A terrific moment-to-moment experience that mixes impressive visuals and sound with an enthralling story
Binary Haze’s Ender Magnolia is finally out of Early Access and into a full release, and it’s brought the “Four Pillars” of good game design along with it: good music, good art, good story and good gameplay. I find that a lot of Metroidvanias are usually lacking in one of those departments. This game, and its predecessor Ender Lilies, excel really well in every department, right down to how the two are connected. That first game stars a girl exploring an abandoned city and summoning homunculus spirits to her advantage. This sequel takes a deeper examination into the society of the city, and who the homunculus were before they fell.
It’s an intriguing twist. We go through the city and its slums, speak to and get to know the people, and then have to engage them. For example, we meet a character who protects the children here and get his backstory, but then we have to beat him in a very methodical boss fight (that requires a lot of dodging and parrying). It’s after that win that we can unlock him and add his abilities to traverse the map. It’s more of a streamlined and process of ability unlocks than a regular a Metroidvania.
Instead of being stuck, the game uses its story to get us through these upgrades, eventually even letting us equip four powers at a time. Our child protector gives us a shooting power, another gives us sword attacks, or giant uppercuts, or double jumps. And it’s the mixing and matching of the abilities that really lead to some fascinating move sets, like using the uppercut to knock an enemy into the air and then the sword to pin them, then finishing with our projectile to shoot them into the ground.
The combat really lets us interact with the game in any way we want, and that’s fully due to that combination of story and gameplay. And that story is fun, interesting and engaging on its own — it’s really good.
Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist is a terrific followup to a good game, and not only honors what original accomplished but also expands on it with new ways to take on its incredibly satisfying summoning and abilities mechanics.
This review is based on a Steam code sent to SideQuesting by the publisher. It originally appeared on The SideQuest Live for February 17, 2025. Images and video courtesy publisher.
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