Game:

La-Mulana (2005)

Duration: 1:58:33

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This is the twelfth part of my La-Mulana streamed playthrough. In this part we solve the puzzle of the Mantras, and unlock the way to the final boss, the fight with the soul of The Mother.

The Mantra puzzle itself starts to be revealed in the last parts of the game, when one the Philosophers reveals the method needed to defeat the mother. Since the body itself is the ruins of La-Mulana, the Mantra summons the soul of the Mother, so it can be put to rest and end her torment.

Beating NuWa gave Lemeza the Djed Pillar, which converts words into power, the words of the different mantras themselves. In addition to the eight needed to summon the Mother, you are granted two more from another Philosopher, BIRTH and DEATH. More on those in a moment.

Mantras are summoned by use of the Mantra.exe software, which is gained from a tablet in the Chamber of Extinction. In order to activate this, the Magatama Jewel which we got from Tiamat must be used in the room we fought Ox-Head and Horseface. After that, use the scan software to download Mantra.exe onto the laptop.

After that process is done, the Mantras themselves must be learned. There are eight in total, and the room behind the Chimera statue (which Shorn destroyed and you found the Pendant) contains eight tablets, detailing the mantra tablet locations. These look like the save point tablets, and once read teaches a mantra word to the laptop.

In order to solve the location where the Mantras are cast, the instruction manual gives the hint. The location is in the backside location of where the guardian fight is, so if you fought the boss in the front side, it is in the back side somewhere, and vice versa. The manual also shows that each section of the ruins has 20 rooms, which can be arranged in a 5x4 grid, and this clue is what is needed to find the corresponding location from the boss room. Or there's no penalty to going to each room, using the Djed Pillar until it activates something.

The mantras are activated in reverse order of the guardians, starting with Tiamat, working back through to Amphisbaena. You collect one mantra, cast it in the right room, and the next one becomes available to collect. It is a long and drawn out process, but it's not too hard to do.

The BIRTH and DEATH mantras are used in the Tower of Ruin, on the three different fairies in the area above the save point. A tablet indicates enemies that intend to cause no harm cannot harm you, and you cast BIRTH on those, and deceivers can damage you, so cast DEATH on those. Once those three are done with the right mantras, the Medicine of the Mind is possible to collect, using the Vessel we got from the Chamber of Birth.

However, apparently we need two vessels to summon The Mother. But we have had it all along, in the form of the Holy Grail. Once all of the save points are visited at least once and their tablets read, the Holy Grail changes form, so don't forget to do that in each area.

So, once everything is done, we need to return to the Shrine of the Mother and defeat her once and for all. You may notice once the final guardian was beat, the shrine warp was removed, that's because the area changed into the true Shrine of the Mother, becoming its own backside. When you get back to the save point, it is listed in the backside list, instead of the frontside list as it was before. Attention to detail, one of the awesome things about this game.

Anyway, after following the maze like area you get to a fight with Beelzebub, the final miniboss before the mother. He fires flies at you and swings from side to side of the arena. Not too damaging, but rather annoying to hit. After enough damage, he goes into a second phase, a giant fly. I used the Lamp of Time to beat him so I didn't show the fight, but it gets pretty brutal for me, so I prefer to skip him.

Anyway, beating him leads to the save point. After that, it's a short trek to the boss fight. But what's this? A giant tablet blocking the way. So, you have to return to the Queen of the Fairies, and she agreed to remove that final barrier, using the help of the other fairies to do so. Once done you can enter the boss chamber.

Even starting the fight requires a small puzzle solving. There are four giant seals to activate, and this summons a female on a crucifix. In order to start the fight, you use the Keysword, which has also transformed and hit the crucifix.

I didn't get to beat the Mother in this update, but I will next time. I can detail the fight there, for those who are interested.

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