As a standalone game ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist came out pretty good, but not as sequel for Ender Lilies. Just imagine that you buying ds2, but then you start playing you see wukong. This is exactly what I felt throughout the entire playthrough. It's not Ender lilies sequel, this game just taking some things from first game and place it in different metroidvania.

I need a new game now..

TL; DR Ender Magnolia: Bloom in Mists is a lot like its predecessor but it puts a larger focus on character relations, parrying as well as on smaller, more focused movesets.
While I prefer Ender Lilies I still think that Ender Magnolia is well worth the price for any fan of the genre, after all it is far more enjoyable that a lot of its competitors.

Our city is falling, the Rain of Death hails us from above, and Blighted Fumes rise from the depths. Our Homunculi servants mutate, grow rabid and uncontrollable. Our greatest helpers have become our most lethal enemies, but there is still a small ray of hope.
You play as Lilac, who fell from the Upper Stratum with but a few vague memories of her rescuer, you must figure out the truth, you must tune the Homunculi, purify them from the Blight and perhaps save the Land of Fumes.

Throughout your journey Lilac tunes the discarded Homunculi of the Lower Statum, and since you saved them from a terrible fate, they join you on your quest. They are the abandoned, the disgraced and fallen, so together they form a sort of found family with Lilac, sharing stories, worries, woes and forming new bonds as they make their way through the Stratums on a quest for truth and vengeance.
As you might expect Ender Magnolia ends up with a lot more dialogue than its predecessor, it is not just the Homunculi but also other Attuners, and civilians, this gives you a wider view of the world, but they also try to preserve some of the note- and memory-delving mysteries of Ender Lilies. However, I find that this new approach has a few drawbacks…
Namely that they could have done more with it, yes Lilac and the homunculi enact something of a found family storyline, but they are also hesitant to have too much dialogue, too many interactions, but this is a game that would have benefited from a few more. Simply delving deeper into their opinions and reactions to the things they see and hear would have made the writing significantly more enticing, instead they try and strike a middle ground, one which lacks the depth of comprehensive narratives, and the mystery of more opaque stories.
So, they are homunculi, puppets, and there is a hint of character there that does not shine as brightly as it should and that is the shame. That is not even going into the humans, who have interesting motivations but are typically relegated to background lore, or a hint in a cutscene or two, which is also unfortunate.

Ender Magnolia takes place in a magi-tech fantasy, it has elements of clockwork designs, but it is an industrial world with pseudo-modern technologies. This can get a bit boring, there are only so many drab industrial quarters one can stomach until it gets grating, but Ender Magnolia does not quite get to that point.
Indeed, the early game is spent waddling through the refuse of the Lower Stratum, a place littered with garbage and the trash of the wealthy, but that is not all there is to it, there is a number of beautiful and vibrant unnatural environment that form a neat contrast to the suffocating urban sprawl. You would not appreciate the visuals of the Crimson Forest, or the Land of Origin if you had not spent a couple of hours in the city.
Some of this is also mitigated by the beautiful backdrops, but the fact that you are never actually in the middle of that makes it less impactful than the Crimson Forest which you personally traverse.

If you have played Ender Lilies you will not expect voice acting, but you will also expect a stellar OST by Mili, and Ender Magnolia delivers on both of those points.
They put an emphasis on gentle beats and sorrowful pianos with strings, and various other instruments here and there, as well as industrial machinery which together casts a desolate mood over the Land of Fumes, perfectly evoking the exact atmosphere that the visuals and lore portrayed while still offering a lot of varied songs. Naturally, this abandoned gloom is mostly absent from boss fights where they up the ante, homing in on the intensity and frustration of the maddened Homunculi.
I am particularly partial to the Stratum themes but specifically Dignity. It is sort of upbeat, with gentle vocals, it truly makes you feel like you have crawled your way up from the depths and is a great motivator for continuing your quest!
In all honestly the best song is probably the final boss theme, it encapsulates the best elements of the OST into a climactic and emotional finale, not to mention that they follow it up with Hearts Stay Unchanged another amazing song to close the cover on your travelogue.

The Land of Fumes is a tiered city, each Stratum is separated by blockades, or elevators, so the only way to climb to the top is sifting through the ruins trying to find power sources and keys.
Ender Magnolia handles these aspects swimmingly, you explore the world and will naturally come across the items you need just by playing the game.
They funnel you through the world in a proper order, it is difficult to be confused on where to go, not only because they signpost well but also because they mark each and every zone you have cleared, so it is easy to see whenever you have missed something. Another neat addition is the fact that you get all your movement abilities before leaving the Lower Stratum, this means you will never be confused on how to access a specific ability gate, it is just a matter of when you will upgrade your ability.

As for the combat you have a selection of Homunculi do to your fighting for you, each with three mutually exclusive abilities that can be changed whenever you take a respite. Some require no input from the player, while others require fairly precise timings, I enjoy these different tactics, and flavours because it tells you something of their history, and their training, it is quite cool.
Since the abilities are so different it is quite fun to mix and match, but it can be quite annoying too. Each ability has a different upgrade material, so if you really enjoy one attack… well tough luck because you will not be finding that specific resource for quite a while. This is especially annoying when the materials overlap between the Homunculi on your team, you are forced to pick one to keep using, or else you are just weakening yourself on purpose.
Of course, this is intentional, they want you to experiment and try different tactics, they want to prime you for that one boss who is deadly in melee but a breeze if you use anything with a tiny bit of range. All in all, you will be fine just using whatever team you like, because parrying will solve all of your problems.

I enjoy the combat, I enjoy the enemies, even though a few are too prevalent for my liking, but I find the bosses disappointing.
I think its awesome that you need to best a Homunculi to use them in battle, but a lot of the fights are simply not too interesting for me, they do not have enough gimmicks or cool stuff going on to be memorable. Sure, I think that the main Central Stratum bosses are great, and guess what? They both have gimmicks, one is a gauntlet, and the other can heal, oh the horror!
However, this is exactly why they stick out, because (some of) the rest of the bosses feel like ordinary enemies with some extra spice, new moves, different phases, multiple monsters baked into one, this can result in good bosses, but a lot of the times I am left wanting.
There is also the final boss, the final boss is great, and it is easily my favourite boss in Ender Magnolia. It has the challenge, the style, the variety to serve as a brilliant climax to a great game. As a fight it is far better than the finale to Ender Lilies, but this one did not make me cry, it only got me a bit teary eyed.