If you've played both the original and the new version of La-Mulana, which one would you recommend and why? Specifically, does the new version have any advantages other than a different art style? I'll still probably buy the new version to support the developers, but I'm probably only going to play through this game once in the near future, and I want to do it on the better version.

I've not completed the remake yet, but I've explored a lot and here is my impression so far. This will not touch on all the differences by far, of which there are far more than I expected. This is truly a remake and rearrangement, much more than a graphical update.

Both games are good for the jaded gamer who has seen it all. Which one I recommend depends on how jaded you are. More jaded = original might be better.

Combat seems toned up a little in the remake, while the original focuses more on the puzzles. The remake is overall a lot more convenient to play, better controls and much more self-explanatory. Most people would probably like the remake more, as it feels more straightforward both in how it controls and how it kills you.

The things I dislike most about the original:
Up = jump, which makes wall-jumping very hard to do. The remake has up and jump separate, thank goodness.
Managing the collectible roms/programs and figuring out what they do is tedious and ugh there are so many. The remake massively reworked this.

The things I dislike most about the remake so far (have not beaten it yet):
Grinding for money and sub weapon ammo is horrible and takes ages. In the original I often used shurikens and other limited use weapons, in the remake I try to avoid it and fear even using stuff accidentally.
Bosses are even harder so far. Personally I dislike very hard bosses, I'd much rather be stuck on a level or trap.

--Edit--
I mostly retract my statements about the bosses and grinding. While the bosses are mostly harder and might be frustrating for some, the one I hated has been toned down. Thus overall the difficulty of the bosses so far is much more balanced than in the original.

If you only want to play one, then I highly recommend the remake over the original unless you are super jaded as a gamer. Just be careful not to waste too much money in the remake.
--End Edit--

Which of the following appeals to you more?

Original: You cannot save until you've explored the dungeon and collected money to buy some items needed for it. It might be hard for you to figure this stuff out, but makes even saving at the beginning feel like an accomplishment. Even after that there is only one place you can save, and it'll be a while before you are able to use more than the first save slot.

Remake: You can save right at the beginning, and even in some places within the dungeon. You get multiple pages of save slots.

Viy is rather late, and that sounds rather convoluted. Also, if this is anything like the original that is the boss I'd most want to be able to grind sub weapon ammo for before fighting.

Well, to be honest, subweapons aren't necessarily the best strategy for Viy this time around. Subweapon-spamming isn't nearly as useful a strategy as it used to be, most of the time.

Thank you for the answers! This thread has been very helpful.

How do you feel about the removal of the MSX references and art style? From what I understand, the original game was very much a love letter to the platform. Do you think that the remake loses a lot without them?

That was definitely charming in the original. The game roms and references were cool, even if I'd never heard of much about the MSX or many of those games before. The roms were everywhere, and I kind of miss collecting them around every corner even though that also made them a bit of a pain in some ways.

Not just the art style, but enemies and puzzles lose a bit of old-school feel as well. For most people this is probably for the best. Personally I'm glad I played through the original first.

Despite that the remake adds so much charm of its own I would not say this makes the original superior. They did a great job of keeping much of what made the original great, while adding stuff to make up for what was lost. I would not be surprised if the remake also was a work of love.

The original's 100 times better, is free, and has better graphics, the remake has none of the charm or the awesome manual

Honestly, I'd go out there and play both, because the actual concrete differences are enough that it sometimes feels like playing two different games.

If you put a gun to my head, though, I'd recommend the remake- it's no longer possible to faceroll your way though sub-bosses, traps are now always dangerous, and you need to generally be much more careful with money.

Update: I've been playing the remake and having a fantastic time. Looking at some Let's Plays of the original, the remake seems to have refined pretty much every aspect of the game, minus the MSX vibe. Honestly, I don't know if I'll be able to tolerate the original now that the remake has spoiled me so much, but I certainly look forward to watching other people play and comparing/contrasting my experience.

One of the things that really appealed to me about the original La Mulana was all the references and such that it had. Hearing this removes them really doesn't inspire me to rush out and get it - especially since it feels rather on the pricy side, at least $5 than I paid for Cave Story.

I think the only thing that might make me wanna get the remake is that it'd probably be something I could screw around with in Cheat Engine if I ended up getting desperate. LM is certainly not a "fair" game insofar as I was concerned. One reviewer on here said it was "Metroidvania done right" and I definitely don't agree because the balance in difficulty is totally not there a lot of the time.

I'll probably keep an eye on it for now, and it IS on sale at the moment. I may need to look into it further. If they'd given you the ability to return everything to the original look and such, like in Cave Story+, I'd probably get this in a heartbeat.

FYI - The original has this too when you assign functions to a joystick. It gives you the option for a 2nd jump button, so you can assign the first to Up (default) and then a button of choice *also* to jump to make the operation more intuitive.