Pretty 2D metroidvania
I. Love. This. Game. So. Much.
I heard of it because of the band that composed the soundtrack (Mili), and decided to give it a shot because I like me a good metroidvania. Can't say I was disappointed, the game is breathtaking, with a great atmosphere, great music, neat combat.
I heard of it because of the band that composed the soundtrack (Mili), and decided to give it a shot because I like me a good metroidvania. Can't say I was disappointed, the game is breathtaking, with a great atmosphere, great music, neat combat.
There is one great strength to this game and it’s the exploration. Most non-linear games like open world games and metroidvanias don’t give you really good rewards for exploring, but in this game most things you collect are either new attacks that expand your moveset or currency used to upgrade them, and it always makes exploring the map feel worth it. You can even find more meaningful things like relics and upgrades to your healing which always feel rewarding to find. Other things like the beautiful visuals and music really elevate the experience of the game.
There is also one big weakness to the game however, and it’s the enemies. I think small enemies having relatively limited movesets is forgivable, not every game needs to be Nioh, but most of the bosses are just not good. Their rhythms are very easy to learn and they rarely break away from them, if you go in with the right build most bosses don’t take more than a few tries to beat. Because of it the bosses feel pretty boring once you get a feel for them, they’re designed around a very “dodge and punish” style. You might think every boss in every game is like that, but games with really good bosses, like Hollow Knight, which this game clearly takes a lot of inspiration from, let you get in a lot of hits at times when it doesn’t seem like you’d be able to at first. Once you get used to Hollow Knight bosses, you can keep figuring out more times to get in more damage. In Ender Lillies, because of the slower pace of the combat you just aren’t able to get creative against bosses. It’s very clear when you can hit bosses, and it’s very clear when you can’t. It’s a shame and it’s frustrating because the amount of options you have to customize your moveset should give you more options to be creative against bosses, but the bosses aren’t designed well enough for it.
Overall it’s a great game with good ideas, but it’s bosses hold it back from being something really amazing that I can recommend to more people. Apparently a sequel to this game exists but I’m not sure where the story would go after the ending of this game, hopefully it improves on Ender Lillies though.
There is also one big weakness to the game however, and it’s the enemies. I think small enemies having relatively limited movesets is forgivable, not every game needs to be Nioh, but most of the bosses are just not good. Their rhythms are very easy to learn and they rarely break away from them, if you go in with the right build most bosses don’t take more than a few tries to beat. Because of it the bosses feel pretty boring once you get a feel for them, they’re designed around a very “dodge and punish” style. You might think every boss in every game is like that, but games with really good bosses, like Hollow Knight, which this game clearly takes a lot of inspiration from, let you get in a lot of hits at times when it doesn’t seem like you’d be able to at first. Once you get used to Hollow Knight bosses, you can keep figuring out more times to get in more damage. In Ender Lillies, because of the slower pace of the combat you just aren’t able to get creative against bosses. It’s very clear when you can hit bosses, and it’s very clear when you can’t. It’s a shame and it’s frustrating because the amount of options you have to customize your moveset should give you more options to be creative against bosses, but the bosses aren’t designed well enough for it.
Overall it’s a great game with good ideas, but it’s bosses hold it back from being something really amazing that I can recommend to more people. Apparently a sequel to this game exists but I’m not sure where the story would go after the ending of this game, hopefully it improves on Ender Lillies though.
Great game that didn’t overstay its welcome. Absolutely beautiful backdrops — and all the attacks and spirits just felt nicely weighty. Bosses were all relatively quick to figure out, but still enjoyed the challenge of getting there!
I have to be honest, the spine animation originally put me off a bit, but I find the combat and world enjoyable, the combat especially encourages you to use many tools at your disposal and not just stick to a single "best" loadout. The music and art is also absolutely beautiful.
I most often play this on my Steam Deck and I can say it's a great experience.
I most often play this on my Steam Deck and I can say it's a great experience.
Great metroidvania
decent game, very fun to go through each different area and seeing all the different movement mechanics, feeds off my completionist mind.
Nice game, similar to hollow knight but with his own soul, really appreciated. Some bossfights truly are enjoyable and challenging and the routes to the bosses are not too long nor too short. Special mention to the OSTs, really well crafted and suitable to the areas they belong to, giving the entire game this uncomfortable atmosphere, in the good way. Nice characters and world design and original battle system.
Definitely worth a chance.
Definitely worth a chance.
This review contains spoilers
metroidvania with good story
good art style, music and story, decent gameplay.
story and mechanics are kind of similar to Hollow Knight, but gameplay way behind. Relics in the game doesn't balance well and it makes some of the boss very very easy mainly the ones towards the end especially the final boss.
overall it was a pleasant experience and can get all achievements within single play through easily.
good art style, music and story, decent gameplay.
story and mechanics are kind of similar to Hollow Knight, but gameplay way behind. Relics in the game doesn't balance well and it makes some of the boss very very easy mainly the ones towards the end especially the final boss.
overall it was a pleasant experience and can get all achievements within single play through easily.
contact damage killed the game for me
Difficult game but fun, and the story beats hit for me. The music and ambiance definitely enhance the experience. Really appreciate the map marking down everything that you can collect, so it's not crazy difficult to 100% this game.
A very good metroidvania. It's not as good as Hollow Knight, but I think this will serve as a fine entry to the genre.
Not a bad metroidvania game. It was long enough not to overstay its welcome, although it could have been a little bit longer :) The only downside is that even at max level I was still feeling underpowered and weak (especially against the last boss and the true ending). A little bit harder than some other similar games but still great.
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.
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.