ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist

Очень хорошая метроидвания. Всем фанатам метроидваний - просто обязательна к прохождению. Хотя, мне настолько она зашла, что я бы её вообще всем рекомендовала. Захотелось написать обзор именно на вторую часть, так как мне кажется, что она менее известная, а мне понравилась больше, чем ENDER LILIES. Конечно, сначала нужно пройти ENDER LILIES, а потом уже ENDER MAGNOLIA (истории взаимосвязаны). Боссы проще, но мне атмосфера больше по душе, как и концепция фарма с ресурсами (чего в ENDER LILIES вы не найдёте). Очень рада, что прошла обе игры и мне не жаль ни секунды времени, проведённого в обеих играх. P.S. ENDER MAGNOLIA пройдена на 100% без гайдов.

A fun and streamlined metroidvania with a handful of nitpicks that dragged the game down for me more than I would have expected. Compared to the first game (Ender Lilies), I think the combat and progression are better but the story and atmosphere are lacking. It took me ~20 hours to get all achievements. Combat is probably where the game shines the most. There is a wide variety of moves/abilities that all feel fun and viable, and they enable quite a few different types of playstyles. You get access to them consistently throughout the story (some being hidden in optional/side content), and you get to upgrade them with materials you collect through exploration. The upgrades are mostly just stat boosts but sometimes they will change the visuals, add an extra move to a combo, etc. The game is quite easy, but it lets you customize the games difficulty to your liking, so you can make it more challenging if you please. The exploration/story/atmosphere is good but not great (the music and most visuals being the exceptions, both being absolutely amazing). The game is definitely a dark fantasy, but there are also many "clean" parts of the game (e.g., the UI) that heavily contrast with that theme. Lots of the dialog is light-hearted and almost comedic at times; I just don't think that fits well when the world is supposed to be succumbing to a world-ending plague. Despite my complaints, I did enjoy the story that was there, and as mentioned above, the music and art do a lot of the heavy lifting in this category. As for the exploration, areas that still have secrets or collectables in them are highlighted, making it next to impossible to miss collectables. I'm fairly neutral here, though I have a feeling some won't like this approach. Onto my nitpicks, there are elements of the game that feel incomplete. For example, there is an important action called "attuning" that you perform throughout the game. It has a flashy animation but no sound effect. If this was a one-off action or was not important, I would think it's weird but probably forget about it. However, this is an important part of the story and of the character you play as. It also happens dozens of times throughout the game, so it's hard to ignore. There are also some textures that are noticeably lower resolution than most. I generally don't care much about graphic fidelity, but when there is a blocky, pixelated character model in front of a stunning scene background, it, once again, becomes hard to ignore. Thankfully the low-quality models are rare. Final point, it feels like the game really likes to eat inputs, or maybe more specifically, the time when inputs don't get registered is longer than it feels like it should be. I noticed this most often when exiting menus; I would go to move after exiting the inventory and the character just wouldn't. I would have to release and repress the key to get them to start moving. Again, not a major issue on its own, but it happened enough to annoy me. Unless you're as persnickety as me, you'll probably like this game quite a bit. The art and music alone are likely enough to make many happy, and the combat should reel in the rest.