Finally I got to La-Mulana. The adventure starts here!
This is where the Mother sleeps. A path of trials, where only heroes that do not fear death may enter.
—First tablet in the ruins
La-Mulana (ラ·ムラーナ) is a Metroidvania platformer videogame for Windows. It is freeware, and was developed by three people who call their development group Nigoro (formerly known as GR3 Project) in Japan as a tribute to the MSX computer system / gaming console (and includes tons of references to such). You play an Indiana-Jones-esque archaeologist who must solve the numerous puzzles throughout an immense set of ancient ruins.La-Mulana is a homage to the 8-bit action-adventures that you might remember from your childhood. It wants to instill in you the same sense of fear and awe you felt back then. The sense that everything is at stake and anything could happen.But you've grown up, haven't you? Your twitch skills are stronger, and your knowledge of Videogame Tropes is broader. Can you ever really go back?No need to worry 'bout that. La-Mulanahas grown up too.You can download the game and the English patch here.A remake on WiiWare was released in Japan on June 21, 2011, with 32-bit sprite graphics in place of the MSX-style ones, among various other changes; it was developed by the same three guys who did the original. An overseas release localized by Nicalis was planned, but was ultimately cancelled due to development problems and the decline of the WiiWare service. However! According to this post on NIGORO's blog, the remake is still coming to PC. And this version will have an overseas release. Watch the trailer here.
Examples:
A House Divided: The Giants split into two factions: those who wanted to return Mother to the sky, and those who wanted her to remain on Earth. Three factions if you want to included Zeb stuck holding up the Earth.
Alien Geometries: La-Mulana is non-simply connected, almost certainly deliberately. If you try to make a map that shows where all the areas are in relation to each other, taking every connection into account, you'll quickly discover that it can't be done. In particular, it's not at all clear what the lowest point inside the ruins is, as you can go through the same set of locations in the lower areas (Inferno Cavern, Chamber of Extinction) over and over again while taking a path that should logically be going farther and farther downward. That said, there's also the infinitely deep pit in the Inferno Cavern that appears during the quest for opening up Hell Temple.
Perhaps most egregious is the Shrine of the Mother, in which the lowest area of the Endless Corridor takes you to the top of the area, and an entrance three floors up takes you to a lower, isolated area. Everything else can be explained with the depiction of three-dimensional space in two dimensions, but this...
Even the same areas aren't connected logically. Hell Temple is the another example where you can fall from multiple rooms into the same "Land of Hell." There's also the first time the player enters the Twin Labyrinth from the Mausoleum of the Giants, where going down one ladder sends the player to a room on the opposite side of the map!
Areas vary in terms of how alien their geometries are (with, generally, the "deeper" areas getting more bizarre, while the early ones make a bit more sense.) The Twin Labyrinths in particular is utterly confusing (naturally, since it basically connects two dimensions.) The Endless Corridor is pretty bizarre, too, but both it and the bizarre way it relates to the Shrine of the Mother make a bit more sense when you realize that Tiamat used her power to swap it with the Dimensional Corridor so she could hide in another dimension.
All There in the Manual: For your benefit, the manual is included. Do read it, or you'll be lost at sea.
A necessary hint to one of the puzzles is only found in the manual, to encourage such things. However, as it refers to the end of the Aztec's fifth age, which got talked about a bit on television after the game came out, it's more probable you can beat the game without reading it.
In the remake after you beat Hell Temple, Lemeza's sprites actually change in game of him donning the Treasure that must not be seen
Anticlimax Boss: The Boss at the end of Hell Temple isn't exactly easy, but after what you just went through, most players will breeze right through him.
Apocalyptic Log: You can find skeletons of previous adventurers, frequently with some note on them, either detailing how they'll soon die or giving a hint to a puzzle. These range from the serious to the ridiculous (an adventurer writing a note after he triggered a trap instead of, you know, getting away from the trap) to ("I hear there are shops in these ruins, but that does not matter because I am dying.").
Also, the tablets in the Mausoleum of the Giants read like an Apocalyptic Log for an entire civilization:
We could not grant the Great Mother's wish. I am the only one to remain, and here I go to my long, final rest. —Abt
April Fools' Day: Take a look at this gameplay trailer. Notice all the weird things happening? Take a look at the date it was posted. Interestingly, a few things shown in the April Fools trailer actually do happen in the game.
Ars Goetia: The source of the names of some sub-bosses and enemies.
Ascended Extra: In the WiiWare version The Boss is given an actual theme, it uses one of the unused songs from the Jukebox, called Good Morning Mom.
Ascended Meme: Even the developers refer to the Cat Sidhe in the Temple of the Sun as Cat Ball.
One of the entries in Jasmine "Momogirl" Cote's La-Momolana Livejournal has a joke about Lemeza actually wearing the equipment items. In the WiiWare version whenever you get a new equipment item, it will indeed show Lemeza wearing it in the Items menu.
Awesome, but Impractical: The pistol. It's by far the most powerful weapon in the game, but you can't carry more than 12 bullets, they're prohibitively expensive, you don't get it until very late in the game, and the final boss isn't even vulnerable to it. It's only useful for finding certain ROMs and boss fights.
Made much more practical in the WiiWare version: you can buy it from one of the shops on the surface for 100 coins, and most of the bosses have their invulnerability to certain weapons removed, including the final boss.
Bag of Spilling: According to the manual, Lemeza's equipment was seized by airport security except the whip and MSX, which he saved by screaming "THESE ARE SOUVENIRS!" until they let him take them along.
Ballistic Bone: Thrown by the more advanced types of skeletons.
Bamboo Technology: Some of the children of the mother built impressive mechanisms despite not seeming to have technologically progressed too far. Though it overlaps with Schizo Tech, since someone built the Tower of Ruin and the Tower of the Goddess.
Barrier Change Boss: Each form of Mother (in the original PC release) is only vulnerable to one specific weapon.
Beam Spam: The tiny flying demons in the Dimensional Corridor love to shoot lasers all over the place, and they usually come in groups.
Big Boo's Haunt: The Giants' Mausoleum, and to a much lesser extent the ruins in general.
Bittersweet Ending: In perspective, the end of La Mulana is REALLY sad. Mother always wanted to go back to the heavens, but all that can be given to her is the peace of death. But in doing that, it actually seals the fate of Earth, because without Mother, no more sentient races would rise on Earth. Granted, the treasure of La Mulana could make a normal human being capable of doing what she could... But can a human be trusted with that power?
Not to mention the fact that you go through all the work of getting the treasure only for your father to steal it from you in the end. In other words, the power to create life is now in the hands of a thieving jerk!
Blackout Basement: A large portion of the Chamber of Extinction. Also, both Tower of the Goddess and Hell Temple have a room which is dark initially.
Bland Name Product: The Super Notebook MSX was manufactured by S.ONY according to the manual.
Bonus Dungeon: Hell Temple, one of the most aptly named levels in the entire game.
According to the official blog, some people thought Hell Temple (or Hell's Sanctuary) was too easy. So the WiiWare version (which will have it as DLC) is going to be harder, with 'more traps'. Hoo boy.
Book Ends: The fanfare at the start of the final boss fight is the same fanfare you hear when you first enter the ruins, and also resembles the Surface music.
Also the music in the True Shrine is a remix of the title theme.
Boss Remix: Each boss theme has musical sequences for that boss's areas, usually the backside theme, oddly enough.
(Mini-)Boss Rush: The Dimensional Corridor consists mostly of minibosses, although you don't fight them in a set order.
The official editor comes with a Boss Rush mod
The WiiWare version has two different types of Boss Rushes in the form of DLC; one where you fight all the bosses in a sequential order, and the other one where you fight all of the bosses and mid-bosses in any order, with the whole ruins to explore in.
Bottomless Pits: The game has precisely one, but it doesn't kill you. Instead it's an infinitely long vertical chain of identical (or are they?) lava-filled screens.
Bowdlerization: Early promo art for the WiiWare version showed Lemeza smoking a cigarette. This was quickly changed on the English side of the website.
Annoyingly enough, this is obtained after getting through the most ridiculously hard area of the game (Hell Temple), which is nearly impossible to find in the first place without reading the dev team's minds, requires having all the gear to finish the game already, and rewards you with being shown something almost no-one will find enjoyable, being called an idiot, and not even having a mark on your save or inventory to show for the experience. It however is likely to leave the mark of insanity on the player. Clearly, the dev team are completely sadistic.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Duracuets, in regards to the Hell Temple treasure. Judging by Lemeza's facial expression when he equips it, Duracuets isn't really making fun of him so much as making fun of YOU.
Brutal Bonus Level: "Welcome to Hell Temple. This place is one that none should come to. If thou will have no regrets regardless of what happens, proceed. This is Hell Temple. Hell temple is Hell!"
Collapsing Lair: Happens in cutscene format in the original, but played completely straight in the Wiiware remake. Not to mention the fact that it has an utterly obscene Guide Dang It as to where to actually go, especially since all the normal exits are blocked.
Collision Damage: Although most of the time, it's very minor. The damage doesn't matter so much as the KNOCKBACK.
Collision damage with bosses is not to be sniffed at, the damage from some bosses much more so than others. Especially Palenque, who, being a shmup-like boss, takes off almost half a life-bar, even at the most health.
Culture Chop Suey: The ruins are basically a huge pile-up of most of the world's major cultures, religions and architectural styles. Justified, as the game implies that all intelligent life was born in La-Mulana.
Cut Song: The jukebox program that comes with the PC version of the game reveals a number of songs that never made it into the final version of the game.
In the WiiWare version Good Morning Mom gets used, See: Ascended Extra.
Cycle of Hurting: Various traps, most notably the Confusion Gate's 'Sacrificial Pit' and the Twin Labyrinth's passage pits.
Dead Character Walking: If Lemeza doesn't properly die, he can move around without harm but can't attack or use the menus. The easist trigger is getting killed by a paralyzing attack, and is also known as the Zombie Lemeza Glitch.
Deadly Gas: The Twin Labyrinths, when you first access them. And it's not deadly. If you fall to it, you just get kicked back to the previous room. Shocking, since this game is known for screwing you over at every opportunity.
Depth Perplexion: The bats can fly "in front of" any object on the screen, whether or not you can pass it, and will always hurt you if their sprite touches yours. They can also fly "in front of" water and behave exactly the same as they do elsewhere, although since the water is a solid color and the same color they are, they are invisible.
Destructible Projectiles: Most projectiles can be destroyed by hitting them: for example thrown bones, fire chunks, and even the burning excrements bonnacons attack with.
Developer's Room: Three of them, one for each of the developers.
The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: All of the game's assets are in plain image and sound files that you can view/hear normally...except for one. The skimpy swimsuit scene has its graphics scrambled, all to keep the surprise.
Disconnected Side Area: There are quite a few. A path you need to take late in the game consists mostly of them.
Distaff Counterpart: Temple of the Sun, "the valiant, male temple", and its counterpart, the Temple of Moonlight, "the lovely, female temple."
Easter Egg: The Maze Of Galious area found in the Chamber of Extinction, which is also a convenient shortcut between the two parts of the chamber.
Easy Levels, Hard Bosses: Combat is only a minor issue throughout the game - puzzles and navigation are the main challenge, and being knocked into water or off a platform is more dangerous than Hit Point loss from attacks. During a Boss Battle, though, this is completely different...
Endless Corridor: Area 8 is literally called "Endless Corridor". It has five floors, each of which loops around on itself.
Eternal Engine: The Tower of Ruin, especially in the remake. And to some extent, the Tower of the Goddess.
Evolving Weapon: The starting whip can be upgraded twice, dealing triple the damage of the start whip. Not to mention the Castlevania-Mahjong Wizard rom combo, which grants you five times the usual damage. Sadly, the combo is almost required on two late game bosses.
Faux Symbolism: Lots. There's a large amount of ancient religion-style symbolism and implications in several levels and puzzles, and the final boss is all over this.
The official blog expressed concern over this for the WiiWare port, but fan response has been overwhelmingly supportive of keeping all of the symbolism intact, misguided as it might be.
Final Boss, New Dimension: Several new dimensions, actually. This has led to community debates regarding whether what you're fighting actually is the final boss or merely some sort of security system.
Final Exam Boss: All of the primary weapons must be used to defeat the final boss.
Also in the WiiWare remake Mother's final form borrows attacks from all the bosses you've fought before.
Flare Gun: A secondary weapon to be found in the ruins. Useful for solving puzzles and hitting monsters above the player, but probably not a weapon to be relied upon (except for bosses).
Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the ending, Lemeza is shown backtracking through the ruins on foot. As he does this he passes by a few enemies without getting hit at all.
Game Mod: The creators of La-Mulana released an editor tool, including that tool has a Boss Rush and a Time Attack mode of Hell Temple. However actual mods are very rare, if not impossible to find due to either La-Mulana not being very popular when the tool was released or no one has even bother to translate the tool to proper English.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: This is a game full of ancient ruins and relatively normal giant monsters for the bosses. Then you get Palenque, who is an alien riding some kind of flying jet.
Graphics-Induced Super-Deformed: In pseudo-MSX port, Lemeza's head takes up the half of the height in-game. Less so in Wii port due to more pixels.
Gratuitous English: The Japanese version of the game opens with "Finally I got to the La-Mulana [sic]. The adventure starts here!" Also, the introduction text of the original was edited a bit for readability in the patch.
Guide Dang It: Combining certain MSX ROM's can result in useful effects such as boosted attack power or extended Mercy Invincibility ... but with a pool of over 50 ROM's, good luck trying to figure out what to combine with what.
Heartbeat Soundtrack: Wonder of the Wonder (the Confusion Gate theme) in the new arranged version.
Heroic BSOD: Deceased Crab has one when he goes far out of his way to get an awesome item early... and winds up getting the flare gun for all his work. He was expecting the Chain Whip upgrade, and the flaregun, while useful, is not the Chain Whip. Kept as a Lost Episode.
To clarify, painful block puzzle with more steps than most of the Endless Corridor block puzzles, all while not having the upgrade needed to quickly push blocks. This makes an otherwise painless, if tricky, puzzle painfully slow.
Once he starts Hell Temple, it would be easier to count the moments that don't make him do this.
Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: The weights: found everywhere, used everywhere for various purposes, and each one can only be used once. The actual keys (Seals), on the other hand, open all locks of their type.
Invisible Monsters: One enemy in in Tower of the Goddess, which is invisible until you get the Eye of Truth, and another in the Tower of Ruin, which can only be seen when time is stopped.
Joke Weapon: The Keyblade is the worst primary weapon in the game (it's as weak as the weakest secondary weapon, in fact), weak, slow and with a smaller hitbox than any other weapon. Naturally, there are many puzzles that require you to use it and even a few bosses that can only be harmed by it. Additionally, as an almost never useful detail, it does extend a few pixels farther forward than any other primary weapon except the mace.
Kaizo Trap: Plenty of them in the original, a bunch more in the remake, especially in Hell Temple.
In the remake, what does one boss ( Palenque) do as he's exploding? Makes a flying leap at you to take you down with him.
Lava is Boiling Kool-Aid: Lava is a palette swap of water. The only difference between them is that they require different items to allow you to use RO Ms while in them and to swim in them without damage.
Level Map Display: There's a Map item to be found in each area of the dungeon (there is no overworld map). Viewing a map requires equipping either or both of the Ruins RAM cartridges.
Level Up Fill Up: The way that you can Heal Thyself is by filling your experience bar. The only benefit is a health refill.
Justified: La-Mulana is the Mother; the entire complex is her body.
Lost Forever: (Both Whip upgrades, The Life Jewel in the Dimensional Corridor, and nearly everything in the Shrine of Mother.)
As well as Hell Temple if you don't complete its whole unlocking process in one go. This, however, is arguably an act of mercy.
The Dimensional Corridor's Life Jewel is still accessible, technically, but just very hard to get because you have to depend on the random nature of the enemies.
MacGuffin: The Treasure of Life, Lemeza and Shorn's ultimate goal. Its powers (if any) are never explained, other than that it is connected to the power to create life.
Mini-Game: A Parodius clone and a dating sim which segues into a parody of Snatcher, complete with shooting gallery battles.
Mistaken For Granite: The second Guardian and the Spriggan statue. Also, wall reliefs will start shooting at you if you stand next to them for too long or strike them.
Multiple Endings: Nicalis has confirmed that the WiiWare version will have three different endings.
Multi Melee Master: In the end, Lemeza carries a whip, a dagger, an axe, a katana and a ritual sword.
Multi-Stage Battle: While two- and even three-stage boss battles are par for the course in modern games, the Mother battle should be acknowledged as it consists of five separate stages, some of which involve substages.
Nintendo Hard: The whole game is basically an homage to the era of Nintendo Hard MSX games, so it's only natural that it would be difficult. They promised they'd lower the difficulty on the wiiware release... but not for hell temple. However, the main difficulty removal comes from removing the Fake Difficulty.
One-Winged Angel: Mother's soul (3 times!); Baphomet in the Wii version
Only Smart People May Pass: All of the puzzles in the game can be solved with information found in the game, with the exception of one, where the information needed is in the manual.
Constantly lampshaded by the tablets in the Confusion Gate.
Platform Hell: The aptly named Hell Temple. It's one of the few Platform Hell examples where it's hard to die. Considering what it is, dying may actually come as a blessing.
Power Nullifier: The grail will not work within the Dimensional Corridor, since Tiamat sealed it off from the world.
Precision F-Strike: One of the shopkeepers does not take kindly to you not completing a sale.
Precursors: The race of giants who built many of the ruins are the most obvious example, but if you pay attention to the scraps of story scattered throughout the game there are several iterations of "Nth children of the Mother".
Promoted Fanboy: The WiiWare version's credits, note the familiar names in the Special Thanks? They have Madamluna and DeceasedCrab's names in it.
Jasmine "Momogirl" Cote herself has confirmed that she is now one of the translators for the US release. She is also on the Special Thanks list.
Puzzle Boss: The Soul of Life in the final boss fight is a very ornate example, requiring you to have found four hints scattered around the ruins to tell you what order to attack the boss in.
Recurring Riff: All the boss themes start with the same sequence of notes.
Redundant Researcher: Lemeza and Shorn. As well, there are many who eventually failed at their research - check their corpses for notes and items.
In the Wiiware version, the Maze of Gailous tribute area has been replaced with the Gate of Time, which has the Surface, Gate of Guidance, and Mausoleum of the Giants in their classic original form, although limited.
Retraux: Without doing a little research on the game, you may think that this game is straight out of the 80's, when it was really developed and released in the 2000's.
Rewarding Inactivity: A few puzzles are solved by waiting and doing nothing in specific areas.
Rewarding Vandalism: If you attack something you shouldn't you will bring it closer to becoming pissed off at you and randomly firing at you, if you aren't directly punished via lightning. But there's some puzzles that require you to piss off statues to get an item or continue on.
Rocket Punch: Sakit shoots out his left arm, on a large chain that enables the player to reach his weak point. He gets a proper Rocket Punch in the remake, using his right arm.
Running Gag: The "Curse of Ashguine". Elder Xelpud warns you about it; it turns out to be an iron pipe suddenly sticking out of your crotch. The manual mentions that one type of enemies breathes with an iron pipe originating from its crotch, and the theme of the Spring of the Sky is called "Curse of IRON PIPE"—which contains some musical material that references a certain theme from the game Ashguine 2. (Said material had to be reworked for the WiiWare version to avoid possible copyright issues.)
Scenery Gorn: The Shrine of the Mother after it "transforms", with great parts of the former place being broken down and Meat Moss-like roots emerging from the Tree of Life.
Schmuck Bait: Many traps, such as those that have a pedestal for weights, but merely close off the section of the room you're in, or throw spikes in your face - or often both. Also, a really useful item sitting in plain view. Often it's told that doing this or that will trigger a trap. Also, as a sort of meta-schmuck-bait, the treasure which must not be seen.
At least one of those trap pedestals is also the solution to a puzzle, but requires that you hit a certain switch first. As well, some traps must be triggered for certain puzzles.
A certain tablet in the Mausoleum of the Giants tells you not to read it again. If you do, it basically says "you shouldn't have done that" and spawns extra enemies all through the area. The added Difficulty Spike isn't a game-breaker by any means, but the only way to undo it is to restore a previous save.
In the WiiWare version, the dev team sure seems to like to mess with people who have played the original game, for an example there are traps that were never there in the original version.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: An odd meta-example: In Mukimuki SD Memorial, a second girl appears after the protagonist downs the first one that tried to kill him. Turns out she's a Snatcher too, to which he replies, "Ah, to hell with this." The Robot Buddy invokes the MST3K Mantra, then the ROM crashes.
Sdrawkcab Name: The game's name, La-Mulana, is the programmer's name, Naramura, with the syllables written backwards. Well, that, and the Japanese lack of distinction between "L" and "R". Xelpud's name spelled backwards is duplex, one of the other developers. Lemeza's Japanese name, Ruemiza, with syllables inverted is Samieru, the third developer's name.
Sequence Breaking: If taken far enough, you can amass enough power to kill the first boss in 4 hits. In fact, odds are you won't fight the bosses in order, and you may end up fighting the first boss late in the game if you don't go looking for it sooner.
On a whole though, the game is well aware of your sequence breaking desires, and just makes it so you have to work very hard to get what you want. There is almost always more than one path available to you at any time, though one is generally a lot easier than the other.
Sequential Boss: The final boss has five increasingly difficult forms, with no opportunity to heal.
The Contra "anti-shout-out" is part of a combo with F1 Spirit 3D, because the creators disliked that latter game (which also shows in the fact that you can buy it for five coins.).
Those who grew up with the MSX will get quite a few laughs from Elder Xelpud's many quotes.
The Final reward for beating the Hell Temple is a Shout Out to Dragon Quest 2 for the MSX.
Lemeza's last name Kosugi and his love for curry was inspired by a TV commercial about Kane Kosugi's "curry is my special power-up".
Speaking of Moonwalker, in the Wiiware version of the Moonlight Temple there are actual mural silhouettes of Michael Jackson ingraved on some of the walls.
In the WiiWare version the MSX references has been replaced by flash games that Nigoro has made in the past.
The song "Rest, No Rest" in the Wiiware version comes from the very first game that Nigoro made, GR3.
Lemeza's whip goes from leather to a chain to a chain with a spiked ball ("mace") just like the classic Castlevania games.
Much more doomy in the Wiiware remake, as they're said to knock out much more life when you hit them. On the other hand, you can now approach them from the sides without damage.
Spiritual Successor: The game was made by fans of the relatively little-known Konami MSX game Maze of Galious. In the manual, they explain modern games just aren't thrilling enough. Not only that but there is a hidden area based off of it.
Super Drowning SkillsandSuper Not Drowning Skills: Merely touching water damages you if you don't have a certain item, even if you aren't submerged in it. The item makes water completely harmless. Because of this, the Spring in the Sky is notable for being one of the most dangerous areas in the game up until you get the item in question and becoming one of the safest immediately afterward.
Same is oddly true for lava. In fact, in all likelihood, you'll be able to swim around in LAVA before water.
The fun part about water is the player MUST swim through water in order to get the item that makes Lemeza immune to it.
Also for legal purposes, the much-loved song "Curse of IRON PIPE" has been removed from the WiiWare version. In its place is "Curse of Ocean", which is pretty much the same song with the copyrighted parts changed.
Tactical Suicide Boss: Sakit. It would be almost impossible to damage him if his arm wouldn't be a convenient bridge after his Rocket Punch. Ellmac is one as well.
Take That: The first page of the manual is a jab at newer generations of video games, as well as gamers of the current generation:
"For those used to the new-style of really easy games, it may be very hard to beat La-Mulana. But that's OK. We're looking for those gamers that could in days past defeat Druaga, bring the baby back safely from the clutches of Gallious, and sealed the Evil Crystal."
If you're an NES fanatic, a couple of Xelpud's quotes might piss you off a bit.
A minor one: F1 Spirit (a real MSX game) is available in a store for 130 coins. F1 Spirit 3D (also a MSX game) is available in the same shop, costs 5 Coins. When combined with the MSX version of Contra, it either drains your health, or makes you a One-Hit-Point Wonder.
Taking You with Me: Palenque pulls this right at the end of his boss fight after he's killed in the remake, Jumping out of his spaceship and exploding - if he's not knocked back into his ship with a well-timed hit, it's a One-Hit Kill.
Tears of Blood: The third form of the Mother cries these, and they turn into blazes of fire.
Hell Temple takes the greatest pleasure in making you do this. By bouncing you around on teleporters, until you are back at the very beginning, if you make the slightest misstep.
Tennis Boss: In the second form of the final boss, the swirling disks have to be hit with the knife to knock them back at her.
The Jimmy Hart Version: In the Wiiware version, the song Requiem? is basically ガリウスの迷宮 〜大悪魔音頭〜 (Roughly translated: Maze Of Galious ~Enormous Satan~) but only with Requiem's melody replaced.
Try Everything: The game is designed to discourage brute-force solutions. Doing this will likely lead to a lot of deaths and make 100% Completion impossible.
Turns Red: The Soul of Death in the final boss fight takes this to an extreme, by casually gaining more attacks and having different animations in the background the more you hurt it.
Unexpected Shmup Level: The boss battle against Palenque, especially if you have a lot of Shurikens to toss at him from afar. PR3 is an Unexpected Shmup Minigame, and you need to reach a high enough score to clear a puzzle in the Hell Temple.
Vaporware: The overseas release of the WiiWare remake was cancelled, mainly due to snags with the differing standards between regional ratings boards and having to debug the game a second time, and the perceived decline of WiiWare as a service.
Video Game Cruelty Punishment: It's not really what you call cruelty, but attacking statues will cause them to fire darts at you. It becomes cruelty when you learn that the ruins are the body of the Mother; you're attacking her from the inside.
Voice with an Internet Connection: The remake has Elder Xelpud send e-mails to the player when certain conditions are met, which can be read at any time.
Waiting Puzzle: Some of the puzzles require to stand in specific spots for long enough. One puzzle specifically requires pausing long enough for Lemeza to go through his entire Idle Animation and start taking a nap.
Wake Up Call Boss: Sakit. As the boss of the second area, he is many times harder than Amphisbaena was, as he is immune to subweapons, is only vulnerable in the head, has a lot of difficult to avoid attacks, and is nearly impossible to beat if you don't have the knife.
Amphisbaena himself is shaping up to be one of these in the Wiiware version. Whereas in the original version he was easily dispatched by spamming shurikens, he has a much different method of attack and appears to be a genuine challenge in the Wiiware version.
Walk, Don't Swim: Swimming translates into walking around underwater with reduced gravity and movement speed, and the ability to make infinite mid-air jumps.
Warp Whistle: The grail. However, you must first locate the stone monument that identifies an area before you can teleport in. You also cannot teleport out from inside the Dimensional Corridor.
With This Herring: The lack of starting equipment is HandWaved in the manual by being confiscated by airport security.
Womb Level: The entire game, since the ruins are the body of the Mother, but especially theTrue Shrine of the Mother, chock full of organic tentacle-things radiating from the boss room.
Also the inverted pyramid in the "feminine" Temple of the Moon. As one of the game's many examples of Getting Crap Past the Radar, it even has a mural depicting the entire female reproductive system.
.A remake on WiiWare was released in Japan on June 21, 2011, with 32-bit sprite graphics in place of the MSX-style ones, among various other changes; it was developed by the same three guys who did the original. An overseas release localized by Nicalis was planned, but was ultimately cancelled due to development problems and the decline of the WiiWare service. However! According to this post on NIGORO's blog
0 reviews