Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights Early Access Test – Innocent Manga Girl Against Rotting Demons

The metroidvania genre has already been enriched with very pleasing pieces by indie developers, and Ender Lilies is set to be another excellent addition.

The gameplay of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has been tried by many indie developers in recent years than ever before. Thanks to this, it’s slowly as difficult to create a really lasting and memorable title as a 2D, retro-graphics platformer and logic game, but that doesn’t stop more and more developers from trying, even if it’s such minor, subtle innovations and variations such as the inclusion of soulslike moods and game elements are also spreading at a stormy pace among rivals.

Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights ticks each of the items listed above on the list: metroidvania, Symphony of the Night at first glance, and Dark Souls at second glance (though more in terms of story and counter-design than difficulty). Our protagonist is a little girl named Lily, one if not the last White Priestess, who wakes up from her long dream that during her forced rest for mysterious reasons, the wonderful fantasy empire was flooded with an incessant, damn rain that turned the people into damned undead horrors. , and only the White Priestesses can fight the source of the curse.

Lily is able to use the souls of different warriors both to defeat enemies and overcome obstacles beyond her physical abilities to take turns traversing different parts of the empire, uncovering the secrets of her own past, and stopping the rain. By default, only the Knight who awakens our hero is available, but after defeating any major main opponent or thicker optional opponent, we can gain his soul, which in addition to passive moves, such as double jumps, can add to Lily’s range, like a Castlevania game for the Nintendo DS. it also becomes a weapon. Thanks to this, we can hang them on our hero as equipment and then call on their characteristic attacks for help during the fights.

We must also hunt down various relics and amulets designed to increase our maximum vitality, the effectiveness of our evasions, and the number of prayers that can be used in the heat of battle to heal us. If our resources are too depleted, we can decide at any time to rest on one of the benches in seemingly safer zones, which, in addition to allowing us to save and vary our equipment, replenish all our resources, but at the same time automatically resurrect all opponents.

While Ender Lilies doesn’t offer elements we haven’t seen in the ranks of competition or inspiring classics anymore, the overall picture is downright promising. The makers shot the level of the challenge very well to the point where it’s not a walk in the park, but it’s not as hard a man-trying adventure as Blasphemous or Death’s Gambit, which seeks a much more authentic soulslike experience. The dark, sad mood, the pouring rain, the line of characters, especially the beautiful animation of the protagonist, or the symbolism all seem nearly perfect, plus the final version is far from complete: the current Early Access version has a total of eight zones to try already out, and the developers promise to reach version 1.0 in half a year.

The only downside is the controller support, as I didn’t find a way to adjust the sensitivity, but all the gamepads that worked well in all other games until then were either too sensitive to control Lily, or the game felt downright that some keys were pressed i had to test whatever I tried because of the number and placement of the buttons I needed, it never became comfortable enough for me. I am confident that this will be fine-tuned relatively soon, and the rest of the game will do at least as well, as Ender Lilies may already be one of the most enjoyable, atmospheric indie games of the year.