Ender Lilies
Ender Lilies is a very Japanese metroidvania. You play as a small girl who is trying to stop the blight, a sort of "The Last of Us" fungus that makes everything insane and immortal. You fight and jump through boxy rooms smashing enemies and levelling up, interspersed with boss fights. The bosses are generally very good - although there are huge spikes in difficulty. Most bosses I killed in 2-3 attempts, but there were two which took me over an hour each. By defeating bosses, you gain traversal moves and combat abilities which you can swap out at every safe point. I did end up completely finishing it, but the story and cutscenes are bad - possibly due to lacklustre translation.
Pros
- An interesting thing about that game is that your character doesn't actually do any of the work. When you attack, you temporarily summon a spirit who attacks for you, and you sort of shy away
- Instead of always having all abilities, you choose 6, and you can use 3 at a time, switching between sets
- Spirits can be levelled up to make them more effective, increase combos
- Some spirits are more effective than others in certain situations, so the main trick to bosses is working out which spirits would be best
- Bosses unlock permanent abilities like double jump, and unlock that spirit with a special move. For example, the first boss unlocks a mac swing attack. Annoying that they're limited uses between benches
- You can fast travel to any visited bench
- Pretty, varied environments
- Great boss design
- The map shows you when you've completed everything in a room
Cons
- The cutscenes and story are junk
- The map doesn't actually show you the level design (think Hollow Knight), it's just a series of interconnected boxes
- It takes a really long time to get interesting
- Annoying, repetitive music
- Movement and combat don't feel great. Your character stops moving every time you attack, which makes combat feel very static