Note: I finished the game, this is a negative review purely because there is no thumbs-sideways mixed option.

For every thing La-Mulana 2 does right it also does a couple things wrong. For example, widescreen rooms - that's nice, but why are there jpeg borders ALL AROUND the screen? Just let me play it in actual fullscreen, like the first game did. Or, more bosses - that's cool, but why do they repeat and why can they be cheesed so easily? You shouldn't let the player get away with getting a boss stuck on a tiny platform and throwing fifty shurikens at their face, like the first game did. Or, better mobility - that's great, but why do I constantly find myself jumping ahead to actual dead-ends that are opened only by progress on the apparent intended route? First game did it better, whatever, you get it.

What were they thinking?!

Really, my last point is probably the most damning one - the game holds your hand so much in the first half and expects you to make repeat visits to NPCs (which happened exactly twice in La-Mulana 1 and at least made sense) that you forget how to think for yourself. Oh, I don't see a solution in the next room, so I better go make the rounds! Oh ♥♥♥♥ off.

If you dare to go off route by, let's say, throwing fifty shurikens at Nidhogg (and then some of them will phase through his hitbox and deal no damage, who knows why), the first boss you're obviuosly meant to fight later, you get a grapple claw that doesn't really get you anywhere at that point, about two hundred coins to spend on nothing of note except for an item that shows boss HP, and a location full of frustrating near-instant kill traps and dead-ends.

And then you find out that the item straight up just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lies to you about boss HP, because first the bar has to change color several times before it starts going down, so you can clearly see that you're doing damage but never know how much until the end of the fight.

This is just the first major instance of this, but now I've seen it come up in several reviews and let me tell you, I understand their frustration. It keeps happening again and again. You will be left scratching your head because you will keep finding locations where something is supposed to happen, but LATER, pay them no mind and go progress the intended route!

Learning to shut my somewhat genre-savvy gamer brain off that tells me to check off the beaten path left me holding the bag when the game STOPPED literally nudging me towards the end. I still have no idea how you're supposed to collate the actual solution to the Dark Star Lord puzzles, for example, because I just seemingly brute-forced them.

All in all, it's a swing and a miss, but if they ever come up with a third game I’ll make sure to check it out, I only hope they forget to bring the guy responsible for the first half of La-Mulana 2.

Pretty much better in all aspects from the first game. Better graphics, effects, lore, gameplay...

Would recommend playing first for new players, although you may lose much of the references to the first game. (And get spoiled I guess)