La-Mulana is a ruin-exploration action game from the Japanese developer NIGORO, originally designed to look and feel like an MSX game and later remade in a richer 16-bit style. You explore sprawling ancient ruins in search of a legendary treasure, deciphering clues and surviving traps. It is famous for difficult, notebook-worthy puzzles and old-school challenge.
Papers, Please puts you behind a border checkpoint desk, checking documents against a rulebook that grows stricter every day. The work is simple and repetitive on purpose, and the tension comes from the choices it forces: follow the rules, feed your family, or help the person in front of you. A small-scale game that became a lasting reference for storytelling through mechanics.