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There's another 10-coin in a pot a few screens left of the village. That plus grinding snakes for healing netted me the 20 coins I needed to buy the Hand Scanner.

Haven't gone into the ruins yet, though. I'm afraid.

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Saving, quitting, and loading your game seems to reset EXP to zero and restore VIT.

Finally saved up and got a Glyph Reader, but I still don't seem capable of solving even the really simple puzzles. Can't figure out how to open the chest in the "Make three sacrifices to the heavens" room, and there's still boatloads of places in the Gate of Guidance that I don't seem to have access to. I've found the entrances to three other fields, but I don't trust my skill to be enough to take them on yet.

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New avatar to honor the only man who can stop in mid-jump to eat ramen.

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If I took maps online, then it would remove half the excitement of exploration from the game. It's like cheating.

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How do you learn the names of the Gates?

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I am another person who is stuck as all hell, and needs a nudge in the right direction!
[I've defeated the first boss, haven't found any others. I've explored all but one of the rooms of the Mauloseum (I can't get to the last one), and I have no idea what I'm trying to do for the puzzle with the three pedestals. I feel like I've come as far as I can in the Temple of the Sun without the Boots. I'm not sure whether or not I solved the riddle of the pyramid, but I can leave it once I get in. I have a helmet, but can't explore most of the Spring of the Sky without a way to swim. The Inferno beats me back mercilessly, and the Endless Corridor seems to require a ROM that I don't have.

Basically, I need either a way to further explore the Temple of the sun (although there are only 3 rooms left in it I haven't been to), a way to solve the three pedestal puzzle in the Mauloseum, or a way to breathe underwater.

As a side note, there is a hand scanner available in a shop I found for 150 coins. Is this at all different from the hand scanner I have now, or is it a scam?

Incidentally, was I supposed to get some sort of item for killing the first boss? Because I didn't.]

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I've got the first Seal now, but it doesn't really seem to open anything useful except for a shop or two. I'm trying to explore further in the Spring of the Sky, but I've died dozens of times trying to climb up the shaft where I got the Seal, because the slightest hit from an enemy knocks me into the water, where I die in seconds. It's insanely frustrating up here, but I'm going to keep looking for shit because I don't know where else to go.

The pedestal puzzle does not operate anything like you suggest, mauve. It's currently set to all stars - hammering the center pedestal sets it back to all stars, as does hammering either of the other two. If I flail randomly at it I can get it to all suns, but I have been trying for a long time without success to get all moons.

I got to that last room in the Mauloseum, and got the Throwing Knives. I even have the ankh jewel for this area, but I can't find the boss room. I found some new areas in the Temple of the Sun, but I can't do anything there other than fall down holes and go to a new area where I can't see the walls or floors. I can see an item at the top of the left side of the Spring, but I don't have the Seal for it. I'm encountering dead ends everywhere I go, and my patience is starting to wear thin, especially with the endless deaths in the Spring. What am I missing? Also, where the hell can I get another Life Jewel?

EDIT:Got to the top of the Spring, finally. Let's hope this gets me on my feet again.

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Okay, enough spoiler spamming.

Frankly, the more I play this game, the less I like it.

I understand the motivation behind putting traps into the ruins, but the only real purpose they serve is to make you not know whether or not you want anything. Treasure? Oh no, it's just a fake that traps you in a tiny cage with no way out. It throws off the risk-reward balance by giving you no indication if something is a reward or not. It doesn't remove the try-everying approach, either - it just makes it slightly more annoying by forcing you to load your game every now and then.

The controls, while "classic," just feel old and frustrating to me, as does the enemy design. I can't cound the times I died because I grazed an enemy in midair and was knocked backwards into a pit full of water that killed me immediately because Lemza can't swim to save his life. When I was fighting a boss just now, it felt like most of the damage I took was from threats that appeared after I started a jump that hit me before it was possible to change direction. The rest was because I couldn't drop off of ladders.

The puzzles, while requiring a bit of lateral thinking, frequently don't make the slightest bit of sense. The treasure chest opens up if I take the second ladder, but not the first. Leave the screen and come back and the pillars reset (sometimes). That last one in particular was irritating, because "leaving the screen" didn't really make any sense in the game world, nor was there any justification as to why certain arrangements of the symbols stick in place, while others reset to the initial configuration. I feel like I'm running around at random, hoping something I do solves a puzzle, or just exploring every nook and cranny of an area until I find something that looks like I can interact with it, then finding out that nothing I have can interact with it aside from making *ping* noises.

In general, the more I play, the less time I spend enjoying the thrill of exploration, the wonderful environments, and the fantastic music, and the more time I spend dying in the same places over and over or wandering aimlessly with no idea what I'm trying to accomplish. Maybe I just suck too badly to play it, but I don't know if I have the patience to see it through to the end.

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I did eventually figure that puzzle out, I just don't think it was very well-designed.

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I was referring to two places in the Spring of the Sky where I thought "maybe there'll be something at the end of this corridor" and then thinking "nope, just trap."
It keeps being just engaging enough to keep me coming back, but we'll see if that lasts.

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[I don't know why I keep coming back to this game, but I do. I'm always stuck, and every nudge forwards ends with me being stuck again 10 minutes later.
Things I currently have no idea how to do:
-Get the "three sacrifices" treasure (although that may be because I'm lacking the Seal for it).
-Defeat the fucking stone giant (I seriously hate this boss battle. 90% of the damage I take feels either cheap or unavoidable. I just can't move fast enough.)
-Get through the Endless Corridor (I guess I need a new ROM or something for the fairy to help me).
-Get the orb on the left side of the Spring of the Sky (once again, probably seal-related).
-Get the minecart any further than I already have pushed it.
-Solve "all the riddles" of the Temple of the Sun. I don't even know which riddles are left.
-Get the Ankh to appear in the Spring of the Sky. There's a chain thing, but touching the bottom of it damages me and touching the controller for it one room up does nothing.
-Get any more items. The last item I got, the Glove, as far as I can tell, does absolutely nothing.
-Generally make any progress, anywhere.]

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Solved the drain in the Spring, got the Boots, felled the Giant. Makin' progress again!

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I've only found 2 life jewels, but I beat the battle so it's cool.

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Also: The background color for quoted text is #636363.

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[I just got the Bronze Mirror, and have been exploring several fields at once, and coming to a massive heap of dead ends. I don't seem to be able to make any meaningful progress in the Temple of the Moonlight, the Graveyard of the Giants, the Inferno Cavern, the Twin Labyrinths, the Eternal Corridor... the list goes on and on. I'm at a loss to where I'm supposed to be going or what I'm supposed to be doing. What are some items I should be able to get right now? Where the hell are they? Where should I be tackling next?]

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[I cannot defeat the guardian of the Spring in the Sky, because I don't have the seal for it.
I can't get to the Confusion Gate because I can't figure out how to reach the upper half of the Temple of the Moonlight.
I got the Flare Gun, but the other two items in the Inferno Cavern are beyond my reach. One because it seems to be behind a solid stone wall, and the other because I can't go into lava. I can't get to the Ice Cape for aforementioned reasons.
And yes, I've been spoiling myself a bit with a website that has maps and item locations for every world, but I'm still getting stuck. How sad is that?]

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[To clarify, I have done everything that needs doing in the Spring, with the exception of actually fighting the boss there (I'm one Seal short for that).
Anyways, I have no idea what you're talking about regarding the three women puzzle. If they're in the Temple of the Sun, then I know where they are, I know what I get for them, and the third woman is completely impossible to reach. If they're in the Temple of the Moonlight, then either I'm completely blind or they're in some area that I can't reach. I SHOULD be fine with that guide, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm still completely balls-out stuck, a fact that none of your guidance seems to be able to change. There must be SOMETHING massive and forehead-smacking that I'm not seeing SOMEWHERE, because this is getting ridiculous.]

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Okay, that was what I was missing.
Got two new items.
Spent 20 minutes trying to climb a tower infested with bats, only to find nothing at the top but a locked treasure chest. I won't be able to play this for a while until that's no longer fresh in my memory. That whole area seems to be about falling immense distances that you just worked your ass off to climb up because you touched one enemy at the wrong moment. I really don't like that aspect of the level design.
I'm making progress again, I guess. Still don't know where the Spring Guardian is.

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That boss is about a hojillion times easier once you get the boots.
Edit: As a side note, I have concluded that it is thoroughly impossible for me to make any headway into the [Confusion Gate]. All the paths are dead ends. Is there something I'm missing? I'm reading the elaborate riddles on the glyphs, but not gleaning the slightest knowledge from them.

EDIT 2: You know what? Fuck it. I give up. I can't get more than 5 minutes into the game without getting stuck, and if I play it for more than 20 minutes at a time I get so frustrated that it can ruin a good chunk of my day. It's just not worth it anymore. La Mulana wins.