I'm not really into arena PVP or hero shooter games but it's free and I like Star Wars (in theory) so I tried it out on Switch. I expected to play a couple rounds and uninstall but surprisingly I enjoyed it and played for a couple hours. Matches are short and character abilities are simple, in a good way. These two factors allows you to easily jump into another game and give a low barrier to entry. My assumption is that this simplicity will get boring over time but perhaps the progressive unlocking of characters will make that better. Currently there are only 13 characters but I'm sure they'll add more. You start with 2 unlocked and can unlock more by playing (or paying money of course). In the 2 hours that I played I unlocked two additional characters.

I might pick it up again sometime when I don't have the time to commit to a full gaming session of the other "legit" games I'm currently in the middle of. I doubt I'll play it again for any extended duration like I did the first time.
It's a fun time for as long as it keeps your attention but, unfortunately for the devs, it's not really worth spending money on.

This is a tough one for me. While I think that star or number ratings are limited in their breadth, I do think that they are a quick and simple representation of a game's overall appeal. That being said, I typically operate on a 10-point system and treat Backloggd's 5 stars as 1 point per half star. The reason I'm boring you with all this is to say that I don't normally screw around with fractional points on a 10-point scale, something is normally either 7 or 8 out of 10. But I have to say that I give EL a 7.7 because it has so many really great elements but is also let down in several ways that I feel I have to deduct some points, but it wouldn't be fair to it to reduce it all the way to a 7.
TLDR: I'm rating this game 4/5 stars but its really like 3.7 stars.

Gameplay ★★★★★
Quick stuff first, movement feels good and I like the "pull yourself up from a ledge" which I was surprised about because I don't normally. The early game dodge is slightly clunky which is fitting to the character design but still is effective and doesn't impede your ability to fight effectively. Late game you get a quicker movement option which makes revisiting old areas much easier to enjoy.

Combat is based around spirit summoning which allows for some really cool stuff. You unlock more spirits by defeating bosses and taking on an imprint of them that mimics one of their moves. Your main spirit is basically a melee attack (ranged ones unlocked later) but you can have 3 different ones equipped and there are two equipment sets that you can quickly swap between. There are a variety of spirits from melee to ranged, familiars, and many that are kind of "fire and forget" which is where most of my enjoyment came from. It is really cool to run in, set off a spirit quickly and then dodge out to safety, and feels great to effectively utilize all 3-6 spirits in sequence or even simultaneously, as some of them have effects that stay out for a while.

Story ★★★
The story was interesting but it is told 90% through notes and item descriptions with a tiny bit of dialogue and memory sequences here and there. I think it would have been great if it had some whispery Dark Souls style voice acting that added to the mystery and ambiance. Unfortunately, I got bored of reading notes and stuff all the time so I only kind of knew what was going on. I watched a lore video afterward and I can tell you that it was interesting, but not terribly unique.

Characters ★★★★
Similar to the story, I didn't know much about the characters, but what I was able to surmise was very effective. All the enemies are corrupted people and many of them had duties to uphold. You understand a surprising amount about their character from just a couple of lines of dialogue or a short 2 minute memory sequence.

Art direction and level design ★★★★
The art is great all around. Characters, monsters, and environments are unique and interesting throughout. Background art features important story elements and create effective backdrops. The level design is also really good with a great mix of horizontal and vertical movement keeping things interesting, side areas to explore, and cool maze-like rooms that force you through a gauntlet of enemies but then unlock a shortcut at the end so you don't have to do it all again every time you want to pass through.

Adjacent to the level design is the map. The map has one of the games biggest flaws and one of its best design choices. The good part is that each room is colored orange or blue. Orange indicates that you've gotten all the pickups in the area (upgrade materials or equipable items) and blue means that something is still in that area. This color-coding made it incredibly simple and motivating to go back and find everything. I've 100%ed a metroidvania because I don't want to look up a guide or just go smacking every wall in the entire game trying to find a hidden one. But I am ok with going back to a blue room to looks for secrets I know I have missed there.

The flaw part is that the rooms are just squares on the map. It doesn't show where you are in the room and it only has little dots indicating the general areas of the exits. This might not sound like a problem but some of the rooms are pretty huge and have lots of complicated walls and pathways. I have a really good sense of direction and visual memory for these types of things but I found myself struggling to remember where I was from time to time. If you have a problem with navigation you will likely have a bad time with this one.

Music and sound design ★★
This was the other big letdown for me. Sound design was incredibly lackluster with prime examples being a monster's scream that is not only very flat and artificial, but is also reused on multiple enemies and that only lasts about 1 second, even though the attacks lasts several. Or a "charge up" noise during a boss lasting about half a second while the actually charging animation lasts over a full second. It sounds minor but it felt very off. Your spirit attack SFX also sound very generic.

I actually enjoyed the music in most areas but found the tracks to be way too short which led to it feeling super repetitive, even when I was exploring an area for the first time.

These facts meant that I played the game without sound most of the time which is really a bummer.

That's all, folks
Other games that want to have a little girl protagonist would just give her a sword and let you ignore the fact that a child wielding a weapon for the first time can slay a dragon. EL builds its entire concept around the fact that your character is a child. Every part of the game tells you of her innocence and the unfairness of her fate to be caught up in the sins of her foremothers. The game is crafted cohesively with no detail overlooked.
It had a few flaws that put me off pretty hard, but the rest of the game is so well done that it still deserves to be considered a great game overall. Definitely would recommend.