, I don't find it.



I head back into the maze and take the ladder downwards. It leads to a dead end in a room that looks a lot like the one with a dead end below the other side of the gate. I might as well just say this now, even though at this point in playing I hadn't figured it out yet: I believe there are two versions of the Maze, each roughly a mirror image of the other, and the Gates go between them. It'll be more obvious when you look at the maps at the end of this update. Whipping the walls at the base of this ladder creates a pathway out for Lemeza. I should try doing the same in the equivalent space on the other side.



The white witches here have a different attack to the other ones I've seen so far, shooting lightning at Lemeza. I get caught out a few times. The green one throws the same fireballs and seems to run away whenever Lemeza is on the same level and facing her.



I get another clue about the four Sages, then head to the next room. It's the reverse version of the one with the pregnancy sequence from earlier, and has the same image but more so in its background. The stele is in roughly the same place as the two dinosaurs on that screen, so I expect the beasts I'm supposed to interfere with are they. The clue there said "Bright light ... rrupts ... love of all", so I think I need to fire a flare between the two dinosaurs.



The whip doesn't work on this block, but the knife does.



I head up the ladder. Facing getting knocked back down it by the witch's projectile I decide discretion is the better part of valour and go back down.



I head right, finding a holy block. Killing everything in the room doesn't open it, so I'm out of ideas. I read the stele, which shows an image of the middle of the pyramid in the Temple of Moonlight. Looks like I need to go there and pause the game until Lemeza takes a snooze.



I head to the next screen, which looks familiar, except the other room had a ladder where there's just a shaft here. Is it the same room, changed by my unlocking the Field? Is that a real Ankh Jewel this time?

Evidence on the first count is inconclusive, but I can say with certainty that that's not a real Ankh Jewel.



I head down the ladder without scanning the stele (which would have confirmed if this were the same room or not) and reach another familiar room. I also rush through this one, I think because the lizard enemies can't be struck with the whip and I'm too lazy to change weapons, and reach either the older or the younger brother's store.



The older brother. I've already got the key item he sells, so I head to the next screen, which is a bit of a change of scenery. These are presumably the "terrible mountains" I need to go to the top of after disturbing the ancient beasts.



My visit to this screen is cut short by the screech of the harpy.



I land one screen below, where there's a pretty cool image of a merman. Triton, I guess? Not sure why it's got multiple tails - maybe a human/cephalopod combo rather than human/fish. Is there a name for that? What type of creature is Ursula the sea witch?



I fall victim to both enemy and trap.



Then I take the ladder down, which leads to the previously absent ladder in the Temple of Moonlight. Since I'm in the area, I head into the pyramid. A recent stele told me to go to sleep inside the woman, along with a smaller version of this female reproductive system image. Let's take a nap!



It doesn't work. I guess I need to be in the upper part of the room, but I can't jump high enough to get in there.



I head back up to the screen above. I guess I need to get into the little chamber in the second screen here and from there drop into the middle of the pyramid, but I haven't found a way in there yet. I tried pressing down all along the upper edge of the room in case of an invisible ladder, but no good. I'm reluctant to try striking the floor because any weapon that goes into the area with the blue/black backdrop will draw divine retribution, but in retrospect I should have tried running a throwing knife along it.



I head back into the maze and head left. I don't find anything significant in the next room, which is suspicious in itself, and then I head upwards.



There's another Gate up here, and a stele. The clue I think is something I solved by accident ages ago: the first time I reached the maze I found the younger and older brothers' stores. The latter only appeared after I purchased a Hand Scanner from the former, which I bought despite already having a Hand Scanner and which led to the Shell Horn sounding when I left the store.



I finish off the enemies and then head through the Gate. There's another stele here, this one showing the Dance of Life. I guess I'll need to either perform or recognise that at some point. Looks like left, left, left, right, right, right, and up (possibly while facing left).



I head left, where I find a ROM in a crack in the wall. It's Circus Charlie, a 1984 clown-em-up. Unusually for an MSX title, it's got smooth scrolling instead of moving in 8 pixel (1 tile) increments. Apparently this is achieved by having eight versions of each tile, each one offset by one pixel compared to the last, and changing through them in between the actual tile-at-a-time scrolling. I move to the left again, somehow neglecting to scan the broken stele up top.



On the next screen I find the younger brother's store. He hasn't got anything new, so I head back to the right to reach the screen with the Gate and this time head right from there.



Here's a room with a block puzzle. And an image of an armoured Merman riding a dolphin-powered sea-chariot, lance at the ready, but let's focus on the blocks. It looks pretty simple, I just have to figure out how to get in a position to push the leftmost block out of that dead end. There's probably a breakable wall. Let's give it a go:



Ah. I seem to be stuck in this pit. I remember this room from the remake, but I don't remember at all why. I probably just got stuck in this pit a lot.



With no way out but to warp, I decide to head back to town. Xelpud has something to say about the Maze, and afterwards I save. Xelpud's comment highlights the similarities of the front and back Maze Fields. Unlike the other paired Fields so far, both sides of the Maze look the same. The only obvious difference I've noticed is that the front side has bats and the back has flying eyes, just like in all the other pairs. Let's look at the maps:

Maps:

The Maze (obverse):



The Maze (reverse):



Placed next to each other it should be fairly clear that the front and back are mirror images, at least in basic layout. I've put 0/0 in the same place in each (but on the right side instead of the left in the reverse), so if I want to find the corresponding room from one side to the other I just need to invert the first coordinate. For example, the Gate I went through at the end of this update is in 2/-2 in the front, and -2/-2 in the back.

Clues:

Village:



Guidance Gate:



Confusion Gate:



Mausoleum of Giants:



Graveyard of the Giants:



Temple of the Sun:



Temple of Moonlight:



Spring of the Sky:



Inferno Cavern:



Tower of Ruin:



Chamber of Extinction:



The Maze:

"Release the twins."

"Think in the room behind the Guardian's chamber."

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



The Maze (Reverse)

"The priests lived in the ruins and guarded them. As they started to die, four of them turned themselves into stone, gained eternal life, and became Sages."

"Interfere in the love of the ancient beasts, the two close beasts that face each other. And go to the top of the terrible mountains."



The Shrine of the Mother:

"Proceed from the correct path."

"Endlessness and dimensions. With her great power, Tiamat bent the laws of both."

"A land guarded by 8 souls."

"The Sages will only show the path to the chosen one. At its end lies a great soul."

"We were born of this earth. We were the seventh to be born. And we forgot our Mother..."

"Through a ceremony passed down through the ages, the four Sages attained undying bodies."








To-Do:

Anywhere:
-Find Shorn Kosugi
-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

Village:


Guidance Gate:


Confusion Gate:


Mausoleum of Giants:


Graveyard of the Giants:


Temple of the Sun:


Temple of Moonlight:
-Weight daises: -1/0
-Break all the bricks in -1/0
-Head through door at -1/0 to other Field
-Unlock and take the path to another Field at 1/3
-Open chest at 0/-1
--Try the dais again
-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
----Try the throwing knife
-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:


Reverse Spring


Inferno Cavern:


Tower of Ruin:


Chamber of Extinction:


The Maze:
-Figure out the layout
-Go through the Twins' Gates
--Acquire the Twins' Souls
---See if the Twin Statue is the Twins' Souls
-Step on footswitch: 1/0
-Scan stele: 1/-2, 3/-2, 3/-3
-Scan cracked pillar at 2/0
-Unblock ladder at 3/0
--Try breaking wall
-Interfere in the love of the dinosaurs at 2/0
--Try a flare between them
-Reach door at 3/-2
-Solve block puzzle at 3/-2
--Find way to push leftmost block to the right

The Maze (Reverse)
-Go to the top of the terrible mountains at -1/-2 (after interfering in love of ancient beasts?)
-Read stele: -2/1, 0/0, 0/-1
-Go through Gate at 0/-1
-Open holy block at -1/0

Endless Corridor:


The Shrine of the Mother:
-Get past falling pillar at 0/4
--Try stopping time when able
-Remove eye blocks: -2/1, -1/3, 0/4
-Open chest: -2/4, room reached from Maze
-Get Crystal Skull at -3/4
-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





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
-Chamber of Extinction 8/-3
-Endless Corridor 0/-2



ROMs:



Glyph Key:

In the remake, the maze is called "Twin Labyrinth," reinforcing the idea that there are two parts to it.

Or any of the other things which Mr. Borges mentioned.

An anti-siren? A neris? *shrug*

Maybe I should have called them sirens instead of harpies. I usually think of sirens as being aquatic, but to go back to JLB:



It might be called that in this version, too. The Maze is just what I'm calling it until I find the altar or map.