What’s left to talk about in this last chapter? I have covered everything that I wanted to talk about in Ender Lilies. I’d still like to round out my thoughts which in some of the previous entries might have sounded contradictory. Let’s finish this slightly more in-depth look at Ender Lilies.

 

Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights Chapter 2 — Hinterlands

I really like this game

That I am quite fond of this game should’ve come through in the previous chapters, both im- and explicitly. One of the big things that I liked about the game is the character customisation through the relics. The charm system is one of the additions that I always really liked in Hollow Knight as well and while relics function similarly, they’re not quite the same. It’s this kind of remodeling of the genre that makes this game stand out to me. Same as Super Metroid did on the SNES, even though I was actually too young to understand why I liked it so much, how Symphony of the Night brought stat based levelling into the mix and how Hollow Knight increased both the production value and scope by a ginormous margin. Ender Lilies might not do anything that stands out by itself, although I’d argue that the lore and the plot are very intriguing to say the least, the whole package the game presents is amazing.

 

Blighted Lord Phase 3

Of course it’s not perfect

The game absolutely has its fair share of issues, it is by no means a perfect game. Blighted Lord is the biggest issue in my eyes, but there are also other things like revisiting old areas usually only yield relatively little exciting stuff to collect. That’s not to say it’s not worth it to clear out the map, but not once did I gain an ability that made my jaw drop in amazement. Skills, moves and combat are all serviceable and nothing is bad here, but it’s also a little understated and could absolutely have done with a little more flair. Parrying for example, you barely ever need to use it and if you do, you hardly get anything out of it. Then as the game goes on you find less and less flowers to replenish your limited use spirits, so you instinctively start to use them less, which dials the combat dynamics back even further. As you can do everything in the game in one playthrough, including all trophies, combat and movement not being all that exciting, there is very little incentive to jump back into the game. I think back on the game very fondly, but when I consider playing it again, my brain immediately goes “nah, what for?”. Exploration is great and is the backbone of a Metroidvania, it’s what drives the entire experience, but you can only really explore once, after that you are just moving around in familiar environments. You also get both wall jumping and the hookshot extremely late in the game, which further limits your options in taking different routes through the game. All of that combined just doesn’t really scream replayability.

That’s all after the fact of having played through the game though. My actual time with the game, going through it without any knowledge about it was awesome, as it was all about exploring and piecing together what had actually transpired in here. So yeah, I would still say the game is really really good.

 

Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights Chapter 2 — The End

Closing Words

If you like Metroidvania games I am almost certain you’re going to enjoy Ender Lilies. The game has a lot of charm, plays, looks and sounds great and has an interesting backstory. Apart from the two bosses I mentioned, the majority of issues that I can think of won’t be an issue in a first playthrough, so I can quite confidently recommend this game if you like the genre. So after all of this, are you going to give Ender Lilies a try, or have you played it already? If you have, I’d love to know your thoughts on the game. Let me know in the comments! See you next time!