Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist review

Between last year’s Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and now Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist, I find myself hoping this is the beginning of a new trend where every year starts with a solid banger of a Metroidvania to get the ball rolling.

I previewed Ender Magnolia last year when it entered early access, but at the time I only had around 4 hours of game to judge it on. Despite that, I was impressed. The sequel to 2021’s Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights, this one returns to the same world albeit some years later. It still deals with the similar theme of a child protagonist releasing tortured souls from servitude so they can serve her instead (only with slightly better unionisation, I guess) – and it does a wonderful job of surpassing the original without eclipsing it.

Here you play as Lilac, big-coated, wide-eyed heroine adrift in a vaguely apocalyptic fantasy world where souls are forced into synthetic bodies known as homunculi to serve various nefarious purposes. Like Lily, Lilac is an Attuner, able to free those souls and take them into herself, not only to deliver them to eventual peace but to give them somewhere relatively safe to be – as long as they’re willing to keep that somewhere relatively safe. See, Lilac isn’t a fighter. Like, at all. She’s a tiny child in a terrifying world. Instead, when summoned, the Homunculi fight for her.

The first is swordswoman Nola, whose reputation precedes you wherever you go. She acts as Lilac’s direct melee attacker, armed with longsword, scythe, or great axe to dish out damage. Nola is your primary damage-dealer, but is soon joined by various others, both for combat and traversal. Lito is a fighter who can deliver heavy stunning blows or even freeze enemies, while Munnin is an owl who’ll float beside you and periodically shoot monsters. Then there’s winged edgy-boy Yolvan, who acts as your main ranged weapon to deliver a barrage of blows to beat bad guys black and blue before you take advantage of their prone state.

If you played Ender Lilies – or indeed most modern Metroidvania games – you’ll know what to expect here. Enemies come in a wide variety, melee, ranged, flying, leaping; some towering mechs, some bandage-wrapped mutated assassins. You have an evade move that gives you a pretty generous invulnerability window, and you’ll mix the various attacks you have equipped to dispatch your foes as quickly as possible. Combat feels tight, responsive, and satisfying, which can be said for most of the mechanics in the game, to be honest.

Platforming feels precise and smooth thanks to an early double jump and air dash, while you’ll later unlock numerous methods of traversal and progress thanks to the other Homunculi you meet along the way. Some don’t join you or grant you powers, however, and will instead give you materials with which to unlock alternate abilities for your other passengers. You can also earn some materials to use at the “craftory” in the hub town, to build various upgrade items.

While it doesn’t rely on puzzles, Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist instead presents intricately designed areas that you’ll navigate over and over, especially when you receive a new power or skill. Fast travel is easy and helpful, allowing you to jump to any safe area at any time from the map without penalising you for it. This makes backtracking much easier and more convenient, and allows you to easily re-explore previous zones.

And you’ll want to, because there are hidden power-ups that increase your health, or Relics to find. These are special items assigned a numerical value corresponding to your number of active Relic slots. You might have three slots, but some Relics require three slots to equip. These do things like increase your healing, or improve your health regen when equipped.

Perhaps the reason I’ve enjoyed Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist so much is its accessibility. On the default setting it’s not overly difficult, with only a handful of bosses giving me any real trouble – but if you do struggle a little you can always adjust the difficulty via a variety of sliders that let you tweak specific challenge levels easily.

Exploring the world is a joy. Enemies only respawn when you rest, so you aren’t constantly bombarded between screens, and the map helpfully shows where there’s an item worth finding. In addition, the rooms on the map will turn from grey to blue when they’re fully explored, so you don’t waste time. It’s replete with quality-of-life bonuses like this, and it makes it hard to find a real criticism – especially when you can even increase the difficulty if you feel it’s too hand-holdy.

It helps that the world is absolutely stunning. From dilapidated old villages to subterranean caverns lit by bioluminescent creepers, from ancient forests to bleak, light-starved dungeons, the world of Ender Magnolia is grim but beautiful no matter where you are. The aesthetic is very similar to the previous game, but the animations and character designs are a step up, as is the music. Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist thrums with atmosphere, from the visuals to the ambient sound and background music, and through conversations with the Homunculi and the people you meet you’ll build a stark picture of the world you’re trying to save from itself.

Perhaps you could argue that it’s a little over-protective of the player, but ultimately this is a small complaint to set against all the things Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist gets right. This is a confident, compelling adventure filled with interesting boss fights, inventive mechanics, lovely visuals and wonderful music, and is one of the first must-play titles of 2025.