When the Dystopia is Beautiful | Ender Magnolia Review

The sequel to Ender Lilly is out in and it sets up another amazing game. I was able to take a look at this game when it came out in Early Access, and I went back to it once I got my hands on the full release. Those first six hours in Early Access were amazing and left me wanting more. When I got access to the full game, I spent hours and hours experiencing what Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist had to offer.

The world is beautiful in a broken, dystopian way. A lot of blues, purples, and greys, and the art style works wonderfully for a story filled with the anguish of a group isolated and used by society. The music is the final touch to create the perfect atmosphere for this adventure. A dark atmosphere encases the world in gloom. The Land of the Fumes would be nowhere else but this gloomy realm, where homunculi were forced to live in the underground land, corrupted and violent from the oppressive fumes. The story is simple, your memories are gone and you want to figure out what has happened. A land full of suffering people are locked out of the inner capital and the answers are protected behind guards and barriers. With so many unanswered questions and only an amnesic homunculi to accompany you, the journey is one full of curiosity.

One needed thing in a game with combat is good character control. The movement and combat are smooth. The character is incredibly responsive to inputs which makes traversing feel amazing. Like many other games, you will gain more abilities (for both battle and map traversal). The abilities you gain also feel intuitive to use, a simple glance around the area you’re in will probably lead you to some guesses about what type of ability you can gain. Anything from swimming to walk climbing, they all come with time and make the perfect natural reason to go back and further explore a locked out zone. A handy thing for players is being able to assign each new combat ability to a button means you can personalize it to fit your preference. This is one of my favorite aspects of the combat system. You can have up to four abilities equipped at once and what ability is where is completely up to you. All of the homunculi that give you combat abilities can also be upgraded. The materials needed for the upgrades are found naturally through game progression, but beware, some abilities might use the same materials. There is no one arrangement that is better than another, all three of the abilities can work incredibly well. The upgrades are more like unlocking a new form for the homunculi and all of these can gain power through leveling up their star level. No matter the set up you have, if it feels comfortable for you, you will have a blast fighting through mobs and bosses.

Playing a Metriodvania can be a challenge for a lot of people. Learning where to go and at what point in time can be stressful and lead to putting the game down because it feels like you’ve reached a dead end. Ender Magnolia does a good job at guiding players… for the most part. I did run into a major hiccup early on after completing the content I cleared in Early Access. The quest directions of “explore the lower stratum” were not at all helpful when there is a section called the lower stratum and it was completely explored. This caused me to be lost for at least an hour trying everything I could to find some secret in that area before giving up and pushing forward in other regions. Imagine my surprise when exploring other regions to the side was what I actually needed to do. This is really the only time this happens and the other quest directions that pop up when looking at your map are more helpful for a majority of the game. This is the time that I emphasize you really should be reading and following the story. If you don’t you will miss out on details that will help you figure out where to go and what your objective actually is. This is a bit more difficult than other Metroidvanias that I’ve played in the past and would not recommend this to be someone's first try at the genre. But if you have a few games under your belt, I would definitely say to give this game a shot! It’s about 20 hours of angst and fun (I clocked in about 30 hours, so it really depends on how much time you spend exploring your new environment). This game is well crafted, it is easy to see a lot of love went into building up every aspect of the lore, storytelling, and world-building.