Ender Magnolia Review: Ace's Hottest Take, Better Than Hollow Knight
The sequel to Ender Lilies is a hand-drawn, steampunk-meets-Studio-Ghibli Metroidvania with a soundtrack worth playing in the car. Ace gave it a 10.
AceBy Ace
This was the very first episode of VGP's indie series, and it had to be Ace's pick. Two years earlier, Ace gifted Josh a copy of Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights, and Josh played a few hours out of sheer guilt. He remembers a mesmerizing, haunting, beautiful game. Then Ender Magnolia was announced, and Ace lost his mind.
When you pick up an indie game, you're holding the heart and soul of someone in your hand. You're holding their dream.
What is it?
It's a Metroidvania set in the same world as Ender Lilies, years later. You don't need to have played the first game; it stands on its own, with a few lovely nods for returning fans. Like the first game, your heroine doesn't fight directly. Here, homunculi fight for you, and you can swap among nine of them on the fly: a sword, a scythe, a katana, an axe and more, each with its own moves that evolve as you progress. A special gauge charges a big attack that can stagger a boss.
It's not a happy world. You're the last hope in a ruined land at its darkest hour, and that's what Ace loves about it.
The hook is the music
It was the music, hands down.
Every area's track fits perfectly. In the hellish zones, raspy breathing creeps in under the piano and harsh violin. In safe places, you finally hear voices, and those vocals are the only voices in the game, since there's no spoken dialogue. When a familiar face from Ender Lilies shows up, the old theme returns. Ace has a playlist of the soundtrack posted in our Discord.
The look
If Ender Lilies was a gothic storybook, Ender Magnolia is steampunk meets Studio Ghibli. Think Castle in the Sky's robots, with everything hand-drawn. Josh, a self-confessed graphics snob who avoided Celeste for years because of its pixel art, was sold on the art direction from the gameplay alone.
Built for exploring
This is where Ace says it beats Hollow Knight:
- Fast travel within the first hour, and you can warp back to a bench from anywhere, with no penalty.
- Room tracking. Rooms turn blue on the map once you've found everything in them, so you never backtrack for nothing. You can drop map pins too.
- Movement keeps evolving. There's a grappling spider, wall climbing, a charge dash that launches you across a level, and a wolf you can ride straight through enemies.
- Loot everywhere. Relics change how you play (more damage while airborne, less damage at low health), bracelets boost your stats, and totems can redefine your build, like trading a heal for an extra special gauge.
- Fully customizable difficulty. Adjust enemy health, enemy damage, XP and more without losing achievements, which is rare for the genre.
The bosses are tough and change phases. Ace died about 50 times to one of them, and he loved every attempt.
The hot take
Ender Magnolia completely and utterly eclipses Hollow Knight as the best Metroidvania we've ever had.
Josh's brain rebelled at that. Hollow Knight is one of the few Metroidvanias he actually loves. But Ace means it: he gives Hollow Knight a 9.8.
The VGP take
Ace gave Ender Magnolia a 10:
This is the most pure joy in a gaming experience you can have. There's no glitches, no hiccups. It's completely finished.
At $24.99, it's a polished, beautiful, finished game from a small team. Ryan, a longtime Castlevania: Symphony of the Night fan, says it would be a crime not to try it. Josh says he'll be the judge of the Hollow Knight claim, but he trusts Ace on indies. If you love Metroidvanias, this one's for you.