Finally, Adglobe and Live Wire studios have released the long-awaited sequel to their first game (ENDER LILIES), and this sequel turned out to be quite worthy of a lengthy discussion – and that’s what I’m here for with this PC review of ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist.
ENDER MAGNOLIA is a 2D action RPG metroidvania, just like the first game in the series. But having completed both, I can say that Magnolia is a huge glow up when it comes to mistakes and shortcomings of Ender Lilies. While the work might not have been perfect, it was colossal nonetheless. And if the first game earned a huge number of positive reviews, then Magnolia is also worthy of attention. But the main positive point is that developers managed to preserve the atmosphere and style of the Ender series.
It is impossible to avoid talking about Ender Lilies, because both games are closely connected, at first imperceptibly and very vaguely, but the further you advance along the plot, the more of these connections you will see.
This is our Ender Magnolia PC review, note that it contains certain spoilers for the main plot of the title as well as to its predecessor, Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights.
The events of the game take place several decades after the Rain of Death that could be witnessed in Ender Lilies. It was the reason why homunculi went mad. Once, these creatures were the pride of the Land of Fumes, the personification of the power that lies in combining technology and magic. Now, the bloodthirsty creatures have plunged the country into chaos. The Rain of Death affects everyone and everything with Filth, driving them crazy and depriving them of memory.
Our heroine, Lilac, wakes up from sleep in a dilapidated laboratory, without memory but with the firm belief that she will get it back somehow. The world of Magnolia has advanced along the technological branch of development, so if in Lily we had ghosts, then here our heroine meets a homunculus – an artificially created creature, also deprived of memory. Our first friend and main attacking comrade – Homunculus Nola. Lilac has the abilities of an Attuner – a magician who can help homunculi to return their minds. Together with Nola, you set out to explore the world, restore memory, help people and Homunculi, and of course try to save the ailing kingdom…
In the sequel, the way the plot is presented has been reworked: now it is shown not only in notes, although they are here, but also in cutscenes, conversations with people and homunculi inhabiting the world, and even with Lilac’s party members. Lilac herself can talk and participate in discussions as well, which is really pleasing beyond measure. Moving through the plot, your party members will add information and show their feelings and emotions during conversations. Some of those inhabiting the world will even have their own plot lines and personal development, albeit small, but played out in interesting ways anyhow.
In the game world, inhabitants have learned to resist evil with the help of artifacts. But the surrounding area had been filled with corrupted homunculi who have become the main threat. But for you, they can become loyal allies – like the spirits in the previous part of the game. Most of the homunculi can no longer be saved, but some special ones can still be cleansed of filth. For some strange reason, this is only possible with “bosses”, and only after a difficult battle. As a token of gratitude, they join Lilac’s team and help her both in battles and in exploring the surrounding world. In sequels, the developers usually try to increase the number of elements, but in Ender Magnolia, the developers decided to focus on quality over quantity.
Instead of a large number of companions, as was the case with Lily’s spirits, the game features a smaller number of homunculi, each not only presenting a certain skill, but also having its own personality. The main character, Lilac, establishes friendly relations with the homunculi and is interested in their point of view. In the rest areas, you can activate additional dialogues that reveal the characters and backstory of these creatures. The sequel really has more opportunities. Combat companions can learn up to three skills, which in total gives three dozen active skills. You can select four skills at a time, providing ample scope for experimentation.
Some techniques serve as the main attack, others deliver a powerful blow, but take a long time to recharge, others yet combine a blow with dodging, and so on. You can choose a weak long-range attack and passive damage – this will allow you to pick on your opponents for a long time, but do so safely. You can take a couple of homunculi for melee attacks, and take apart enemies in a balanced way, paying attention to both attack and dodges, or take a Homunculus for a counter-attack, which is capable of destroying enemies with one successful block. In addition to homunculi, our Lilac also has the ability to use certain equipment: a shell, a couple of bracelets and a companion (yes, they’re considered equipment).
Shells allow you to turn blocks into not something with an attacking capability, you can make a shock wave on the ground in case of a successful block, you can launch magic arrows, but not all Shells give block improvements, some just increase parameters.
Bracelets give bonuses to the heroine’s parameters, and allow you to flexibly customize the style of play, more attack, but less defense, more defense and healing power, more health – bracelets will allow you to choose which parameters you want to focus on.
Companions are the ultimate accessories. Each companion is able to give you a unique effect, regeneration of 2% HP every 2 seconds, restoration of the amount of healing and full restoration of HP and energy when the current HP drops to 15% 1 time, by the way, it is recharged only at Save Points. Each piece of equipment also has small notes in the description, allowing you to at least a little, but to know the world of the game, which adds to the overall atmosphere. The equipment becomes not faceless and “purely for show”, but skillfully integrated into the game world.
Let’s talk about the combat system. As I said above, your Homunculi are your abilities. Each Homunculus has 3 attack options, which you will upgrade and change the composition of your attack skills as the game progresses.
- Nola is a physical melee attack, average in speed, range and damage.
- Lito is a long-range strong attack that has a recovery time, attacks, by the way, are both shooting and melee.
- Yolvan is a shooter, capable of automatically firing at enemies at short and medium range.
- Shackled Beast – a homunculus responsible for Counter-attacks, if you get the timing with its activation, the poor enemies will receive colossal damage, affecting a good radius.
- Luiseach is an interesting Homunculus girl who can surprise you with her mid-range attacks that inflict various statuses.
- No 7 is an extremely strong Homunculus that attacks in the melee zone, but has a questionable attack cooldown.
And those are only a few that you can find to fulfill the attacking role. And if that wasn’t enough, in addition to the attacking homunculi, we will have party members with passive effects, Hati – a wolf that gives us a dash, Garm, who pierces Tumors, Motley, who allows us to swim quickly with the ability to pierce underwater tumors, and pull ourselves up to certain places, Lars, who gives us the ability to stay on walls and in the future, pierce special walls.
Each ability will be given to you in due time, and at the same time, will send you to explore old locations and will allow you to go to new ones. Backtracking in the game is configured very nicely, you do not need to look for where you missed something. The map will tell you everything.
Speaking of the map, the game has a mini map, usually located in the upper right part of the screen. It can unfold both in a translucent version across the entire screen, and be opened in a separate window for detailed exploration. Each location in the game has many “rooms” connected together. When clearing a room, not from enemies, but from quest items, lore records, equipment and other collectibles, the room on the map is painted blue. That, in and of itself, is already quite nice. At the same time, the map clearly shows where you can go and where you will not be able to proceed until you receive the respective ability. When you receive the ability, the same magic door will show that you can go there. Quite convenient.
But one thing still bothered me, if there is a secret passage in the room leading to another one that, in turn, contains a collectible, and you can’t go there now – the rooms remain gray. You see that there is a secret there, you can look for it, but at the same time the fact of finding it is slightly devalued. It is like you found a secret passage, but you were shown that “it is here somewhere”.
The combat in the game is quite unique, you will be met by several dozen different enemies, each location has its own specific enemies, for example: a desecrated forest has its half-dead mutants; a magician’s mansion: a kind of half-broken geishas; a test tower features ronin and samurai with ninja; a robot factory is overrun by workers, and more.
Each location has its own atmosphere and its own unique enemies. And you will need to know how to approach each one, enemy attacks have 2-3 different options, which you should get used to. The difficulty increase is a bit crooked, at first you don’t really notice the enemies, the bosses are easy, have a couple of phases and both bosses and enemies can be easily passed. But closer to the middle of the game the difficulty curve sharply changes, and not in your favor. Bosses start to have up to 5-7-8 attack options, hit very painfully, and ordinary enemies also cause problems, knocking down a third of HP in a couple of attacks. After the first half of the game, combat turns into fights for endurance, patience and attentiveness. Dances with bosses begin, dragging on for several minutes. Bosses, by the way, are also diverse, both in appearance and in mechanics. Although by the late game, boss battles seem a bit drawn out, but no less exciting.
By the end of their life, Bosses become stronger and can kill with a couple of missed attacks. As a small minus, I will point out the quest design. Ender Magnolia has 2 endings, the standard and the “good” one. To get the good ending, you need to be very attentive and perform not the most obvious actions, although I managed to do some of the necessary tasks myself, I still had to Google what I was missing. Although maybe this is just my clumsiness and habit that quest places \ items at least show hints at the possible location, and are not just mentioned in one conversation for good, and now you go look for yourself how to find it.
You can change Lilac’s outfits during the game, essentially changing the color of the cape on her back. By the end, you also have an opportunity to get a white outfit for her, even without the Attuner’s cape. Overall, the Extra section in the game brought me a lot of joy. For the in-game currency that you get for defeating monsters, you can purchase a description of the enemy, including both a brief history and animation options. It also includes the same for the heroes. True, you will have to buy 4 hero options for a complete collection, because the first is a common one, and the other 3 are options with different weapon upgrades. For example, you will end up with four Yolvans in the section – a common one, as an enemy-boss in 2 phases, and as an ability with 3 different pistol options.
Among the enemies, you will have both Bosses and regular opponents, with all the animations of attacks, death, walking, etc. The most interesting section is the Gallery. There, you can find almost a mini-artbook presented to you as you progress through the game.The game’s visuals are simply divine. Yes, this is not a AAA game using Unreal Engine, but the locations are simply gorgeous. Lots of details, awesome visuals, background movements, animations … Wow.
Some locations are simply amazing, and each location has its own theme and atmosphere, and conveys this atmosphere in a monstrously delightful way. The music echoes the visuals in everything, the music – as in the first part – is simply the bomb. The musical accompaniment is mesmerizing in its beauty, I just listened to some compositions inside the game, standing still. Special thanks for the music.
As a result, we have a very good metroidvania, which I would highly recommend to fans of the genre to play. Everyone will find something for themselves here.
