I haven't played the freeware version, but from what I can tell it's basically the 'NES version", while the remake is like the "SNES version" (graphical and music upgrades, and I hear some of the puzzles have been made slightly more intuitive... which makes me shudder to think what they must have been like originally.)

Hm, maybe what I'll go ahead and do then is get Inquisitor and play the freeware version of La Mulana, if I won't be missing too much. That way I get the best of both worlds. :)

Depends what you look for in a game. The art and music in La Mulana are really nice, so personally I would far rather experience them in full 16-bit than in 8-bit.

Yeah, that's also true. I'm not nostalgic for that era of games, so I do prefer higher fidelity if there's a choice between the two.

How you could think it looks like shit is beyond me.
I have just seen a few screenshots so I don't really know but to me it looks like one of the best looking fantasy pc games released in a while. The graphics look like a tribute to the first Diablo and the Baldur's Gate game but with higher resolution.

I wish more fantasy games went for this more realistic look than the abominable World of Warcraft style that is so common nowadays.

Environments and basically anything static looks really nice in Inquisitor, characters look alright, though they are not animated all that well. Still, it is hardly distracting at all, and I found the environments to more than make up for the way the characters looked.

Actually, this might be a good place to ask a question I had about Inquisitor. One of my biggest reservations about it is that I found the theme really repugnant - the idea of playing an inquisitor and torturing people for information just does not appeal to me, even if it's understood as part of the game universe that there really are witches and demons.

So my question is - is it possible to roleplay a more "noble" character, or does the game pretty much force you to get your hands dirty? (And by "possible" I mean is it realistically possible to play the game as it was meant to be played, without doing this? There are a lot of games where I technically "could" play a less violent character, but it would be far more difficult to level up and most of the best quests/items would be forever out of reach. So basically, does the game "intend" that you will play your role as inquisitor to the hilt, or are there other realistic options?)

Funny, that's actually one of the main reasons it looks interesting for me. Not because Yay! Torture! but just because it's something that a lot of games don't breach, and it's interesting to cast the Inquisition in a more... justified light.

I am equally curious if there're alternatives to Inquisitor...ing, though.

Yeah, that's what I figured. Reminds me of Lionheart in setting, although a bit grimmer.

The freeware version is actually the original, and was released in 2005. There's a bit of work in setting it up. Unless you can read Japanese, you'll need to apply the English translation patch (easy, but I did need an additional step to correct a font issue), and I personally used Joy2Key for my gamepad as I didn't like the built-in support.

The game is a very deliberate homage to MSX games in general and Maze of Galious specifically, so the graphics and sound are 8-bit quality (here's a screenshot).

The in-game notepad that Azilut mentioned does not exist in the original, so you're on your own for keeping track of clues and information (though even with the ability to record clues from the tablets, I would still have needed to write down other things as well).

There are three different classes, only one of which is actually an inquisitor, but I don't know how much each one changes the overall plot. I have heard there are a few differences between classes, but I'm honestly not sure if it's true.

Yeah, all I've heard is that each one kinda has a different "perk" (like Thieves getting their own town), not sure if it goes beyond that.

Thanks. Just to clarify, I'm not squeamish, but I have read most of the Malleus Maleficarum (the real-life inquisition's how-to manual on torturing confessions out of witches), and that kind of mind set is not one that I would ever want to... role play.

I find the question posed very interesting ("are their methods acceptable if the demons they fear are real?"), but only if the game gives the option of saying "no, and I'm not doing it".

Go for La-Mulana. Whatever good qualities Inquisitor has, the gameplay is so terrible and slow, that your time would better spent elsewhere. For example, watching John Carpenter's 'The Thing', or playing one of the Phoenix Wright games. Now that is a good way to enjoy yourself!

Having played through both versions of La-Mulana, there is a couple important differences between the two. The biggest is that the remake has been rebalanced so that the puzzles are not as annoying or obscure by nature, which is also helped by how you can record the contents of tablets for later reading. This is extremely nice, since the original version practically requires a walkthrough. Aside from the question of difficulty, both versions of La-Mulana are games that are among the best of the metroidvania genre.

However, if you don't mind a simpler metroidvania game with easier difficulty, I would recommend picking up Aquaria. That particular game's strength comes from the visuals and musics, but it should be pretty good for a first-time player of metroidvania-styled games.


If you are looking for an alternative to Inquisitor, I recommend Planescape Torment. That game is still heavy on the dialogue and characterization, but does a much better job of keeping the focus on that aspect and keeping a decent pace.