La-Mulana and FEZ

[Quinterfell]

First off, let me say that I love both of these games. But have two games that are in some ways so similar (an old-school game where you explore a beautiful, huge open world solving puzzles, collecting things and discovering secrets) ever been so different? Both games are fun, hurt my brain in a wonderful way, and make you feel like a genius when you figure something out, but the experience of playing them is totally the opposite. La-Mulana keeps me on the edge of my seat and is exciting and painful. FEZ makes me sink down into my couch and relax and is cute and charming.

Just wondering if anyone else is playing these two games at the same time and has any thoughts on the matter.

[Tinker]

I thought Fez was an incredibly boring chore, a collectathon where every puzzle is the same forever until you're forced to figure out a language or use your smartphone. Ugh. I much prefer La Mulana.

[very sketch]

I refuse to touch Fez simply because of the creator, but I've heard Fez is easy, boring and a typical example of an indie game these days.

La-Mulana however was created as a tribute to an era of tough games that would drive an average gamer these days out of their mind. I'll stick with La-Mulana because of the amount of love and effort put into it.

[Quinterfell]

I don't really want to get into any Phil Fish stuff, because I think it's way overblown and silly to even talk about, but I would encourage you to give the game a try to see if you like it, all the other things aside.

As for the game itself, I guess you could say it is easy in terms of the platforming and forgiving nature of the game (no enemies, respawning instantly when you die) but the puzzles offer a nice challenge. I never found it boring, I thought it was stimulating, beautiful and fun, but that is a personal preference for sure. I enjoyed the collecting because there was a feeling of building up to something big. Not sure what you mean by a typical example of indie games these days though, "indie games" is a pretty broad term.

I will again reiterate how much I love La-Mulana, it's currently my most played game on Steam ever and I think it's excellent. But while it is true that it is tough, and has epic boss fights and a ton of challenge, I still think that the essence of the game is exploration and puzzles, which is where I see the similarity to FEZ. It's a huge game and you can absolutely see the love and effort, but I sincerely doubt you could play FEZ without seeing the same amount of love and effort in that game too. No need to "stick" with one game when there's no rule saying you can't play two.

[Dentorhedge]

Yeah, I'd like to try FEZ because the author said he wanted to make a game you can visually stimulating, and I'd like to just play around in an beautiful world! I love to pause the game and look at the art of the area in LA-MULANA(Isis's room, the room with the four boxes, the room where the lights are turned on in the tower of the goddess, the upside down room in the illusion gate, ect.).

[an Aki]

I'm curious to try out Fez too. It looks really neat to be honest, even it's it's mostly just platforming, collecting stuff, and solving obtuse puzzles.

[Hikari ネコ]

Why play x when y is 10x better?

[Dentorhedge]

What do you believe is y, Waluigi? I consider lamulana to be the best game I've ever played- as of yet. I haven't tried Fez yet and, with the knowledge I've gathered of it, it is a game made for a completely different purpose as LA-MULANA. If LA-MULANA's awsomeness was equal to 87% then Cave Story's was 85%, but I still play Cave story every now and again (especially now that I know about the fourth ending!).

[Quinterfell]

Love Cave Story. I guess if you are happy playing La-Mulana forever then that is wonderful, but when it comes time to play a different game, FEZ is worth a shot. There is definitely something in the spirit of these games that resonates in the same way with me.

[an Aki]

I played LaMulana(including the old) without exagerataion, HUNDREDS of times. I love this game, but it isn't the only game or kind of game I play.

[Syragar]

I feel exactly the same way you do, Quinterfell. I've played La-Mulana and Fez recently and have the same feelings about them. I think both are very good puzzle games in their own way.

And while I agree that La-Mulana is a much more complex game... for those who think Fez is easy, try solving the monolith puzzle. ;)

[Quinterfell]

Definitely both wonderful games. Just learned this today, but both have a stereoscopic 3D mode