Magnificent.

Ender Magnolia succeeds at both being similar to Ender Lilies in nearly every way, yet also being completely different. The story, the music, the gameplay and the visuals all feel like a logical continuation of what we've seen before and a step up.
Thus far, my only real complaints are that I wish you could run without having to dodge first, and that the locations feel much, much smaller when compared to Ender Lilies. I greatly hope that the existing locations will be expanded upon in the future, as well as intertwined with the upcoming ones in similar ways we saw in the prequel.

Also, god bless Mili, we makin' it out of the Lower Stratum with that OST !

Edit Post-Relase - Spoilers possible:
Now that I completed the game, I love it even more now. It is worth my money. I hope Binary Haze will continue to produce peak now that the Ender story line is very likely fully finished. My best wishes to you, and my thanks to Mili for once more creating an incredible, emotional OST. Even though "Bulbel" will still be my all time favorite of Mili, "Hearts Stay Unchanged" takes a firm second place. I listen to it frequently, including the music from the various locations of the game - Lower Stratum, Subterranean Testing Site, Subterranean Waterway are my special favorites.

The gameplay is objectively a step in the right direction in nearly every regard - the only gripe I have is that the damage values of many enemies are fairly overtuned, especially considering I have a lot of defense equipment and relics, as well as lowered enemy damage in the difficulty settings. My another gripe is the boss fight with Luiseach, specifically, the healer drone. I understand that I've made the game harder for myself by raising the HP values to x2, but I wanted the game to be more difficult so I could savor the combat mechanics and have more freedom to play various builds and compositons. Luiseach is physically impossible to beat with x2 enemy HP as the drone's healing is percentage based rathen than a flat value, so I was forced to lower the value.
What I adore is the combat and loadout being more freeform - abilites being tied to cooldowns alone gave much more breathing room for all players to try every homunculi. Scythe Nola best character easily - she's badass.
Exploration is also much more intuitive and reasonably scattered across the entire map, same as mobility abilities. One of the biggest gripes I've had with Lilies is that you get the most fun mobility upgrades right at the end of the game where you don't get much use out of them. Magnolia fixes that by having them distributed across the map in a balanced manner, including the new ones.

On the topic of Luiseach - I adore that the characters you get to use during combat and exploration are now capable of dialogue, but with it comes a need to balance amounts of dialogue. Unfortunately, some characters were criminaly underutilized, Luiseach being the primary victim of lack of attention. Other such characters are Lorna as well as Reignold. They only appear once or twice in dialogue and don't provide anything of substance, unfortunately. I would've loved to hear more of them speaking to one another, see how they interact with each other and react to the world around them.
I also adore that Lily was sneakily added in, even if not named as such.

Speaking of the world, it's downright gorgeous - the artists outdid themselves the same as they did with Ender Lilies. The environments, the characters, the animations - all fluid, all glorious, all beautiful. No complaints here in any regard. The prettiest location for me is Luiseach's arena, with Subterranean Testing Site being a close second.

The story is, unfortunately, is not as good as Lilies' story. The reason being is that it's less focused - Lilies, due to its sparse dialogue, was more of a "show, don't tell" type of narration, where you connect the dots yourself from the environment, the notes, the occasional memories and words from Umbral Knight. Lilies is you going through a world who's story is already over - you just bring it its epilogue.
In Magnolia, the world still breathes, people still live, hope yet lingers and you can still save the world - it's a beautiful contrast to Lilies. Unfortunately, in the latter half of the game, the story seemed to have lost its focus a little, bundling up a bunch of themes together and not going any deeper with them, such as disdain of Homunculi. It is supposed to be bad to not be fond of homunculi, but when said homunculi could short curcuit and go on a murder spree at any moment, I'd say it's a pretty valid concern regarding them, especially with most enemies in the game being homunculi.

Regardless of its shortcomings, Ender Magnolia is a wonderful successor to Ender Lilies and I am happy I spent my money on this genuine work of art. Kudos to Binary Haze and all whom put their effort into this game, I hope you have a good day tomorrow.

8.9/10

Magnificent. Ender Magnolia succeeds at both being similar to Ender Lilies in nearly every way, yet also being completely different. The story, the music, the gameplay and the visuals all feel like a logical continuation of what we've seen before and a step up. Thus far, my only real complaints are that I wish you could run without having to dodge first, and that the locations feel much, much smaller when compared to Ender Lilies. I greatly hope that the existing locations will be expanded upon in the future, as well as intertwined with the upcoming ones in similar ways we saw in the prequel. Also, god bless Mili, we makin' it out of the Lower Stratum with that OST ! Edit Post-Relase - Spoilers possible: Now that I completed the game, I love it even more now. It is worth my money. I hope Binary Haze will continue to produce peak now that the Ender story line is very likely fully finished. My best wishes to you, and my thanks to Mili for once more creating an incredible, emotional OST. Even though "Bulbel" will still be my all time favorite of Mili, "Hearts Stay Unchanged" takes a firm second place. I listen to it frequently, including the music from the various locations of the game - Lower Stratum, Subterranean Testing Site, Subterranean Waterway are my special favorites. The gameplay is objectively a step in the right direction in nearly every regard - the only gripe I have is that the damage values of many enemies are fairly overtuned, especially considering I have a lot of defense equipment and relics, as well as lowered enemy damage in the difficulty settings. My another gripe is the boss fight with Luiseach, specifically, the healer drone. I understand that I've made the game harder for myself by raising the HP values to x2, but I wanted the game to be more difficult so I could savor the combat mechanics and have more freedom to play various builds and compositons. Luiseach is physically impossible to beat with x2 enemy HP as the drone's healing is percentage based rathen than a flat value, so I was forced to lower the value. What I adore is the combat and loadout being more freeform - abilites being tied to cooldowns alone gave much more breathing room for all players to try every homunculi. Scythe Nola best character easily - she's badass. Exploration is also much more intuitive and reasonably scattered across the entire map, same as mobility abilities. One of the biggest gripes I've had with Lilies is that you get the most fun mobility upgrades right at the end of the game where you don't get much use out of them. Magnolia fixes that by having them distributed across the map in a balanced manner, including the new ones. On the topic of Luiseach - I adore that the characters you get to use during combat and exploration are now capable of dialogue, but with it comes a need to balance amounts of dialogue. Unfortunately, some characters were criminaly underutilized, Luiseach being the primary victim of lack of attention. Other such characters are Lorna as well as Reignold. They only appear once or twice in dialogue and don't provide anything of substance, unfortunately. I would've loved to hear more of them speaking to one another, see how they interact with each other and react to the world around them. I also adore that Lily was sneakily added in, even if not named as such. Speaking of the world, it's downright gorgeous - the artists outdid themselves the same as they did with Ender Lilies. The environments, the characters, the animations - all fluid, all glorious, all beautiful. No complaints here in any regard. The prettiest location for me is Luiseach's arena, with Subterranean Testing Site being a close second. The story is, unfortunately, is not as good as Lilies' story. The reason being is that it's less focused - Lilies, due to its sparse dialogue, was more of a "show, don't tell" type of narration, where you connect the dots yourself from the environment, the notes, the occasional memories and words from Umbral Knight. Lilies is you going through a world who's story is already over - you just bring it its epilogue. In Magnolia, the world still breathes, people still live, hope yet lingers and you can still save the world - it's a beautiful contrast to Lilies. Unfortunately, in the latter half of the game, the story seemed to have lost its focus a little, bundling up a bunch of themes together and not going any deeper with them, such as disdain of Homunculi. It is supposed to be bad to not be fond of homunculi, but when said homunculi could short curcuit and go on a murder spree at any moment, I'd say it's a pretty valid concern regarding them, especially with most enemies in the game being homunculi. Regardless of its shortcomings, Ender Magnolia is a wonderful successor to Ender Lilies and I am happy I spent my money on this genuine work of art. Kudos to Binary Haze and all whom put their effort into this game, I hope you have a good day tomorrow. 8.9/10