Homunculus and Humanity come face-to-face in developers Adglobe and Live Wire’s sequel to the critically acclaimed 2D Metroidvania ‘ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights’ (a game that I most definitely adored). Published by Binary Haze Interactive a few months back into Steam’s Early Access programme, ‘ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist’ takes place many years after the events of Ender Lilies, where players will find Homunculus mingling with more humans than I ever remember seeing from the first game.
Darkness and depression awaits those in the world of ENDER MAGNOLIA. But underneath the much and dark grime is a fun 2D Metroidvania platformer whose full version I can’t wait to get ahold of.
Quietus of the World
I am probably going to run out of synonyms for “darkness” so please forgive future redundancies.
Just like in the first game, players will find themselves in the shoes of a young child named Lilac who finds themselves waking up in the confines of a busted cryochamber of sorts. Through some flashbacks, all we can surmise is that it’s been quite a long time since we’ve been put to sleep. It doesn’t take for Lilac to get his bearings and waltz on out of this horror show of a place and we soon meet the likes of Nora who helps us cut through bad things and baddies that want to shred us to bits and slash us up because we are the only thing that looks alive and human in this sunken world.
And seriously sunken it is! Ender Magnolia’s world is just as bleak and vile as its predecessors and it makes sure to state that matter-of-factly. Its evil is beautifully painted onto its world with sharp uses of black peppered about with light uses of primary colours to glisten off distant areas and brighten up rooms cursed with corpses. The game’s 3D models blend into the world seamlessly and characters designs are excellent in that you can tell what they can do at a glance while all banged up from their environment. Music group Mili makes a return, their vocal and piano work making it immediately apparent, and fans will be delighted to know that they are just as good as making things creepy and bleak as they always have.
In the darkness that binds our main protagonist, we have quite a few ways of slashing it all away. Spirits that we can beckon at will to fight for us. Like Ender Lilies, the player controller is not the combatant—rather, it is the spirits you summon that do the combat for you all the while you keep little (protag) alive by dashing at the right times and in general keeping your distance. You have a limited amount of heals in-between rest points, so getting hit for the fun of it is a no-go. Relics and the like will help you on your adventure as you find them, and of course health pickups that increase your overall health.
This combat system effectively becomes a frantic fight for your life against bosses and zones that become tighter and require more precise jumps. Enemies will shoot, stab, and lunge at your precious lifeforce. But even though the player character is a small, meek little kid, the divorce from combatant and “protect the failstate” makes for some really fun 2D action. Spirits that get summoned stay in place, which allows for flexibility on what your next move looks like. Enemies can be staggered by all sorts of attacks, some greater than others, and can be punished with some serious damage once their posture is broken. Mix in a solid character controller and good combat mechanics and Magnolia becomes just as fun as Lilies was.
Now I have a couple of issues: platform visibility can be hit or miss sometimes, largely due to color clashing. And Lilac’s dash simply doesn’t have enough “oomph” to it, so to speak. It feels quite slow. A proper backdash would be nice and I feel that the ranged attack should have its firing point lowered so it can actually hit every enemy type. Besides that, I’m quite happy with the mechanics and I’ll be forwarding feedback to the development team.
As the player fights off bosses and progresses through the story, you’ll come across “memories” that flash the player back to said belligerent’s time before they became the husk of what they were. I’ll keep mum on the story (not like there is much right now) but know that everyone has their part to play and a driving force for wanting to continue upwards into the castle beyond. There’s no voice acting, but dialogue doesn’t stick around for long and I found it to be reasonably engaging.
If you do pick up Ender Magnolia right now, keep in mind that it is in Early Access. Buying the game now only grants you a portion of the game’s world, which is a couple of areas. Think maybe three hours or so of gameplay. Consider it a pre-order with an added bonus of a demo and the chance to leave feedback on where improvements can be made before the game inevitably makes its way to PC and consoles this or next year. Til then, seriously consider playing Ender Lilies—it’s a great game and available on just about every modern game-capable doohickey. You don’t need to play that to understand the events of Magnolia. But hey, that shouldn’t stop you from playing a fantastic 2D Metroidvania. ∎
