ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist is a Dark Fantasy Metroidvania action-adventure Souls-like RPG from Binary Haze Interactive, developed by Adglobe and Live Wire and is the sequel to ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights.
Set decades after the first game in a new kingdom, a kingdom which has built itself a vast array of Homunculi for many tasks, only for toxic Fumes to rise up and drive them insane. You play as Lilac, an Attuner with the ability to save the Homunculi, after awakening in an abandoned lab, with Lilac setting out and teaming up with various Homunculi for Lilac's lost memories.
The game was released for Early Access on March 25th, 2024.
This game provides examples of:
- Abandoned Laboratory: The opening area is an abandoned subterranean lab for experimenting on Homunculi, filled with countless dead Homunculi as well as many maddened ones.
- Amnesiac Hero:
- Lilac wakes up in a strange pod all by herself with only vague memories of her name and a woman being concerned for her safety, remembering nothing else as she tries to find out about herself.
- Nola remembers even less, with her not even remembering her own name and she just assumes that the name written on her arm is her's.
- Badass Cape: Lilac starts off with a rather impressive blue cape.
- Defeat Means Friendship: For a majority of the homunculi, Lilac must first beat them as bosses or mini-bosses before attuning them back to their right minds.
- Fog of Doom: The toxic Fumes have driven most of the homuncli mad, which has resulted in the destruction of the kingdom where the game takes place.
- Heroic Mime: Averted, unlike Lily, who was implied to be mute, Lilac is fully capable of talking and has several conversations with NPCs and Homunculi.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to the previous game. There are survivors throughout the kingdom whom Lilac can interact with and the homunculi once saved by Lilac still get to keep their free will and bodies, with some choosing to aid Lilac. The homunculi can even converse with one another at the save points, making the overall atmosphere less desolate.
- Multi-Melee Master: Many homunculi who join Lilac can unlock different types of weapons via upgrade. For example, Nola starts off with Royal Rapier but she can change her armament to a giant hammer and Sinister Scythe.
- Our Homunculi Are Different: Here Homunculi are sapient artificial beings created using magic to perform tasks for humans, with the Fumes having driven them insane.
- Powers Do the Fighting: As in the last game, Lilac doesn't actually attack the enemies herself, rather the Homunculi attack them for her.
- Recurring Element: Many elements of the previous game carry over to this one:
- The protagonist starts off waking up in the middle of devastation after the kingdom is destroyed due to some disaster.
- The protagonist is once again an Action Survivor and forms Badass and Child Duo with the first conscious being she encounters.
- The protagonist has a special power to cleanse the beings driven mad and fights via Summon Magic.
- Souls-like RPG: Just like the previous game.
- Summon Magic: Lilac relies on the homunculi she summons to fight for her and has no combat skills other than dodging.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Despite being sapient artificial beings with individuality and feelings, homunculi in general were treated quite inhumanly by humans if research notes and description of some homunculi were anything to go by.
