Playing the Narrative: ‘La-Mulana’
Arriving in a village outside the ancient ruins of La-Mulana, famed archaeologist Lemeza Kosugi is greeted by an elder, warning him of the dangers inside. The rumors say the ruins are the birthplace of civilization itself and contain the secret of life. After picking up a useful hand scanner, he enters to follow the trail of his father. What he didn’t know was that he’d have to understand what those ruins are, who built them, and the ultimate fate of each civilization before him. That is what was tasked of you, the player: piece together the mystery of La-Mulana, slowly making progress both in gameplay and narrative.
Those entering these ruins, beware.
“They” lurk within this land of ordeals.
Death awaits the powerless.
They will speak only to those who have learned
the seven histories and overcome the challenges herein.
The aforementioned Hand Scanner is the primary tool in dissecting the ruins in La-Mulana, along with the Glyph Reader to translate the ancient language. There are many tablets placed all around, with little tidbits of the narrative written on them. Background objects can be scanned as well, giving even more insight. Many of the murals and statues are representative of ancient civilizations across the globe. For instance, many of the large heads in the “Gate of Guidance” area are reminiscent of the Olmec heads in Mexico and Ethiopia, and the scanner tells you this. While this is interesting background information, it doesn’t have any relevance to the gameplay.
The other main source of information are dead bodies scattered around the ruins. Each body can be scanned to learn their last thoughts, which can range from clues to simple things like “I fell and sort of died.” The locations of these skeletons can give clues in and of itself. Early on there are a set of bodies next to a small switch, one of many that exist within the game. But pressing this switch causes the large head above to collapse, killing Lemeza instantly. An obvious trap in hindsight, but a grim lesson for people first starting out. These bodies can tell a story about the previous explorers – how far they got and what they figured out. You are clearly not the first one to explore La-Mulana, and certainly won’t be the last.
These ruins are littered with traps. I lack the energy to escape…
Perhaps the most telling example of narrative mixing with gameplay is in the second area of the game, the “Mausoleum of the Giants.” Many tablets throughout La-Mulana talk of a “Mother” to all life. This Mother gave birth to several races, the giants being the second of them. Throughout the Mausoleum are nine giants posed in various ways, with minute details making each of them distinct. The tablets scattered around talk about each of the giants, their quest to “return mother to the heavens,” and how they died. There is also a “sky disc,” a device that represents the sky above the giants. Manipulating this disc invokes changes in some of the giants. One of the tablets reads “T’was a moonlit night that Ji started praying to the land,” so changing the sky disc to moon causes the Ji giant to assume a praying formation. My personal favorite puzzle here was a lowly skeleton who figured out that “Strength lies at the foot of Futo.” However, none of the tablets seem to give any hints as to who Futo is – so the goal was instead to figure out all 8 of the other giants, and thus Futo was the remaining one.
These giants were created to send Mother back to the stars. Thus, they built a large tower, carrying a lake to power it. It is not until late in the game when I realized the true significance of these words. The “Tower of the Goddess” is a remarkable feat of engineering, but also a very intricate piece in figuring out how the ruins connect together. When you first arrive, there is no water at all. The only sources of water seem to be at the surface and another section of the ruins known as the “Spring in the Sky.” A nearby tablet tells of how one of the giants carried the water; he dug two holes from the lake to the tower. One at ‘the place where the finger points,’ and the other where ‘Annunaki refuses to gaze upon.’ Finding these two locations takes some detective work, but the result is a satisfying look into the structure of the ruins.
The structure of La-Mulana is incredible in itself. About a fourth of the way into the game, depending on progression, it is revealed that these ruins are much larger than they appear. Every region in the game aside from the surface also contains a backside, essentially doubling the amount of area to explore. The previously mentioned “Mausoleum of the Giants” has the “Graveyard of the Giants,” a frozen reminder of what happened to these creatures. The “Tower of the Goddess” is shown to be the backside of the “Spring in the Sky,” explaining how the water managed to get from one area to another. The idea of one being the front and one being the back is emphasized with enemy types and boss placements. However, even this is turned on its head when one of the final areas of the game reverses this convention. The subtle hint of an area’s present enemies can clue you in on the area’s secret, but there are also tablets that talk about how Tiamat, the guardian of that region, bent the rules to hide herself.
Take the mirror into thy hand.
It will reveal the truth of the ruins.
There is a hidden side to every room, and the two sides become one.
While every area is significant in its own way, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the “Temple of the Sun” and its counterpart, the “Temple of Moonlight.” A tablet explains that ‘There is a man, therefore there is a woman. A weapon shall not be used inside the woman.’ It stands to reason that the pyramid present in the Temple of the Sun represents the man. The Temple of Moonlight is likely to be the first backside players visit due to the two temples being directly connected, and upon reaching there, they are likely to try to break a pot, resulting in being struck by lightning. Clearly, the Temple of Moonlight is the woman, and is further evident by the description of the temple being a ‘sanctuary of lovely women.’ This gets confusing when a hint is found that ‘The woman shall be with child when within the man.’ How can you put one location inside of another? The answer may not be as satisfying as the mystery, but this is yet another example of world building that asks the player to learn the layout and the lore of the land to progress.
Perhaps the biggest mystery in La-Mulana is the Mother. She is supposedly this otherworldly figure who descended from the heavens, giving birth to children in hopes of being returned to the skies. The aforementioned giants, the second set of children, were close but had a war amongst themselves that destroyed their race. But who is the Mother? It turns out, she is the ruins themselves. An answer that shakes the very core of the game as everything starts to come together. This revelation leads into the final challenge of La-Mulana: destroying Mother. This involves a lengthy puzzle that asks you to piece together the layout of the ruins, as the goal is to ‘drive the wedges from the heels,’ specific locations that connect the fronts to the backs of every area. A fitting finale for a game that relies so much on learning the lore of the land.
La-Mulana has practically zero cinematics in its entirety. While it does offer cryptic clues and sometimes more direct reveals in its text, it is up to the player to piece things together to unravel the mysteries within. This isn’t just a typical puzzle platformer; it forces a surprisingly deep narrative that is so integral to progression that note taking is an absolute must. La-Mulana is an experience unlike any other, one that weaves narrative and gameplay to such an extent that they are sometimes indistinguishable from one another.
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