You need to discover what has happened to your missing father. Where did he go? How can we find him? Explore Eg-Lana in an all-new adventure. Check out our LA-MULANA 2 review!
Renowned archaeologist Lemeza Kosugi has gone missing, and only his daughter Lumisa can find him! Enter Eg-Lana, an upside-down version of the legendary ruins of La-Mulana. Think fast, act fast, and whip hard in order to overcome dangerous traps and elaborate puzzles in your quest to uncover unfathomable secrets. What will you find at the end of your journey: triumph, or defeat?
LA-MULANA 1 & 2 – Launch Trailer – Nintendo Switch
LA-MULANA 2 is the sequel to LA-MULANA, and both games have recently released on the Nintendo Switch. You can check out our review for the first game right here. I liked it a lot, although I found the movement, especially the jumping, really restrictive, and some of the puzzle-solving to be obtuse. But even with those complaints, I was certainly excited to jump into the sequel, which was made years later, but with the same foundation.
LA-MULANA 2 is much like it’s predecessor, which is to be expected really. The sequel came out first on Steam in 2018, 13 years after the original, but the team at NIGORO has retained the MSX feel of the original release. You are now playing as Lumisa, the daughter of the character you played as in the original game, that, FYI, has gone MIA! You are returning to La-Mulana to explore the ruins your father once did. Since it’s been a while, things have changed. Monsters are back and attacking people, and as you search for clues to what has happened to your father, you happen to discover am entrance to a new set of ruins: Eg-Lana.
The gameplay from the original is kept intact. As soon as I started playing, I had a very familiar feeling for the overall experience, with the exception of one major improvement: you can now change your momentum when jumping, which makes everything feel much more natural. This a major quality life improvement to the game, making it feel much more modern while keeping its 16-bit feel at the same time.
The new dungeon, Eg-Lana, is packed with all of the same things you will remember from the first title. It’s full of monsters who are out for blood, tight platforming gameplay mechanics, and traps that will instantly kill you. As far as Metroidvanias go, this one is not for the faint of heart. You will die. A lot. You will find dead ends that kill you. But the whole thing still feels rewarding at the same time, which is a hard balance to achieve! When I went down the wrong path, I knew not to make that mistake again. Lesson learned!
The game looks just like the original, and it should since they are going for the same MSX feel with the art. That makes the sequel fit right in with the prequel. There are definitely a little more to the animations of all characters, which I noticed right away with the NPCs and monsters. Lumisa, our heroine, is also more lively than her father. On top of this, while the original game had a 4:3 presentation, this sequel goes for widescreen, which is a good option since you can now see more of the excellent art, and the locations you visit are bigger.
I really liked LA-MULANA 2. It has some small changes to the original’s formula, but those make all the difference in the world, crafting a better feeling experience for the player. If you are looking for a great Metroidvania to play, then this is a must-have on Nintendo Switch. It’s a challenging but rewarding experience, and the wait has certainly been worth it!
Disclaimer
This LA-MULANA 2 review is based on a Switch copy provided by NIS America.
