Ender Magnolia Bloom in the Mist is a 2D Action RPG within a Metroidvania landscape and a spiritual successor to Ender Lilies. Developed by both Adglobe and Live Wire who brilliantly worked on Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights. I’ve done a preview review of Ender Magnolia Bloom in the Mist while it was in Early Access, Everyone who did play the game during that time, was advised that their saves were going to be useless once the 1.0 version is released. Sure, I lost a lot of progress, but honestly, it was the best thing to happen to me at least.
Now that we’re dealing with Homunculi, I just need to lose my right arm and left leg, have my younger brother’s soul in a suit of armour, have a dead mom and look for a red mystical stone to break the laws of everything…wait…wrong series.
It helped me learn the whole combat system all over again and execute new tricks that I’ve learned from my previous attempt. Plus, getting to compare my knowledge the first time I entered the world vs now had me a bit overpowered. Luckily, we can change the difficulty of Ender Magnolia Bloom in the Mist this time around and my goodness is there a difference.
From Lilies to Magnolias
You play as Lilac, a young girl who is an “Attuner” that lost her memories and finds herself below the Lower Sanctum. After traversing through the dark surrounding of where she fell, you come across a homunculus that agrees to help you in your journey, but they’ll want something in return. Venturing further in and you’ll encounter another homunculus that is hostile and attacks you for no reason. After defeating them, you attune to them and have them become a part of your party and see the memory they’ve had before being corrupted by the Fumes. Fumes being a gas that affects both humans and homunculi alike and causes them to be mentally unstable and mutated.
Lilac and her band of homunculi task themselves with trying to help others humans and homunculi along the way while trying to retrieve the lost memories of Lilac and Nola to get the full story on how they end up where they were.
The full release of Ender Magnolia Bloom in the Mist has added a few new things that I feel were major improvements that were well worth the wait. As soon as you get to what I deem the halfway point of Ender Magnolia Bloom in the Mist, you’ll unlock something called Attuner Arts. When using Attuner Arts, you use SP to have your homunculi use a powerful skill. For example, when using Nola, she brings out her axe and swings like crazy. But, when you use Yolvan, he returns to his corrupted form and takes a big swing at anything in his path.
There are even abilities that we unlock for each area that encourage us to backtrack to collect relics that make a difference in future battles.
Ender Luck and Stability
The soundtrack is phenomenal and I love the lyrics that appear in certain locations when going from place to place. Even the piano score gave me so many chills, I legit stuck around in one spot to listen to the music loop, never knowing when the loop started or even ended. There are times when I can’t tell if the songstress is singing in French, but I’m not sure yet.
There are moments I’d expect some sort of sfx when you attune to the different homunculi you come across on your journey. I also hope that they might go down the route of having the cutscenes read aloud because my goodness would that add some extra flavour to this mix.
I have honestly been enjoying the music they touched up on some of the old boss fights and the music played in some of the new ones as well. Yet, I still love the soundtrack in the Old Town more than anything else in Ender Magnolia Bloom in the Mist. It’s still the most peaceful OST to listen to and just forget my worries.
After a Flower Wilt, It’ll Bloom Again
Now let’s talk about the art that was given life and graced our life by existing. Adglobe and Live Wire sank the entire ship with how alluring the background looks, the design behind each homunculus, and the well-drawn effect we see when performing attacks. If I was thrown into Ender Magnolia Bloom in the Mist with no subtitles and only the animations done when you peer into the memories of the homunculi you attune to, I feel like those memories tell you more than subtitles ever will.
I think the location where you fight Yolvan is top-tier and has me hoping for a background that’ll make me want to know more about the world and why a broken clock tower is glowing red. There’s even the immense homunculi graveyard that is completely adorned with what looks like white lilies that even cover different parts of these three pillars of stones in the mine.
Getting to see the actual Central Stratum and the areas within its realm was another thing I’m glad we waited on since oh boy does it look immaculate. Seeing what all the fuss was about and comparing the Lower Stratum to the Central Stratum really shows the major difference in this world’s society. Making me feel anger, determination and sadness when first going around the maps and hoping that beating each boss would save the people there. Wondering if any of the actions I’m doing now will help the people or endanger them to more trouble down the line.
And this is all I feel when I look at not only the art in the world but even the videos we get after every boss we defeat. All this accumulated to me feeling the way I did when playing and how it changed my outlook on how to approach every fight after the other.
Machine Part, Spice, and Everything Magic
When it comes to the mechanics, it feels similar to people who’ve played Ender Lilies with some new things added to the mix. Instead of switching between two ways of fighting, you get to mix one homunculus to each attack slot you have access to. Then there’s the fact you have four attack options to do some crazy combos, like having Yolvan as my R1 slot and Nola to my 
where I can spam the living daylight out of her scythe. Even the enemies’ way of attacking has me on my toes. Especially, a specific enemy who should not be named or spoiled so that you all can learn true fear again.
I’ve noticed that there are a lot of new things added since Early Access. First, being that not all the homunculus we defeat would become a tool for fighting, but also have become the ones that helped us reach areas that I didn’t notice or become visible when acquiring them. Second, collecting parts to level up both attacks and unlocking new skills has become easier for everyone. Getting to swap out my combinations of abilities to better suit our playstyles and the fights we have to confront down the line.
Attuning To The Entire Mist
Ender Magnolia Bloom in the Mist was honestly the most worthwhile wait for a metroidvania game that I’ve had in a long time. Getting to relive the experience of emotions I had when I first played Ender Lilies a long time ago. Watching something amazing bloom from the bud it was in Early Access to what it is now was truly worth the wait. I’m going to play Ender Magnolia Bloom in the Mist again and again whenever I need something to tug at my emotional strings again. And until Silksong finally releases.
Ender Magnolia Bloom in the Mist Trailer
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Code was provided by the Publisher
Written by Ruddy Celestial
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