Chumps Preview is a special kind of post where we unofficially preview games in Early Access, Beta, or are otherwise “unfinished.” This kind of preview is meant to be a first impression rather than a definitive review where we provide a rating to determine a game’s value. As such, we fully expect a game covered in a Chumps Preview to have room for improvement, some bugginess/incompleteness, and other features associated with similar games in the category.
ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights released in 2021 to mostly positive fanfare amongst metroidvania and RPG fans alike. Its atmosphere leaned quite hard into a melancholic territory, occasionally skewing haunting. Its post-apocalyptic Victorian world was comprised of rotting churches, blood-stained gardens, and morbid monstrosities that were once heavenly deities. It didn’t hit the difficulty peak of a soulslike metroidvania that games like The Last Faith and Hollow Knight succeeded in creating, but it was dang close. It nailed just about every other aspect other than its difficulty. Now that it’s been a few years and ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist has been released into Early Access, maybe now we can get a more difficult and potentially darker sequel to ENDER LILIES.
I spent a little over three hours with ENDER MAGNOLIA this past week, completing the currently available gameplay in its entirety while also testing out its combat and exploring the current iteration of its world. It will be in Early Access for the foreseeable future according to the developers (at least six months), but there’s enough content and support available now to give players a taste of what’s to come.
If you didn’t play ENDER LILIES – don’t worry. ENDER MAGNOLIA gets you up to speed on things you need to know without burdening you with recaps or nudges that only original fans would know. ENDER MAGNOLIA is set in the Land of Fumes, where magical beings known as Humunculi have gone awry and are bringing the world to ruin. The Humunculi were initially made by humans to help them in their daily lives, but toxic fumes have turned them against all humans. Lilac, the protagonist of ENDER MAGNOLIA, is an Attuner – a magical human (I think) who can purge the toxic fumes from Humunculi and bring them back to their harmonious state.
ENDER MAGNOLIA leans heavily into Victorian meets steampunk aesthetics, at least in its first few hours. The post-apocalyptic Baroque vibe from ENDER LILIES has been replaced by a jump to the future. Discarded machines and zombified machinations patrol the Land of Fumes while the few humans who remain sit amongst the wreckage of what used to be a fully realized city of the future. Lilac wakes up with odd visions of her past, fleeting memories of humans and faceless individuals who once guided her.
Saving Humunculi is core to Lilac’s growth in power. The first Humunculi she saves gives her access to melee attacks. Well, she doesn’t attack – the Humunculus attacks as a specter. This makes Lilac a Pokemon trainer of sorts, which is sort of cute. Multiple Humunculi can be recruited during the game, each of which grants Lilac additional power ranging from attacks to utility (like the ability to fast travel!). Humunculi can be upgraded and modified at Respite points (think benches from Hollow Knight). For instance, Nola (the veiled Humunculi with bloodstained robes) can be upgraded and change Lilac’s melee attacks from nimble swords to weighty axes to furious scythes.
Humunculi management offers a good amount of depth to ENDER MAGNOLIA’s combat, especially once I had unlocked the five available Humunculi and acquired the necessary upgrade materials to access the Humunculi’s alternative attacks. By the final boss in the preview period, I found myself mixing and matching attacks to better suit my playstyle while giving me ample protection and firepower to face upcoming threats. My one concern about Humunculi management is that some attacks feel far stronger than others, having near-universal utility rather than having distinct strengths and weaknesses to suit variable playstyles. For instance, the Bone Pulverizer (the axe attack) became my bread-and-butter for the remainder of the preview once I had unlocked it. It tore through enemies with ease (like a literal hot knife through butter). Despite having unlocked the rest of the melee forms, it remained my best bet for killing enemies that stood in my way.
If ENDER MAGNOLIA is to lean further into its Humuncili management aspect, there needs to be additional thought put into its systems to reward players who experiment with theorycrafting arsenals while also mixing and matching loadouts. It doesn’t have to be an actual reward (like achievements or bonus currency); The Last Faith executes on that front quite well by varying up enemies’ attacks to ensure that specific weapons are more effective than others. Heck, if they wanted to lean further into the worldbuilding, they could reward the player with lore nuggets for those who often change up their arsenal.
The current state of ENDER MAGNOLIA’s combat is straightforward, albeit less difficult than I would prefer. The developers have stated that they are planning on adding a difficulty setting in a future update, but right now much of the combat comes down to whittling down enemies’ shields (yellow bars) until they’re stunned and then whaling on them with every attack imaginable until they either wake back up or they die. Attack patterns are predictable for the most part, with the occasional flying enemy who moves erratically.
It wasn’t until the final boss of the preview where I truly struggled with the game’s combat. This isn’t to say that the other bosses and enemies were pushovers; I swiftly dealt with my foes using the same Humunculus loadout. I rarely died or needed to use a health boost because enemies’ attacks could very easily be dodged and predicted thanks to their almost routinized attacks.
There’s a part of me that wishes that ENDER MAGNOLIA adds some difficulty levers to make the combat more challenging. I’m not wanting a carbon-copied TEVI game utilizing a melancholy aesthetic, but I want the Humunculi management to shine by enemies with far more variable attack patterns than what are currently present. ENDER MAGNOLIA is approachable as is; it’s a very easy recommendation for someone with limited knowledge of metroidvanias who may want to ladder up to the likes of Hollow Knight in the future. Longtime metroidvania players deserve a greater challenge, though.
ENDER MAGNOLIA has more than mindless combat — it’s a metroidvania, meaning that exploration is involved. So is backtracking. My experience with ENDER MAGNOLIA thus far took me through several biomes, all of which were more linear than I would prefer. The few instances where my path branched apart ended up merging with another path anyway, watering down my attempts to explore. Part of what makes a good metroidvania into a great metroidvania is how it rewards players for going off the beaten path and seeing where their heart takes them. ENDER MAGNOLIA’s biome design isn’t there yet, but I have faith that its world will be expanded to a greater degree similar to how its predecessor was designed.
The few secrets I happened to come across had the smallest of indicator in the overworld, so I didn’t have to look through a haystack of busy UI or blink-and-you-miss-it terrain. It felt good finding things like permanent bonus health and new pieces of equipment when I came across a secret alcove or hole-in-the-wall, but I didn’t feel rewarded for my exploration. The rewards I was coming across were similar to those I received from defeating bosses.
I know that ENDER MAGNOLIA is in Early Access. I played this game in its entirely and stress tested its powers for over three hours – the demo’s main story lasted two from start to finish. This tells me that this preview was to onboard me and other players into what to expect from Adglobe and Live Wire Inc. as they refine this game for its upcoming full release later this year.
All things considered, I enjoyed what I played. ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist has the makings of an innovative metroidvania with a haunting aesthetic – just like its predecessor. I’m curious as to how the game’s difficulty is modified to present players with a meaningful challenge, as well as how the Humunculus management system is championed. I’m also excited to see what happens with its worldbuilding and story.
I’m unable to assign ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist a score at this time, but I like what I’ve played. Its two short hours flew by in the blink of an eye and kept me engaged for another hour after the fact – a great sign for a metroidvania in Early Access. I’ll be keeping an eye on what’s to come from Adglobe and Live Wire Inc.: If ENDER MAGNOLIA is anything like ENDER LILIES, then players will be in for a treat.
A copy of ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this preview.
