La-Mulana 2 is coming to PC next year

UPDATE: In what's sure to be a divisive move, La-Mulana creator Takumi Naramura has said that he wishes to make the sequel less confusing than the first game.

Speaking with IndieGames.com, Naramura explained that he intends to make the sequel still difficult, but doesn't want it to be as unclear as its predecessor. "The most common feedback Nigoro has gotten regarding La-Mulana is that the game is often unclear. Players have trouble figuring out where to go or what to do," noted IndieGames in its report. "For La-Mulana 2, the developers' goal is to provide players with guidance throughout the game."

The report went on to mention a brief gameplay demo where the player pulled a switch that activated something offscreen. In the former game, players would have to explore the world to try to figure out what they just changed, but in the sequel, the camera will pan over to the change. I can foresee the hate mail piling up right now.

It's not all going to be spelled out for you the way that say, Okami, was (my one gripe in an otherwise outstanding game). Naramura noted that he doesn't want to burden the player with walls of text or a companion character stopping the action to give hints. He also noted that the puzzles will gain complexity as the game progresses.

Elsewhere, Naramura confirmed that the game will be developed with a widescreen aspect ratio in mind, unlike the first La-Mulana, which was made before that was the standard.

Original Story:Takumi Naramura's sadistic exploratory adventure La-Mulana is getting a sequel on PC next year.

Publisher Nigoro, noted on its blog that La-Mulana 2 has been in development since production began on the WiiWare version of the first game.

Additionally, a teaser site has been launched.

For the uninitiated, La-Mulana is a notoriously punishing action/adventure of the general "Metroidvania" variety. What made La-Mulana so fascinating was its absolutely insane difficulty. Part of this was skill-based, with its colossal bosses that left little room for error, but it was just as much a mental challenge with the lion's share of the game's content locked away behind a host of obscure riddles. Like Castlevania 2, it was typical to explore La-Mulana's caverns for hours without making any progress until you'd suddenly attempt some cockamamie solution to a puzzle and it would actually work. Naturally, it was an acquired taste, but patient players found plumbing its depths to be a refreshingly demanding experience. I really liked it, until I eventually hit a wall so hard I eventually gave up, vowing to return another day.

Like Cave Story, La-Mulana began its life as a freeware PC game in its native Japan before it was recently remade as a commercial product. The remake was released last summer on both PC and WiiWare with the former eventually making it onto Steam.

According to Joystiq, the La-Mulana sequel will star the daughter of the first game's protagonist, Lemeza Kosugi, and it will at least in part contain a Norse theme.