It's that time again for a new episode of Chichuki Views, the show where I go hands-on with upcoming games and show them off. Usually it's about an hour or so but I don't want to spoil too much of the game for you. This time I'm checking out Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist.
Homunculi roam the land of Fumes and unfortunately the toxic environment of the underground has driven the Homunculi to madness. It's up to Lilac, the Attuner, to save the Homunculi with her power. You'll run into all kinds of monsters, Homunculi and humans down in the underground. Will you be able to help everyone?
The combat system in Ender Magnolia is really good. You find Homunculi and can equip them to Lilac. Different Homunculi have different attacks and abilities. Nola gives you a sword attack and it feels very smooth and natural. Using the combo system to attack with her and in the air is fun too. Having the ability to duck to dodge attacks is nice too. That being said, finding the cape that allows you to dash is great too. During a boss fight it took a few attempts for me to change from diving to dashing for damage avoidance. Once I got that going, the boss fight was smooth sailing. I mentioned other Homunculi have different skills in their arsenal but I don't want to spoil the game for you.
Another nice feature is no contact damage so you can walk past enemies without getting hurt. I also really like that the save points and healing areas are sofas that people forgot about in the underground. It's little things like that that add charm to games like this. It's also very simple to upgrade attacks and Homunculi at the resting spot, the sofas. You can have 4 Homunculi attacks equipped and feel easy to switch between. I also like the anime-styled animations in certain scenes.
Metroidvania games need to do things to stand out against all the other games in the genre. Smooth controls and interesting characters will help Ender Magnolia separate itself from the rest. I'd like to thank the folks at Binary Haze Interactive/Adglobe and Live Wire for the review code.