I would like to answer some of the questions and concerns that were brought up on the website about La-Mulana for WiiWare.
I will start with the ones on the Japanese site.
About the sound source for the PC version.
I always prefer to create new environments for new graphics. So, yes, the sound source will be different from the original PC version.
If some prefer the original graphics and music, they can download the original PC version for free.
We will keep some of the music from original version based on the results from music survey (on the website). I think those results will keep interest of those who love the PC version.
About resetting when you make mistake.
Some significant changes will be made on how to “save” and “continue”.
There will be only one save data? Don’t worry, we won’t do anything that crazy.
Even if you load right after you save the game, pots will not reappear. When the character dies, he will no longer restart on the surface.
We also expect players to try multiple times in order to go over the route from the Holy Grail monument to the tough area.
About controller
You will be able to use the Wii Remote. We will explain more details about this later.
Numbers of buttons are very limited, but we are trying to find the best placement for each function.
We suggest you to use the Classic Controller, though.
Because it has more buttons than the Wii Remote, you will be able to switch menu and change weapons by using the additional buttons.
You will not be able to input text. Instead, there will be software.
About Money and damage
There will be significant changes to these issues.
It will be easier to save money than it used to be in the original game, but at the same time, there will be more chances to use the money as well.
There will be many empty spots after removing more than 70 ROMs.
We are planning on filling the empty spots with 100G pots and some traps, too.
We will not change how the life level system works, but there will be more damage by guardians and needles.
It will be quite different. Players should be more scared of the needles’ attacks.
We hope that this change will clarify our concept “Explore with the fear of death”
Also, the Professor’s movements will be a bit faster.
About saving the scanned images.
We are still in the process of finalizing this, so please understand that there will be of course changes will be made later.
We are planning on creating a system in which the player can record some documents, though there will be some limit.
We also thought screen capture would be a good idea, but it’s not like you can take out the SD card after taking picture. Besides, there isn’t enough memory.
The animation for swinging weapons has been refined.
This is what we’ve got so far.
About new items and lost items.
We no longer have detector and MSX, instead, we have two new items.
One will be for events and the other will be for building up strength.
About Guardian and Room Guardian
They will be stronger. Some of them may be changed into a new kind or different characters.You know, Baphomet is pretty angry.
About mini games.
There won’t be any mini games.
You may be wondering about the girl who appears above the elder.
She is our new character. She is a mysterious one.
Ok, now, let me answer some of the questions that were posted on the websites for foreigners.
I enjoy reading their questions. They reflect each national character that now I know their popular games are different than Japanese ones.
What’s gonna happen to the Hell’s Sanctuary?
This question was the most popular one. People outside of Japan seem to be very interested in the challenging area.
Of course, we will keep the Hell’s Sanctuary, but it will be for the ones who could complete the rest of the game. We may have to include it as downloadable content.
We are referring MegaMan 9’s marketing strategy.
Even though we put so much effort to create the Hell’s Sanctuary, some people conquered it easily. Some people even say that it is “a room for taking a break” .
We should make it harder with more traps.
About downloadable content.
This is just a plan at this point, but we may include the Hell’s Sanctuary, a series of battles against guardians and battles against the Room Guardians as downloadable content.
About numbers of buttons and equipments.
As you may be concerned, there are not enough buttons when you hold the Wii controller sideways.
You will use button 1 and 2 for jumping and main weapons. Also, button A next to the +Control Pad and button B behind the +Control Pad, are hard to control when you hold it side way. NIGORO suggests to use the Classic Controller for these reasons.
There will be icons for main weapons, sub-weapons and handheld items, such as Holy Grail.
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Hell Temple/Sanctuary is too EASY?!?!
After DC throws that man to the sharks, I will put the shark into a blender, and then I’ll throw the blender into a bucket of acid, and then I will throw the bucket into a grinder, and will then throw the grinder into John DeFoe’s manor before Trilby comes.
And if it’s a breather room, what about THE REST OF THE GAME?!?! Are they just long passage ways of nothingness?!?!?! This guy better be joking. There is no one in the Bubbleverse of Universes that can beat Hell Temple/Sanctuary EASILY.
Couple things.
-Xelpud is in the official art for the WiiWare version. And they’ve said at least once that he’s going to be in.
-Did you seriously expect the ROMs to stay in? Seriously?
-They’ve repeatedly said that the game will still be hard. And La Mulana comes with an advanced difficulty option already, no reason to assume that won’t still be present.
-They’ve already explained why including the old graphics is impossible. They’re not doing it to spite you– it’s flatly impossible.
Someone’s making mountains out of molehills.
Yeah umm…I was still until today intending to purchase this when it will come out, but after reading about the changes, I must say that I doubt I will, and here’s why:
– No elder Xelpud
– No ROMs
– Too many difficulty changes, there should at least be avanced difficulty option
– Also I think it’d be nice if there was an option to choose between the oldskool and the refined graphics, though I like htem both
– No monigames and Hell Temple available only by download
I really would’ve liked to try this, but I’m not wasting money on this since I can get a much better version for free :/
Actually, sharks have anywhere between 5 to 15 rows of teeth.
Majutsukai:
I get what you’re saying — I assume it must’ve just been a poor translation, but at the end of one of their articles what I gathered from it is they were making hell harder. Unless, they just mean they’re changing hell temple with new traps (Though I’d wager they’d at least keep the two ‘killer’ rooms (yeah you know the ones) and going ‘harder’ because it’s different from the original.
I’m sure I’m not alone in that I’m hoping not just for a prettier, more fluid La Mulana, but a complete remake. If I want a game exactly like the original, I can play the original. What would be really cool if a bunch of covert Easter Eggs are planted, which only veterans will understand. An example would be that huge pot of gold in the Confusion Gate. Making that a trap wouldn’t confuse new players, but it would give those of us who have played the original a hearty laugh. But more than that, the game should retain its feeling of exploration, even if you’ve played the original several times. I’m not looking for a few choice edits, I want to explore La Mulana all over again, with the same wonder, excitement and surprise.
Believe it or not, one of the disappointments I had with the original was that there weren’t enough “gotchas.” With the exception of Hell Temple, the game had traps, but they didn’t have bait. I love the feeling I get when I stumble across something that was clearly left there for me to find, be it something nice, or something… not so nice 🙂
If I’d known I’d catch so much shit for this, I’d have chosen my words more carefully.
What I keep trying and failing to say is, we now know every trick Hell Temple has got up its sleeve. So while the classic version isn’t easy by ANY stretch of the imagination (it’s still the maddeningly difficult exercise in masochism we all know and love to hate), it WOULD be a bit of an anticlimax. That’s why the puzzles and traps need to be different. Not harder. Different.
And now I’m going to stop talking about this. Naramura-san already thinks we foreigners have a weird obsession with Hell Temple, and here I am making it worse.
Three rows of teeth.
I’m sorry, I should have said “it wouldn’t be as hard as it should be if it were exactly the same”, is that better? 😛
I will find that guy who said Hell Temple was too easy and I will feed him to a shark. They have three rows of teeth and haven’t evolved in several million years, because they’re the ultimate predator. Also, three rows of teeth.
No minigames. No old sound or graphics. Hell Temple only available as DLC. Only other DLC being Guardian Rush.
What can I say?
🙁
I’m still looking forward to what seems like a total redesign of the game. But I might wait for the reviews to roll in first instead of buying it the day it comes out.
Hmmmm, so now if you continue a game it will be from the latest grail point you warped to?
Since pots no longer respawn their drops in a reloaded game, I can only wonder if the extra money that will go in place of the removed ROMs will be enough to purchase all of the game’s necessary items, especially if drops from enemies will be the same as the original (only 1 for each unit per drop?)
Lumeza will be faster at the cost of being more vulnerable to damage? I hope it balances out some of the platforming challenges that are present (Like in the Chamber of Birth)
The detector was kinda useless as it only bothered with hidden doors rather than indicating whole secrets. Replacing it with an item that permanently boosts attack power would be better.
I didn’t really exploit any weaknesses with Baphomet myself in the PC version, and I always thought of it as an endurance contest. The randomness to where he shoots lightning and flames, both of which did decent damage should you be hit by it, but a degree of uncertainty to the battle each time I fought him. Now its sounding like Baphomet will be upgraded to the same caliber of danger as that of Viy or Palenque, that which I fear because those two were genuinely hard.
I do have to laugh at the guy who said Hell Temple was too easy, and I can only wonder what DeceasedCrab would think of this guy. :p
I’m still practicing a general wait and see approach with this but I think it will turn out to be a good one, especially since the original developers seek feedback from those who played it.
Now, who’s the complete douche that said that Hell Temple was not hard enough? Seriuosly, cool story bro, I bet you lost your nails trying to get over the damn dark room
So from the looks of things, it would seem this is not going to be the same La Mulana we are used to. And I think that’s a great thing. Keep up the great work!
As for sub-weapons, what about using Up+1 for those, similar to Castlevania? The only issue that would arise from that would be that you couldn’t use sub-weapons at the bottom of ladders (and I suppose that would make using them on ladders tricky as well). It doesn’t really matter to me in the end because I’ll be using the Classic Controller. 😉
Great work, guys. Especially on those new animations!
majutsukai:
Ah, yeah good point. Although I still can’t fathom how they’ll ever make THAT *HARDER* 🙁
But really, regardless of the changes I’ll hopefully be picking it up sometime after release. (whether that’s 2009 or 2010, I don’t think anyone knows yet.)
DarkTetsuya, the Hell Temple that appears in the WiiWare version of La Mulana will almost certainly be completely different from the Hell Temple that appeared in the PC version. After all, the hallmark of Hell Temple has always been extreme difficulty– and it wouldn’t be very hard if it were exactly as we remembered it, would it? So the lack of minigames won’t be a problem, because the puzzles will all be different.
(The minigame requirement for the old temple was lame, anyway– not so much difficult as just plain mean. Then again, the OTHER hallmark of Hell Temple is “just plain mean”…)
I’m interested in the changes to the saving system– since death will no longer take you back to the last time you saved, does that mean that there will be another sort of penalty for dying? (It certainly sounds like you expect us to die more often, after all, so this is important information. XD)
Looks like I have to either get my hands on a classic controller or suffer through awkward controls.
I’d assumed that the girl character was the same as the character you mentioned who would be providing a tutorial for new players. Which may yet be the case, unless there’s ANOTHER new character that’s yet to be introduced…
Like I’ve said before, I’m okay with the exclusion of classic-style graphics and music. Sure, it would have been cool, but you can’t always get what you want.
Baphomet was an enjoyable fight for me (and he had my favorite boss music, too!), so I’m glad to hear he’s getting a boost. I was a bit disappointed– after fighting a long and hard battle with only shurikens– to find out that other people killed him in one shot with bombs; I think this very cool boss fight deserves a bit more trouble than that.
And on a final note, I can’t wait for some more cryptic hints about what these new items are. 😀
I think that you should include an unlockable “Sound Adventure” mode, where you can listen to the old La-Mulana tracks, with a screenshot of the specific room or rooms that the song was made for. I think it would give the fans of the original a bit of nostalgia, while newcomers of the game could get a nice insight into the history of La-Mulana
oops, addendum to my comment:
(And you couldn’t include the original music because some of it (like the spring in the sky) ‘borrowed’ parts from other music anyway.
While it would’ve been cool to have an ‘original graphics/sound’ option as DLC, I can imagine it would be difficult to program in for two different graphics sets. (And you couldn’t include the original music
About save/continue – well that’d certainly make progress easier to make, and I guess all the extra money in the ruins will make up for not having to use the ‘gold-farming’ save/reload trick from the PC game.
Damage – so spikes will do more damage? ouch… (that can’t bode well for Hell’s Sanctuary though.)
Definetly approve of the idea of the ‘save images’ for important monuments… like the ones that reveal the correct pattern for the ‘eyes’ portion of the final boss.
What? no minigames? Then how will Hell’s Sanctuary work? (the puzzle to reveal the treasure involved PR3, so with it gone how will that work?)
Wow only about 14 pieces of software left? Even though it didn’t serve any real purpose, aside from the completist freaks, some of the roms were very cleverly hidden (like the one in the Tower of the Goddess, where people originally thought you could only get to it with the pistol, but you could also open it by standing on the statue. Hoping those really cleverly hidden ones won’t change.)
DLC – hopefully it won’t cost too much, I’ll probably only have about 2000pts or so and I assume half of it’s gonna go to the game, so I hope Hell will be between 200 and 500 wii points.
This answers a lot of questions! Thanks! I am interested to see who replaces Baphomet. As for downloadable content, maybe you could offer an even harder mode or play as Lemeza’s father! Also, I really want to hear how the music is doing. I can’t wait to see this game in action!