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+====== Ender Lilies - Quietus of the Knights ======
+{{ img:b:r:ender-lilies.png?460 }}**Ender Lilies** is a beautiful metroidvania ‘souls-like’ about a little girl who ends up in a [[playground:zombie|zombie]] post-apocalypse in a Dark Fantasy world. And, well, it's //dark// and //scary// and pretty damn awesome.\\  A sequel has come out recently, though I haven't had the chance to play it yet.
+{{tag>games speculah}}
+===== Review =====
+Ender Lilies is a very beautiful game. The artwork, and the environment it portrays is just...masterclass. The atmosphere is what initially got me hooked on the game...though the lore and gameplay kept me going.\\  If I may focus on the art for a bit...I mean //every// aspect of it: character art, background art and music all work together in //perfect// harmony to convey the tone and atmosphere. That atmosphere is dark and seemingly hopeless...and yet, no matter how dark and gloomy it gets...there is //always// a small sliver of hope.((:fn:>Being a [[playground:despair.concept|despair]] junkie, this really gets me going.)) The animation also perfectly shows what it's like for a little girl to wander through this depressing and dangerous kingdom((:fn:>To elaborate for those curious. Lily will //always//(?) cower whenever you attack, which emphasizes that she's only asking the spirits to attack for her and, well, she isn't doing it directly.)).\\  That kind of stuff really appeals to me, so of course I took notice. As a side note, the music was composed by [[lb:mili]] which was a surprise when I learned it. I'm proud to say that I identified the composers as Mili while playing...and I looked it up later to confirm.\\  Anyhow, let's move on. My notes are structured as art, story, gameplay, so let's do story next.\\  The story...is //alright//. In the sense that it's a complete story without any issues (as far as I could tell/remember). My notes don't mention any issues, in fact...though that could be negligence. Whatever.\\  The basic story is that you're a little girl who woke up in a dark castle not knowing who you are, where you are or what's happening. **Amnesia**. To make matters worse...you're **mute**. You were awoken by a mysterious and friendly ghost-knight - the **Umbral Knight** - who offers to protect you. What makes the mysterious situation more so is the fact everything around you is in ruins, despite you yourself being completely okay. Once you start exploring the ruins, you find terrifying undead creatures that, at first, do nothing. Then they start trying to kill you. And once you reach the exit, you end up in a chapel where you fight an undead Nun. Once you beat her up with the Umbral Knight's help, she gets added to your spirit repertoire.\\  From there, you start exploring the rest of the map. Some parts of the map are locked off from others that you can only enter after defeating a boss and gaining some ability. Over the course of exploring the map you will, like in all soulslikes, discover notes which explain the situation around you more precisely. You'll not only learn what happened but also who you are and who all those undead are. Oh yeah, each time you defeat a boss (or mini-boss), you see a cutscene revealing a sliver of memory. It's via the Nun's cutscene that you learn your name is **Lily** <wrap spoiler>until you learn near the endgame that, in fact, you are //not// Lily. Lily was someone else who was //not// mute. She was excited for you to wake up...but, well. The player character decides to still keep the name Lily though, as a way to honor her memory. That's nice</wrap>. It's via all that that you learn about **Fretia**, your mom and certified waifu. The story is told in a fragmented fashion, though it's not especially difficult to figure out what's what. If you pay attention, read a lot and just think about it, you can piece together exactly what happens pretty quickly. This is similar to [[lb:the final station]], though it's probably easier there, as the story is told linearly (1) and the story here is far more fragmented (2). The game has three endings and I think they're fine. Ending A, which is likely the first one most players will get, is the worst overall, as it felt kinda off to me((:fn:>Thinking about it now, long after I played it...I think this is because it's out-of-character for Lily to take that ending, considering her unflinching spirit.)), though it makes sense in context.\\  Moving on from there are Endings B and C. C requires you collect a few key items to create a super item that will help bring about the absolute best ending. Endings B and C both <wrap spoiler>involve a final boss battle with...</wrap> <wrap spoiler>**Fretia**, certified waifu...but in the form of the **Blighted Lord**</wrap>. In B <wrap spoiler>Lily manages to defeat the Blighted Lord, but can’t actually purify Fretia...so she chooses to join her in the Blight instead, so she isn't lonely</wrap>. Lily is so nice, like, I can’t even...\\  All endings are not exactly ‘//happy//’ as ‘//bittersweet//’ is probably the best way to describe them. Though the optimist inside me imagines a far happier aftermath than might be suggested. <wrap spoiler>I mean Lily has a will of steel. It's not too hard to imagine she'll have a pleasant life afterwards</wrap>.\\  It's during Ending C that <wrap spoiler>the title of the game actually becomes relevant</wrap>, which excites me to no end. Lily now <wrap spoiler>holds all the spirits</wrap> within her: <wrap spoiler>the knight, all the bosses we fight, her mother Fretia and all her sisters (lilies)</wrap>. And she ended <wrap spoiler>the Blight</wrap>. She has become <wrap spoiler>**Ender Lilies** having finally brought all the knights and guardians in the realm to quietude</wrap>. It's so nice I might cry.\\  As a side-note that I forgot about until re-reading this: Lily's appearance changes over time. She <wrap spoiler>becomes more blighted after defeating each boss</wrap>. However, after getting a special item (name forgotten, doesn't matter), her <wrap spoiler>appearance goes back to normal</wrap>. It's story-relevant, don't worry about it. Anyways, **gameplay time**.\\  I found the gameplay fun, though repetitive near the end. It didn't take me long to learn why it's labelled a soulslike, as I kept dying over and over again and having the best time of my life. The difficulty is high, but it's fair...all of it simply requires skill, which you will acquire through persistence. That is, until you reach the **Verboten Domain**. Conveniently labelled so, I should say. That domain is almost certainly the most //objectively// **annoying** part of the game. The area is filled with a bunch of monsters that are near-impossible to spot prior to getting hit and a lot of them move too fast to dodge properly. At least I think so. Annoyingly, my notes //don't// mention why the Verboten Domain is bad, so I'm going off of memory. Besides that, though, the rest of the game is actually pretty fair (so mostly skill rather than luck), so I'm going to say something strange: Ender Lilies is kinda easy.\\  This is because the game has a levelling system for whatever reason. Personally, I would have just...not, maybe. And the difficulty gradually scales. According to TVTropes, the game is beatable at //only// level 70 while the max level is 101. Now, you might question why I emphasized the word ‘only’ because 70 sounds high. Well, it's because I hit level 90 in the 3rd to last area. Granted, my method of playing any RPG is to never run from a fight (unless I want to sleep in the primary world), so I just kept killing everything in my way. I didn't even use the fast travel system much, as I'd just walk to my destination killing everything along the route.\\  The difficulty is more in learning the patterns behind enemies...when they attack, when they charge up, when they pause to recover, etc. Once you learn those, the gameplay isn't that difficult. This makes Ender Lilies a bit of a rhythm game. Though I guess this isn't unusual for soulslike. I've only played (and finished) one of those, by the way.\\  The most difficult boss, per my notes, is Ulv. Though all the bosses are challenging (and I died multiple times to some of them). The mini-bosses are pretty easy though and I beat most of them in under a minute or so. Could also be that I was over-leveled, but that didn't apply to all of them.\\  I forgot to note in my notes that the main ‘upgrades’ in this game are the spirits you gather. When you kill a boss, you gain a new skill which you can then assign to a hotbar (or secondary hotbar) that you can then use at any time. These can also be enhanced individually, though doing so is quite time-consuming...for reference, by the time I was max level and finished the game...yeah, I wasn't anywhere close yet. It's not a big deal though, since you can still finish the game without doing it, so it's mostly a fun bonus.\\  However, finding the ‘winning’ combination of spirits is very easy and I did so on my first run very fast. That could just be me though, so I won't hold it against the game. I only tried out the others later on during a second playthrough, made specifically for this review...and, well, it is fun to experiment. Though I never finished that playthrough and only finished this review //now//.\\  Overall...yeah, Ender Lilies is a good game. I would have done some things differently if I were in charge, but then I wouldn't have been in charge in the first place. Ender Lilies actually made me rethink my stance on Dark Fantasy, which I previously mostly disliked, so that's pretty great.
+===== Characters & Worldbuilding =====
+==== Main Characters ====
+=== Lily ===
+Lily is the main character of Ender Lilies and the one the player controls. She has a will of steel, incredible bravery for a little girl and...she's mute. I'm not sure why she's mute, she just is.\\  Unfortunately for her, considering the situation, she can’t fight because she's too frail. Honestly, understandable, she's a //child//. So, in order to survive, spirits - like the Umbral Knight - fight on her behalf. Those spirits also grant her abilities which help her survive and deal with the surrounding situation.\\  Lily is a //white priestess// which means she is the daughter of Fretia, the //Priestess of the Fount// and certified waifu material.\\  However...<wrap spoiler>it's later revealed that Lily is, in fact, not Lily...nor is she Fretia's daughter. In reality, she's Fretia's clone. Lily is actually ‘Lily’s’ ‘sister’ (also a clone of Fretia) and the White Priestess who lived in the cathedral. To be clear, all the white priestesses are clones of Fretia. The real Lily was eagerly awaiting the awakening of her new sister...but she died sometime before ‘Lily’ actually woke up, which is sad. That also means the real Lily was the white priestess who interacted with Sigrid.</wrap>\\  <wrap spoiler>Anyway, despite learning that she is technically nameless...Lily decides to keep the name, as a way of remembering her sisters. Very nice of her.</wrap>
+=== Umbral Knight ===
+The Umbral Knight is a mysterious dude who wakes Lily up at the start of Ender Lilies. For whatever reason, I could never get a good impression of the Knight's personality. The Umbral Knight is the more talkative of the two main characters as he(?) comments on all kinds of things. Mostly the areas and bosses. The Knight has a respect for the dead and, well, he's protecting a little girl...so he's honorable. I should note though that <wrap spoiler>he did consider killing Lily just before he wakes her up, hoping that it would break his curse. More on that later</wrap>.\\  The Umbral Knight's whole thing is...that he's <wrap spoiler>one of the Ancients. The original inhabitants of the kingdom before the first king killed all of them. The Knight has an undying contract with a bloodline...the bloodline that Fretia belongs to. Basically, he can’t die/pass on unless that entire bloodline dies out. He's also forced to stay with members of that bloodline...though I'm not sure of the exact mechanics</wrap>. So...that's why <wrap spoiler>the Knight thought of killing Lily though, as we find out in Ending A...yeah, it would have been pointless because Fretia is still alive</wrap>. After the fact, I realized that the Umbral Knight was keeping his distance from Lily at the start of the game. Though this is very subtle.\\  His/Her name is revealed at the end of the game, though we don't know whether the Knight is male or female.
+===== Speculah & Analysis =====
+==== Mystery ====
+This is just a point of interest. The mystery in Ender Lilies is presented very well here.\\  Basically, you start out in an unknown location, having been waken up by a mysterious guest who offers to protect you. You're surrounded by monsters who want to kill you and your only option is to look around to find your lost memories. It's all very good.\\  There was another thing written here prior about the lore having to be pieced together throughout the game, where it's clear that the creators put some real thought into making sure it all fit. That's very good for a mystery story, as piecing together a cohesive...whatever...is very satisfying for the player.
+===== Trivilinks =====
+  * [[https://ja.enderlilies.com|Official Website]]
+    * Note: It is available in multiple languages.
+  * [[https://enderlilies.fandom.com/wiki/ENDER_LILIES_Wiki|The Wikia]] - I can't decide if it's decent or bad.
+  * I started playing the game out of a bizarre desire to play metroidvanias. Prior to //Ender Lilies// I played //Carrion//, which I liked, and one other game, which I didn't like. No, I don't remember what that other game was.
+  * I'm including the copyright disclaimer at the bottom because their website specifically requested it...though the truth is that I'm too lazy to remove it at this point, and I think it's fine there.
+  * There were more characters but, due to laziness, I removed those temporarily. I might add them later, or might not. Fretia, certified waifu, will be added at some point.
+----
+<WRAP centeralign>
+The names of companies and products mentioned on this page are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.\\  (c)BINARY HAZE INTERACTIVE Inc.
+</WRAP>