Ender Lilies: First Impressions

The game is actually called Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights but that seemed too long for the title of this post. I am sure if you are a gamer you already have some familiarity with this game but if not, I'll truncate this post by saying that so far, it seems to be really great although I can see it getting a bit difficult pretty fast.

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First off, this is a Metroidvania game and for me, that is one of my favorite kind of games. It is also side-scrolling and has very low system requirements, which also appeal to me since I no longer wish to participate in the never-ending sysreqs consumerism that changes every 6 months. If you have a computer that you paid 800 or less for in the past 5 years, this game will run fine on it. It would probably run on a potato.

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Honestly, if your PC can't handle that go back to playing minesweeper or solitaire.

Now on to the game. I found it to be very similar in art style to an amalgamation of Hollow Knight and Blasphemous which were also both fantastic Metroidvania games too. It has a very limited "essential story" although it can be as deep as you want it to be as various memos are found on the ground as you carry along. For me, I skip this stuff because I don't really care. I hope I don't end up regretting this later.

You play that role of "Lily" (just one "L", I didn't misspell it!) and you are a priestess of sorts that wakes up to find the land shrouded in chaos and darkness. Although I haven't paid much attention to the story it appears, as you would expect, that it is your job to rectify this.

You and you alone have the power to cleanse the land of the blight.

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In an unusual and interesting / innovative twist, Lily doesn't actually have any sort of offensive capabilities but instead relies upon the summoning of her spirit helpers to do this for her. Although I have only made it past 1 boss and 1 sub-boss I would imagine that the defeat of said bosses throughout the game result in you getting more and more powers and this is how other parts of the map end up getting opened up for you... you know, just like all Metroidvania games.

I say that it looks like this game is going to get pretty tough, pretty fast because in the first half hour of gameplay, I died several times and it took me three tries to get past the first boss, which is pictured above, before I was able to get past it. This might have a lot to do with me being pretty drunk at the time because the boss' move-set wasn't exactly a huge mystery. You don't need Nioh like reflexes or anything so don't get the wrong idea.

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The game thus far is dark and beautiful and one of the best aspects of it thus far has been the piano-heavy music that is simply gorgeous and very fitting for the game's overall ambiance.

Much like Hollow Knight there are various save points that are done at benches where you stop for a rest.

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These are also the only places that you can swap out your skills and accessories and in that regard it isn't just similar to Hollow Knight, it is exactly the same. I would imagine that Team Cherry probably don't mind and maybe it is actually an honor to be mimicked like this.

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_{hmmmmm, looks extremely similar doesn't it?}

I'm only about 2 hours into the game and so far I am really enjoying it. If i was to give one criticism it would be the inability to look above or below you as far as the screen is concerned. This can be a bit confusing and even result in insta-death because you leap through a platform below you not realizing that there is something that kills yo ass right away and you couldn't even see it. I've never much cared for insta-death in any game that has HP as part of the system.

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So far this game looks like it is going to eat up a bunch of my time and I am perfectly ok with that. I am one of those guys that feels as though AAA game developers are so preoccupied with true-to-life graphics that they forget to actually make a decent game. This, much like many other 2-D metroidvania games, looks like it is going to be a real winner.

I'm playing this on PC but it is available on all platforms as well. I currently "stole" the cracked version of the game but I can already tell that I am going to end up buying it. In fact, I will make a vow right now that if after 1 more hour of gameplay if I am still enjoying it as much as I am now, I will immediately do exactly that and probably for the PS4 instead of PC.