i am so mixed on this.

-setting and music do nothing for me but its so clearly supposed to be a lot of this experience
-enemies hit quite hard, which makes exploring sometimes tense and fun, and other times a complete slog
-platforming is pretty fun once you get a few movement abilities but they are So Spaced Out
-equippable souls are varied and interesting, but i never liked having to level them up, it made trying new ones less fun

in the end i dunno man, i never want to feel that i have to grind to fight a boss when im playing castlevania, and certainly not at the slow rate you level up in this game

What a wonderful journey; I'd recommend this game to anyone really, even if you don't like Metroidvanias (although it's an excellent one). The art and music are breathtaking, every single upgrade is fun and gives you plenty of secrets to find. The story is bittersweet and is sprinkled throughout the world, a lot of it is interesting but it does require piecing it together through notes and certain dialogue- Similar to another dark fantasy game which I don't think I need to name right now. All in all, Ender Lillies is a gorgeous game that everyone should experience

I’ll admit, from a complete gameplay perspective, I don’t think Ender Lilies would actually be a 10/10. I still think it’s an amazing game, however I have so many personal connections to Ender Lilies and it’s genuinely one of my favorite games ever. I remember playing this game back when it first enter early access, and I absolutely adored it. I then played it again when it fully released, and I nearly completed it all, though I couldn’t beat the true final boss. After all this, with news of this game getting a proper sequel, I really wanted to replay Ender Lilies, and this time I was able to completely 100% Ender Lilies. And the more I played of Ender Lilies, the more it grew to be one of my favorite games of all time.

Now, I’m already biased here. Ender Lilies is a Metroidvania, and those are some of my favorite games ever. Ender Lilies is absolutely a fantastic Metroidvania, from its aesthetic, combat, and especially its mechanics. There’s so much that I adore in this game. Ender Lilies has one of the best quality of life additions for a Metroidvania, but at the same time I’m unsure how many Metroidvanias actually have this feature. Specifically, on the map it shows when you complete each room in an area, switching between Blue and Yellow, which is really nice. It helps direct you to know when you’re done in an area, or if you’re trying to 100% the game, to know where you need to go to further progress. Some areas are harder to find specific treasures, but when you’re able to succeed in getting them, it feels so good. There’s one that requires you to climb between 2 tall towers, and jump across the large gap between them. It was really difficult, but it felt so good to actually do.

And I absolutely adore the exploration in this game. Yet again this goes back to my bias with Metroidvanias, and how much I love them. I love getting lost in games, wandering and stumbling upon things, important or otherwise. Aside from very few games, There’s so many fun little nooks and crannies in Ender Lilies, alongside great platforming and combat challenges. The game doesn’t really point the player in a correct direction either, which is really nice. It shows you where exits to rooms are, but you still have to find your way to that spot, and even then, there isn’t even any markers telling the player where a sort of ultimate goal is. The player just finds it themselves, which I really love. With the near lack of direction that Ender Lillies has, the player is fully able to get lost and immersed in the world, which I adore.

And when it comes to the movement abilities, while they’re not completely unique, they’re of such a high quality, and there’s some really fun ideas thrown into the mix. Particularly I adore how this game works with the mechanic of dashing. At the beginning of the game, the player starts out with a rudimentary dash, though it’s purposefully not good. The player falls to the floor, and has to pick themselves back up. It’s good early game for dodging attacks, but not horizontal movement. But later in the game, the player gets an upgrade to their dash, which turns it into a more archetypical dash for a Metroidvania. And that Dash becomes one of the best movement options in the entire game. The other movement abilities are also really fun, and they’re all utilized so well in the game’s environment. Genuinely all of them are amazing.

I also really like the spirits you unlock throughout the game. Aside from the starting soul, you get them all from bosses, major, and minor. There’s so many spirits, and you can practically equip 6 at the time, though you switch between sets of 3. And there’s so much customizability with them, and you can create some really fun builds with them. Back when I played the game for the first time, I really liked using the summonable spirits, having a Summoner build. While this time around, I went primarily with melee build, focusing almost solely on the beginning spirit. I also really love how some of the spirits can help with movement, sometimes necessitating using them to find some of the rarer treasures. The spirits are so malleable and customizable, and I really love them.

The relics as well are really fun modifiers you can include as well. I will say, I think objectively the best one is the one that heals you slightly every time you damage an enemy. There’s also simple ones, such an increasing health, damage, or defense, and there’s also some other good ones, like increasing your healing usages. It’s also well balanced, by limiting how many you can equip, though increasing how many you can hold as you find certain treasure. I absolutely love it.

Combat is mostly simple, but man it’s really fun. The further you get into the game, when the enemies get noticeably harder, it becomes really fun. There was a section in the game where you climb a tower as enemies appear as you climb up, and you have to fight them all to unlock the path forward was really fun. Some enemies are annoying at times, but they all become manageable eventually, and it feels so good going back to an area where you originally had trouble and you steamroll it because of how much you’ve progressed. And I absolutely adore the bosses in this game. Most were relatively easy for me, I beat a majority of the bosses between my first to third tries. I remember when I played this game when it first released, Hoenir was absolutely the most annoying boss day one, he spawned other enemies at a ridiculous rate, though it was patched and became a more balanced boss. For me though the hardest boss was Ulv, he moved so fast, and his attacks were brutal. It probably took me 20-30 tries to actually beat him, but it felt so good to actually do so. An interesting thing though is the boss that actively prevented me from beating the game, the final boss, I beat on my complete first try, barely having any difficulty with it. It honestly was mind blowing to me for that to occur, but it feels so good to have that happen, it feels like I’ve improved so much between then and now.

And I can’t ignore Ender Lilies’ music. This game introduced me to one of my favorite bands of all time, because that band worked on the game’s music. Mili is an amazing group, and all of the music that they made for the game showcases that. I’ll admit as well, the credits music made me tear up, after everything that I’ve experienced within and around Ender Lilies, hearing that end credits music really impacted me, and cemented my love of this game.

Yet again, I can’t guarantee that you would have the same love for Ender Lilies that I do. There’s so many personal experiences that connect me to Ender Lilies that I know other people wont share. However to me that is an important factor on the love of a game, those connections, the impacts that a game have. And because of that, Ender Lilies is downright one of my favorite games of all time, even if you don’t love it as much as I do, please give this game a chance. It may not be a masterpiece for you, but it is a masterpiece for me.

this game might be accused of iterating on the genre's titans rather than innovating, but i still really liked it, as the game's strengths are just so great that they outweigh the game's flaws. the combat is the standout feature of the game, featuring a lot of customization for combos. it's the best implementation of "RPG mechanics" in a metroidvania that i can remember. the music and art direction are both great. i like the mood of the game, although i think the story/lore are both a little too esoteric for my taste. outside of combat, the movement is just ok, and i don't think the exploration in this game is also just ok.

An excellent addition to the metroidvania genre, Ender Lilies felt great to play, has a great ost, and is difficult, yet feels fair.

The ost doesn't go for a bombastic feel, but instead is aimed at a melancholic/somber feel, with this exemplified in multiple phase 2/3 boss themes transitioning into somber piano pieces.

It may take a little bit to get used to how stiff attacking feels in comparison to other metroidvanias like Dawn of Sorrow or Hollow Knight, but the game very well knows this and provides enough openings in enemy attacks/patterns for the player. Each enemy has a recognizable pattern and each boss telegraphs their attacks in a distinct way.

I feel myself kind of torn when talking about this game. It's a good game, by all means, but in a way that it could've just been a considerably more solid experience, and it's just drawn back by many aspects that weren't really polished.

While the story and lore aren't anything innovative in particular, they're quite good and I loved them, they did a really great job in this regard...but then, there's the gameplay experience. I feel like Ender Lilies tries to be Hollow Knight so badly but really fails in that regard. The game doesn't have anything that makes it stand out against other Metroidvanias, and this, to be honest, wouldn't have been an issue if the game was well designed...but it's not. Especially in the later areas, it felt kind of frustrating seeing all the visual and narrative work they put into the areas, because then the gameplay experience was really frustrating, unfair and actually stupid at many times.

In the end, I really enjoyed my time with the game, but I cannot help but feel a bittersweetness about it, maybe I'd have liked it more if it was a VN, but who knows.

So before I moved to Southern California I almost never ate fast food. Living in New York if I needed something cheap and fast in the middle of the night I'd just get a slice of pizza, or maybe Chinese food, hell maybe even a bodega sandwich. Then I moved out here and started grad school and found myself eating Taco Bell or Jack in the Box 2 or 3 nights a week because it was the only thing open at 1 in the morning. I guess it became a habit because now getting fast food and eating in my car in the parking lot next to the drive-thru is like a weekly occurrence. My go-to spots are Taco Bell, Wendy's, Popeyes, and In-N-Out, and I can't really eat at Jack in the Box anymore cause I had too many of the gnarly 2-for-a-dollar tacos and now everything from there makes me nauseous. (Psychosomatic?) When I first moved here I'd never tried Del Taco before, and my first experience I remember being like "this is awful, it tastes like nothing." The mild sauce tastes like someone literally just squeezed a tomato onto your food and the hot sauce tastes exactly the same but it makes your tongue tingle. The ingredients are all pretty fresh. Unlike Taco Bell it doesn't feel like you're eating a simulacrum of human food. It just kind of feels like someone made one of those Old El Paso taco kits, but they somehow lost the seasoning packet so they had to raid their own spice cabinet but all they had was salt and some cumin powder that expired 3 years ago. After that first experience I figured I'd never eat there ever again. But every once in a blue moon I'll find myself getting a craving for it. I eat at Del Taco probably once every 3 or 4 months now, and it's nice. I wouldn't say it's "good" or "tasty," but in some weird way it hits the spot.

ANYWAY! This was like... fine? Got to the final boss and kind of just didn't feel like finishing. But it wasn't a bad experience, just kind of a bland one. If they ever make a sequel I'll probably play it.

The controls are tight. Cool, diverse skill set. The enemy and level design are nothing special but aren't terrible. Some decently challenging boss fights. Lots of goodies to collect. A little on the linear side for a Metroidvania. The art is really well done, if not exactly my taste.

Does not tug on the heart strings or 'make ya think' as much as it seems to think it does. There's an area of the map filled with poison gas that quickly kills you if you don't have a special mask item, and it's straight up called "The Verboten Domain." That's the level of poetry we're talkin' about here lol

Also: Games have GOT to stop doing the Dark Souls "have a bunch of flavor text vaguely point toward a story rather than just telling you a story outright" thing unless they actually know how to write evocatively and have a lore that's WORTH BEING CURIOUS ABOUT!! Like idk, I'm an obsessive completionist so I picked up all of the notes or letters or engravings or what have you and what I can tell you is that this game is about princesses. Who are sort of like clones, maybe? And there was like a plague or some shit, for sure. Turned people into zombies, sort of? A king went mad at some point, definitely. I don't know who "The Ancients" are but they're definitely important. And some well meaning (?) wizards did some evil experiments or something? Whatever, who care.

✨𝒄𝒖𝒆 𝒕𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒍𝒚 𝒑𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒈𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒚 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒍𝒆 𝒆𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒔✨

This is my second time through this game. My first time through, I only obtained one ending. (the default ending), and went on with my life. I did enjoy the game back then, all the same. But going through it again? Knowing what I'm doing, getting to see every nook and cranny, and besting every obstacle to finally, FINALLY, after more than 2 years, get all of the endings?

Even though my experience with this second playthrough is very skewed with personal anecdotes, I can safely say that Ender Lilies is now my new favorite metroidvania, unfortunately dethroning Momodora: RUTM. This game has so many things coming together to weave the perfect storm, and it's truly beautiful. Musical composition, gameplay, an immaculately perfect blend of difficulty that I wouldn't change if I could (and I can, if I wanted to, another nice thing to note that the devs threw in for finishing the game.), an enthralling plot that evokes deep emotions and powerful melancholy...

It really is worth all the time that it asks of you. Check it out if you even have an inkling that it might be your style, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I played this game in the perfect circumstances.

It's been raining for days, and I got bored. For the hell of it, I picked the game up. It had completely enchanted me from the start till the end.

A gift.

Fun combat and level design (minus the final area) and some fun boss fights (only the main ones, the side ones are a joke, and there are 2 bad main boss fights). The bosses and combat aren't as good as something like hollow knight but they are fun enough in their own right.

The overall map design is ugly, confusing, not physically possible, and not actually 2D which makes it hard to conceptualize where everything is, which is why it's a god send that there is an easy fast travel system with generous locations. It's also really nice that they let you know on the map where there are unexplored routes you haven't found yet, and color the rooms based on whether you have found all the secrets in them or not.

The game isn't punishing on death like hollow knight or dark souls despite the familiar formula with save point benches.

The metroidvania power ups are cool and enhance the exploration is neat ways, though because I disliked the map I didn't feel the need to find all the secrets.

The story will probably appeal to some people. Personally, it didn't hit me at all, but I don't have any real problems with it.

The art is gorgeous (though some people might find it generic I guess).

The music is very good too.

Overall, it's a decent game. Worth getting on sale if you want to check out a new metroidvania and have played all the masterpieces of the genre already.

Great visuals and soundtrack with some fairly emotional post-boss cutscenes and solid metroidvania action. The spirit customization is pretty fun and it's cool having some small context behind all the weapons you get but aside from that the game brings very little novelty to the table. Starting with the catacombs the difficulty really ramps up and aside from a few annoying rooms here and there it's not too bad until the verboten domain takes it to obnoxious territory. I do not enjoy every enemy taking off more than half my HP per hit or being one-shot by a boss if I don't play perfectly. I could've done a lot of grinding to try and balance the damage out but the mobs were annoying to fight so I really didn't want to and it made me wonder why the game even has levels in the first place. But hey, overall nice game.

Wow, all in all this was an excellent Metroidvania. Combining the staples of the genre with some influences from RPGs and the Dark Souls games, ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights may not be the most innovative search action game, but it is an absolutely phenomenal execution of one.

To start, the combat is just excellent. You start off with a basic sword combo and can build from there as you go throughout the game. What's cool about this is since you're just a little girl, you use spirits to fight for you, including that starting sword combo. You build out your repertoire bit by bit with more main and supporting spirits by exploring the world for mini bosses or beating the main bosses of the game. It's a great system that allows for some great customization of builds (you can have two presets at once that you switch between) based on how you play and what you've found so far.

The bosses also give you a new ability each time you beat one, allowing you to overcome more obstacles. In classic Metroidvania fashion, you use these to both move on to the next level and to backtrack and find further goodies in previous levels. This backtracking is made all the more convenient by the map showing a different color based on whether you've found everything in a room or not. I had fun going back and gathering all the powerups I missed.

It all really boils down to the fact that this game feels really damn good to play. Both the combat and the platforming are tight and responsive, with only a few points where I felt like the game didn't react to an input (and honestly, I was probably just late pressing the button). It's a blast especially to zip through levels that you're now way overleveled for to explore. You'll want to as well to get upgrades to your health, Relics which give you added bonuses and effects, and more slots to equip more relics. There's also a fun side collectible you'll need if you want to get the game's true ending, though I won't spoil more here. I've been a bit repetitive on this point, but I can't emphasize enough how well the game executed this tenant of the search action genre. So much so that I went out of my way to 100% the map and Platinum the game, which I don't normally do.

I've talked a lot about the gameplay, but that's not the only great part to this game. The presentation is stellar as well. The art style is a beautiful gothic anime-inspired look that's drawn to great effect here. For the most part, each level is unique in its look too which gives a sense that you're exploring an entire world and not just one small pocket of it. The only exceptions were a couple of later levels that were incredibly similar, which is even more noticeable if you do them back-to-back like I did. Regardless, you get a great sense of sorrow and almost misery from the world you explore, which matches the interesting and well-written lore.

You'll want to read the notes you find throughout the game, as they further flesh out the world, characters (including bosses), and story. Getting all 3 endings while knowing what's happening is definitely a plus.

The only nitpick presentation-wise I would have is with the sound. The soundtrack for the most part is stellar with some truly awesome tracks, and the sound design is solid. However, there are some weird misses and gaps. Whenever you're in a room between levels, the music just cuts out completely. It's a good way to signal you're about to enter a new area, but it is also jarring. There were a couple times I thought it was a legitimate glitch only to realize what was happening a second later. There are also some dud tracks, especially the BGM for the Stockade level. It's a much more ambient take compared to the rest of the game's melodic style. I understand why they did it for this level, but I still don't like it.

There really isn't much to complain about otherwise. There were maybe a couple other enemy types that had some bullshit hitboxes (and I mean the very few where this was actually true and not just me raging because I was playing poorly lol). Those were so rare though that it's hardly a factor. Overall, this is a phenomenal game from a clearly talented group of people, and I look forward immensely to what they do next!

It's another souls-like metroidvania game, and a pretty good one at that. The most stand out thing is art style, which is really pretty. Also, the soundtrack is filled with really lovely piano tunes, which add to the atmosphere.

Though the thing that sets this game apart from other metroidvania games, is that you command spirits to do your bidding instead of attacking yourself. You acquire these spirits through boss fights, and can equip 6 at a time. Makes this game feel unique, even if it isn't too much more than just window dressing.

It doesn't compare to the titans of the metroidvania genre, and isn't terribly unique, but it is a pretty solid one. If you really like metroidvania's (or soulslikes) I would recommend it.

another game that I really wanted to like more than I did. Art and music are beautiful, story is really nice, the idea behind the combat being a spin on Aria of Sorrow's spirit system is really cool. The problem is the level design is really not up to par. Endless long, empty hallways full of haphazardly placed damage sponge enemies and then long, empty towers with the same spaced out platforms: over and over and over again. In most Metroidvanias I get a feel of the map quickly and stop having to check it, in this I found myself constantly checking the map because every room within the same levels feels exactly the same.

Got 5 hours in and dropped it, I don't think I was even halfway done so for a metroidvania this game is very long but I think that's because of how full of padding it is. It's a shame.

Currently my favorite metroidvania game out there :)
Beautiful story and soundtrack.
Gameplay great too, big recommend to souls-like fans :3

My only issue with it is that the sound design feels somewhat incomplete, like cutscenes and dialogue in general.