Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights

released on Jan 21, 2021

Ender Lilies is a dark fantasy 2D Action RPG about unraveling the mysteries of a nation destroyed by a cataclysmic event. The fallen Kingdom of End is a tragic and beautiful world featuring a majestic castle, submerged forests and forbidden underground areas. On this sorrowful journey, encounter horrific enemies against whom a moment of inattention could be fatal. By releasing foes from their undying curse, you may gain their strength. Overcome the hardships of your journey and uncover the truth with the aid of the fallen knights.


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An absolutely beautiful game. Mili delivered the best vocals for this OST. The graphics were beautiful.
Game play fun and challenging. Fighting bosses was great.

Literally amazing.

bored 3 hours in , combat feels like shit, enemies dont react to being attacked

i like the bosses and combat, movement feels nice, but it starts to feel like a slog about halfway in. the music is also quite repetitive.

Really solid MV. Felt so much like playing Momodora RUTM (a favorite of mine), but with Vanillaware-inspired graphics. Some frustrating moments re: readability in level design (why can't I jump on these roofs???) but otherwise a very even-handed and engaging game.

I think its my favorite metroidvania, everithing is amazing, from the musics to the graphics and cutscenes, the gameplay starts a bit clunky but as you get used to it and with many movement upgrades it get way better.

I’ll admit, from a complete gameplay perspective, I don’t think Ender Lilies would actually be a 10/10. I still think it’s an amazing game, however I have so many personal connections to Ender Lilies and it’s genuinely one of my favorite games ever. I remember playing this game back when it first enter early access, and I absolutely adored it. I then played it again when it fully released, and I nearly completed it all, though I couldn’t beat the true final boss. After all this, with news of this game getting a proper sequel, I really wanted to replay Ender Lilies, and this time I was able to completely 100% Ender Lilies. And the more I played of Ender Lilies, the more it grew to be one of my favorite games of all time.

Now, I’m already biased here. Ender Lilies is a Metroidvania, and those are some of my favorite games ever. Ender Lilies is absolutely a fantastic Metroidvania, from its aesthetic, combat, and especially its mechanics. There’s so much that I adore in this game. Ender Lilies has one of the best quality of life additions for a Metroidvania, but at the same time I’m unsure how many Metroidvanias actually have this feature. Specifically, on the map it shows when you complete each room in an area, switching between Blue and Yellow, which is really nice. It helps direct you to know when you’re done in an area, or if you’re trying to 100% the game, to know where you need to go to further progress. Some areas are harder to find specific treasures, but when you’re able to succeed in getting them, it feels so good. There’s one that requires you to climb between 2 tall towers, and jump across the large gap between them. It was really difficult, but it felt so good to actually do.

And I absolutely adore the exploration in this game. Yet again this goes back to my bias with Metroidvanias, and how much I love them. I love getting lost in games, wandering and stumbling upon things, important or otherwise. Aside from very few games, There’s so many fun little nooks and crannies in Ender Lilies, alongside great platforming and combat challenges. The game doesn’t really point the player in a correct direction either, which is really nice. It shows you where exits to rooms are, but you still have to find your way to that spot, and even then, there isn’t even any markers telling the player where a sort of ultimate goal is. The player just finds it themselves, which I really love. With the near lack of direction that Ender Lillies has, the player is fully able to get lost and immersed in the world, which I adore.

And when it comes to the movement abilities, while they’re not completely unique, they’re of such a high quality, and there’s some really fun ideas thrown into the mix. Particularly I adore how this game works with the mechanic of dashing. At the beginning of the game, the player starts out with a rudimentary dash, though it’s purposefully not good. The player falls to the floor, and has to pick themselves back up. It’s good early game for dodging attacks, but not horizontal movement. But later in the game, the player gets an upgrade to their dash, which turns it into a more archetypical dash for a Metroidvania. And that Dash becomes one of the best movement options in the entire game. The other movement abilities are also really fun, and they’re all utilized so well in the game’s environment. Genuinely all of them are amazing.

I also really like the spirits you unlock throughout the game. Aside from the starting soul, you get them all from bosses, major, and minor. There’s so many spirits, and you can practically equip 6 at the time, though you switch between sets of 3. And there’s so much customizability with them, and you can create some really fun builds with them. Back when I played the game for the first time, I really liked using the summonable spirits, having a Summoner build. While this time around, I went primarily with melee build, focusing almost solely on the beginning spirit. I also really love how some of the spirits can help with movement, sometimes necessitating using them to find some of the rarer treasures. The spirits are so malleable and customizable, and I really love them.

The relics as well are really fun modifiers you can include as well. I will say, I think objectively the best one is the one that heals you slightly every time you damage an enemy. There’s also simple ones, such an increasing health, damage, or defense, and there’s also some other good ones, like increasing your healing usages. It’s also well balanced, by limiting how many you can equip, though increasing how many you can hold as you find certain treasure. I absolutely love it.

Combat is mostly simple, but man it’s really fun. The further you get into the game, when the enemies get noticeably harder, it becomes really fun. There was a section in the game where you climb a tower as enemies appear as you climb up, and you have to fight them all to unlock the path forward was really fun. Some enemies are annoying at times, but they all become manageable eventually, and it feels so good going back to an area where you originally had trouble and you steamroll it because of how much you’ve progressed. And I absolutely adore the bosses in this game. Most were relatively easy for me, I beat a majority of the bosses between my first to third tries. I remember when I played this game when it first released, Hoenir was absolutely the most annoying boss day one, he spawned other enemies at a ridiculous rate, though it was patched and became a more balanced boss. For me though the hardest boss was Ulv, he moved so fast, and his attacks were brutal. It probably took me 20-30 tries to actually beat him, but it felt so good to actually do so. An interesting thing though is the boss that actively prevented me from beating the game, the final boss, I beat on my complete first try, barely having any difficulty with it. It honestly was mind blowing to me for that to occur, but it feels so good to have that happen, it feels like I’ve improved so much between then and now.

And I can’t ignore Ender Lilies’ music. This game introduced me to one of my favorite bands of all time, because that band worked on the game’s music. Mili is an amazing group, and all of the music that they made for the game showcases that. I’ll admit as well, the credits music made me tear up, after everything that I’ve experienced within and around Ender Lilies, hearing that end credits music really impacted me, and cemented my love of this game.

Yet again, I can’t guarantee that you would have the same love for Ender Lilies that I do. There’s so many personal experiences that connect me to Ender Lilies that I know other people wont share. However to me that is an important factor on the love of a game, those connections, the impacts that a game have. And because of that, Ender Lilies is downright one of my favorite games of all time, even if you don’t love it as much as I do, please give this game a chance. It may not be a masterpiece for you, but it is a masterpiece for me.