Played on the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode. No framerate or performance issues noticed.
Ender Lilies made quite the first impression on me and for the most part did not let up during my 15 hours with it. I had seen trailers and knew what to expect regarding both visuals and gameplay. A combination of those trailers and buzz did a great job of selling me on Ender Lilies. However, while actually playing the game I was in awe of how good it both looked and felt.
The game starts you in a castle with mostly bleak grays and blacks making up the background. It’s maybe an hour or two that this shifts completely. The game still keeps its dread filled look but colors were allowed to pop when the developer decided to use them. Visually some areas are nothing short of stunning. Each area does have its own style to it that helped to differentiate it from the others but still fit in the larger puzzle. There were more than a couple times that I would quickly turn off my HUD to get a couple screenshots. The enemy and boss designs are pretty typical archetypes for this setting but are brought to life with beautiful animation that creates a unique aura around them.
Arguably more important than the look is how this game feels. Right off the bat, I could tell that Ender Lilies felt great. The controls are tight and responsive. I loved switching up my “spirits”, bosses’ souls you purify to help you in combat, to help keep Ender Lilies feeling fresh. The game is tough. You will die many times to both bosses and regular enemies who are no slouches. My deaths always felt like they were my fault though. Like most of these tough as nails games they can fall apart for me if they try to be too hard. Ender Lilies strikes a perfect balance, minus some of the later bosses. For the most part the key is to learn boss patterns, enemy placement, and string together your combos when the window allows. Not uncommon to Metroidvanias, defeating bosses is a wonderful feeling and leads to upgrades that will help you be able to fill out the map. One thing I want to point out is this game has a very good map system, similar to Resident Evil 2: Remake, it fills in the rooms with a different color when everything has been collected. The map also includes red dots on the edges of the spaces signifying that you can go in that direction still. The fast travel system works wonders for people who want to fill out the map or go back and collect items they might have missed.
The story was actually pretty straight forward and enjoyable which for a souls-like is pretty refreshing. In short, the kingdom has been overrun by monsters/beasts due to the Blight. Your job is to gain back your memories and find the white priestess who can help purify the world, ending the Blight. You pick up bits and pieces of lore via notes and memories which help paint the picture of the cursed world you are trying to save. Instead of being obtuse and requiring a lot of reading it was nice to have it put in front of me in an digestible way.
Ender Lilies both surprised and did not surprise me. I knew what sort of game it was going to be before playing, but I did not know how much I was really going to love this game. I played on the Switch in handheld mode and the game felt perfectly fluid. I did not notice any sort of performance issues or stuttering. Ender Lilies is a fantastic game that sets itself apart from a flooded genre.
8.5/10