not a poorly crafted experience in any sense and i'm sure theres a lot here i lacked the generosity to find but i felt like i could completely visualize the creators' concept and reference stack with such exact clarity that it became distracting:

femininely morose akihiko yoshida and ayami kojima art/
lilting twinklechoral keichi okabe-wave ost/
vanillaware storybook Spine animations/
folklore character collection combat/
soulstroidvania wielding its genre structure of labyrinthine sparseness to spin a ludically obvious yarn about seeking ~ absolution amidst decay ~

-- and I had to uninstall because the returns are so diminished for me at this point and it was genuinely making me sad that such a clear and passionate labor of love could feel so utterly taxonomizable and consumed by its own clockably interrelated references

at this point idk its just kind of upsetting to play something with such a rigorous and dogmatic commitment to its reference material that doesnt seem to extend very far beyond the world of games themselves, even if said games are all things i find personally beautiful and worth emulating. felt like a very workmanlike and glossy medley of touchstones from works that clearly moved the creators--but executed in a sort of surface way that belies their inability to cogently, personally express how said works resonated beyond mere facsimile. no judgies girl i relate and its why i havent reliably maintained any true semblance of a dedicated art practice for years!!!

tldr; i saw myself in this and i didnt like it

Um baita de um metroidvania! Impressionante como eu não conhecia o jogo e só de ver uma screenshot já o quis comprar logo de cara, e deu muito bom. Ender Liles é absurdamente imersivo e recheado de inspirações, seu mundo desolado e solitário me lembra bastante Nier Automata, somado por seu lado Dark Fantasy que é bem voltado pra Dark Souls, e indo mais a fundo, da até pra tirar uma pitada de Shadow of The Colossus aqui, visto que nossa protagonista, Lily, está em um mundo no qual ela não conhece muito bem, purificando os Corrompidos, e a cada chefe principal purificado, sua aparência vai ficando mais e mais devastada e corrompida.

Antes de tudo num Metroidvania pra mim, o principal foco é ter um motivo pra explorar, seja achar alguma arma, equipamentos, armaduras, etc. Aqui não usamos armas, já que Lily não ataca, apenas anda, pula e desvia, a função de ataque traz um grande diferencial sensacional pro jogo, que são os Espíritos Corrompidos. Cada chefe do jogo derrotado se torna seu aliado, sendo usado pra combate. Basicamente eles funcionam como stands, equipamos ele num set de skills (no meu caso X, Y e B) e o resto é óbvio. Ou seja, todos os chefes do jogo (com exeção do último) são suas armas, e isso é sensacional, pois tirando os bosses principais, o jogo tem toneladas de opcionais e cada um com uma skill diferente abrangendo varios estilos de jogo e estrátegias, um atira um projétil, outro arranca pra frente, outro ataca em diagonal, outros que combam e por aí vai, a lista é grande e o combate se torna muito varíado graças a isso. O jogo definitivamente não é fácil e exige bastante cautela, os inimigos machucam, e no último ato alguns inimigos te matam com dois golpes. Os chefes variam, eu tive problemas com uns dois, espcialmente o último que tive que ir upado no talo, aí virou passeio.

Depois de tudo, Ender Lilies entrega tudo, o jogo é lindo de morrer, tendo uma paleta de cores bem escura com ambientes de encher os olhos de tão lindos, trilha sonora no piano solene e melancólica que ajudam ainda mais na imersão, uma lore muito bacana com toneladas de arquivos de texto pra agradar todos que gostam de se aprofundar, acompanhado da história linda, e claro, seu combate diverso e divertido. O jogo foi um pouco longo, platinei em 25 horas, embora eu não tenha ficado entediado em nenhum momento, achei a exploração e a progressão bem diversificada e intiuitiva, por exemplo, o pulo duplo é um dos primeiros upgrades, com isso você acha que vai fazer a festa achando novas áreas, já que esse upgrade geralmente é um alívio quando se pega em qualquer metroidvania, mas o jogo consegue trancar bem a progressão pra que tudo pareça orgânico, e a cada upgrade novo, a movimentação acaba ficando cada vez mais divertida, e quando se pega o gancho é a cereja do bolo. Uma coisa meio estranha é que no mapa, a sala não vai se formando conforme você anda, e sim já fica um bloco inteiro representando que você está ali, isso faz o backtracking ficar meio confuso já que o jogo tem várias salas que são gigantes mas em contrapartida, o jogo é bem intuitivo marcando blocos laranjas pra áreas completadas e azuis pra não completadas, sem falar que marca em vermelho rotas fechadas.

No fim mais um jogo indie que deu um verdadeiro show, um joguinho que vai deixar saudades e que definitivamente merecia mais reconhecimento.

Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights is easily right up there with Hollow Knight and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night as one of the best modern metroidvanias that I've personally played. It's about half the length of those games only clocking in at 21 hours for my 100% run, but even with its relatively short completion time it still hits the mark on everything that makes a metroidvania enjoyable.

Starting with the premise of the story, you play as Lily, the last and youngest White Priestess, your mission is to purify the kingdom of Land's End from the Blight, a rain which corrupts and drives anything it touches (aside from Lily herself) to madness while simultaneously granting immortality. The previous Priestess bound the spirit of her faithful knight companion to Lily for protection seeing as how Lily herself is young and defenseless. The Umbral Knight is your faithful companion who follows Lily on her journey and will occasional speak exposition as you reach new areas. The bulk of the narrative is told in a Dark Souls-like manner by giving the player bits and pieces of lore at a time in the form of diary entries you have to find and read and memories in the form of cut-scenes you witness from felling boss enemies. At the end of the day it's not a very complex plot, but there are a few twists and revelations and some moments that will definitely pull at your heartstrings and I found it compelling all the way through, it gave me a very dark fantasy fairytale vibe which I liked a lot.

Aside from Lily and the Umbral Knight there are many characters you'll meet along the way in the form of main story bosses and mini bosses, to avoid spoilers I won't name any specifics, but in true Souls-like fashion they all have their own tragic histories and stories, the game can be very dark and sad at times, but I feel like that is part of what makes it so memorable and even if you never talk to any of these characters you really feel for them with how well their backstories are written, especially if you take the time to read all the lore entries.

Next I want to mention the OST because it's just simply incredible. It was composed by the Japanese art pop/classical crossover group Mili, I've been a big fan of Mili for a couple years now so as soon as I heard the Cliffside Hamlet theme and heard the ethereal whisper humming of Cassie Wei I recognized it was Mili and knew immediately this OST would be a classic. There's tons of variety with plenty of mystical fairytale like medieval folk music to fit the fairytale vibe of the game, but there's also suspenseful and unsettling atmospheric songs and orchestral bombastic themes as well, I also have to mention that I love how the music slowly builds up during boss fights and as the boss loses more and more health it swells with more bombast. The ending/credits theme is also just gorgeous.

Gameplay as with every metroidvania is evenly divided into two major aspects, combat and exploration.

1) The combat. It starts out basic as you only have the Umbral Knight at your behest in the beginning. Being a frail little girl Lily herself doesn't fight, but summons spirits to attack for her and the game has a great sense of progression as you truly feel Lilly getting stronger the longer you play the game as you level up and collect new spirits to help fight for you. Spirits act as skill attacks and once you have enough you can bind 6 total, 3 to your primary set and 3 to your secondary set. These each correspond to the buttons square, triangle and circle, you can switch between sets with R1, normal spirits have cooldowns and limited uses while boss spirits don't, so it's good to swap between a set of each to chain together combos and do great damage. This is a Souls-like aside from a metroidvania so of course you have a dodge as well and I really want to mention the nice detail of how the animation for Lily's dodge is her throwing her entire body out of the way while landing on the ground, it really shows how weak and defenseless she is and another show of progression is eventually you'll unlock a dash and that changes Lily's default dodge animation to a graceful slide across the ground. Overall there's tons of variety in the combat and many cool spirit attacks to try out and utilize for different types of play-styles and builds.

2) The exploration. The map in Ender Lilies is a very decent size and packed to the brim with secret walls, hidden pathways and items galore to find. These will come in the shape of lore entries, Relics which you equip to increase various stats, Amulet fragments and gems which permanently increase your health and Blight which is used to enhance your spirits. A big portion of these items and secrets you can't reach at first, but as you progress further into the game you'll slowly unlock your metroidvania staple power-ups. Double jump, wall climb, air dash, breathing underwater etc. You name it, it's there, can never go wrong with the classics and these power-ups will make those backtracking trips just as fresh as the first run through the area. Which brings me to my next point...

The level design. Every time I got a new power-up I couldn't wait to backtrack through the map to find new secrets I couldn't reach prior and that's mostly due to the fantastic level design (Well and the fact that there's ample bonfire/fast travel locations to move between) level design is vibrantly colorful with tons of scenic variety, you have everything from a ruined castle to a witch's hamlet that's been flooded and a poisonous fog filled abyss. There were a couple areas that had some poor enemy placement, but they're few and far between and easy to look past, aside from that exploring each level numerous times was a joy.

The art direction and the actual background art itself is simply beautiful, reminds me of Vanillaware's style, especially Odin Sphere and it definitely helps accentuate the whole fairytale vibe the game has going for it. The animations are all high quality as well, everything from simple movements to the attacks look charming and feel very smooth and fluid.

Almost all the bosses were incredibly fun to fight, each boss has multiple phases as their health bar decreases and that changes up their moveset just when you think you've memorized it. The difficulty was perfectly adjusted to be just challenging enough to take a few tries to beat, but not so hard that the difficulty felt artificial, the only exceptions to this were a couple late game bosses which didn't rely on the boss themselves being challenging and just threw infinite mobs of enemies at you while fighting the boss, that felt pretty cheap to me, but once again I love everything else so much that it's easy to look past this.

All in all Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights is a masterfully crafted modern classic in the metroidvania genre, managing to tell a compelling narrative with plenty of interesting world-building and well written characters, feature a combat system that is enjoyable and has good depth to it, bosses which are both challenging and fun to fight and a world that is always a joy to explore with an OST that is truly a magical composition which perfectly captures the atmosphere of the beautiful art aesthetics. If you're a fan of games like Hollow Knight, Salt and Sanctuary or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night you certainly don't want to miss out on this gem of a game.

Ender Lilies is a solid game which is sometimes elevated to a very good game by its presentation and especially its superb OST, but stops short of being fantastic due to a lack of polish and an identity that truly sets it apart. Still, a strong and under-appreciated entry into the Metroidvania genre.

7,5 / 10
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The market for Metroidvanias is certainly a bit oversaturated at this point in time, considering there seems to be a new one coming out every other week. It’s understandable that a lot of devs want to jump on this train; it’s a great way to combine a lot of different game design elements into a fun and cohesive experience that feels like a real journey through a vast world and usually offers ample challenge for players to overcome. While a lot of them try and take their inspiration from older games in the genre, the vast majority of modern MVs tend to closely follow in the footsteps of one game in particular; Hollow Knight.

Perhaps this is why Ender Lilies seems to have largely flown under the radar for most people. Even some die-hard fans of the genre seem to have missed it. Make no mistake, this game isn’t exactly subtle about its influence from HK. Visually alone, you’d be hard pressed not to feel reminded of it a little bit. It has the same tragic and forlorn atmosphere, beautifully detailed background art, melancholic background music, tough, “Souls-like” combat (meaning “animation-based, high commitment attacks and fairly dangerous enemies”) and most other trappings of that specific niche. But this isn’t just a HK-clone, even if it occasionally veers a bit too close into the direction that some games like Gleamlight, Lotus Knight or Crowsworn went into. Whereas the others here seem to purposefully, almost deceptively try to lure you into playing them by specifically targeting Hollow Knight fans, Ender Lilies does seem like it’s genuinely trying its best to be its own thing, even if it doesn’t always succeed in that endeavour.

It’s definitely not for a lack of trying, and I can say one thing for certain: This game does not feel like a cynical cash grab. Ender Lilies clearly had a lot of passion and love behind its creation, and if nothing else, it’s a very promising title from an upcoming indie studio. It does a lot of things very well. But at the same time, it often feels weirdly unfinished and frustratingly inconsistent when it comes the fine details and polish. It’s a very solid title with no real critical flaw, but a lot of little annoyances that might add up to a “death by a thousand cuts” situation for some people. Personally, I wasn’t THAT bothered by most of it until I reached the later areas, where these issues became a bit more noticeable.

A good example for the general trend with Ender Lilies is the world design. For the most part, it’s quite good and at some points even manages to be great! While the early areas after the tutorial aren’t very complex or hard, they’re absolutely fine for what they are. They even telegraph some secrets and inaccessible areas for you to return to later. Unfortunately, I think this aspect is a little haphazardly implemented though. Fast travelling is available from the start - an unusual choice for a MV/Soulslike - and includes every checkpoint, of which there are quite a few. This kind of leads the game to rely on this system a little too much, meaning you’ll find yourself often teleporting between random areas to explore rooms you’ve already been to because the world isn’t really designed to be quickly traversed on foot. It becomes even stranger when you end up opening up shortcuts to areas you’ve already been to and completely cleared out - although you could easily argue that these are meant to facilitate a more non-linear approach to exploring the world. And it works quite well in that regard. I know I totally went off the beaten path multiple times and only realised it much later. I just wish that these connections and short cuts could’ve been handled a bit more elegantly. It sometimes feels like they were placed there as an afterthought, more than being an intentional piece of game design.

The world feels fairly large for a small-ish indie Metroidvania. It’s not the gargantuan size of Hollow Knight’s Hallownest, or even Blasphemous’ Custodia but it certainly feels larger than something like the Ori games, and it does so - mostly - without it getting stale, and that by itself is already a huge compliment. It’s just sad that most of the levels here feel somewhat clichéd in terms of visual identity, setting and memorability. A village and forest section in the beginning, 2 separate castles (right next to each other no less) dark and dank catacombs, and even a sewer/prison area. As far as creativity goes, this just feels like the absolute bare minimum, like someone just checked the essentials off a list of “obligatory MV world design elements”. At least the final area, the Verboten Domain feels a bit more unique, with its fungus-infected, poisonous, purple vibes and thick atmosphere. What’s more is that the actual art direction and music for these areas are always really good, but I’ll get more into that later.

The actual level design is more varied. Like I mentioned before, the early areas are fine, but nothing special. Both are quite linear in their progression, with some side paths to explore at the most, or a short fork in the path which tends to converge again in the next room. They do offer quite a bit for players choosing to return at a later point, when they have more power ups and higher stats, and that’s something I appreciate, this game isn’t afraid to put some of its most important secrets into some seemingly inconspicuous places and asking you to remember it - although the map attempts to help you in that regard (more on that later). The areas after this thankfully do become a lot more open and allow for noticeably less linear travel through them. I particularly like the two castle areas, even if they do feel somewhat similar, but lore-wise I got the feeling that this was kinda the point. While other areas sometimes boil down to a lot of long, huge hallways filled with enemies with not much in the way of actual level design, the castles, especially the Twin Spires, get pretty creative with some of their set ups. Elegant short cuts and expert-level recontextualisation of previous obstacles, as well as some pretty interesting enemy set ups. The less likely I am inclined to run past the majority of enemies, the better. I also enjoy the aesthetic of a truly ancient castle perched between the mountains, covered under a thick layer of snow. The music is fantastic too, but that’s a given for the whole game.

I wasn’t as big a fan of the 2 last areas, the Stockade and Verboten Domain. While both do feature some clever level design ideas, an unfortunate amount of rooms are just brutally long hallways filled to the brim with extremely spongy enemies, some of which can teleport directly on top of you. It’s nothing absolutely egregious or anything, but having to repeat these areas with nothing more engaging to do than fighting or running past what feels like an endless amount of enemies gets pretty boring pretty quickly. It’s not helped by the fact that the game rarely - if ever - asks anything in the way of platforming from you either. The strange thing is, the mechanics would be here, it’s just that the level design doesn’t really make use of Lily’s surprisingly flexible air mobility. That is, unless you’re looking to complete the game’s true ending, where there will be the occasional platforming section that are so much harder to pull off than literally anything else in this game, it feels downright out of place. I suspect that these were added at the last minute, as the entire endgame feels a bit rushed, at least in terms of level design and interesting gameplay ideas. Fighting over-tuned enemies can only remain engaging for so long.

At this point I have to talk about the only thing I genuinely hate about this game; its map. It’s ugly, unintuitive and manages a very interesting, albeit unintentional tight rope walk where it’s completely unintelligible at first and you have no fucking clue what you’re looking at, but as soon as you understand what it does, it spoils literally EVERYTHING in that area; whether there are still any collectibles, how many paths lead to and away from it and even where they are. The larger the map becomes, the less you feel like you’re getting a grasp on it, because everything looks the same from start to finish. Trying to figure out how to navigate this map was a fight I didn’t know I was getting into.

Speaking of fighting, let’s move on to the most recognisable element of this game; its spirit/Stand-based combat system. It was featured heavily in the marketing and seems to have been the initial draw for a lot of people. Lily is a small child, and thus is obviously rather incapable of fighting all those zombie soldiers and eldritch abominations herself. That’s what our spirit friends are for. She starts off with just single spirit companion, the Umbral Knight, who works as your typical sword moveset and by defeating the many bosses and mini-bosses of this game we gain a new spirit to fight alongside our player character each time. Lily is instead capable of using the typical “genre abilities”, like a double jump, dash, wall climb, hookshot, etc, which are unlocked by defeating the main bosses. There is a considerable number of these spirit-attacks ranging from melee to ranged magic attacks to AOEs to DoTs, and you can equip up to 6 of them at a time, which makes for a surprisingly deep moveset and “build variety” on the player’s part. You can swap these out at every check point, and you can upgrade them individually. Playing around with this system is very fun and I didn’t anticipate enjoying it as much as I did. I do have to admit that this system isn’t really as revolutionary as some people make it out to be though; these are all effectively still just weapons and/or spells. They basically work exactly like in the older Souls games, with a limited amount of charges per spell with some of them being able to string combos. It’s really just an aesthetic choice, gameplay wise these work exactly like they would in any other Metroidvania/Souls-like. On the other hand, I had much more fun with this than I had with the Ori games’ or The Messenger’s combat, for example. Learning what all the different spells do and how they interact with each other is very engaging.

I always say that a game’s combat system is only ever as good as the enemies and bosses you use it against. So how does Ender Lilies fare in that regard?

I can happily say: fairly well, actually. The enemy variety is surprisingly high and repetition is kept to a sensible margin. Their move-sets are varied, differ in speeds, ferocity and damage and they are - with some exceptions - always fun to fight. They always telegraph their attacks in a fair and understandable manner. The character designs could be a bit more interesting and unique, but it’s fine. It works for what it’s going for, even if I feel like a more recognisable design scheme for the average enemy would’ve done wonders for memorability. The mini bosses are basically powered up regular enemies with some additions to their move-set and a massively increased health pool. As mentioned before, they’ll always give you a new combat ability, often their own signature attack. These fights are ok for the most part, but nothing special, I would hesitate to call them “bosses”. The actual bosses range from really good to quite annoying. I personally really liked both Dark Witch Elaine and Knight Commander Julius the best, while I really dislike the two bosses that make use of additional enemies during the fight: Hoenir, Master of the Abyss and the final boss, the Blighted Lord. This combat system really doesn’t feel like its designed to constantly fight multiple enemies at once, which is made worse by the fact that in both cases the ads immediately respawn, which in practice kinda forces you to ignore them because killing them is literally pointless. This, on the other hand, makes it harder to pay attention to what the boss is doing, and cost me a bunch of lives in both cases. I especially disliked Hoenir because on top of endlessly spawning ads, he also keeps running away. (Elden Beast flash back intensifies) Luckily the other bosses are mostly very fun to fight and don’t rely on cheap stuff like this.

The one thing I’ll say about ALL enemies, bosses included, is that they feel needlessly spongey at all times. No matter which level you are, and even if you complete a harder area and then come back to an easier one later, enemies will STILL take multiple hits to take down. The only time when you’ll feel TRULY powerful is when you’ll return to the very first few areas to complete whatever you missed initially. Initially I liked that enemies could withstand multiple hits, but later areas go so overkill with the amount of enemies in a single room that their general tankiness just led to me avoiding them entirely a lot of the time. This isn’t exactly helped by the fact that, in both the Stockade and Verboten Domain areas, the difficulty (or rather, enemy damage) increases dramatically. It almost feels like Lily just got reset to level 1.

Speaking of the levelling; I still don’t really understand what it does. Is it health? Damage? Both? You can increase both health and damage in other ways though. A bit confusing imo, but nothing too egregious.

With most of the gameplay stuff out of the way, let’s talk about story and lore. Initially I was quite dismissive of the story and lore, as I found the presentation of it very cliché and overdone. Something, something kingdom was good, then calamity happened and now everyone’s a zombie. A very typical and average Dark Souls-esque story about how fucked up the world is. And in a way, it IS that, but it’s also a very personal and emotional story about finding your purpose and finding out who you even are, and when I realised this towards the end I found myself appreciating it all a lot more. There is some genuine heart and profundity to it all. All the sadder that they chose to go with the “read a billion in-game texts and listen to people shout a bunch of cryptic nonsense at you”. You know, the typical “ahh.. Margriel… Forgive me.. I only meant to protect you… arggh..” type beat. I genuinely believe the story would’ve had MUCH more impact on the player if they went about it in a more direct way involving an actual narrative that doesn’t take place in item descriptions. I obviously love this stuff in Soulsborne games, or Blasphemous or other games that are more about the “how’s” and “why’s” of an event, rather than the “who’s”, but here it felt weirdly unfitting. That being said, as soon as the story DID start to click for me, I really liked it. It’s quite a heartfelt and emotional story about a little girl trying to find her place and purpose in a hostile world, and an old knight who still struggles with the guilt of not having been able to uphold his vow. I even got a bit emotional at the end, and that’s a sign that I did appreciate it after all. It’s just sad that the emotional heart of this story was buried so deep beneath what felt like fluff.

Finally, let’s talk about the game’s strongest aspect by far: presentation.

The art style, especially when it comes to the world and levels, is generally very good to fantastic. The background art is beautiful and extremely detailed, and tells a lot of the game’s story. The lighting and colours are generally very lush and give a good dynamic to it all. While it does start off a bit monochromatic, it’s nowhere near as bad as other examples in the genre, this game is generally quite colourful despite the black and white colour-scheme of the promotional material. Especially areas like the Witch Coven or Verboten Domain feel like they can barely contain the explosively colourful background trying to creep in. It really feels like a big budget game with a lot of creative energy behind it. The character animations are generally also very good, with only a select few instances of it feeling awkward. Like mentioned before, character designs are generally good, but could’ve certainly been more unique and original. I’m wondering whether the anime style of presentation might have added to it feeling a bit generic at times. Sadly, the same can be also said for the design concepts behind the areas. While they are technically and artistically great, conceptually they are a bit tame, like they went out of their way to not include anything that was too wild or out of the ordinary.

The sound design is weird. Sometimes it’s very good and spacey, and feels very elegant and well mixed, and then other actions simply don’t have any sounds associated with them. The sword strikes sound great, the foot steps sound like plastic. Some sounds are extremely intricate, while others are ripped straight from sound libraries without anything done to them. It’s noticeable enough to pull me out of the experience occasionally, and that’s probably the most critical mistake a game like this can make. Sound design IS important, and it’s sad to see that it clearly wasn’t a priority here.

It’s the music that TRULY elevates this game though. All the area tunes are extremely catchy and memorable and communicate the sadness and tragedy of this world better than any other aspect of this game. The boss themes, while not as memorable, are also very creative and comment on their respective bosses’ personalities very well. I keep listening to the game’s OST during work, and I genuinely love some of the tracks so much I’m considering sampling them for my own music. Especially the main theme, the White Parish theme and some of the post-boss songs are hauntingly beautiful, and during the credits I almost shed a little tear because it all added up so well in that moment. Music truly is one of the most important aspects of a game, and I think Ender Lilies is a prime example of that.

And that’s the thing with this game; it’s sometimes genuinely great and clearly knows what it’s doing, and then other times, it’ll fumble some really basic stuff in a way that even amateur game designers should know better. Sometimes the devs have a stroke of genius, and then other times, they’ll go with the absolute bare minimum. And I think this is most noticeable when it comes to the game’s overall place in the genre:

What really sets Ender Lilies apart? What is the draw that’s supposed to pull people in? What is this game’s identity? It feels like it’s so busy trying to appeal to all sorts of MV audiences that it forgot to really work out its own personality, it’s own pull. The art direction and music ARE great, but games like Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, Super Metroid, CV: Symphony of the Night, Ori, Axiom Verge.. all of these games have fantastic art direction and music, but they also have their own identity, both in terms of art AND gameplay. It’s even worse since the game orients itself very clearly around Hollow Knight in particular, and goes for a very similar style of presentation but doesn’t really quite reach the heights that HK did, neither in art, music NOR in gameplay. If I had to choose between HK and EL to recommend to a friend who’s trying to get into Metroidvanias, there’d be no contest - especially since Ender Lilies is twice as expensive as Hollow Knight. The only reason I would ever recommend EL over HK would be for it’s significantly lighter difficulty and shorter run-time.

I realise that this review probably sounded a bit negative overall, but don’t let that fool you. This IS a really good game. It’s an extremely solid Metroidvania / Souls-like. Like I said in the beginning, it doesn’t have any real critical flaws. It has very enjoyable gameplay, a non-linear map that feels appropriately large, amazing art and music, it has no bullshit areas, and doesn’t drag on forever. It just has a lot of minor disappointments and annoyances that may or may not add up to a legitimate grievance, depending on who’s playing. And I won’t lie, these things do annoy me and kinda break my heart, because this game would really have deserved a lot more polish.

The reason I genuinely really like this game, and consider it not only worth your time but one of the better experiences I’ve had in a while is simple; it has heart. It has a soul. It’s a passion project by a couple of people that clearly love the Metroidvania genre, and cared a lot about the story they were trying to tell. It’s not a cynical, self-referential, meta-humour ridden “””clever””” game, nor is it a soulless, predatory cash grab, it’s a game that’s not afraid to pull on your heartstrings and present you with some actual emotion here and there. Again, I REALLY like this game, and I think every fan of Metroidvania games ought to give this one a shot. Even though I have problems with it, I enjoyed it more than other MVs I’ve played recently, including Salt & Sanctuary, The Messenger, Metroid: Dread and both Ori’s, and I think that’s saying something. All things considered, I do think this game is underrated. It genuinely is a very fun game, with an extremely solid foundation, and I could see a sequel ironing out a lot of the kinks, creating a truly fantastic gaming experience in the process.

I think there are a lot of people who would probably get a lot out of this. I’ll definitely give it a second playthrough some time in the future.

7,5 / 10


Metroidvania com pitadas de souls-like em que você controla uma menininha muito fofa chamada Lily (ou uma delas), esta que depois de se encontrar sozinha e sem abrigo, passa a ter ajuda de diversos "stands de Jojo" e vai numa jornada em busca de trazer esperança para seu mundo distópico, desolado por uma tragédia chama "A corrupção" - e não, não se passa no Brasil. Isto é Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights! 😯

Precisa de mais informações sobre o jogo? Resumidamente, Ender Lilies possui um lore misterioso, mas que aos poucos vai te inteirando a respeito deste universo, ou seja, é algo que vai te instigar a continuar buscando mais sobre sua história. Um fator importante nestes jogos é a sua gameplay, esta que tem sua polidez, mas que em alguns momentos específicos, o timing entre uma ação e outra se torna lento de forma demasiada, irritando o jogador. Ao menos na maior parte do tempo a jogabilidade é satisfatória.

Sobre a dificuldade, não diria que é extremamente difícil, afinal é de praxe do gênero, no entanto o escalonamento dela é peculiar: ora estamos quase que num passeio, ora é possível entrar em desespero do tanto que a exploração pode ser estressante, algo a se relevar, talvez. Quanto aos bosses, que são 8 ao total (excluindo os mini-bosses que são encontrados conforme sua curiosidade de sair mundo afora), eles possuem ótimo design e complexidade, o que não exclui o fato de eu ter achado tais embates fortemente cansativos, a depender de sua build - ache uma que se encaixe ao seu estilo! 😉

A trilha sonora é perfeita, cheia da melancolia e tensão a que o ambiente te propõe enfrentar. O ponto mais alto do game certamente é seu level design, no qual as plataformas se conectam de modo inteligentíssimo!! Existem níveis que fiquei boquiaberto com o quão encaixadinhas eram as rotas, sempre se completando muito bem. Fica a dica de explorar todos os pontos do mapa, visto que você será recompensado com itens, cartas que te contam sobre o universo e a respeito da Sacerdotiza Branca da Fonte (a mãe das Lilies, maybe?), habilidades e companheiros de batalha! Facilmente passarás das 15 horas de gameplay, aproveitando cada momento - eu concluí com mais de 23h e platinei com pouco mais de 30 horas.

Por fim, Ender Lilies é recomendadíssimo pra quem curte este gênero de plataforma e um bom desafio com toques de tensão, melancolia e... fofura? Queria muito uma Lily pra mim!!!

Nota final: 85/100 💜

Ender Lilies is an excellent game with an impeccable setting and very challenging gameplay. It is a typical 2D action and exploration game (metroidvania), but with an emphasis on combat-based gameplay, which is often tough due to strong enemies and difficult but fascinating boss battles.

The game is about a girl with all-white hair, skin and clothes, who fights back using the power of spirits, which are the equivalent of different weapons, special moves and magics. The idea is somewhat similar to Castlevania Aria of Sorrow's concept of using the power of our enemies, as getting more spirits requires defeating bosses and sub-bosses, some of these being a stronger version of a common enemy. Although the difference with respect to Aria of Sorrow, is that thanks to the fact that the spirits are obtained in battles against bosses, we don't have to grind. And the best thing is that thanks to the variety of spirits that we can get, the combat is very dynamic and fun, plus it makes that we can play the game in a style that suits our way of playing. Finally, we can level up our character and our spirits. Lily can level up by defeating enemies and getting orbs, and for the spirits we must get special fragments, which are obtained at different points on the map.

The world in which this game takes place is a gloomy realm where the rain has no end, there are corpses, zombies and deformed monsters lurking. I love all this, because the art of this game is masterful and helps to fully convey that feeling of coldness and desolation, plus the music that usually accompanies complement the atmosphere very well and everything together helps us to feel inside the game. And another thing that I liked is that unlike Hollow Knight, I feel that the dialogues, characters and scenarios, the story told by notes is better spun, or at least that has been my perception, although curiously both stories have a huge similarity. Having mentioned the latter, I'm honestly not a big fan of games that are told by notes and descriptions on objects, but for some reason this game has changed my opinion on that.

As a Metroidvania it's pretty good, since it has details like if you know how to use wisely some moves you can get to some places before time, or that the map is not super detailed, but it's better compensated with a cool mechanic that I think all games of this style should have, and that is that if there is an area with items that we haven't collected, it will be shown in blue, while if the area has already been fully explored, it will be shown in yellow. This makes it easier to not have to remember which specific area we have to visit and also makes it easier to complete it 100%.

Conclusion
Yes, this game has fascinated me. It completely clicks with me and my tastes, from unimportant things like the design of the menus to more particular things like the gameplay, the setting, among other things, everything reminds me somehow of when I played games like Castlevania Curse of Darkness, God of War and Prince of Persia Warrior Within on my PS2, on rainy summer nights or days.

I recommend it to any fan of metroidvania, challenging games and good atmosphere.

Ender Lilies is a beautiful, atmospheric and at the same time horrific Metroidvania. You're tasked with making your way through a ruined kingdom, purifying "blighted" souls. Through your journey, you'll slowly uncover how everything went so horribly wrong. There's so much worldbuilding here, and the environments are lovingly drawn to showcase their beauty and vileness. There's so much to explore and uncover using the abilities you get along the way and your own curiosity. The level design and enemies can also be quite challenging, so don't underestimate them, especially when it comes to learning their patterns.

This was an amazing experience. Everything about this game is great: the story, the graphics, the gameplay, and the soundtrack (which is beautiful, to keep overusing that word). If you're looking for a challenging game or just something to get deeply immersed in, this is it. I wholly recommend it.

A pretty good metroidvania where most of my complaints are pretty nit picky. I wasn't too engaged with the story it was trying to tell, the map could show your position a bit better rather than just telling you which area you're in, and stuff like contact damage I'm not a big fan of. For some reason contact damage felt even more irritating in this game for some reason. Maybe it has something to do with how far you get knocked back when getting hit. Final boss kinda sucks, but it definitely made me think more about my loadout composition than the rest of the game did. The game really scratched my metroidvania itch I've been wanting from a game for a while even if the start of the game was a bit of a slow burn before the branching paths to kick in.

If you're a metroidvania fan, I think you owe it to yourself to try out Ender Lilies. Hauntingly beautiful with an exceptional OST and world to explore. The use of choosing spirits you encounter as your attacks is not only fun from a thematic view but allows for a good bit of customizability to account for your specific playstyle.

The story takes similar approach to games like Hollow Knight and Dark Souls where much of it is meant to be pieced together by random bits of information gleamed throughout the world. I personally found it compelling to the point where I was more interested in finding a new note to understand more about what happened to this decrepit world than I was finding an actual new upgrade.

There are some performance issues when playing docked on switch, especially in some of the later large areas, but it still generally runs well for the most part. The only other issues I have with the game are rather small nitpicks in the grand scheme of things.

Personally, the game is a special one, and I really hope it can find success.

You awaken in the dungeons of a world covered in darkness and suffering from Blight brought on by the Rain of Death, a once beautiful world now slowly beginning to rot. Towns, people, the kingdom, the wildlife all driven mad and cursed into warped beasts and form unrecognizable to man.
It is up to you, to find out why this happened, and purify what the Rain brought in to ruin.

None of this I knew before playing this game. I had bought it on the fact it was a Metroidvania type of game and it uses my favorite mechanic of summoning as it's lore and reasoning for combat. This was all I needed to get this game and I enjoyed it.

The story as told at the top is really good, it leads you along at a peace that if you're into it then you'll keep up and be ready for whatever lore is dumped onto you next. If you don't care about the story, then no problem, it's not front and center at all times so you can enjoy it as just the game.

The gameplay is pretty simple to explain. Find relics that act as your equipment, your "spirits" that act as your skills and weapons are closer to say MegaMan since it's bosses that give you these and not like Castlevania where you get them from most enemies or treasure chests or what have you. Platforming is your standard affair in this genre, nothing difficult, the map is actually pretty open, it doesn't feel like you're cutoff from exploring that often. Enemies are actually quite a challenge with patterns and keep you on your toes, perhaps a little too often in my experience. speaking of, you also level up with exp, but the game isn't very stat heavy, it's more skill than anything.

The graphics are quite beautiful, if you like the kind of art style that Hollow Knight and Ori bring with the character being a blooming white while the backgrounds are a dark goth-ish type setting, then you'll love this since it follows the same thing.

The music is also beautiful and somber, not much you'll find yourself humming, but music you'll remember the second you step in certain places.

If I had to say anything bad about the game, I can't really find anything major...as good as the game is, on a personal level, I couldn't bring myself to 100% the game after I beat it, for me combat doesn't give anything besides leveling up and the gameplay doesn't change much the more spirits and relics you get so after beating it I had no intention on cleaning up. But the game was amazing for what it was as I went through it.

Purify the Blight
Story

Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights starts with you the player controlling a young female priestess. Lily, who unfortunately has no memories of the events prior. And yet she embarks on a mission to purify the kingdom of Land’s End where all of the inhabitants have been turned into Blighted.

It is a tough task to ask of one so young, but she’s not alone in her journey. A stalwart knight spirit joins her in the beginning, to fight the battles she can’t. The duo isn’t all alone, however. As you progress in the game you will gain the ability to bind more spirits to your cause and help Lily as she purifies the land.

Stay Back, Let the Spirits Handle it
Gameplay

Gameplay in Ender Lilies follows in a 2D Metroidvania Action RPG structure. So you go off into this world with your knight. Defeat bosses, Gain new allies and abilities which can help you backtrack to old areas and overcome obstacles in locations you couldn’t access before.

Inaccessible areas you can’t access are easy to identify with the map system. So you don’t need to worry about remembering the exact place you couldn’t go to previously. I found it very refreshing to go back to previous locations and clean up the area properly. There is even a nifty feature where the map will be colored to let players know there are no more items left in the area.

The flow of combat is satisfying in that you don’t personally fight. You fight by having your spirits that accompany you do the work. Primarily offensive abilities. Your knight will slash enemies with his sword. Another can bash enemies away with a great hammer, one useful spirit can even continuously swing her wrecking ball to smash enemies. It should be noted there are a great many spirits to equip throughout the game. Not just the main bosses. Lesser spirits you may come across can give you their aid in battle. So there’s no shortage of spirits to choose from.

Some abilities you earn from bosses can be used indefinitely while others have a limited amount. You can raise the limit by equipping certain relics which can increase the number of spirits used.

Speaking of relics. There are a bunch to find in the game and each of them can change your status in a myriad of ways. Some are basic like increasing health, attack, and movement. But others like prayer usage increase, a new sp gauge, more experience, among others are really useful. I played around using different kinds of relics. So if you’re having trouble beating a boss, perhaps changing your relic setup might be needed.

There is no penalty for dying. So you don’t need to worry about losing your currency to upgrade spirits.

Finding Hope in a Melancholy World
Final thoughts

Didn’t experience any bugs or crashes throughout my 16-hour playthrough to see everything the game has to offer.
On the criticisms I could say for the game. There’s not much, to be frank. The gameplay was tight and I didn’t have any problems with the combat, tutorial, or navigation. Perhaps, if I were to say something it would have to be giving players more of a direction on what to do to get the last ending. Since I had to look up a guide/walkthrough to know how to get the last ending. And two bosses could’ve been tweaked a bit further to make it slightly less difficult. I could include more, but those are just nitpicking and not worth saying.

I feel all the mechanics and features in the game work well. The music synergizes excellently with the dark fantasy atmosphere permeating throughout the world. The plot is intriguing and doesn’t move too fast for the player to catch up. The pacing felt right. And combat and sheer viciousness of it upon impacting enemies feel satisfying. Didn’t need to grind in the game at all. Environment, bosses, and enemy design are wonderfully crafted to the point I can’t help but stare in disgust as well as admire the art of it.

The game didn’t capture my attention immediately. It took some time, but slowly I was brought on board. To see what happens to Lily in the end, see whether or not she can regain her memories and if she can succeed in her endeavor to purify the land of Blight along with her knight. It’s not something I'd ask a very young individual to do. But her unique ability to gather spirits as allies caught my attention. And seeing her continue to stand against countless adversity and persevere is something worth looking into.

For those looking for a different Metroidvania to sink your teeth into. One with a unique premise, tight controls, an amazing soundtrack, satisfying combat, and easy to understand user interface. Perhaps Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights might just be the game to kindle your interest.

Score: 8.5/10

Ender Lilies proving, once again, that the summoner class of any fantasy setting is overpowered.

Here we have another Metroidvania, which will certainly be a turn on or turn off for you right of the bat. You like map completion? Finding every secret to make yourself stronger? Obtaining major abilities to revisit previously inaccessible areas for more power-ups? Utilizing that power to fight tough bosses? Then this, among many others, are for you.
Of course that's the absolute basics of the genre, so what does this game do to itself differentiate from others? It's primarily related to spirits. You play as a young girl who by herself can't do much, but by purifying bosses and mini-bosses she can have those souls as equippable attacks. They range from sword slashes, to ground slams, throwing knives, homing fireballs, claw swipes, poison gases, spear lunges, parries and counters, volley of arrows, autumonous minions that shoot nearby targets and so forth. You can equip up to six. Most spirits have limted uses and short cooldowns, but few have infinite usage. Honestly I could count the amount of times I ran out of a specific spirit attack on one hand. Breakable objects and red lilies replenish their usage, which are plenty common to come across. As long as you integrate one or two unlimited spirits in your roster you should be good... at least in terms of spirit management.
You kind of need as many variety of attacks as possible since this game ain't easy. I wouldn't call it brutal (with one or two exceptions) but everything here hits like a dump truck. If you're use to more easy-going Metroidvanias, do not tank hits in this game. You do that and you'll be wasting your healing prayers very quickly. This game is at it's best when you crafted a specific move list of spirits to more comfortably clear a area or boss that have been giving you shit. There's at least two or three spirits well suited for each enemy. Some enemies fly overhead, but by depleting their stun bar they will be knocked out of the sky and splat when they hit the ground. Shield enemies need to be dodged behind them during their attacks, or you could use a poison gas spirit that ignores shields, or use a spirit that leaps over their shield and hits them from behind. This game does encourage a lot of cheesing strats. Can't count the amount of times I killed a enemy through a wall by using a long-ranged attack to chip at them from safety, though thankfully the reverse doesn't happen. It's also important to note what spirits keep you in place and what ones you can use while keeping your mobility up. That's the major downside of the unlimited spirits, they require you to stop in place and attack, whereas the limited use ones (mostly) allow you to set them up and keep on the move while they do their thing. In fact, you can summon multiple spirits at once under most circumstances, perfect for when a boss is stunned and vulnerable. Even with these capabilities of your main character, I still feel one or two enemy deals a smidge too much damage. If you aren't finding enough health upgrades then some of these will just two shot you. The ones that come to mind are these enormous mounds of flesh that swipe with a tentacle slam, which I swear that hitbox is way bigger then the animation. And it doesn't help how fast and large that attack is on top of its power. Though in fairness it isn't rare for any hard game to have at least a few of those enemies that are a pain in the ass to deal with. Some might even argue that we need those obstacles that are obnoxious as hell, it creates memorable moments and keeps you on your toes. I suppose I won't forget those mounds of flesh, but I also won't ever forget my embarrassing moments from High School and I don't associate them with the best feelings to put it very mildly.
Exploration is pretty solid all around. Though to get a nitpick out of the way, the game tells you want room you're in on the map, but not it's exact location of where in the room. Say in Castlevania, you have a long vertical room about three blocks tall on the map. Castlevania will adjust your player marker on the map depending on which third of the tall room you're in. Ender Lilies doesn't do that and it can make it difficult to remember where in that specific location you have, and have not been to. Thankfully the map is otherwise very generous. It will change color depending on if there's a item there that you haven't found yet, and it will also show how many doors are in a room even when entering it the first time. It makes it pretty easy to look over your map to find places that you missed or haven't explored in full yet. Makes using a guide less of a requirement, and the few times I did use it was for last minute cleanups by the end.
In fact it was such a smooth ride that I got all 38 achievements in 15 hours. Bearing in mind I knew very little about the game going into it, I bought it on a whim during a sale, so I feel that speaks volumes of it's solid design.
That all said, I believe the visuals and setting of this game are easily it's strongest quality. It's a dark, lonely world. Everything you meet is either a hostile blight, corrupted corpses angry at past trangressions, and sorrowful souls whose regrets chain them to living world. Well "living" ain't the right word here. Every spirit you obtain has a small story of who they were in life, and the major ones even have cutscenes to show more of what the world once was before it all went down hill. Notes that litter the world go into further detail on what has happened, most of it amounting to "We done goofed, yes we sure did". In fairness, when the rain itself carries a infectious blight things are kind of fucked from the get-go. The beautiful 2D visuals really nails the tone. The designs of your spirits range from cool but damaged knights in armor, horrifying creatures with a subtle amount of cuteness, and mutated corpses hanging on by a thread of humanity. The areas you comb are big yet hostile. Corpses contain valuable items for upgrades, but they'll also mutter their last words as you approach them. Mostly their final regrets. Yet like any sorrowful-filled story, it has just enough hope for it to not be too overbearing. Also helped by the short length, since anything that you experience too often lessens the affect they have on you emotionally in time (this is not a life lesson fyi). Even in the most dire of circumstances, hope is always there, even if it takes a lot to realize it.

I enjoyed my time with this game. Maybe not enough for a replay, but I'm plenty satisfied with what I did play. With a few exceptions, I think the difficulty is a good high that requires effort but rarely crosses over to annoying. And while the tone is not something I'm interested in usually, it's no less engaging wandering around a diseased, desolate kingdom as a small defenseless girl... who would actually be defenseless if it weren't for her army of ghost friends.
Now give this game a try before another one of my agonizing High School memories comes out of nowhere to cause psychic dama- AH OH GOD!! WHY?!?

Amazing Metroidvania. The combat was awesome, the world and story was intriguing, music is top shelf (especially the complete shift in the last area. First time music made me literally stop playing for a second cause it was so creepy), the bosses were challenging and unique. I love that you get to use the bosses attacks after you beat them. This isn’t your normal, you get a weak version of the bosses attack, no you get the bosses actual moves and some of them are huge and devastating. The game was not overly hard but a few areas and bosses took several tries which is exactly how I like my difficulty. This is a must play for any fan of Metroidvanias or players that like a decent challenge.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much when I finally wanted to catch up on Ender Lilies. I knew beforehand that it was a rather dark Metroidvania and that its narrative was based on games like Bloodborne or Salt and Sanctuary. Since I really like these games (especially Bloodborne), I had put Ender Lilies on my wish list years ago and had ignored it ever since :D So now the moment finally came when I had some time and was in the mood for a good Metroidvania over the Easter holidays.

It didn't take too long for the game to put me under its spell. It quickly became apparent where the influences for the world design and narrative lie. The game is very dark and the narrative rather convoluted; you shouldn't expect a clear, straightforward plot here. In typical Souls-fashion, you are thrown straight into the action and have to piece together the story piece by piece. Storytelling and worldbuilding heavily rely on item descriptions, comments from your companion and cutscenes that are played after defeating a boss or at key points in the game. I don't want to give too much away here, but I was very interested in the storyline and became quite emotionally involved. You could describe the narrative as a kind of dark, adult fairy tale. If that's what you're in the mood for, you'll be completely satisfied here.

In terms of gameplay, Ender Lilies really surprised me, as the game has some interesting ideas that I have rarely or never seen in this form in other games of the genre. What struck me right from the start was that I didn't directly control the game's protagonist - Lily - in battles. Instead, I could choose from a range of "guardians" who have different abilities and attack patterns. The variety of these guardians is truly amazing. From the classic sword wielder to rather slow hammer attacks and magical ranged attacks, everything is included here. In addition, you can summon supporting guardians and thus create a very individual play style. This was super cool and kept me wanting to try out new combinations of abilities. As the boss battles can be quite tough at times, it was also necessary to adapt my strategies from time to time in order to succeed.

In terms of exploration, I always had enough motivation to search the areas to discover items or other secrets throughout the entire game. What I really liked here was that the game shows you directly on the map whether there is still something to be found in a level section or not. However, I do have a small point of criticism here. Unfortunately, it has often happened that I still had something to do in a level area. However, as some of these areas are huge and you have no clue where exactly something is located, you sometimes spend ages walking through an area in search of the hidden item. This can be frustrating, especially in the later areas of the game, which are at times very monumental in size.

All in all, however, I can thoroughly recommend this game. The narrative is interesting, the world is beautifully designed, the exploration is fun and the boss battles are challenging. Towards the end, some of the battles get a little overly difficult but I never felt like the game presented me any unfair challenges. And hey, if you die, there's no punishment, no souls to retrieve or anything like that. You like cryptic narratives, dark moods and Metroidvania? Then definitely check out Ender Lilies.

Como podes compreender pelo teor da análise até ao momento é garantida a minha recomendação. Não só ENDER LILLIES: Quietus of the Knights é um excelente Metroidvania, como também uma peça coesa em todas as frentes. Sinto-me um pouco picuinhas com alguns aspectos, algo que não merece devida atenção nesta análise, mas senti a falta de outras personagens com as quais interagir durante a aventura.

Seguindo esse mesmo molde, apesar da história ser satisfatória, poderia ser muito mais, bastando para isso apenas expor e simplificar mais um pouco a forma como a narrativa desenrola. Repito, no entanto, aquilo que vieste ler: ENDER LILLIES é merecedor do teu tempo e do teu dinheiro. Ponto final.

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See more @ https://squared-potato.pt/ender-lillies-quietus-of-the-knights-analise/
Written in European Portuguese
Played on Xbox Series S
Published on 16/08/2021

WOW.

This Metroidvania was able to glue together all the elements of the genre in a fitting and marvelous way. It has incredible lore, interesting characters, top-notch level-design, fun combat and quite different and full of personality itens/upgrades.

I did enjoy the game's three endings a whole lot, to those of you that are fans of the style or just like good games in general, you can't go wrong with this gem-of-a-game.

Man, I really really wanted to like this game more than I did. I'm a sucker for the the pure priestess forced to carry the burden of the world and slowly corrupted by it plotline, and the art is quite good, but actually playing it...

The rooms are huge, like way too big, just big open spaces filled with platforming and enemies. Except the platforming is just, y'know it's fine. Your dodge being more of a face first dive (to start) makes it pretty funny, but it's not really as interesting or smooth as it's contemporaries. Then the enemies... There were so many times I'd just fight through rooms and rooms of the same or a couple of big guys who were kind of a pain and would chip away my health and then it just seemed like they never ended. Runbacks became a huge slog to a point where I was just zipping past guys unless the rooms were locked because it hardly seemed to be worth the effort it took.

Bosses had the same issue. They were mostly Okay, but at the point I gave up I was fighting a guy who zipped around but I could only hit from behind. I could only get a few hits off and his health pool was so big it was just incredibly tedious only to get hit like a truck by an attack... It didn't feel great.

I appreciate what this game is doing, but it unfortunately just feels a bit too amateurish. There are a number of issues (like lever placement and the way they blend in against the dark background) and just the sizes of the rooms, that feel like they wouldn't have been an issue if the game had had proper playtesting and had been tuned accordingly. But I can't fault the game for not having the time and budget for such things.

To speak positively about the game, I think the spirit system is really fun and I enjoyed unlocking the spirits through the minibosses.

I think there is a good and enjoyable game in here, but as it stands I've played 11 hours and I don't think I will be finishing it.

EDIT: I quit this game yesterday in a rage and came back and now I've quit it a second time. It's so frustrating because there's different s good game in here, but man these bosses can eat rocks. I made it all the way to the final boss in the end but I don't think I have the strength in me to finish it, which is agonizing because the ending is So Close, but for real FUCK that boss.