La Mulana 1 was a great game. La Mulana 2 is even better. It has better controls, better enemy designs and even better boss battles (mostly helped by the controls) due to their new AI that was designed to be much more fair than La Mulana 1. The main reason for my ending score, is that La Mulana 2 didn't really fix the issues with puzzles. Having just finished the game, I can say it starts off MUCH better in terms of easing the player in, and the puzzles have quite a good progression and feeling of challenge to them. The issue comes in around two-thirds of the way through the game. The puzzles suddenly become incredibly obtuse, needing the player to backtrack to various old areas, with no real connection to the tombstones which give hints. Backtracking in and of itself isn't a bad thing, but when you're having to do it helplessly, desperately looking for any clue you can find to solve a puzzle it gets out of hand. Having to look things up online really takes the enjoyment out of what is supposed to be a challenging yet satisfying experience. I've seen online where there were clear translation issues with the game, which made puzzles nearly impossible to understand and/or actually impossible to know without resorting to trial and error. It's unfortunate, because I REALLY wanted to give this game a higher score... but I expected better from the devs given all of the complaints from the first game. If you feel no shame in looking up puzzles online, get this game, because it plays amazingly. But if you are looking for a rewarding puzzle and combat experience that rewards and respects your time and intelligence, maybe wait for a sale or an update. The game needs serious help on it's hints to the late game puzzles and some possible redirection as well. I'd go further in depth but am limited on text. So that's that.
