Really, really amazing game. If you want a super-deep "metroidvania" type game, buy this game. If you want a Dark Souls-style level of difficulty and attention in your games, play this. It's pretty great.

So, having beaten it I still recommend it. However, I do have to add one serious caveat, which I'll elaborate on in this review: There's no two ways about it. The puzzles in this game are unfair. Which is fine, because you can use wikis or forums or FAQs. However, I would not try to tackle this on your own. If NOT using outside means, prepare to be frustrated, or at least be challenged like you've never been challenged before. In my very short summary above (which I wrote a while ago but keep here for honesty), I referenced "Dark Souls," but that's not very accurate, since it does not really live up to that game's "tough but fair" reputation. La Mulana is tough, and it isn't fair.

One of the big problems with the puzzles in this game is that all the hints are distributed on various tablets. There's very little rhyme or reason to where tablets are distributed. The game often presents hints for puzzles that occur near the end of the game once you progress past the first area of the ruins. The positive side of this is that you really feel like an archaeologist exploring ruins -- the precursors didn't place most of these tablets for your own convenience, nor did they place them perfectly in sync with your progress through the ruins. The negative side is that it makes solving puzzles a pretty unpleasant task. There is software in the game that allows you to record tablet text and conversation, but it has a very small memory of about 10-20 messages. You'll have to take your own notes (or refer to a wiki, like I did) if you want to track and organize the practically novel-length amount of text the game throws at you.

There's a text highlighting system that somewhat alleviates the confusion, but it will probably take you most of beginning of the game to figure out the system (I'll save you some time by telling you about it: Blue text refers to rooms, areas, and objects. Green text refers to items you can pick up in your inventory. Yellow text refers to software functions. Red text refers to bosses and sub-bosses). Compound that with the fact that a lot of the hints aren't exactly straightforward -- they are hints, after all -- and you've a pretty nasty set of puzzles.

Of course, there are plenty of puzzles where no obvious hints exist. Many times you'll just need to hit nearby walls and hope you aren't electrocuted by the eye of retribution. This object is an oft-present relief of an eye is built into many parts of the ruins. It shoots extremely damaging lightning bolts at adventurers that hit "sacred" objects in the ruins with their weapons. It also zaps them for breaking various arbitrary, unwritten rules. So, the lesson of destroyable blocks in La-Mulana seems to be go ahead and hit stuff, but just don't hit the wrong stuff. You'll die.

Bosses and sub-bosses also will give your explorer a hard time. A large part of the game involves usually a lot of self-examination over whether you've solved enough puzzles to be prepared for the tough battles. Unlike the puzzles, though, most of the bosses are quite fair once you're properly equipped for them. Mercifully, the game also provides a pistol that players can use. While ammo for this weapon is scarce and expensive, there's just enough ammo in the game to take the edge off of the most frustrating bosses. The trick is not to waste it on the game's many sub-bosses and common enemies.

Finally, while it wasn't a huge problem for me, some people have a problem with the platforming mechanics. The mechanics are actually pretty simple, albeit unusual. Your character, Professor Lemeza, does not have the same amount of control as, say, Mario. Specifically he can control his degree of ascent by the amount of time the jump button is pressed, but any time he jumps across his downward arc is set. However, if Lemeza jumps straight upward, or jumps across and hits an obstacle, he has some control over his descent, starting at the point where he reaches the apex of his jump. This is enough to turn off some people, but, honestly, if you look at the history of metroidvanias, many are not known for having tight controls. Samus always had that ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up floaty jump. Alucard moved faster backwards than he did in his forward run. Strange control quirks are abound in this genre. Plus, later on you get some items that hopefully make field traversal less painful for most players.

All that said, I still strongly recommend the game! It's an incredible experience, and an extremely impressive, intricate, and clever game. I think a lot of people under-value just how hard it is to craft a game like this, and how rare they are. Even though I said a lot of the puzzles are unfair, there is an internal logic to 99 percent of them (a couple are garbage, but the game is massive -- it's allowed a few misses), it's just the game often does not feel like it has to reveal that logic to you all at once.