Once upon a time, there was a country called the "Frontier Nation."
The "rain of death" that fell from the sky transformed all living creatures into bloodthirsty and violent "filthy ghosts", and in this tragedy far beyond human wisdom, the kingdom was helpless and destroyed.
The rain never stopped, like a curse.
A lonely dark red shimmer passed through the ruined kingdom to the depths of a church where a girl, Lily, woke up.
Game name
ENDER LILIES：Quietus of the Knights
(The Lily of the End: The Redemption of the Knights)
Game type
Role-playing Metroidvania
make
Life Wire，Adglobe
issuance
Binary Haze Interactive
Release time
2021.6.21
platform
PC XBOX Nintendo Switch
Continuation of the traditional class castlevania
Since the release of Hollow Knight and the high praise, more and more players have been exposed to Castlevania-like games, and ender LILIES is a masterpiece worth trying for players who love such games. In Castlevania-like games, players usually play as a "hunter" who relies on weapons and sophisticated skills to hunt enemies in dangerous and hostile environments, explore the map, improve their abilities, and ultimately defeat the boss and save the world. The same goes for ENDER LILIES, which has a vast and accessible map, diverse enemies and abilities, exciting but not too difficult boss battles, dark fantasy fairy tale backgrounds, a unique hand-drawn style, and beautiful and immersive background music created by Mili, which are the best things that ENDER LILIES excels.
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Filthy Death Redemption
On the stage of the "Frontier Nation", death and filth are raging with the never-ending rain of death, where there are magnificent capitals, flooded forests, polluted forbidden areas underground, a world of tragic beauty.
Lily, a pure white maiden with amnesia, the descendant of the White Witch, possesses the ability to purify filth, and in order to retrieve her memories, she embarks on an adventure to save the frontier country.
In a journey full of sorrow, encounter powerful enemies that can kill if you slacken off. By winning battles, they can be released from the bondage of immortality and hide the truth of this world from their remaining tender memories, and their power can be used.
A unique but not excellent combat system
Unlike traditional Castlevania games, in ENDER LILIES, the young girl Lily, who plays the role of a warrior, does not have the ability to fight, but relies on the warrior's soul entity to fight. In the course of the game, players can obtain the corresponding souls by purifying after winning battles with special enemies, and after equipping, they can cast the corresponding attack moves, but some moves have a limit on the number of uses and need to be replenished by rest or red lotus. Lily can equip two different combinations of moves at the same time, and in difficult situations, she can find the most suitable combination by constantly trying.
However, the combat action is somewhat stiff, and the amount of some collision damage is not clear, which is very fatal for games with collision damage. However, compared to other types of Castlevania games, the overall difficulty is low, in addition, Lily can increase her level by defeating the ghosts to absorb their filth to increase the damage of her moves, and can also collect items to improve her survivability, and there is no death penalty, although the battle tolerance rate is relatively low, and the enemy will appear conspicuous attack hints when attacking, these designs allow players who are not good at action games to defeat strong enemies in growth.
Appreciated but not perfect map design
ENDER LILIES uses the traditional box court map, that is, each area is separated separately, and the production team designs different scenes such as forests, villages, castles, churches, cemeteries, laboratories, etc., and players can explore the map freely. Although the production team is very thoughtful to show the degree of exploration and route for all map areas, which is very friendly to full achievement players and collection players, some items are hidden in the hiding place, and the other point is that the difficulty design of some maps is unreasonable, and there will be heap monsters and highly repetitive running map decryption, which may be caused by short processes and lack of experience of the production team.
Gorgeous fine art style
Ender Lilies' artistic style can be described as mutilated ornate, beautiful and dangerous, dark and romantic, especially in the design of the two scenes of church and castle can be felt in the distinct Gothic style, with gray tones and endless rain, and in the filth is the pure and flawless Lily.
Black fairy tale – Mili
Mili (full name Project Mili) is a mixed-race band that specializes in stream-of-consciousness, and its lead singer Momocashew's sweet voice contrasts strongly with the dark fairytale lyrics, which is a perfect fit for the ENDER LILIES soundtrack, and this is Mili's first attempt at the soundtrack, compared to the song, Momo's soft humming has an incredible chemistry with simple orchestration and melody. In addition, the dynamic soundtrack and the arrangement details of different boss battles can give players a high sense of immersion.
Moving but short story
The plot thread of ENDER LILIES is very clear, and the various information collected by the player during the game and the purified memories after the victory of the BOSS battle can complement the plot details and world view very well, and overall, unlike the soul-like game plot, it does not leave too many blanks. But unfortunately, the game process is not long, the plot is relatively simple, and the small volume limits its play. In addition, Lily has almost no dialogue, but shows it in body movements.
Overall
An imperfect piece, but an adventure worth experiencing. The artistic standard that is commendable is not rich but acceptable.
Text & Typography: Rach