Ender Lilies Quietus of the Knights Early Access Review

Introduction
In this review we are going to look at an upcoming game that is currently in early access, our main goal is to answer if this game is worth buying in early access or if you should wait for the full release. The full game name is, Ender Lilies Quietus of the Knights but I am going to call the game Ender Lilies in the review. Ender Lilies is a Metroidvania game that meets Castlevania and Dark Souls, defeating enemies will grant you experience points, and leveling up will increase your stats.

You can gather new skills from some of the bosses, the major game bosses will grant you new abilities that you can use to backtrack to reach new areas or items. The early access version is not very big yet, the average player would have around six hours of gameplay time. My first run cost me around five hours but one hour was spent researching for my second run. The second run I completed in just over two hours. There are many paths still locked in the early access and the difficulty may need to be balanced a bit more.

What did I think of Ender Lilies before playing?
I cannot recall exactly how I found out about Ender Lilies but I think I saw it come by in a Metroidvania group on social media.
I was already looking for an early access game to review, I was immediately interested, I quickly went to the steam page for more information.
I soon learned as of typing that the game has not even been out for two weeks yet, I took the opportunity to make a decent guide for finding items!
I was very interested in how my actions could affect the game but most likely this is only for the full release, I heard the music was epic from some people on social media.
Before playing I could not yet place if this was a Metroidvania, Castlevania, or a Dark Souls game, mixing these genres end up in disaster too frequently.
Without expecting too much I jumped into this new adventure wondering where it would take me.

I rate Ender Lilies with a 7.3 before playing.
It was not very clear to me what to exactly expect in the early access version of the game but the upcoming content shared by the developers looks amazing.

Story
The story starts with a world in ruins where everyone is either corrupted by the blight or dead, a mysterious spirit awakens you, a white priest immune to the blight and able to purify the blighted. You will need to find out what happened to the lands and why the rain of death came. On your journey, you will recover memories and purify those who are corrupted by the blight.

I rate the story of Ender Lilies with a 7.0.
I cannot fathom the story because the game is not yet complete but the story so far in the early access contains more than I had anticipated. I also want to leave room for improvement for the complete story of this game.

Gameplay
Ender Lilies is a Metroidvania that makes use of fast-paced combat, one simple mistake can cost you your life. Enemies have patterns and once you are familiar with those patterns the game becomes very easy. I dislike flying enemies though, you can parry enemies in this game, flying enemies are tough to parry. Before you can parry or perform some skills you need to defeat minor bosses to gain their skills. Defeating enemies will grant you experience points, if you are having trouble with the game you can grind a few levels to make the game easier. The major game bosses are more difficult to beat but if you know their patterns you are set, the last boss in version 0.6 flies and I could not appreciate that. You have three skill slots but two palettes that you can swap on the go, this means you can use two sets of skills. Skills are not unlimited though, they have used, and when they run out you either need to find a red flower or a place to rest. You can use the power of praying to restore your health, you can only pray three times before you need to rest. White flowers will restore one prayer. To upgrade the potency of your prayer you will need to find white priestesses.

My favorite skill was parrying and the western merchant which is a bird that fires balls of doom but there are many set-ups that you can try out. You can try to synergize your skills with the relics that you find scattered over the world, to equip more relics you will need to find a chain of sorceries. Some of the relics are not yet reachable but if you can execute some tricky moves you might be able to reach a hidden relic. There are multiple other upgrades that you might find scattered throughout the world, blights are needed to enhance your skills, this will make the skills stronger and more potent. For your main attack skill, you will need ancient souls but you cannot collect these yet in the early access version of Ender Lilies. Amulet fragments will increase your maximum health points. There is a rare hidden amulet gem that you cannot reach yet, this will increase your health points by a huge amount. You can see in the video how to get this item by using a tricky move but most likely this chest needs a triple jump or a glide ability that you will gain later in the game.

I rate the gameplay of Ender Lilies with a 7.2.
I love the gameplay in this game but it feels incomplete as it still in early access, I want to leave room for improvement for when the full game releases.

Sound and Graphics
The graphics in this game are great, there are some wonky animations and sometimes they slow down to a crawl where the game moves in slow motion. I expect this to be fixed in the full game release.
Ender Lilies has great enemies and they fit perfectly in the world. I wonder how your character never gets glass or splinters in her feet as she walks around bare-footed.

The music is amazing, I expect more tracks in the full game release but I enjoyed the available music so far. The sound effects were also great. It might be wise to add a separate soundtrack for minor bosses.
I expect more great soundtracks for the full game release.

I rate the sound and graphics of Ender Lilies with a 7.9.
I enjoyed listening to the music, I am looking forward to the full game with more music!

What did I think after playing Ender Lilies?
I enjoyed the early access version more than I had expected but sadly I finished within one working day, I wonder how big the full game will be.
The bosses can be tough but if you know what they are about to do you can take them down very easily.
I am curious as to how Ender Lilies will continue and what new skills are going to be introduced to reach new areas.
I would say that the game fits the Metroidvania/ Dark Souls genre the most because there is no equipment to find.
The game did exceed my expectations but I still need to wait for the full release to see where this game is going to end up.

I rate Ender Lilies with a 7.6 after playing.
I have to wait for the full game before I can rate the game to the full extent but if Ender Lilies continues this trend it will end up being a great game.

Personal rating
I enjoyed how there are already many items to find in the early access, if this game turns out to be a huge adventure then I am looking forward to the full game.

My personal rating of Ender Lilies is 7.8.

Pros
– There are many upgrades to find already and skills to collect.
– You can synergize skills and relics.
– The music is amazing, I cannot wait for the full game release to listen to more of Ender Lilies music.
– There are many bosses to fights already in the early access.
– The story seems to be heading in the right direction of a good story.

Cons
– There are not yet many areas to explore.
– The game can be finished very quickly.
– It is quite annoying that you cannot complete every map yet due to early access. The completionist in me does not like that.

If you love these kinds of games, I would recommend that you buy this game, if you are not into these kinds of games you might want to wait for the full release of the game. The full game is slated to release in Q2 of 2021. I am going to keep an eye on coming updates to see what they bring for content. I will re-review this game when the full game releases. With every update, I will add a new Youtube video to show where to gather the new items.
The final rating for Ender Lilies is…drumroll…

7.4

Let me know what you think about the game in the comments.
I hope that you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review.