La – Mulana 2 Review (Nintendo Switch)

Review code provided with many thanks to NIS America.

Before we Venture Forth

I guess I should apologize. This La – Mulana 2 review is quite delayed since the first review was published about two weeks ago now. For you see after playing La – Mulana I was inspired to start raiding tombs myself. So I went exploring the old ruins of a weapon testing facility on Orford Ness (This place actually exists) which is a small island off the East coast of England. Unfortunately I got stranded there for days. Thank goodness I had a Switch with me and a copy of La – Mulana 2 or I might have just gone crazy. Well, more crazy. Now that I have been safely returned, it’s time to return to the sequel of the fascinating La – Mulana (feel free to check out my review here)

La – Mulana 2 was originally a kickstarter project back in 2014 that was successfully backed and released in 2018 for PC. The game feels like a love letter to the fans that supported the sequel’s production as well as being a satisfying sequel to the first game. Recently the game was released to consoles and Switch in digital and physical forms; the later being a pack of both games.

Return to La Mulana

La – Mulana 2 puts you in the archaeologist boots of Lemeza Kosugi. Daughter of the previous games protagonist, and she is called to La – Mulana to track down her father. The opening of the game is fantastic if you played the first game. La – Mulana has turned into a tourist hot spot. You spend the opening revisiting familiar characters and areas of the first game in a different light. The witty humour in the first game has been left very much intact. This time you’ll meet more NPC characters which will contact you via your tablet computer (instead of a laptop) to provide hints and witty commentary. Not long in and you discover a new area, Eg – Lana. A completely new area of La – Mulana you, as the player, have never encountered before.

Feels like coming home in a weird gamer way.

Norse Mythology

This time the tombs you explore leans heavily into Norse mythology as well as a few others now and then. This is great for me as I have a keen interest in this area of history. It was great to see references to Norse monsters and gods which I have read about. More surprising still, I discovered many things I have yet to even read about. When I encountered a boss monster I didn’t recognize I jumped onto the internet to read more about its actual history. Of course, you as a player don’t have to do this, but I love it when games encourage me to look deeper into their lore. This time, after defeating new enemies, you gain a journal entry giving you a little background on the beast. Boss character journals are hidden in the game.

Oh a new monster, time to look up stuff!

Similar but Still Unique

La – Mulana 2 shares many similarities to the first game, the unique graphical style is here. Cute retro sprites for your character, NPCs and enemies contrasted against real looking backgrounds and terrifying boss characters. The soundtrack once again is an absolute triumph for the ears. An important feature since you will be spending hours and hours exploring the tombs.

So whats new apart from the Norse stuff? To start with when speaking to NPCs you switch to a nice piece of art work rather than it just being the retro sprites this time. There are plenty of new items and abilities to unlock as well as familiar old ones from the first game. If you’re a fan of Norse stuff you are in for quite a treat with what you’ll find. The controls appear to also have been polished up a little more. Unlike the first game I felt I had a lot more control over my character when jumping. But the gravity issue where your character falls directly downward when walking off a platform is still present.

Some characters just don’t have much to say.

Get Exploring

I felt the opening of the game did a good job of introducing the game’s mechanics, and I got a lot less lost than I did playing the opening of the first game. This could be because I’ve become more familiar with this style of game after playing the first. I just seemed to get to grips with the game’s many puzzles and riddles. It still didn’t stop me falling into multiple traps like a complete dingus though, which felt a little more frequent this time around and kinda cheap. Fortunately the save points are not too far away again. The lesson I learned was if I started to feel frustrated in a difficult area of the game: it probably meant I needed to explore elsewhere and come back later.

Useful items unlocked significantly earlier compared to the first game. One item in particular that helps you fast travel between save points is unlocked a lot quicker, and saving players a lot of tedious backtracking.

Prepare for Hard

La – Mulana 2, while similar to the first game, offers plenty for its fans. To me La – Mulana is quite unlike any other game series I’ve played. I don’t think the sequel is going to particularly win over anyone put off by the first game though. La – Mulana as a series is un-apologetically difficult. It expects a players full attention, patience and dedication. It most certainly rewards the players that stick with it. If your looking for something casual and easy going this is probably best avoided.

Let’s Wrap This Up

I was originally thinking that a funny joke would be to re-post my La- Mulana review, slap a 2 on it and see if anyone noticed. But La – Mulana 2 is a quality game that does deserve its own review. With La – Mulana 2 its simple: if you liked the first game buy this one. La – Mulana 2 will challenge you in many ways across an adventure which will take you easily over 30 hours. You will laugh, and probably cry (on boss fights). You’ll get lost, but that feeling when everything just falls into place and you manage to progress just a little further is a great feeling. The developers clearly put a lot of effort into crafting La – Mulana 2. I say take on the challenge if you dare.

Final Verdict: I like it a lot