Ender Magnolia: What Real Players Say on Reddit

Not a revolutionary Metroidvania in terms of gameplay, but it is a highly polished one. Seems like what I would say about the first one, and since apparently this is even better and, like the original, also has a killer soundtrack... it's an easy buy for me.

I strongly recommend playing the first game, Ender Lilies (which is also great), first if you haven't yet. You can totally enjoy Ender Magnolia on its own but the lore does make plenty of references to the first game and it's fun to connect those dots. Magnolia is set in the same world in some unknown amount of time in the future.

The game is fantastic. I played the first one on ps plus and absolutely loved it. I made sure to buy this one around its release date and it's an improvement on a lot of minor issues from the first game.

I'm only up to the point of beating the 2nd boss, so within the first hour, but I like that they give you some of the enhanced traversal tools very early. Between the 1st and 2nd boss fight, you unlock double jump and air dashes at the same time. I'm digging the music so far, and I like the more modern look of the protagonist.

They give a lot more movement abilities really close to the start of the game which is a bit better than the first where there were some pretty basic metroidvania movement abilities that you had to wait to get. Then there is the fact that they offer you less summons to pick up than what the 1st game had, but each summon has 3 different abilities that you can choose so it ends up offering more builds in the end.

Wild, I'm deep into Ender Magnolia and am enjoying it but wouldn't put it anywhere near the top. That's just me. It's nice but feels unbalanced, and pacing is off. Atmosphere is great though.

Why would literally any game on both Switch and PC run better on Switch? Just get it on Steam. The Switch is for first party titles. Everything but first party Nintendo titles will be a smoother experience on the Steam Deck.

While it isn't Hollow Knight, it stands out in a genre filled with mediocre entries. I play a lot of Metroidvanias, and many of them just feel like reskinned copies of what came before them. While Ender Lilies and Magnolia aren't revolutionary, they are highly polished, with great art direction and good soundtracks, and do bring some fresh ideas to the genre.

I only played Magnolia and had zero idea what was going on lore-wise but thankfully I couldn't care less about the plot of Metroidvanias so the game was still a 10/10 for me.

You also get fast travel to save points really early on, which is fantastic. These devs really go all in on Quality of Life. I love that the map changes color to tell you, hey, you got everything in this room. And if you've found a barrier that an upgrade will let you past, you can go to that barrier on the map and it'll just tell you what gets you past it.

Ender Magnolia is a game that's good at everything but exceptional at nothing.

I 100% this game, and I really loved it. It's just a better version of Ender Lillies, and while I enjoyed Lillies, I didn't really feel that urge to keep playing and find everything once I got the first ending. The biggest thing for me is the wider selection of movement options in Magnolia, especially starting off early with the double jump and dash.

It's really good, but there's just some oddities that become annoyances later in the game. They kept the really, really low delay between taking damage which means you can often just suddenly take most of your healthbar in one attack because a basic enemy happened to hit you multiple times with the same projectile. The ability system is weird — there are five types of abilities, but only four buttons.

I like how they give you double jump and air dash not even 30 minutes into the game. No pretending those upgrades may or may not be coming, just have them right off the bat.

I played both Lillies and Magnolia and I definitely will say this game is a step above Lillies. Felt like the combat and platforming were much more fluid in this game and it was more fun to interact with the world for those reasons. One thing that did really bug me about this game though was it felt like especially in the latter 1/3 of the game the developers wanted to add significant difficulty/player friction through forcing you to run through areas that spam you with annoying to avoid enemies.

Just a heads-up, I personally am not a big fan of Ender Lillies, but saw enough people who said Ender Magnolia was a big step-up. While I can agree that Magnolia is a step up in several ways, I also find it extremely boring and am currently 10 hours in and wondering if I can muster the will to finish it.

It's evident that the developers took criticism to heart — such as the visually unappealing map, slow character, slow acquisition of new abilities — and have delivered a game that, for now, is significantly better than the original.

Runs flawlessly on switch so it's your preference.

It should run completely fine on both if you have a preference.

I dig this one, I just don't like how much damage the enemies do even at the lowest 0.7 setting in the wonderfully added accessibility options. I know it's part of the style but sometimes I just want to explore. Still worth it, though, even if you're not into Souls-likes, which this one barely is. Recommended.

I liked it, but the difficulty curve is kinda off. It's very easy for a few hours, and then suddenly, it gets really hard.

Not my absolute favorite but it's definitely up there. The QoLs alone make it noteworthy.

I'm about 70% of the way through Ender Magnolia and I'd say it's default difficulty is a couple of notches easier than Ender Lilies. You have more defensive abilities sooner, more range on your attacks, more ways to deal passive damage when you're dodging like mad, and bosses that are a bit easier to read.

I liked it but god damn, there being no i frames when you get hit is just crazy for this game. I died so many times to that shit, getting hit 2 or even 3 times near instantly and that's 70% of my hp or more. That almost ruined the game.

I just finished Magnolia. I did finish Lilies but didn't love it. Magnolia is a big step up and was a really great game. I do get annoyed by these games though when I keep getting lame ass endings just because I'm not a completionist or whatever. I don't know how to get the true ending, and I'm definitely not gonna go back to do it all.

Switch — more flexibility due to easy switch between handheld and docked play, better screen and good performance. But in the end, it depends on what system you prefer to play games on.

I really enjoyed redemption reaper art style but the gameplay got boring and I couldn't finish it. Ender lilies was a masterpiece. Hope this one holds up to lilies.

I loved the first one. But got stuck on a boss with multiple forms. I'll beat it one day.

One of my favorites this year. Absolutely loved it. Can't wait to see what that developer makes next.

I liked it in the end, but don't understand the insane levels of praise it's been getting. It has a great sense of checklisting and the dynamic combat abilities are cool. I think it suffers from some insane balance issues in the second half — enemies are suddenly one shotting you.

Can't stand the confusing map system in Ender Magnolia. I get lost every time I pick it up. It's a shame because there's probably a decent game buried in there.

I love that Magnolia is not a souls-like, has RPG elements, and is very generous with the map. Great for casual gaming.

Pretty good game, the last area is too short.

Great game for the steam deck.

I'm maybe a days worth in and I'm adoring it just as much as the first game, from the music and beautiful settings, to the new combat system and super improved map!!

I'm about 3 hours in and I think it deserves a full Besties episode. It does so many things well.

I loved Ender lilies. Some of the best boss fights outside of fromsoft I've ever played.

Also about an hour in, just beat the first real non-tutorial area boss. Digging it so far! I like the changes to the formula they've done compared to Lilies to make it more JRPGy, with the homunculi feeling more like party members rather than just power ups.

Ender Lilies is amazing, but I still want to finish it before looking at this one. Got it for the artstyle but stayed for the music. It's some of the best videogame music I've heard.

The first one was well made, but it doesn't really place in my top Metroidvanias. The art and atmosphere were honestly more of a standout than the gameplay. By a quick look at this they retain strong art design and I like the new setting more.

I've played upwards of ten hours already and I'm mixed here. The game is superbly polished but I've gone and hit a wall. There's definitely a difficulty spike when you get to the steel district boss and I did have to lower difficulty to power through sadly. On one hand it's a definite plus that I am allowed to lower difficulty, on the other it speaks of game design that I even had to do that.