Do you like Castlevania? What about Dark Souls? What about good stories? Beautiful art? If you said yes to all of those then I have the game for you! Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knight is a metroid-vania and souls-like JRPG from Tokyo-based studios Adglobe and Live Wire Inc.
Doom and Gloom
The story of Ender Lilies is that you’re the last white priestess (Lily) woken by the soul of a knight. You’re then tasked with recovering your memories (wouldn’t be a JRPG without that trope) and clearing the land of the Rot that has taken over in your absence. To do this, you will adventure through the castle, fight enemies, and collect more souls.
Gotta Collect Them All!
As Lily, you are offenseless but not defenseless! While Lily can only jump, dodge, and pray (heal) you will collect the spirits of the fallen soldiers, nuns, witches, and other folks. Collecting these will provide you with new attacks and permanent skills! Some spirits provide infinite uses while others have limited uses per rest.
Spirits with limited uses get restored at rest spots and you can slot up to six spirits at a time. You will also collect three types of materials (Ancient souls, stagnant blight, and furious blight) to upgrade the spirits you collect. The only problem is they don’t drop every time you defeat an enemy and usually only one at a time. You can also find them on already fallen enemies around the map.
Scattered around are also gems and pendants that will increase your health and healing amount. You start with three healings, but that can be increased later on. You can also level up by defeating enemies which will increase your overall attack!
Now I know what you’re thinking “I don’t like souls games; they’re too hard” or “I hate trekking back when I die.” Well, my friend, I have good news! When you die, there’s no penalty; you don’t drop any resources and, for the most part, the difficulty is fair!
Beauty in Death and Decay
This is one of the most beautiful games I’ve played lately. From the enemy designs to the beautiful landscapes. Everything was clearly made with love. The soundtrack to this was masterfully crafted with its haunting music when traveling through the corridors to the intense boss battle music. There was never a moment where I was like let me turn this down.
Memento Mori
Just like all souls games, you learn by dying. You will not die as much in other games in this style, but it will happen. Eventually, you’ll learn what souls you’ll need for which encounters and there is plenty of leeway to try out many combinations!
Now, with all that said, overall this game was an enjoyable experience. There’s so much love put into this and I feel like it is a great starting point for people who want to try souls-like games! The only real fix I would suggest is to fix the drop rate for upgrade materials.
Final Verdict: 9/10
Thank you for joining me today here at VIBE! I hope you pick this up and enjoy it as much as I did, see you, next time friends!
