Ender Magnolia: Bloom in The Mist

Around four years ago, a Japanese indie studio by the name of Adglobe published a metroidvania called Ender Lilies: Quietus of The Knights. An anime stylized game that took heavy inspiration from the likes of Dark Souls, Hollow Knight, and other dark fantasy Japanese media I’m pretty sure helped contribute. It could’ve been a forgettable title. I have nothing against anime, because I myself am a casual anime enjoyer who respects the people who work in the field. It’s just that there’s so many anime stylized games out there that trying to set yourself apart from the rest is extremely hard. Also making a game that takes inspiration from big name titles, Dark Souls and Hollow Knight, is going to invite a lot of unfair comparisons on how you stack up against them. Surprisingly though Ender Lilies was more than what it seemed on the surface. It wasn’t just a soulslike metroidvania. It was doing it’s own unique thing with an interesting narrative approach that applied well both to the story and gameplay. It was a confidently designed 2D action RPG that quickly rose to being one of the best metroidvanias to ever be conceived. I’m one of many who found themselves stunned by Ender Lilies. It’s just shocking seeing everything it did right.

The plentiful RPG mechanics and builds that gave you enough variety on how to tackle foes. The story being more comprehensive than most soulslikes at the time, and having a beautiful message to wrap the whole journey up. That ending by the way being one of my favorites in a soulslike. A beautiful art style, lovely soundtrack, and just playing the damn thing. Ender Lilies wasn’t doing anything new in terms of metroidvanias, but it was doing a lot of things right. It took tried and true design choices and executed them to near perfection. If I made a list consisting of the most underrated indie games made this would most likely be at the top. Ender Lilies is a masterpiece and the more I look back at my time with it the more I gain further appreciation. Adglobe had achieved something brilliant with their first major game, and when I learned they were planning to make a sequel I was excited. Take everything that made Ender Lilies masterful, tweak out the flaws, and refine the gameplay. There was slight worry on whether or not the sequel would live up, and I’m glad to be wrong as the sequel had finally released to astounding success. 

Ender Magnolia: Bloom In The Mist was my most anticipated indie game of 2025, and am proud to say it lived up on all fronts. It technically released last year into early access, but just two or so months ago the 1.0 version dropped. Ender Magnolia is exactly what I hoped it would be. More of what made the original great, but bigger and better. Not much has changed since the original, but if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it. I’m hesitant to declare this my Game of The Year, because we’re still in the first quarter of 2025 and there’s a lot of games releasing in the months to come. However, there’s not much I’m excited for in 2025 besides Ghost of Yotei and Death Stranding 2 so I guess this is my Game of The Year as of right now. Another beautiful metroidvania I never got tired of during the eighteen hours I spent playing backed by a strong narrative that doesn’t owe too much to the original to be good. Just like the original, Ender Magnolia is one of the best metroidvanias and I would say it sits alongside the original for being my second favorite in the genre. That’s what we’re here to discuss today. Been on a hot streak with indie games recently and I feel bad for not being more critical with my reviews. However, I have fun talking about things I love and in a world flooded with chaos right now it’s nice to be reminded of what’s good. Here’s why Ender Magnolia is yet another masterpiece and why it deserves your attention.

Story

Decades have passed since the events of Ender Lilies and with it comes technological advances and the establishment of new kingdoms. Our new journey takes place in the Land of Fumes. The greatest minds in the kingdom found a way to harness arcane magic and build machines out of it. Allowing them to erect omega structures and make enormous leaps forward for the people. The humans and humans coexisted together in peace. Some machines performed tasks mindlessly, but others managed to build their own consciousnesses. Becoming individuals of their own and being heralded by the people. Some of these machines became great protectors of the kingdom, and served alongside royal officials to maintain order and diplomacy. All is well in the land, but one day a mysterious fume began to rise from the ground. It didn’t affect the humans, but to the robots it began to slowly drive them mad. Breaking away their bodies and causing them to soon wreak havoc on anything that stood in their way. A large amount of the human population was killed off forcing them to flee to small districts in the land and stitch what they could together in the hopes of survival. They can’t leave the Land of Fumes, because the whole thing is protected beneath a dome that seals off any contact with outside life.

Awakening weeks after the chaos broke out is a young girl, Lilac. Finding herself in a capsule in the lowest part of the land, and being surrounded by corrupt machines who are all zombies at this point. She manages to evade the monsters around her and run into a dysfunctional machine. One who has not been affected by the corrupted fumes just yet. Lilac remembers she's an Attuner. An individual who has the power to magically fix machines and restore them to their original mind and settings. She attunes the robot and it introduces herself as Nola. Promising to stay by Lilac’s side and get her out of the sewer they’re stuck in. They fight their way through the monsters, are able to repair another machine willing to serve their cause, and eventually arise to the surface. Meeting up with a group of survivors who explain to them the current state of the world and that something weird lies near the top of the kingdom. The cause for the madness around them might stem or be fueled in the higher districts of the land, so Lilac and Nola make it their goal to reach these points. Explore the world, uncover more about what is going on, help those in need or are in need of saving, and rid the land of this accursed disease. Along the way you learn of folks who Lilac used to work alongside, and the memories of who she once was.

Gameplay

Being a sequel, Ender Magnolia follows in the footsteps of the original by delivering more of the fluid gameplay that made Ender Lilies such a joy to play. You explore the world fighting any and or all the enemies in your way, discover secrets, unlock new equipment to use, and level up. This isn’t like your standard soulslike where experience points or currency is lost upon death. It does not mean you can die all you want. Dying sends you back to the last place you rested at, and it’ll respawn any of the enemies you killed while out in the field. Same goes for just simply resting at a point. However, it’s by resting at a point that you refill your health and any healing items you may have used.At rest points you can swap out the gear you have equipped as well as the attacks you are using. Unlike a majority of soulslikes or RPGs where you defend yourself using a sword or weapon of choice you instead fight using allies you recruit. In the last game it was warriors you bless, and now it’s robots you attune. This is where build variety and choice of playstyles comes into focus.

Aside from bangles you can equip to change stats, or charms you find that grant special perks or bonuses the robot determines your way of fighting. You have four slots for abilities, and you can map which robot and their skill is fitted to each one. New robots/allies are acquired by defeating them in battle. Otherwise, they are the boss fights that lie at the end or midpoint of each zone. Unlike the original which had a vast array of spirits in Magnolia the abilities are condensed so each robot has three abilities. You can use one for each, you can't use two from one. Your allies consist of Nola who’s your basic method for melee attacks. A flying gunner, a raging beast for when you time the deflect right he punishes the attacker fiercely, a brawler for unleashing heavy damage, an owl who flies alongside you, and much more. Abilities can be upgraded using the various materials you find in the world, and doing so improves their attack damage as well as the other stats like break damage and cooldown time. Sometimes during your travels you discover stations that can be used to upgrade traversal abilities certain allies have given you. The heavy robot who does plunge attacks to pierce barriers may help skyrocket up now. The wall climbing robot can now help you zoom across the air like that one ability in Hollow Knight.

The combat of Ender Magnolia is fairly straightforward. Attack and dodge as you like, but one mechanic has up its sleeve is the pressure meter. It’s sorta like the posture bar from Sekiro, but all you really have to do is keep attacking away until it eventually breaks. Giving you a few seconds to hack away at an enemy or boss before they get back on their feet. You’re gonna wanna always be on the edge in Ender Magnolia. Bosses specifically are super aggressive and they aren’t afraid to punish you in ways you didn’t expect. It’s all about learning their attack patterns and knowing the right time to go full ham on them. Beat them, unlock their powers, and progress. All while picking up documents that tell you more of what happened in this world, and piecing together the whole picture. Fairly straightforward metroidvania, but I love straightforward games and this is a well executed one. There’s a reason why clearing out areas in Ender Magnolia and its prequel is fun to me compared to a majority of metroidvanias. We’ll touch upon that in the end section of this review. Let’s just hope you can discover who you are and your greater purpose in all this.

Thoughts

Ender Magnolia: Bloom In The Mist is an improvement on Ender Lilies in almost every single compartment. It took a formula that was already great and somehow found a way to make it even grander. First of all, let's cover what hasn’t changed, but is still great. The exploration is still real fun and I appreciate how just like the original Ender Magnolia divides sections of the map into chunks. Highlighting rooms as blue if you clear them out of all their secrets and collectibles, or as gray if you have not. Part of the reason why I enjoy striving for completion in the two titles. I am more encouraged to find missable gear if the world is compact and the game gives me a good signal that I missed something important. Whereas other metroidvnaias I didn’t feel that I should strive to do so. I also appreciate how a majority of the items you find actually contribute to make your journey a tad bit easier. There’s no gear grinding or point where the game wastes your time. It’s either upgrades to main abilities, to your health bar, or something you can at least consider using. The combat is still fun. Attacks are responsive, feel great to pull off, the pressure meter pushes you to fight actively, and enemy attacks are easily readable. Ender Lilies never had the most fluid animation in the world, but in some way I feel it helped with the game’s balance.

Bosses are the meatiest challenge in these two games as with many soulslike, but I like how they aren’t overly hard. Well the first did have some frustrating fights near the end, but I didn’t find the second game being as frustrating near the end. The limited animation makes it easy for you to read enemy attacks, and recognize what they’re going to pull off. Due to this not being a grindy RPG it means bosses should only take a small handful of attempts. No point to grind or try and brute force your way through a problem. If something does bother you it’s a sign to go explore the world. Come back when you’re stronger or have reassessed the equipment you bring. I like how easily you can swap out abilities. No stat requirements to use heavy or light attacks. Well you do need parts to unlock the second and third abilities of allies, but nothing bad of a hassle. I like how they allow you to map your abilities to each button, and after a while I began to realize Ender Magnolia is basically what if Dark Souls was a fighting game. Cracking off combos and trying to vary your approach. Find a way to overbear bosses before they become overbearing to you. Yahtzee Croshaw brought this up in his review, and I’m gonna say it here. I like how more soulslikes are starting to embrace not having a stamina bar. Especially when your style of game is faster and more reaction heavy. Ender Magnolia’s combat is great without having to be too complex or mechanically deep. It’s fun to play and difficulty ramps up pretty well.

If you do find Ender Magnolia a bit too hard, trust it will see how you get three heals while out and about for the first half of the game, you can always turn the difficulty down. The sequel has accessibility options to tune the challenge and make it an easier time. They’re well balanced and they don’t make the game overly easy. It doesn’t turn you into an unstoppable tank, it just allows the boss to hit you slightly less harder. There’s even options to make the game even harder if you are up for the challenge. So plainly Ender Magnolia hasn’t changed a lot since Ender Lilies, but has it managed to improve upon. The biggest aspects I appreciated about Ender Magnolia was condensing down the amount of abilities you have. The robots that serve you. Ender Lilies had a large array of spirits to use, but it chose quantity over quality. Some of the bosses you fight are just normal enemies given large health pools. Diverting upgrade materials amongst your spirits felt restrictive, because there were so many and why experiment when you can stick to the main ones you find work best. The ones you've most likely been upgrading the whole game. By condensing down the cast of helpers you make trying out different ones more incorrigible. I also found discovering the upgrade materials easier and more driven to spend them. The cast here can talk to each other at checkpoints, which I like because it creates dynamic relationships with the characters. Something Ender Lilies forgot, which is a shame in my opinion.

It’s been four years since I touched Ender Lilies and I don’t know if the game had equipment, because in Ender Magnolia you have the bangles and other gear. Stuff to improve your base stats outside of the charms that grant you perks. The world feels more diverse now. I thought it would be more limited since Ender Magnolia was going full science fiction. That means labs and gray industrial facilities, but it’s a rather colorful world. One second you’re venturing through a ruined city, and the next a colorful forest composed of cool colors. Yes, there is an industrial factory but then you find yourself in an ancient Japanese themed tower where you find yourself fighting a list of warriors. Shining hallways similar to that of Anor Londo, a coal mine that leads to shining caverns, and an endgame area I won’t spoil but fans will be pleased to learn how the sequel is connected to the original game. The story was one of my big highlights for Ender Lilies, and I’m glad to say it’s still great here. I don’t want to talk about it too much, because it does go all over the place and the game is still pretty recent. Compared to most people I have more time to play games, so when something is recent I try to keep in mind some players haven’t gotten around to reaching the endgame yet. I’ll keep it spoiler free, but overall I like what it’s about.

Ender Magnolia is a follow-up, but it does enough to differentiate itself. A world where people are struggling to move on or fight back against the corrupt thoughts that flood their mind. Realm pushing for advancements and greater heights for it all to just bite them in the ass. Seeing their accomplishments and achievements be their undoing. Having empathy for these individuals even though you’ve recognized and witnessed their wrongdoings. Understanding how they got to the place they are now, and offering them a hand. A chance to redeem themselves. Not because what they did was undoable, but to at least tell them they can strive for a better tomorrow. A better self for which they look at in the mirror. Lilac and Nola are a great duo as you get to witness them connect and build their bond towards each other further as they uncover the past. I love the story. My only gripe with Ender Magnolia is that I’m not sure this will have the same impact that the original had for me. Ender Lilies was such a refreshing game for me mainly due to its narrative and themes. Its ending still hits hard even today and works even better when you know the lore. Ender Magnolia still has great writing, but I’m sure if I like it in the same way. That’s why I put these two games on the same level. They’re both great and I can’t really choose one over the other. At the end of the day, Ender Magnolia is a perfect sequel to Ender Lilies. If Hollow Knight is the Metroid side of the genre then these two are great examples of how to do the Castlevania bit. Well design action RPGs with solid worldbuilding. I love Ender Magnolia and so far it’s my GOTY. I give Ender Magnolia: Bloom in The Mist a 10/10 for being incredible.

10/10, Incredible