La-Mulana/Characters
Humans
Lemeza Kosugi (ルエミーザ 小杉, ruemiiza kosugi)
Mr. Explorer himself, protagonist of the game.
- Adventurer Archaeologist: But of course!
- Expy: Of Indiana Jones.
- Heroic Mime: As is the standard of all protagonists.
- McNinja: According to the manual, at least.
- Meaningful Name: Kosugi means "small cedar".
- Multi Melee Master
- Smoking Is Cool: Has a cigarette in his mouth in the PC manual and in the Wii Ware official artwork. It's removed from pictures on the English side of the website though.
- Spell My Name with an "S"/It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY": In Japanese, his name is written as ルエミーザ (ruemiiza) while his name is always written in English as Lemeza. Does he use a different name depending on language or is Lemeza meant to be pronounced like "ruemiiza"?
- Whip It Good: His primary weapon.
Shorn Kosugi (ショーン 小杉, shoun kosugi)
Father of Lemeza. He sets of the game's plot by discovering the ruins.
- Adventurer Archaeologist: A renowned one.
- Archnemesis Dad: Taunted Lemeza into coming to the ruins, and basically waited for Lemeza to obtain the Treasure of Life before STEALING IT FROM HIS OWN SON.
- Expy: Of Henry Jones, Sr.
- The Unchosen One: His final message to you on his computer, which you find at the very heart of the ruins, says that he went through all of the same trials and traps you did and reached La Mulana's heart, but ultimately wasn't able to continue because he wasn't chosen by the four Sages.
- Whip It Good
Elder Xelpud (ゼルプド長老, zerupudo chourou)
The elder of the village, and the guy who saves your game and generally chats to you.
- Badass Grandpa/Hidden Badass: In the Wii version. Remember that one puzzle where you have to get Shorn's diary, involving that falling pillar? In the original, you use the time lantern. In the Wii version, you talk to Xelpud, and he literally comes down to that room in the ruins, JUMPS IN ITS FALLING PATH, AND THEN LIFTS IT UP FOR YOU TO GET PAST.
- Bald of Awesome
- Cloudcuckoolander/Talkative Loon: Rambles endlessly about the MSX in the PC version.
- Sdrawkcab Name: "Xelpud" spelled backwards is "Duplex", one of the developers of the original game.
Mulbruk (ムーブルク, muuburuku)
A girl who lives in the Sun Shrine who offers advice on where to go or what to do. She only appears in the Wii Ware version.
- Chekhov's Gunman: At the end, instead of escaping the ruins through the Guidance Gate entrance, Lemeza has to go talk to her. They both then run through an alternative exit.
- Fan Service: There is some concept art of Mulbruk donning the "Treasure that must not be seen" the pictures can be found on Naramura's Twitter.
- Beating the game with the "Treasure that must not be seen" on will let you see her donning it as well in game during the staff roll.
Sub-Bosses
Shu (蚩尤, shiyuu)
- Healing Factor: From the blood.
- Meaningful Name: Named after a Chinese god of war, the characters of his name can also be roughly translated as "natural fool".
- Mirror Boss: At least, he wields several of Lemeza's subweapons.
- Virgin Sacrifice: He lives on this.
Nu Wa (女カ, joka)
- Always Second Best: Like Tiamat, she tried to create life, but could not do better than the Mother.
Bosses
Amphisbaena (アンフィスバエナ, anfisubaena)
A gigantic snake with a head at both ends.
- Kill It with Fire: Spits streams of flames as its primary attack.
- Leitmotif: "King Konda".
- Public Domain Character: Since it's from Greek myths, it's naturally this.
Sakit (サキト, sakito)
A giant who wished for The Mother not to return to the sky
- Golem: All the giants are preserved as huge stone statues. Most of them can move depending on what the time of day is (it's a puzzle, you hit three stone lanterns to change the insignia so their all either star, sun or moon). Sakit can only be fought when the Moon is showing.
- Knight Templar/Well-Intentioned Extremist: Wants Mother to remain on Earth and will fight anyone to the death over it.
- Leitmotif: "Giants' Rage".
- Regime Change: "Sakit took power into his hand", both figuratively and literally.
- Rocket Punch: A variant in the original, literally in the Wii Ware version.
- "Wake-Up Call" Boss: Oh boy, is he ever.
- Won't Work On Me: In the original version, his giant stone body is flat out immune to all subweapons, forcing you to close to dangerously close range in order to attack him.
Ellmac (エルマック, erumakku)
A gigantic frilled lizard.
- Fireballs
- Leitmotif: "High-Speed Beast".
- Minecart Madness: The entire battle takes place during this.
- Punny Name: His name comes from 襟巻き蜥蜴 (erumaki tokage), which means "frilled-neck lizard".
Bahamut (バハムート, bahamuuto)
A giant blue fish with a head like a hippo.
- Leitmotif: "Dangerous Raid".
- Shown Their Work: The Giant fish is actually from Arabic mythology.
- Super Drowning Skills: Lemeza takes damage from the water during the Bahamut fight whether he has the Scalesphere or not.
Viy (ヴィー, vii)
A demon so massive that it needs smaller demons to open its eyelid.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The manual has a picture of what Viy actually looks like. All that is seen in-game is the area around its eye.
- Eye Scream: You hurt it by attacking its giant eye. And it can attack by everting its eye, trying to stab you with it.
- Flunky Boss: Summons demons to open its eye.
- Frickin' Laser Beams: It can fire one. From its eye.
- Leitmotif: "In the Bottom".
- Public Domain Character: It is based on a Russian tale about a demon with servants that hold its eye open.
Palenque (パレンケ, parenke)
An alien who's piloting a giant mechanical gunship.
- Ancient Astronauts: It is based on one of the carvings that inspired this whole theory.
- Leitmotif: "Ancient Machine".
- Made of Explodium
- Rule of Cool: Your fighting a Alien who's piloting a giant Gradius-inspired ship on a tiny little toy plane. With shurikens. While he has lazers and bombs and all sorts of things.
- Taking You with Me: In the remake of the game, once his ship is trashed, he jumps out of his ship and blows up, killing you both if you don't retaliate in time.
- Unexpected Shmup Boss
- Wave Motion Gun: One of its weapons.
Baphomet (バフォメット, bafometto)
A pagan deity mostly associated with witches.
- Leitmotif: "Sabbat".
- One-Winged Angel: In the Wii Ware version.
- Our Demons Are Different
- Summoning Ritual: The witches you've been harassing throughout the Twin Labyrinth invoke one to summon the boss to kill you.
Tiamat (ティアマト, tiamato)
A Lamia that can control the dimensions, and tried to obtain the secret of life.
- Always Second Best: Attempted to outdo the Mother in creating life and failed.
- Fan Disservice: In the first version of the game, her face becomes angry and distorted once she loses a certain amount of life.
- Godiva Hair: Especially in the Wii Ware version.
- Leitmotif: "Interstice of the Dimention".
- Marathon Boss: Unless you use the knife combo trick.
- Mythology Gag: The mantra to chant in Tiamat's area is "MARDUK", the mythological character that killed Tiamat according to legend.
- Reality Warper: She changed the sides of her part of the ruins round. That's right: the Endless Corridor is actually the BACKSIDE AREA of the Dimensional Corridor.
The Mother (聖母, seibo)/Mother's Soul (魂の聖母, tamashii no seibo)
She's the creator of all Life, who is unable to get back to the sky. The entire plot of the game is to put her out of her misery.
- And I Must Scream: Has been trapped on Earth unable to move for millions of years.
- Bloody Tears: One of her forms cries these.
- Energy Beings: Her soul's first form is defiantly this. She turns into it again to fight you in her final form.
- Fetus Terrible: Her implied true form. Look at the background during the final form fight.
- Final Boss
- Guide Dang It: Decipher the tablets or else good luck winning the battle.
- Immortality: Mother is immediately reborn if she dies, so the player must give her soul a physical form and kill that.
- Kamehame Hadoken: One of her attacks in the Wii Ware version.
- Leitmotif: "Last Battle?" (Head); "Good Night Mom" (Soul).
- Load-Bearing Boss: Justified since the ruins of La-Mulana are the Mother's body.
- One-Winged Angel: Her soul has four forms and her head can be counted as a fifth.
- Self-Made Orphan: You kill the creator of all Life, after all...
The Boss (ザ・ボス, za bosu)
He is found in the Hell Temple, a big blue blob with eyes closed and a tongue sticking out that guards the last rooms.
- Ascended Extra: In the Wii Ware version, the Boss uses an unused music that was never used in the original game: "Good Morning Mom".
- Author Avatar: He looks like the avatar that Naramura typically has.
- Bonus Boss
- Leitmotif: "THE BOSS" (also known as "Good Morning Mom").