Thanks for making the thread, I also enjoy chatting about rpgs with my fami.
Currently playing through Ender Lilies after some recommendations here. I’ve beaten the first three bosses, my thoughts on it are starting to firm up a bit. I love the music and visuals, and the way the protagonist stands out is cool. But sometimes it’s not always obvious what you can stand on and what’s background scenery as everything is subdued. I like the way the spirits are both your companions and your attacks, they are very responsive and the build combinations are fun to tinker with whenever you get a new one. My other complaint with it is kind of a lack of variety in pacing and tone. Because everything is bleak, all the time, and there’s no letup from that. Various other games that do the ‘messing around in a fallen kingdom where it’s inhabitants are now monsters/undead, everything is bleak and melancholy and they all need to be sent on to a final rest’ thing get around this with moments of weird or macabre humour as a release valve, but Ender Lillies hasn’t so far. It’s just all ‘here’s another note about another sad story as the people fought against the inevitable decline, or their mundane lives were destroyed’. Which I get is sort of the theme of these games, but without any kind of even momentary relief from it, it loses power.
I got a bit stuck at one point as i didn’t realise that my power to break floors could also be increased in power by jumping off higher vantage point. Perhaps I was distracted if that was explained at any point, but I couldn’t remember being told that and only persevered through the map making it clear that one point
had to be the way forward. That was both frustrating and rewarding in the end, I guess.
Boss fights are a bit damage-spongey, and enemies need a little more variety, but their designs are all suitably creepy and fun. The exploration has been engaging so far. I like that the map doesn’t tell you exactly where the exits are, but does flag up that they are there, and when you have or haven’t found everything of note in an area. That means it’s useful in terms of being able to see past routes (as you’ll likely remember the exits you’ve seen before as you head back in) but theres still an element of discovery for the player and hints of where to look next, it’s elegant. Also fast travel opened up quickly, save points are fairly frequent and there’s save points in front of bosses.
All in all, I’m very much enjoying it. Not my favourite of the genre down to a few nitpicks above, but it’s very elegant and gets a lot of the regular things that annoy me right from the start.