La-Mulana: Stories From the Ruins by Pauli Kohberger

La.Mulana

Stories from the Ruins

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La.Mulana

Stories from the Ruins An anthology curated & arranged by Pauli Kohberger a.k.a â&#x20AC;&#x153;madamlunaâ&#x20AC;? Original game by NIGORO

Table of Contents About This Anthology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Map. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Stories From the Ruins abnercadaver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Adapadapa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Anais. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Arnold, Jordan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Carlos, JosĂŠ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Darktetsuya. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 DeceasedCrab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Kawaiininjakat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Kohberger, Pauli. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Nevado, Daniel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Parsons, Michael . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Swedo, Michael. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 Tran, Hao . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Afterword and Credits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

About This Anthology La-Mulana: Stories From the Ruins is an anthology based around NIGORO’s well-known PC adventure game, LaMulana. Originally released in 2005, and then remade and released in 2012 (available at http://playism-games.com), this Japanese ruins exploration game has received much acclaim and developed a strong and passionate fanbase around the world. One of La-Mulana’s strengths is that it forges a very personal relationship with the people who play the game. Everyone who plays it comes away remembering something different about their time in the ruins: the feeling of scaling previously impassable walls, the frustration of getting stuck that leads to the discovery of a new lead, or the triumph of defeating a powerful boss. I wanted to collect these experiences and stories (and general artwork or text about the game) and arrange them into a free book, available to view online. This book can be downloaded or viewed at the following sites: http://lamulana-stories.tumblr.com http://electricopolis.net/lamulana-stories http://issuu.com/pkohberger/docs/lamulana-stories One last thing: this anthology contains huge spoilers for LaMulana (and for the optional dungeon, Hell Temple)! If you don’t know what happens and want to see for yourself, come back once you’ve beaten the game!

This spread: illustration by abnercadaver Previous spread: illustration by Pauli Kohberger

I just finished my first playthrough of the original La-Mulana last night. Sure, the game crashed right after I destroyed the Mother and I had to watch an LP just to see the ending cinematic, but I beat the game. It was loads of fun, and I could definitely see myself giving it another playthrough sometime. However, I don’t think anything will quite match this first experience. Solving all the puzzles myself (with a little assistance from some helpful, hintful viewers on my stream) and exploring the ruins for myself was an unforgettable experience which just kept getting better as the story unfolded. This little (not so little) post is going to be about that story, and the way I read it. It’s possible it will be full of things other people may have already said, but I haven’t read any of that and this is all just gathered from my personal experience with the game. Whenever I introduce someone to La-Mulana and invite them to play it, I always include one piece of advice to everyone: Read the manual before you start! Not only was it full of hints to help a new player starting off and an overview of all the items you DEFINITELY WANT, but it also provided some great context to the story of the game. In a game with a silent protagonist like Lemeza, just a little bit of context before you start playing can be the difference between the character having their own feelings and motivations or just being a brainless avatar for the player. The manual paints Lemeza as a skeptic about the ruins being the origin of all civilisation, which oddly enough mirrored my own initial feelings towards the game’s plot. I kind of expected it to be a game mostly revolving around difficult puzzles and fun areas to explore, and wasn’t really thinking there would be a huge amount of plot to sink my teeth into. Entering Guidance Gate, we were greeted with a few challenging puzzles, lots of danger, and lots of cryptic messages. This was more or less what

Lemeza was expecting. There wasn’t a whole lot here he hadn’t seen before, as an archaeologist and adventurer. He pressed on, confident that the ruin’s legend was just a myth. Then he reached the Giant’s Mausoleum. He read the tragic story of the now extinct race of giants and how they had failed in their mission to return “The Mother”, the supposed origin of all life, to the skies. This story had a lot of weight to it, and it caused Lemeza and I to think more deeply about what secrets the ruins may hold. The true nature of the story began to take root here. Lemeza came to the Sun Temple. This place didn’t hold quite the grave significance of the Mausoleum, but it was here that the pure intricacy of the ruins began to show itself. Messages about interconnecting passageways between the Sun and Moon temples and other cryptic messages relating to other fields were scattered around on tablets throughout the area. Everything was starting to fit together too finely for the ruins to be home to nothing but myth, as Lemeza had previously thought. He moved on to the Spring in the Sky, which was allegedly built by Migera. It was quite grand, and Lemeza was awestruck at the possibility that perhaps the giants may have been real, and that this really was their work. However, at this point everything could still be chalked up to a very well-written legend. He tried to remain skeptical. However, he soon arrived at the Graveyard of the Giants. At this point, everything began to change. He was no longer just reading stories and seeing statues of the giants, but here he found their remains! They existed! The race had disappeared, but they were here! Suddenly skepticism evaporated. He wasn’t so sure of the nature of The Mother, but he knew the giants

were real. He knew they had failed in their charge of returning The Mother, and when he found the Tower of the Goddess, he believed he might be able to complete their mission for them. The machines they had built were still here! He could do it. It would be an act of respect for the dead, whether The Mother was truly all that they said she was or not. Full of newfound purpose, Lemeza pressed on and arrived at Confusion Gate. Here he was given a tiny doll and was forced to reflect. He was small. He had neither the stature nor skill of the grand race of giants who came before him. If they did not have the ability to return The Mother to the skies, surely he didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t! He was humbled. His ambition began to fade, but his curiosity did not. He decided to learn as much as he could about The Mother, to see if he could at least learn of her significance. As his exploration continued, Lemeza found himself in the Shrine of the Mother, wherein he discovered a rather shocking message. His father, Shorn, had left a note for him: Is this my son reading this? I hope so. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve made it this far, but was not chosen by the sages. I could not wake the Mother. Please do what I could not. The source of all life is here. At first Lemeza was simply concerned by how his father had managed to reach the heart of the ruins like this. But as he began to dwell on Shornâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s words, things started to fall into place. Perhaps he was the chosen one! If this was the case, everything would make sense. The ruins of La-Mulana were not trapped with puzzles to deter possible intruders. If anything, that deterrence was merely a side-effect of its true purpose: to nurture, supply, and train the chosen one in preparation for some final service to The Mother! Shorn had managed to

make it this far because he was instrumental in the chosen one’s arrival, but he himself was not chosen and thus could not wake The Mother. The weight of the responsibility was immense. Lemeza decided to seek out the sages for himself, to see if he truly was the chosen one. When he finally found them, he discovered the truth. Not only was he the chosen one, but what he was tasked with was the destruction of The Mother herself! It was the only way to bring peace to the being who so longed to return to the stars and could not. This was no longer about just competing with his father or learning about the origin of civilisation. It was about fulfilling his duty. For the giants. For the sages. For The Mother. Lemeza solemnly accepted this charge and, using the gifts the ruins had bestowed upon him, completed it. This is essentially how I’ve read the story of the game as I played through it. I’m quite positive that a lot of Lemeza’s thoughts and motivations here are just me putting thoughts in his head (I mean you can even see the points where I start to merge our thoughts), but given a silent protagonist I think you’re allowed quite a bit of play with that sort of thing. I don’t think my words could quite capture exactly the feeling that I got from watching this story unfold as I played the game, but I hope I’ve been able to give you a taste! Adapadapa

Illustration by Anais

Ah, La-Mulana, Truth be told, I never knew about it until I stumbled upon DeceasedCrab’s LP of the game years ago. I beat the game myself once through but passed on the opportunity to go through Hell Temple. I did, however, try to collect as many treasures, weapons, sub-weapons, and roms as possible before fighting any boss. Luckily, I still have the save file of that point when I had collected virtually everything I could. When I heard of the remake, I was excited. I was a bit annoyed that it was coming out on the Wii but I was still going to play it when I can. That is, until I read that the publisher for the translated version dropped it for various reasons. Had thought that the remake wasn’t ever going to reach the rock we call the US of A. That is, until I found out that it was coming back to PC. Oh boy, I was laughing in excitement that La-Mulana was returning to the PC. I was very glad it did since it gives me a chance to play it without having to get a Japanese copy on the Wii(I can only understand the Hirigana and Katakana characters at this point.) and I would’ve preferred to play it on the PC. When I got the game I set out to do what I had done before which is getting every single item possible for me. I’m still in the process of doing this, except I allowed myself to kill just one boss to see how much more I could get. I went for Sakit first until I realized I could get more by killing Ellmac since killing that boss gives me access to go through the Twin Labyrinth in full. At the end of that I got a whole lot of stuff and was happy with the result of my treasure hunting spree.

I sank a whole lot of time playing this game(and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s remake). If there was a sequel to this game, I may end up sinking time into that one as well. I liked the Sakit boss music out of pretty much all the music in the game. All the rest is incredible as well and I have to say that Nigoro pretty much got the theme of the game down to a science. Jordan â&#x20AC;&#x153;Melcadrienâ&#x20AC;? Arnold

Ironically my first exposure to the game was a certain series of youtube videos exploring the original game’s ‘bonus dungeon’. I fondly remember watching DC make his way into the depths of Hell after someone had tweeted about it one day. So I watched through the entire thing up until the end, and by then I’d decided ‘wow the bonus dungeon looks frustrating, but I’m sure the rest of the game is fun; I think I’ll check it out!’ I confess to using DC’s videos as backup for walking me through the game, but it was still unlike almost anything I’d ever played before, at least as far as homebrew developed games go. DarkTetsuya Previous page: illustration by José Carlos

In early 2007, I was towards the end of recording a playthrough of the original La-Mulana. Everyone was looking forward to the exciting conclusion of Hell Temple, and I was looking forward to being done with that nightmarish hellscape for good. But I needed a piece of art to commemorate the victory. Something that said "I completed the Hell Temple in La-Mulana and all I got was this Skimpy Swimsuit". You see, I already knew the prize was an item called the Skimpy Swimsuit. But I thought it was just that, a small, icon sized item, that would never see any actual use. I emailed madamluna, and asked her to draw Lemeza wearing the Skimpy Swimsuit. She accepted, and meanwhile I kept playing La-Mulana. Soon, she was done, and the picture was amazing. Lemeza was running through La-Mulana, screaming while throwing bombs and swinging the flail, clad only the in Skimpy Swimsuit. At the time, I had no idea that I would bear witness to the swimsuit in its entirety, and I was stunned at how detailed and terrifying this picture was. It was a little unsettling to see, and I began to worry a little bit about the treasure I was about to claim. One day later, I would come face to face with the treasure of Hell Temple, the image of it being worn, and receive a rude shock. Deceased Crab

La-Mulana. Just saying that name brings a very visceral and beautiful emotion out for me. It’s hard to put into words just what this game will do to a person, but for what it’s worth I will try my best. The very first time I laid eyes on this game was thanks entirely to a Japanese friend of mine. I was already an avid fan of indie games, but the Japanese indie game scene was limited to me, even with my knowledge of the language, which is a shame as it’s a treasure trove of gems, much like the very game I’m speaking of. That said, he assured me that this game would frustrate and incite me to no end and that was intriguing enough. Sure enough, it did just that. The first thing I remember is the music. While not written using a full symphony orchestra as many modern games do, Naramura and Samieru have loaded enough atmosphere into this soundtrack that it is beyond incredible. The music in this game will bring forth a plethora of emotions, ranging from jubilant exhilaration to absolute dread, and that is an accomplishment I can say comes few and far between from most games for me. At the time I believe that without that soundtrack I probably wouldn’t have stuck with the game as long as I did as even with the ability to read Japanese, my ability wasn’t as good as it is now so it was often difficult to decipher just what I was supposed to be doing in a game that was going out of its way to be as infuriatingly abstruse as possible. I did love the visuals, but as I had a very limited knowledge of the MSX, my appreciation for them was merely from an artistic stand point and the nostalgia from playing extremely difficult NES games. That said, the visuals would play a vital part of my most vivid memory of La-Mulana.

Eventually I got stumped between the Twin Labyrinths and the Infinite Corridor (incidentally the two areas that have my favourite songs from the game), and no matter how I tried, I had to give up. I simply could not figure out what needed to be done and with a great regret I had to shelve the game. To show how much of a lasting impression this game has, I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t touch the game again until 2007 when Aeon Genesis released a translation, but in those two years I had vivid and often disturbing dreams about those ruins. Fever dreams of running endlessly through the Infinite Corridor in an acid wash of melting walls and swirling colours. Flowers spewing pollen in a nightmarish haze. I woke up in a cold sweat so many times it almost became a comfort.I felt like I was in touch with Lemeza and his thoughts and feelings, along with the world of LaMulana whenever I had that dream. I could ramble on forever about other experiences La-Mulana brought to me, but I felt this was most important because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so rare that video games influence my dreams and even rarer for me to remember a dream, but I remembered that dream each time I had it. I think that speaks very highly for Nigoro and this wonderful gem. Kawaiininjakat

In the beginning-still somewhere between “boundless optimism” and “addiction”-I heard “Run Towards the Sun,” the song of the ending of LaMulana. I thought to myself, “when I beat this game, I know I’ll cry. I know I’m going to cry.” So I never beat it. The ruins stayed forever open and unsolved, always waiting-but the wind blew, and the villagers were all gone in the darkness that lay before the sunrise, and maybe that was worse, that endless night. But there is always another sunrise, no matter how dim or how far, no matter how many years it takes to catch that bright gold coin and hold it, tight, in your hands

I did cry, after all, squinting into the sun.

Pauli Kohberger “madamluna” (both pages)

It has taken me so long to find the exact location of the temple of La-Mulana that at times I doubted its existence. But here I am, in an Indian village away from civilization, surrounded by children who run around and look curiously at me, but not with much interest. Are they accustomed to foreigners? I doubt it. I see a hut open that looks like the leader of the village. Upon entering I get a surprise. The old man calls me by my name-was he waiting for me? Then I understand everything: my father came through here a few weeks ago. That old fool! I know it’s taken him many years to follow the trail of the secret of LaMulana, but honestly, I think this adventure will be his grave. The old man announces himself as Xelpud. His village has taken care of the ruins of La-Mulana for generations. He says that he’s not sure of what its secrets are, but he believes that the origin of the temple can be linked to that of life itself. It has for decades been seeing people deep into its womb, but has never seen anyone back. He gives me a weight and says I can use it at the entrance of the temple, placing it on a small pedestal to open its doors. It seems to be a very common mechanism here. To my amazement, my laptop leaves Xelpud visibly moved. “How wonderful! It’s so powerful and light! You say it’s designed for archaeological exploration? Looks like it’s made in Japan. I hear they make good games, too... “ I watch in awe as he grabs my laptop from my hands and installs a program from a USB drive. How can he know so much about technology, as leader of a lost tribe that’s been kept from civilization for thousands of years!?

“Here, I’ve installed the Xelpud Mailer. It’s a simple program I created to send emails. You seem to need more help than your father. I’ll try to guide you, and I’ll call you back to the town if I need something important.” Amazed, I leave his hut ready for adventure. And with new software, too. I think Elder Xelpud might be invaluable after all. Daniel Nevado Illustration on pg. 28, and creator of a Spanish-language LaMulana adventure log @ diariodelemezakosugi.posterous.com. This written piece is an excerpt from that site.

Perler bead sprites by Miles Parsons

La Mulana Expedition Log, September 24, 2012: Last night, I stumbled into an area I had never seen before. I say “stumbled” because I found it completely on accident - An exit from the area I am calling the “Gate of Time.” I found a hidden ladder, climbed down, and fell into a horrifying field. There were no lights. Only the sounds of distant screams, visceral roars, and evilsounding cries reached my ears. Something hit me. I could not see what it was. A bat-like creature flew past my limited vision, I dodged instinctively. I was scared. For the first time since I entered the ruins, I was legitimately terrified. I sat down, opened up my laptop, and snatched a quick picture of the wall behind me. Luckily, I had an internet connection this deep in the ruins, and I sent the picture to a friend and fellow archaeologist, knowledgable about the layout of these ruins. A terse reply came back. “GO DOWN IF YOU WANT TO LIVE.” I closed the laptop, took a deep breath, and walked off the platform I was standing on. I fell several feet, landing on top of a pipe. Entering the pipe, I continued my descent. Another monster screamed. A panther jumped out and tried to bite me, and another bat-like creature swooped into my vision. This darkness, this quiet, it was disconcerting. Something felt wrong about this place. I did not want to be here.

I was hit again, several times, by something I could not see. Still, I kept moving forward, trying to follow my friendâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advice. I came to a room with a panther in it and two large pits leading downward. Trusting my friend, I took a leap of faith, breaking a glass panel on the floor. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know how long I fell. Six, seven seconds, perhaps? Landing in a pool of water, I saw a blocked-off door, and a platform above me. Jumping out of the water, I landed on the platform. Immediately, the room burst into life. Spotlights illuminated six large statues of women, and a glyph on the wall in the LaMulanese language told me where I was. The Tower of the Goddess. Michael Swedo

Illustration by Hao Tran

Afterword and Credits These pieces relating to La-Mulana have been collected from people I know intimately, people I know as friends, and many I barely know or don’t know at all. The sheer breadth of experiences here, and the different ways that they interpret the game, are incredibly exciting to see. As I sit here right now with this book open in InDesign, putting together the pages and flowing the text and pictures onto them, I can’t express how happy and proud I am to be able to bring this project together, and how much I love every piece in this collection. Plot and character analyses, humorous recollections about how notoriously tough the game is, touching memoirs of how it crawls into peoples’ dreams...abstract artwork, cautionary montages, a fantastic range of 2D and 3D visual work... It’s really stunning. I’m really happy to be able to bring together such an amazing set of tributes to an amazing game. I’d like to thank everyone who contributed to this collection: abnercadaver Adapadapa Anais Jordan Arnold José Carlos Darktetsuya Deceased Crab Kawaiininjakat Daniel Nevado Michael Parsons Michael Swedo Hao Tran

I’d also like to thank the creators of La-Mulana, NIGORO, for bringing us such a fantastic and affecting game: Naramura Samieru duplex Shoji 0sae Thank you so much for all your hard work. Other resources used in this project include brushes by Jenn B ( scully7491.deviantart.com ). I’ve had a blast putting this anthology together, and I hope you’ve had as much fun reading it. Thank you! Pauli Kohberger “madamluna”