Ender Lilies (PC) Preview

By Eric Ace 02.03.2021

While the "genre" name 'metroidvania' is oddly favoured towards the Metroid line of games (despite not having a 2D release in many years) the genre is alive and well. Though as of late there is a far bigger trend towards rogue-like aspects in this, Ender Lilies is more of the older style of the typical single-iteration. Playing a young girl who wakes up in a destroyed world, who must find out what happened, all the while gaining the ability to control ghostly warrior spirits who fight for her. Here is a quick look at it.

Ender Lilies is looking to be a surprisingly solid 2D platformer. Taking the role of a young girl who wakes up in a destroyed, zombie-fied world, she must find out what happened, controlling the spirits of warriors as her attack. The story rapidly spins a tale about some disease that started corrupting everyone, and only priestesses could cure, or release people. It has a very dark atmosphere, with the primary colours being black, white and red.

One unique idea for the genre is the way combat works. The girl has a typical ghost spirit that does a three-hit combo attack, but she will gain new attacks. These act a sort of local AoE move, such as summoning a ghost girl that spins her ball and chain around in the spot for a few seconds. Combat becomes a dance of moving around and summoning spirits to be doing damage in certain sections of the screen. The girl moves a little slow, but the idea is actually really cool. Taken to its logical conclusion could be a pretty fun combat system.

Screenshot for Ender Lilies on PC

At this point this is still fairly short, and has some rough spots, but overall it provided a pretty impressive Early Access experience. On the low end, the combat is a little stiff, mainly because the girl moves very slow, and her movements need far more animations - the funniest is the dodge where she jumps into to a belly flop which comes off as awkward. Furthermore, the story is told in info dumps of letters. It's a little much, but the story is actually really interesting, so there's hoping the developer finds a better way to weave in some elements of it, rather than huge chunks.

Overall this is looking pretty cool. Coming upon the ruined town with some oddly melancholic music, playing actually felt like the old Nier - in every sense of a good compliment. The feeling of the destroyed world and this innocent girl trying to figure out what happened was a pretty neat one. Hopefully movement and exploration will get a bit of a speed boost, as it feels just a touch off. The atmosphere and music are the highlights, and if it can deliver, it will be one to watch out for.

Screenshot for Ender Lilies on PC

Final Thoughts

While in Early Access, there are some obvious things to point out as flaws, such as stiff animations and controls, but the strong feel of the game, and the music was really outstanding. If the developer can fix these problems and deliver upon the high notes of the experience, this will be absolutely one to watch out for. Making the combat and movement a little more fluid, while expanding the story will make this an easy recommendation.