Let's Play La-Mulana, part 48: The Mother Has Been Waiting

Welcome back to Let's Play La-Mulana: The Mother Has Been Waiting. Last time, Lemeza put aside his quest to pilot a sole spaceship (well, probably seventy or more sole spaceships) against hundreds of foes. The time before that, though, he obtained what I'd hoped was the medicine of life, took it to the Mother, and found it to be false. So I'm returning to the Tower of Ruin to try again.



This time I cast BIRTH on the red fairy, and DEATH on the white fairy and group of fairies. I did take the suggestion from the thread and look up Rusali, Yaksi, and Dakini, but I wasn't able to figure out from that which was which in-game, so trial and error it is.



Doing it this way gets me a red liquid for my container. Blood? I guess that could be the elixir of life.



I head back to the Mother's Chamber via the Endless Corridor. I grind a little using the last enemy on the path so that I have full VIT when I reach the boss. Even if I remove the time spent doing that from the equation, it takes me over five minutes to make the trip from the altar in the Corridor to the Mother's Chamber. I'm pretty sure it's the closest warp point, too.



I take a few hits in the fight, but I'm still in pretty good shape when I beat the Mother's first form. Have I got the right medicine?



It appears that I do not. The Mother disappears and an exit from the room appears, as it did with the last batch of medicine I made.



I exit and re-enter, thinking that perhaps I'll get the second phase of the fight this time, but it's just the first part again.



So it's back to Fobous to reset the fairies. At least there's only one choice left now.



This time it's DEATH for the two solo fairies, and BIRTH for the group. This is the correct combination, which I know because A) I've tried the other two, and B) at the time of writing this I've already played the rest of this update. I got this by trial and error, but let's take another look at the clues:

Stele:
The mischievous Rusali. Yaksi, who beguiles men. Dakini, dancing enticingly. Only one of them has a pure heart.

The kind, mischievous fairy. The kind, lonely fairy. Her mischief is innocent. Innocent mischief will do thee no harm.

Ascertain those who would lead thee astray. Ascertain those who are truly pure.

There is a medicine that can give form to a great soul. Consult the correct spirit.

Cast a spell on the spirits that have the elixir. The Elixir gives shape to souls.

The Sage of Life, Fobous:
Welcome, chosen one. I am Fobous, one of the Four Sages - the Sage of Life. The Mother's power is the power to create life. In ages past, others attempted to create life as well. Tiamat, Nu Wa........neither could compare to the Mother. With the Medicine of Life, one can attain the power of the Mother. The pure-hearted mischievous fairy has been entrusted with this medicine. Seek her out. When thou findest her, cast BIRTH, the spell of life, upon her. Cast DEATH, the spell of death, on the false fairies that would lead thee astray. If thou attainest the wrong medicine, return here. Without the correct medicine, thou cannot attain the power of the Mother........

The question is, which of the fairies is the mischievous Rusali. I know now that it's the group, but how was I supposed to know that? Let's ask wikipedia: Rusali I think is a misspelling of the plural form of Rusalka. If I'm right that it's a misspelling and I haven't missed some other entity called Rusali, then the plural bit alone should have clued me in. (I tried the group last because the mischievous fairy is described as "lonely"). Apparently rusalka are spirits of young women who have been murdered or comitted suicide. Yaksi are female spirits with exaggerated secondary sexual characteristics that can be benevolent or malevolent. I think - it's not the clearest page on the wiki. I think the white fairy, with its beguiling heart attack, is the Yaksi. I'm having trouble making sense of any description of Dakini I can find, but here's one:

learnreligions.com:
A dakini is a manifestation of liberating energy in female form. Sometimes they are beautiful, and sometimes they are wrathful and hideous and decorated with skulls. Because they represent liberation they often are depicted naked and dancing.

That description seems to fit the red fairy, more or less.



The statue is now pouring a yellow fluid, which I collect in the container. I stop by the Village to save, then head for the Shrine again. Along the way I get the key fairy and try taking it to the room where Beelzebub was in case there's something hidden there. Doesn't seem that there is, though.



I also take it to the entrance from the Chamber of Extinction in the vain hope that it'll open the path there and allow me to cut about three minutes from the trip to the Mother's chamber. Nope! Is there an altar hidden in this place somewhere that I haven't found, or did the developers really intend for there to be a five minute plus hike before each attempt at the final boss? Speaking of which:



The Mother's first form is a pretty easy fight in itself. Even if every attack hits Lemeza, which isn't all that far from what's happening here, you'll probably still be able to take it out before running out of VIT. That might not leave you in good condition for the subsequent forms, though. Smart play (not shown) is to stay fairly close to the centre of the screen, dodge the first attack by moving from one side to the other, allowing Lemeza to avoid the second ball without getting too far away, which lets you to jump up and attack twice between the Mother's attacks assuming you don't have to dodge to many of the rebounding balls. Anyway, I've cracked the Mother's facade. Let's see if my new medicine will work:



It does! Uh-oh...



The Medicine, as advertised, gives shape to the Mother's soul. That shape then starts attacking Lemeza. Could it be that she does not want the eternal rest I'm here to provide? It does kind of look like I've already returned her to the stars...



For now, under attack, Lemeza needs to defend himself, but how? The Mother appears to be out of reach of most of my weapons. I try Bombs, but am unable to land a hit, though they will connect with her projectiles.



This is about as good a shot as I think I'll be able to take, and it misses. I must need to do something else.



These Flares pass through without so much as a "ping". That's not it either...



I can't seem to do anything with the whip.



I take a shot at reflecting the projectiles to no effect. It's hard to tell in the GIF, but the shot that hits Lemeza here does so right through the middle of the Shield.



After trying without success to hit the Mother's soul with various weapons, I decide to try blocking the light wave attack with the Shield, losing the last of my VIT in the process. This is almost four minutes into this phase of the fight - Lemeza doesn't take a lot of damage from these attacks, and they're relatively easy to dodge, but not having figured out how to attack I'm just stuck here taking damage. Darn.



Nine minutes later, my second attempt also ends in failure. This time I tried the axe and the Pistol, and then moved on to seeing if just avoiding damage for long enough would get the boss to another stage. Nope.



I start my third attempt at this phase by attacking the Mother while she appears. It doesn't seem to work.



This time, rather than trying to attack the Mother directly, I go for the projectiles. The keyblade isn't doing the job, though.



Nor is the katana.



The knife, though: there's the ticket! When I can connect with it, anyway.



Two out of three isn't bad.



You've really got to be accurate to make a hit here, which is tricky with the knife.



The tenth reflected projectile ends the second phase of the fight, and a new form of the Mother appears... a mother holding a baby?



I'm not sure I feel comfortable attacking this.



But it looks like I'm doing it anyway. The Mother's eyes open and start crying blood (perhaps upset because the baby appears to be a skeleton?) as glowing crosses fly in from the edge of the screen and throw waves of fire across the floor. The knife doesn't seem to be working.



I try flares, but they just "ping" as they hit the Mother's face. Standing below her to make the attempt puts me right in the middle of the enemy attack, too.



The Bomb also just makes pings.



I always find it hard to tell if the axe is connecting, because the sound the weapon swing makes is too close to the sound of a successful hit, but at least it doesn't produce a ping. It looks like I've found a way to dodge the Mother's attack, too.



If I can avoid screwing it up, at least.



Or there's always the old standby of just taking the hits and attacking during blink time.



That's (almost) more like it!



A few more hits and we're on to the next phase.



A pair of disembodied eyes in a sea of oversized micro-organisms is much more comfortable territory than the previous phase.



Attacking the left eye seems to be a bad idea. The right one makes a "ping", which suggests I've used the wrong weapon, but they both move when I attack it which makes me think I'm on to something.



Attacking the left eye now gets me another ping instead of lightning, but attacking it again gets more lightning. Let's review some clues:

Stele:
The mother ocean watches kindness and charity.

The right eye sees Charity.

The left eye sees Kindness.

Charity, Kindness, Charity, Charity, Kindness, Charity, Kindness, Kindness, the endless sound of the waves.

OK, this seems pretty obvious - I'm fighting the Mother underwater, facing two giant eyes. The right sees charity, the left kindness, and I'm given a sequence of those two virtues that translates to RLRRLRLL. I need to attack the eyes in that order (though I've just realised something - the screen left eye is actually the Mother's right eye. You could argue that I should be attacking in a LRLLRLRR sequence in terms of where the eyes are on screen, but that's not what the game responds to).



Just as soon as I get some more VIT. I thought I was hitting the correct eye here: I'd done right, then left, then right. Next in the sequence is another right. I guess it resets when you hit the wrong one.



I reload, head through the Corridor and the Shrine, and beat the first three phases again.



This time I equip the knife (thinking its small hitbox would make it easier to avoid accidentally hitting the wrong eye) and run through the whole sequence: RLRRLRLL. Even though the knife also makes "ping" sounds on contact, the way the eyes respond to the correct sequence made me think that doing this would work. It doesn't.



Attacking the right eye at this point gets me zapped. Time for a rethink. Readers may have noticed something about the weapons used in the phases I've beaten so far - at this point in playing, I have not.



I try the whip and the keyblade, each of which will move the eyes, but with the sound of a ping.



I bust out the katana and give it a go. I still get lightning when the sequence is wrong, but now when I follow the order I get a satisfying "hit landed" sound. At this point the scales fell from my eyes and I saw the pattern with the weapons: the first phase required the keyblade, the second the knife, the third the axe, and this fourth the katana (the order almost matches how useful I've found the weapons, from least to most - just swap the axe and knife). So the good news is that I've figured out how to take on this part of the fight. The bad news is that once I beat it there'll be another form for me to take out with the whip. I don't have the VIT for that!



Not having enough VIT for a fifth form turns out to be immaterial - I didn't have enough for the fourth, even having figured out what I needed to do.



So, once again I go back through the Corridor, back through the Shrine, and unlock the Ankh in the Mother's chamber.



There's no reason a patient player should take any hits from the Mother's first form. I am not a patient player, so I take a few, but my VIT is still pretty reasonable at this point.



Dodging everything the second form puts out is quite tricky, and landing the hits pretty finicky, so I think I can be forgiven for taking some damage.



The third form has a consistent pattern that, although the timing is fairly tight, can be very reliably dodged, so there's no excuse for taking damage here. That said, my VIT at this point is lower than it was at the end of the second form.



The fourth form reduces your movement speed, surrounds you with enemies, and requires a weapon that hits below Lemeza, meaning I'm constantly struggling to get above the eyes to attack. I think taking hits here can be forgiven.



I get through the whole RLRRLRLL sequence from the stele. This GIF shows the two left side attacks at the end. To my surprise, that's not the end of this phase.



One more right-left does the job. What will happen now?



The Mother's tower rises from the floor and the figure of the Mother's soul starts bouncing around the room. I'm able to land hits with the whip, which spurs the Mother to summon several glowing balls to attack with.



Or maybe my attack landing was coincidence? The second Mother attack in this GIF comes after I fail to land a hit.



The tower opens to reveal... an eye?



The ground itself starts to attack me, and the Mother uses a much harder to avoid ball attack. I take a hit from it, but then am able to learn that the balls can be blocked with the shield or destroyed with the whip.



As I attack some more, images of Amphisbaena and Sakit briefly appear. Is this indicative of my making progress? I put my Shield to good use against the Mother's projectiles, but then walk into a column of light, tipping my VIT into the red.



After a few more hits, Ellmac and Bahamut's images appear and disappear.



Then Viy and Palenque. Are they being drawn into the eye?



Baphomet and Tiamat are next. As they disappear, something appears in the centre of the screen. It looks like what I'd taken for an eye is the Mother's womb, and something is growing there.



I try Flares to see if I need to attack it, but nothing seems to happen. Probably for the best.



I return my attention to the Mother, but I'm getting very low on health. With the rate at which these light columns appear, it's hard to get into a good position to attack.



C'mon...



Yes! The creator falls, stricken. Have I won? I continue whipping, just to be sure. She disappears, and the figure in the centre of the screen drops something before fading away.



It's the La-Mulana Treasure! The source of all life, or so I'm told. Score!



There's a rumbling sound, and Lemeza looks about desperately as the screen fades to black. Man, I don't have the VIT for an escape sequence! Am I going to die, after all that?



Lemeza heads out through the Shrine, fortunately for me on auto-pilot.



He heads through the Corridor as rocks fall all around. Has he forgotten about the Grail?



Or perhaps it doesn't work now that the Mother has been defeated? The Mausoleum of Giants is the next step on the path out of the ruins.



Finally he reaches the entrance of the Guidance Gate and escapes!



Outside, the sun is rising. Or setting.



Lemeza walks on screen and holds the La-Mulana Treasure aloft as the game congratulates me. Thanks, La-Mulana.



Lemeza sets off again on his slow walk across the screen and away from La-Mulana.



As the credits begin, Elder Xelpud appears behind Lemeza. This is the first time we've seen him outside of his hut.



As the Sages get their due, Rusali and the fairy that lived in the ruins join us.



As the Guardians are named, a villager appears, along with one of the women from the pit of sacrifice.



A skeleton joins the group as the Mother is named.



The undead continue to appear as the Algol and a ghost join us. I don't know what Duracuets is. Something I missed, I guess.



The child from the Village comes along as the shop masters are named. I haven't the foggiest which is which.



One of the fist enemies from the Mausoleum appears. Of the special cast, I met Samieru and Duplex as computers in hidden rooms. Gyonin was a character in the hidden game Muki Muki Memorial SD. Wherever Naramura was, I missed him.



It says You, but it was me, Yimothy. But this is a Let's Play, so in a sense it was all of you, too. One of those annoying monkey enemies from the Shrine shows up.



Without the efforts of the translator, this LP would not have been possible. One of the four Sages joins the exodus.



I have no idea who these people are.



Hey! Shorn's alive! And he stole my treasure!



And that's the end. Whew! I'm kind of surprised by my clear time. I thought it would be less, though of course the actual time is much more, since this probably doesn't include all the times I died or screwed up a puzzle and reset or played an update's worth but forgot to record it and so had to do it again. Not to mention the time spent compiling images and writing about them, which I think would total a few hundred hours. Yowza. Time to get my time back.

My thanks to everyone who's been reading, double thanks to everyone who's commented, double again for translation or puzzle help, and especially for help with the invisible ladder in the Confusion Gate, which I'm really not sure I would ever have figured out for myself. I started this LP eight months ago knowing it was going to be a big job and a little uncertain I would ever finish it. Fifty-odd updates later, here we are. I didn't manage to find everything - among other things, there are still five ROMs missing from my collection, I didn't reach the optional dungeon, I don't know what PASSWORD: ZEUS is about, and that damned block puzzle in the Labyrinths remains unsolved - but I think I did pretty well. It's a shame I resorted to guides for a few items (especially since if I'd just done my late-game thorough exploration a little sooner I probably would have found them honestly), but that's an authentic part of the La-Mulana experience, and what an experience it is. The game certainly has its faults, and there are a few puzzles whose challenge derives at least in part from inconsistent mechanics (like the already-mentioned block puzzle, or the balance scales where I got the mace, for example), but what other game sets the challenges that this one does? What other game rewards attentiveness and thought like this? Has anyone ever done a retro aesthetic better? La-Mulana is one of the greats.

OK, that's it. I hope you've enjoyed Let's Play La-Mulana: The Mother Has Been Waiting.


Clues:

Village:

"In obesiance to the Four Sages, we guarded the ruins. The four Sages realized that they could not grant the Mother's wish to return to the skies. Therefore, they wish at the very least to grant her the peace of death. That was the final conclusion that the Seventh Children reached. It is a sad thing that wish must be passed on to you, the eighth children. All children must eventually leave the parent's nest, I suppose. Your father was after the treasure of Life, the remains of the Mother's spirit once she dies. I hope you can get it in his place."

Confusion Gate:

"The mother ocean watches kindness and charity."

Temple of Moonlight:

"Welcome, chosen one. I am Alsedarna, one of the four Sages - the Sage of Death. I shall tell thee the secret of the ruins. We went into a long sleep to grant the Mother's wish. The Mother came to the Earth from the skies. We do not know where she came from. But she wanted to return. Having lost the power to move, the Mother breathed life into earthen dolls -- us humans. We were born to return her to the sky, and were given wisdom here in these ruins. Then we were send out into the wider world, to look for a way to return the Mother to the skies. Yes.... these ruins themselves are the Mother. Alas, returning the Mother to the skies is not possible. If we cannot grant her wish, then all we can do is grant her an eternal rest. Chosen one, please release the Mother from her suffering.... That is our wish...."

Spring of the Sky:

"Welcome, chosen one. I am Giltorriyo, one of the four Sages - the Sage of Knowledge. These ruins are the Mother's body. She can not be defeated. Thou must defeat her soul. Summon the soul of the Mother and give it a form in this world. The method to do so is already prepared. As the 7th children, we have devised a secret art for this.... And now we shall tell it to thee. Drive 8 wedges into the Mother's body. Find the Wedge and the Magatama Jewel, and chant the Mantras. The Mantras have been inscribed on Tablets. Drive the wedges through the rear. Please, chosen one. Grant our wish and release our Mother...."

Tower of the Goddess:

"The mischievous Rusali. Yaksi, who beguiles men. Dakini, dancing enticingly. Only one of them has a pure heart."

"The right eye sees Charity."

"Welcome, chosen one. I am Samaranta, one of the Four Sages - the Sage of Power. The soul of the Mother sleeps in the Shrine of the Mother. There lies the final Ankh. The final red light will bring forth its true form. Ye who hast conquered these ruins. Only thy power can grant the Mother rest. We four Sages sealed off four paths. Mine is now open. For the others, find Fobous and Giltorriyo. Now go, chosen one...."

Tower of Ruin:

"The kind, mischievous fairy. The kind, lonely fairy. Her mischief is innocent. Innocent mischief will do thee no harm."

"Ascertain those who would lead thee astray. Ascertain those who are truly pure."

"The left eye sees Kindness."

"To ye who hast made it this far, undertake the final trial. The Mother's wish can no longer be granted."

Chamber of Extinction:

"There is a medicine that can give form to a great soul. Consult the correct spirit."

Chamber of Life:

"Charity, Kindness, Charity, Charity, Kindness, Charity, Kindness, Kindness, the endless sound of the waves."

Twin Labyrinths (Front):

"Cast a spell on the spirits that have the elixir. The Elixir gives shape to souls."

Dimensional Corridor:

"Welcome, chosen one. I am Fobous, one of the Four Sages - the Sage of Life. The Mother's power is the power to create life. In ages past, others attempted to create life as well. Tiamat, Nu Wa........neither could compare to the Mother. With the Medicine of Life, one can attain the power of the Mother. The pure-hearted mischievous fairy has been entrusted with this medicine. Seek her out. When thou findest her, cast BIRTH, the spell of life, upon her. Cast DEATH, the spell of death, on the false fairies that would lead thee astray. If thou attainest the wrong medicine, return here. Without the correct medicine, thou cannot attain the power of the Mother........"

The Shrine of the Mother:

"Is this my son reading this? I hope so. I'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. Oh yes, please hit the "off" button now."






To-Do:

Anywhere:
-Find Shorn Kosugi
-Undertake the final trial
--Defeat the Mother's soul
---Give the Mother's soul form

Tower of Ruin:
-Get the medicine of life
--Identify Rusali, Yaksi, and Dakini
---Cast BIRTH on Rusali, and DEATH on Yaksi and Dakini

The Shrine of the Mother:
-Bring forth the Mother's soul and its true form, and grant it rest


Next Time:
Part 49: What Did I Miss?