A damn fine sequel. A game that started with me feeling a little bummed out that I wasn't going to have the same experience as the first game, due to me going "hey! that's that thing from the first game that needs that other thing!" within my first hour, soon turned into a similar experience of pure, amazing, metroidvania mystery.
When the game starts going, it really starts going. Giving you a bunch of areas to explore immediately, puzzles and objects that are newly added to the series and just that same pang of exploration and discovery that only a La Mulana game can give you. The middle third of this game was one of my favourite sections in games.
The new portrait art is fantastic, it gives NPCs a bit more of a personality and also is a good excuse for the team to show off their amazing artist that works for them (i forget his name sorry!!). Movement feels better, game flows pretty nicely and the areas all have their own distinct styles still.
The only things really keeping this game back from being as good as the first one for me is maybe an over reliance on mantra spells for puzzle solutions, a pretty insane (by la mulana standards) puzzle two thirds of the way through that left me utterly stumped even after its solution and a sloppy ending, where the last dungeon is just a mini-boss rush with hell dungeon rooms from the PREVIOUS game stapled in between...and then the final boss is also very similar to the final boss of the first game with no real surprises. Also, no hell dungeon??? C'mon!....BUT, those issues aside, I can't help but heavily recommend this game and the original for people who love good metroidvanias.
When the game starts going, it really starts going. Giving you a bunch of areas to explore immediately, puzzles and objects that are newly added to the series and just that same pang of exploration and discovery that only a La Mulana game can give you. The middle third of this game was one of my favourite sections in games.
The new portrait art is fantastic, it gives NPCs a bit more of a personality and also is a good excuse for the team to show off their amazing artist that works for them (i forget his name sorry!!). Movement feels better, game flows pretty nicely and the areas all have their own distinct styles still.
The only things really keeping this game back from being as good as the first one for me is maybe an over reliance on mantra spells for puzzle solutions, a pretty insane (by la mulana standards) puzzle two thirds of the way through that left me utterly stumped even after its solution and a sloppy ending, where the last dungeon is just a mini-boss rush with hell dungeon rooms from the PREVIOUS game stapled in between...and then the final boss is also very similar to the final boss of the first game with no real surprises. Also, no hell dungeon??? C'mon!....BUT, those issues aside, I can't help but heavily recommend this game and the original for people who love good metroidvanias.